Exactly what I'm thinking! Toua loves Jirou as he mentioned a number of times but thinks Jirou is too good for him. Toua somewhat knows Jirou loves him and Jirou knows Toua loves him but they are both afraid their current relationship will be destroyed if there is any development.
Toua doesn't fuck anyone else besides Jirou at the end. He is a "special friend" and only does it with him. Mishima, Chieto and etc are only friends that drop by his house. They aren't fucking him.
I definitely didn't hate the ending. I'm just disappointed that it felt so incomplete. I wish there was another volume to nicely tie up the loose ends
Ditto.
They understand each other's flaws. Another thing is that Toua doesn't exactly cheat.
Ryuu was him trying to break things off. First trying it with him then making Ryuu do it and getting a feeling of hurt thinking of Jiro without him.
The orgy...he was like an alcoholic on a bender trying to self-medicate his issues and move on from Jiro.
But he still went back to Jiro. Even if Jiro didn't show up at the airport I think Toua would've tracked him down. He did say he likes to be the chaser.
But now they have an understanding and are loyal to each other. They in a committed non-committal monogamous relationship. Jiro doesn't want anyone else and Toua doesn't want to hurt Jiro.
I’m glad that I was not the only one who interpreted the endiing that way.
Just read the last few chapters and I love how you were able to put my thoughts into such fluid paragraphs! It's funny how we usually interpret affection outwardly and require that sort of outward communication to feel inwardly secure ourselves as the audience. This read is sort of refreshing.
Did other people interpret the ending (so far) differently to me, or did they just have a much stronger negative reaction anyway? I read this as Toua having instinctive rejection towards other people falling in love with him because they tended to always change afterwards (either becoming unreliable once he becomes attached/dependent or becoming more possessive etc.). He's aware that he has this problem, so, once he realised that he loved Jirou and things could get serious, he foresaw him hurting Jirou (who he knows is a great guy) and them hurting each other, so tried to end it. Jirou, however, realised that he didn't didn't mind adapting to Toua's deep-set issues. He therefore accepts TOUA'S declaration of love, but reassures him by lying that HE (Jirou) isn't in love and therefore they can stay together without hurting each other.
And Toua, who is in love, allows himself to be fooled, while kinda getting that Jirou's saying what he needs to hear - but it's OK so long as he doesn't definitely hear that Jirou is also in love with him and wants to be completely committed and loving and clingy and soppy etc. For me, I read this as Toua actually being fairly committed, and understanding Jirou's also committed, but it's more of an unspoken feeling rather than a declaration that ties them down. So, yes, Jirou still has to pretend, and Jirou still feels a bit insecure, and Jirou still isn't clear on how committed Toua is at first, but I was left with the feeling that time would show them both happily settled into and more secure in their really-dating-but-pretending-not-to-relationship, even though it'd take some time. So, I didn't react strongly to the ending like some people, even though it wasn't perfect for Jirou.