Warning: Spoilers are unmarked on these pages. You Have Been Warned.
The heart can be truly heavy.
- Yamada being pressured by Nanjou into almost exchanging her Line account with him, despite clearly demonstrating that she has no interest in him.
- Yamada getting struck in the face during basketball practice. At first, she hops back up as though nothing had happened. Then her nose starts bleeding so profusely that she leaves a trail of blood to the infirmary. If that didn’t affect her badly enough, she has to cancel a modeling shoot that she had scheduled for the day after. Then she starts crying and apologizes to her mom over the phone for getting hurt.
- At the start, Ichikawa once mused about seeing Yamada’s “beautiful face contorted in pain” during his “murderous-urges” phase. Now he's confronted by what that really looks like. After following her out of concern and hiding underneath a bed, he finds himself crying along with her.
- Just when Yamada appears to have gotten over what happened on her return to school, she breaks down again in the classroom and assumes that both her mom and her manager are disappointed in her behind their reassurance. Ichikawa spots her still crying in the school halls afterward.
- Ichikawa and Yamada's work-study group accidentally leave them behind at the transit after Ichikawa takes a trip to the bathroom and Yamada assumed that they knew they weren’t with them. Ichikawa tries to assure her that it’s no big deal while repressing excitement at being alone with her, but then Yamada starts crying for not telling the group about Ichikawa.
- Ichikawa acknowledges that he's the reason why they were separated, and tells Yamada that he should be the one to blame for it while sitting across from her and sweating bullets, possibly anticipating her hating him for it. Thankfully it's far from it.
- Aside from that, Ichikawa assumes that her being stuck with him is a reason for her crying, and then tries to distance himself from her on the train so it wouldn't "damage" her image as a model.
- One small moment in the otherwise light-hearted Karte 35; Ichikawa learns from Chii that Yamada has been talking about him a lot lately. Unbeknownst to the two, he just looks down, worried and sweating, finding the idea of someone else talking about him when he's not around to be "scary", even if it's Yamada at this point.Ichikawa: If they were talking about me, that's... there's no way it's anything other than making fun, right...?
- In Karte 43, Ichikawa has been avoiding Yamada and staying away from the library, having interpreted Yamada's more intimate contact in the library in Karte 42 (holding Ichikawa close to her to discourage Nanjou's advances) as her manipulating him as a tool. He even coldly looks away from her as she enters class, in a homage to how she seemingly did back in Karte 1.
- Once Yamada finally manages to chase and pin down Ichikawa, she asks if she was getting too close to Ichikawa while on the brink of tears. He almost assures her that it isn't but instead walks away, which drives her to break down in tears apologizing. Then Ichikawa sees her pulling out the same tissues he left for her during her injury and realizes he was wrong; that rather than misjudging Yamada's intentions, he's been misinterpreting his own feelings as a front to keep himself from getting hurt. As Yamada sheepishly offers Ichikawa a make-up hug, he assures her he's perfectly fine with her contact.
"Even though I really wanted it, I figured I wouldn't be able to get it anyway and looked for reasons to hate it. Because letting yourself like something that much is scary."- The very title of the chapter itself; “I Hate Yamada”.
- In Karte 55, Kana and Yamada are enjoying looking through Kyotaro's graduation album while the boy himself is embarrassed. Then Yamada asks about his field trip from their first year... and Kana says he didn't go. Kyotaro then puts the book away himself.
- In Karte 56, Yamada invites herself over to Kyōtarō's room while he puts away his Elementary School graduation album (Yamada accepted Kana's abrupt invitation for a New Year's lunch at the Ichikawa household). After reassuring himself that his room is presentable, he realizes Yamada just stumbled upon his non-fiction reference books on murders. His inner monologue as he stammers out an explanation reading "It's over. It's all over.", as he explains what they are while sweating. Poor little guy even now wants to be prepared to let himself down gently even as Yamada takes a genuine interest in him.
- Yamada is sulking for repeatedly failing to help Ichikawa enough throughout school with his arm injury. Ichikawa thinks to himself that her being there with him is enough, but doesn't have the confidence to say it out loud.
- Ichikawa starts showing her pictures on his phone to cheer her up, starting with a photo of his sister during her coming-of-age ceremony. He succeeds at lifting her spirits and decides to show her Akita’s snow next as he promised before. But then they come across a blurry picture of trees and without thinking about it, Ichikawa explains that it's the exact moment where he fell and broke his arm. He assumed that they both could laugh over it… and reacts in horror upon seeing the look of shock on her face, realizing he just triggered her Guilt Complex.
- Episode Zero. A special edition written prequel that showcases Kyōtarō’s mindset in his first year of middle school... when he was still in a deep depression from not getting into the school he wanted and suffering from social anxiety. His self-loathing is at full capacity. And there’s a lack of any of the positive reinforcement that normally comes from Anna’s presence driving him until the end's shift to the present.
- His reaction to seeing Anna for the first time is Love at First Sight. But it gets muddied by her seemingly cold reaction to his staring. He feels it’s more than just a crush, but the look she gave him and the negative feelings he already had further deluded him into his "murderous impulse" days where he eventually concluded that he just wanted to kill her; it couldn't be any other feeling than that if it were that strong. It’s later revealed that Anna’s reaction was just her mother’s drilling her to act more reserved around people, but her expression is colder than she comes across.
- The moment when his classmates got freaked out by his murder reference book from Karte 57 is expanded on, and it affected him even more badly than what was shown. While reading manga at home, he couldn’t help but linger on their reactions even when he pretended it didn’t matter. Then he concluded with an “It can't be helped” speech before Kana came in to borrow volumes of Baki.
Kyōtarō: The words came out of my mouth so naturally. It can't be helped. Yeah, It just can't be helped. After all, I’m… abnormal. I’m messed up. It can't be helped that I don’t fit in with everyone else. It can't be helped that I haven’t made friends. It can't be helped that I get looked down on.- Afterwards, Kana heard about the outdoors trip Kyōtarō. The same classmates who reacted to his book were part of his group. Feeling that his presence would ruin the atmosphere, he even thinks that they're hoping he catches a cold and stays home.
- Kyōtarō telling Kana that he’s not going to the trip altogether, under the guise of him wanting to work on a novel instead. Kana only stares in silence knowing that he was troubled by something, before compiling with his wishes and assuring him that she’ll tell their parents about it. She also left without the manga she wanted.
