Chapter 403 of Rent-a-Girlfriend shows Ruka humiliating herself to win Kazuya
The Rent-a-Girlfriend manga chapter 403 was an impressive display of Ruka’s complete lack of self-respect, as she went all in and handed Kazuya a condom, asking him to have sex with her.
Right after that, Kazuya tries to run away from his own apartment, leaving the girl devastated. He fails to leave, and Ruka begs him not to go. If he walks out, it’ll be an enormous trauma for her. I mean, imagine being in a bikini, giving a condom to the guy you like, and he tries to escape?
In my view, what we see here is Ruka’s desperate attempt to win him over through sex. She pushes him onto the bed, kisses him, and he gets hard—something triggered not by her, but by imagining Chizuru with another man. Then she touches him… and that’s when Kazuya, in my opinion, takes the correct attitude: he says he loves Chizuru.
And look, I get it. You have a beautiful girl who loves you and is even willing to do all that for you. It reminds me of the Rem situation in Re:Zero, when she confesses to Subaru and he still says he loves Emilia. But the truth is, if you love someone else, the right thing is to be honest with the one who loves you.
In the end, Ruka humiliates herself even more by saying she’s fine with being his “second.”
Well… as someone who has been in a situation similar to Kazuya’s and turned down the girl who liked me to chase after the girl I liked (and spoiler from my life: I ended up with neither), even if things go bad with Chizuru later, I still think he did the right thing. Because imagine the following:
He accepts Ruka as his official girlfriend, and then one day Chizuru hits her head and decides she wants him. He would dump Ruka for Chizuru, and Ruka would be hurt anyway. So it’s better to hurt now than hurt later.
Yes, I really think she humiliated herself A LOT in this chapter, but I know so many real stories of people humiliating themselves to stay with someone that I can’t judge a fictional character for doing the same.
Let’s see some reactions:
“How much did he pay this time?”
— “That girl is free, though.” (replying above)
“I think the author should explain why Ruka ‘doesn’t work.’”
“Who even reads this?”
“In KanoKari, only Mami is worth anything. Ruka is too crazy, impossible.”
“How long are they going to keep this up?”
“Ruka is always so persistent, huh? It’s always this type of character who never gets the protagonist.”
“In the end they’re not going to do anything anyway.”
“Sorry, but is there any idiot who wouldn’t have sex in a situation like this?”
“The longer a romance manga runs, the dumber the protagonist gets. Perfect metric.”
“There’s nothing that makes anyone like the protagonist.”
— “He’s the least charismatic romance protagonist ever.” (replying above)
— “Worse than Raku from Nisekoi?”
— “Compared to KanoKari, the protagonist of Nisekoi seems like a lovable goof.”
“All five heroines are very charismatic. That’s what keeps everything afloat.”
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