As promised, here are all the little details I’ve noticed in Chapter 2!!
If you haven’t already, you can follow the series and read the manga here (it’s free!). They also have an official tumblr blog!
⚠️ SPOILERS AHEAD ⚠️
1. Dating Advice:
“be the bigger man”
“if angry ask what’s wrong”
“if sad! a […] solution or […]”
“better […] ask for consent”
“key is communication”
I’ve been wondering where Lukas got these, since they don’t seem to be the kind of advices that Robin would give given what we currently know about him (or at least I don’t think so), especially not about a relationship that they all think is just a game of play-pretend rather than anything serious.
My guess is that Lukas probably searched for dating advices online. And if so, then it’s interesting how these are the ones he found crucial enough to write down, but maybe not enough to internalize, because right after pushing Kai to open up with that “communication!!!” speech (which Kai briefly entertains), he doesn’t follow the advices himself, seeing as how he immediately gets mean about it and ends up starting a fight—“you do look like loser”—which is quite the opposite of “being the bigger man”!
Maybe Lukas just couldn’t help but let out that quip (he does have terrible impulse control). But to me, it also suggests that he’s likely taking all that advice at face value, or in ways that mostly only benefits him and gives him an advantage for The Game (with how he only mentions them when they’re in line with what he wants—i.e knowing Kai’s reasons for playing the game), rather than treating and following them as actual advices for building and maintaining a relationship (romantic or otherwise), which is to be expected, given that at this point in the story, it is mostly just a game of play-pretend to them (they’ve barely known each other and have yet to find a reason to actually want to associate with the other beyond just the game).
And in general, “being the bigger man” is all about de-escalating and/or walking away from conflict, which is the exact opposite of what Lukas had been doing in the 3 full chapters we’ve seen so far (i.e. fighting with Kai, fighting with Kai again, endangering himself multiple times, fighting with Dave even when Kai tells him not to). Like, being “the bigger man” is just not how he rolls, but it also has this certain sense of pride in it, of being “bigger”—better—than the other person, and it’s one that I can see Lukas wanting to embody especially with how competitive he can be, even if it’s not what he tends to do.
And looking at it from Kai’s perspective, this specific interaction probably further reinforces his belief that sincerity and vulnerability all but puts him in a bad position, which, consequently, might’ve added onto his initial attitude about the date (all that acting like he doesn’t care). And so it’s fun to get to see that mask crack when something serious enough happens that it pushes him to care—a crack big enough not just for concern, but also for appreciation to slip out, and for him to admit that, despite everything, he did have some fun, and the surprise did get him, and that maybe, Lukas was kinda cool.
2. Graffiti! (sorted in parts for navigation):
“Gachiakuta”
“Martial👊King” (could be a reference to a bunch of things, but I’m guessing that maybe it’s referring to The Indomitable Martial King)
“Good For Health 💊 Bad For Education” (ref: Akira)
“Pa[???]z are for losers”
“Viborg” (a place in Denmark—either the city or the municipality—they’re Danes!)
“Rage Quit”
“💀 Boo!”
“L was here” and a “<- gay” pointing right at it
“R was here”
(CH 2.4)
There’s some more Gachiakuta references made in this chapter (as you’ll later see). And while I haven’t seen that anime/manga for myself, from what I can tell, graffiti is also a prominent element of that story. I’ve heard that the mangaka even works with a professional graffiti artist for the art.
Oh, and if “L” refers to Lukas, then “R” might be Robin!
“Blackbox” (not quite sure if it’s referencing anything in particular—maybe the TV series?—but the word itself means a ‘system where the process of turning an input into an output is unknown’)
“lol, lmao”
“Beliggenhed Beliggenhed Beliggenhed” (Danish for “Location Location Location”, ref: a Danish real estate TV show)
“Raiders”
The “💀 Boo!” graffiti reappears again right behind Kai after he scares Lukas, talk about consistency and subtle foreshadowing!
(CH 2.5)
Also, the “I wonder what [the skeleton] is doing [in the closet]…” is obviously a reference to the “skeletons in the closet” idiom (an idiom used to refer to someone’s dark secrets). In this particular context, that “dark secret” could be read as referring to queerness and the need/desire to hide it, but if we take the metaphor just a little further, then perhaps it could also be read as someone who lived in the closet and died in the closet.
“lololol”
“Gachia[kuta]”
“Hi Pia”
“God Only Knows” (this is a common idiom, but it could also be a reference to other things, like maybe that song by The Beach Boys, or that metal SynthV song by bitbreaker, just to throw that out there)
“Gojo x Geto” written right inside a heart! (ref: JJK)
“Helga” and a “<- cringe” pointing at it (perhaps a reference to Helga G. Pataki…?)
“JJK”
“Rudo x Zanka” (ref: Gachiakuta)
(CH 2.6)
“I Am Kira” with an “<- imagay” (Yagami spelled backwards lol) pointing right at it (ref: Death Note)
(CH 2.7)
“Stuck in a daze, I pray, but the world spins fast” (I tried to search this up in case it’s a reference, but nothing accurate came up)
“11”
A drawing of a wolf with a headset.
“[…] Love Laugh”
A dice.
A doodle of a monster character I don’t recognize.
“In My Head” (ref: natori’s IN_MY_HEAD, which was the song used in the Rage Quit MV!)
“[...] silence, growth is louder” (seems like an ironic spin to the “growth isn't always loud” quote)
(CH 2.8)
“Robin🔥” and “Lukas⚡️” by the doorway (they probably made these while they went in there to make the “Kai❤️” graffiti during Lukas’ birthday, well either that, or they’ve been there many times before)
“No Homo” (lol, lmao even)
“Live Laugh Love”
“Shounen”
“Unnecessary Feelings”
“💪”
“Fear Is For The Weak” (another common idiom, but with the specific way it’s worded, it could be a reference to the game Hades)
“We Are The Real Monsters” (ref: Left 4 Dead)
“Hi I’m Single”
(CH. 2.9)
The Left 4 Dead one (if I did get that reference right) is especially interesting because it’s another story that uses graffiti as a storytelling device. I haven’t played the game, but I remember seeing a post about it, and that post has been in the back of my mind the entire time I’m writing this post. It’s cool to see the game possibly referenced here!
“You wanna dance?”
“Make [You?] Quit”
“It takes two to tango”, “[…] kinder than you”, “know that I won’t back down“, “[…] will [look for?] dearly”, “[…] sincerely”, “[…] will be left in the […]”, “I’ll take […] more than the […]” (these are grouped together, and are only really visible in the dubbed episode)
A group of tiny black hearts.
“[…] sick ew”
“[…] -> Freya”
“L was here”
“I think I clearly see a SMILE :)”
And of course, the classic dick doodle (it’s not visible here, but I swear I saw one)!
(CH 2.12)
Okay, firstly, the “you wanna dance?” one could be read in a lot of ways (it’s not shown here because of the image limit, but it was there). Of course, there’s the prom, which is the primary catalyst for this entire story. But the quote also has this certain sense of provocation to it when read as the semi-common idiom used to challenge someone to a fight. But when paired with the “it takes two to tango” one (meaning that the resolution to an issue between two people requires the participation from the both of them—i.e. “it’s a two-way street”), the overall message then becomes “will you be willing to work on this with me?”.
Secondly, it’s certainly striking how most of the “I will” statements are so vague and obscured (most of it wasn’t at all visible in the actual chapter pages!), yet they still went out of their way to put it there at all, and the parts which I managed to discern do mean something. It feels deliberate yet covert enough that I’m thinking that maybe they’re foreshadowing the future events of the series…?
Thirdly, the “I think I clearly see a smile” one is also interesting when you consider the fact that we don’t actually see Kai’s smile in canon, or at least not yet, even if he probably does smile, it’s just always deliberately hidden! We don’t see him smile when he sees the surprise for him, either, but I think the graffiti implies that he did smile!
3. Bonus:
The way Kai goes from “I’m not risking my fit by holding your hand” (my dude…you’re wearing all-black) to actually holding his hand…that’s progress!!!
Also, here are all the eye-like symbols I’ve caught in this chapter! I’m not quite sure what they are, maybe they’re like a signature/tag of sorts? There’s a lot (17 if I’m right), and it was really fun to find them.
…
To end: I think there’s something to be said about the beauty and art and love that blooms through the cracks of decayed walls and forsaken halls, which I think does so well to compliment the queer themes of this story. Happy pride!!!
holy shittttttt EMILY MENTION!!!! i have never posted about this before but i knew in my heart that she and kai played games together and oh my god. VINDICATION!!!! i can’t wait to see more of her aughhh
The plan is to play games in Kai’s room all day all night.
Lukas falls asleep earlier than planned because 1.) he didn’t expect that the date includes staying up all night, 2.) he’s just used to sleeping early (he’s a gymbro who goes on runs early in the morning), and 3.) his body is still recovering from his own dumbassery (falling from one-story height and landing his entire upper body into a beam, as well as licking that toxic waste barrel probably).
Then maybe Lukas falls asleep on Kai’s shoulder. Or maybe he falls asleep on the floor, or the couch, or wherever they were playing, and Kai tucks him in. He just has to. Only for point-gaining reasons, of course… right? It’s good that Lukas is too asleep to see him right now. That’s good.
Kai briefly considers playing games alone but concludes that he doesn’t wanna wake up Lukas with the noise.
And maybe Kai actually cooks something for them later in the morning. Whether he’s a good cook or not is another matter—he could be because he does cook for himself, like he could be at least decent at it, but also maybe not because he could just be tossing shit into the microwave most of the time. I want to believe he is at least a decent cook, just to see him flattered when Lukas enjoys the meal 🤭 (and covers up his being flattered with “haha I’m ruining your diet lol”).
Bonus 1: this date goes so well for Kai that Lukas has to one-up him with whatever other gay shit he’s got planned.
Bonus 2: I like to think that Kai generally has a pretty messy room and cleans it only because he’s having Lukas over.
Bonus 3: Kai has anime merch (canon) that they immediately bond over about (more like a given than a prediction, but I wanna put it out there).
Bonus 4: Outsider POV is always so crunchy to me, especially oblivious/kept-in-the-dark Outsider POV, like someone who doesn’t know crucial information and is making conclusions based off of that limited info, so it would be awesome if Kai’s mom comes home early enough in the morning and Perceives the two.
Kai thinking “guess this is what I get for not doing the laundry” is honestly such a flimsy excuse for dressing up like that because like??? He still didn’t have to. Even if all the clothing pieces he had in his wardrobe at that moment was everything he is wearing right now, he still didn’t have to wear all that. The fingerless gloves, the sleeveless high-collared cropped-top, the belts, the bracelets… He could’ve gone out with only the shirt and the pants and the sneakers and it would’ve been fine—Lukas is wearing what is pretty much his equivalent to that (his jersey), it’s not like they actually had to dress fancy whatsoever. If he really didn’t want to feel overdressed, if he really didn’t want to “look like a total weeb”, as he puts it, then he could’ve just dropped the accessories. But he still wore all that, he chose to, and I’m starting to think that he really just wants to impress a certain someone—maybe to reciprocate that certain someone’s enthusiasm about the bet, or maybe it’s about something more than that—and can’t yet admit it to himself. Because, of course, caring like that is embarrassing. Genuinity is cringe.
