The dialogue is sparse at first. Yuki asks, “Are you still listening to the same album?” Kaito doesn’t answer. He stares at a crack in the floor that looks like a lightning bolt. Then, without warning, he speaks the line that has become the chapter’s most quoted: “I don’t want to be insignificant anymore.”

The chapter’s most powerful sequence is a flashback within a monologue. We learn that Haruki’s mother was not a villain, but an absent figure. She was a touring violinist who left him with his grandmother at age seven. Her only form of love was leaving art supplies behind. For Haruki, art became a desperate attempt to "reach" her (the "Taranai" of the title).

: Like many similar titles (such as Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! ), the series thrives on the "will-they-won't-they" energy, even as they participate in activities that suggest they already have. Why You Should Read It