Chiyo gets closer to her landlady in the second volume of Miyako Miyahara’s I Can’t Believe I Slept With You! manga. So much so that the line between what is a favour and what are actually her real feelings starts to blur.
This volume contains chapters seven to twelve.
My Fair Landlady
Koduka Chiyo, twenty-five years old and unemployed, provides “favours” for her landlady in place of her overdue rent. At least, that’s how their arrangement was supposed to go. But as time passes, the distance between the two women has dwindled. Just when things are getting interesting, an older beauty moves into the apartment complex where they both live! What will happen now?!
This volume begins with Chiyo’s mind very much still on that one spicy night she spent with the landlady, but she soon has something else to concentrate on with the introduction of Setouchi, one of her neighbours.
Setouchi’s a fun character; one of the first things established about her is her extensive collection of games consoles. There’s a reason for that; she works in game development. She is also pretty easily able to pick up on Chiyo and the landlady having something happening between them – and she is fully supportive of it.
As for Chiyo and the landlady, they’re growing closer and closer. Chiyo is steadily realising that the time she wants to spend and the things she wants to do with the landlady don’t come from an obligation to do favours, but rather her own feelings. She does need a little help to realise that, but she has friends who are able to provide some good advice.
So we get to see Chiyo and the landlady do some late-night shopping, and also go on a planetarium date. The visit to the planetarium may not go all that smoothly, but I’d say that Chiyo still manages to get a good result out of it.
If there’s one thing that I found frustrating in this volume, though, it comes from towards the end. I was worried that Chiyo’s was gonna back down after accidentally speaking certain words out loud, but instead she doubled down. That was something I enjoyed I lot; it was the landlady’s response that proved to be the frustrating part.
What Chiyo wants to do has gone beyond mere favours at this point, but it seems the landlady just does not see it that way. Definitely felt sorry for Chiyo getting brushed off like that, but it seems like she won’t back down. I definitely want her to get her true feelings across to the landlady, so I am very eager to see how the story will continue in the third volume.
Rory Muses 