The emotional core of Chapter 4 happens in aisle three of the local supermarket. Takeda, defeated, reaches for instant ramen. Rika-san, silently, puts a bundle of fresh spinach and a block of tofu into his basket. When he looks confused, she mutters, "You cannot propose marriage to someone if you are going to die of scurvy."
opens not with a confession or a date, but with the most terrifying thing in any rom-com: waiting. The emotional core of Chapter 4 happens in