Haruto is in the better position here, at least he got his support system where he can fall back to, Asahina doesn't even have her own yet. Hopefully the plot will improve after this.
@HYBRID_BEING I get that, but Ryoichi also saw that Ikumi(main bully) literally stepped in when Asahina couldn't do the confession herself and Haruto himself had to ask if they were really friends or not. Ryoichi may be a goofy jock, but I wouldn't be shocked if he hadn't filed away all the things that seemed off about the confession(or at least told Shun about them).
@randomname Eh, I took that more as Ikumi would get her parents to force Asahina's parents to fork over the money for the compact, not that they had any real influence over the school. Plus, she and her flunky looked absolutely terrified that Ryoichi showed up to begin with, so even if she had some sort of influence via her parents, it's not enough in the face of an actual rich kid.
I think I might have forgotten, but why does she even go along with what they say again? Did they have some actual dirt on her, or is she just that much of a pushover?
@BZo1480
Well, as i said, Ikumi didn't expect that. She even told off Ria (the one with braided hair and cat mouth) for the fact that Ryoichi came along. But it's not like they would have backpedaled at that point.
I've re-read chapter 2 and it doesn't look like Ryoichi was suspicious of anything, tbh. At this point Ikumi can always say that Asahina was just playing everyone for a fool, and renounce their "friendship" with Asahina. And i doubt bullies give Haruto much credit to consider that he can figure it out on his own.
If any suspicions about the sincerity of the confession would arise though, Asahina would most likely be force by the bullies to overcome that somehow.
@Askorti
Yeah, she is that much of a pushover - doesn't want to bother her family over anything that happens to her. Ideal target for bullies, basically. The cause was her breaking Ikumi's mirror that was (most likely, not really) pretty expensive.