My Stepsister is My Ex-Girlfriend - Volume 7 - Chapter Aft

Afterword Plus the Revival of My Chapter-by-Chapter Commentary

The previous volume and the volume before that were chock-full of themes that even I thought were complicated and difficult, so I thought that this volume could go back to the roots of this series as a nice, laid-back, traditional rom-com. This way, it’d also match how the environment around Yume has changed.

The subtitle is very accurate in that I want to see a little more of their status as people who have mutual one-sided crushes on each other. There’s absolutely no shame in wanting to play it out a little longer. Anyway, please enjoy my thoughts on each chapter of the novel.

The Person I Like Lives with Me

This was about two people who began to live in completely different worlds and yet, there was something that still connected them. I considered a lot of different guy-girl ratios for the student council, but my reasoning for the members ended up being pretty simplistic. Essentially, I realized that Haba-kun’s more often than not just part of the background, so I decided that an all-girl student council would be fine.

Overall, I really enjoy writing groups of four or five girls. For example, it’s pretty fun to write about cute girls doing cute things. But I wanted to write about couples, so I knew I had to add a certain ex-student council member into the mix.

The end result was that the only ex-student council member that didn’t appear was the one in charge of general affairs. I wonder if they’ll pop up sometime. We learned a lot about the president but nothing at all about this mysterious former general affairs officer. Doesn’t that make them seem kinda powerful?

Oh, and I’d like to point out that we ran out of room for illustrations. Normally, we’d put one in the manga café scene, but it is what it is. It’s just yet another of the various difficulties of light novels. By the way, fan art is very welcome!

I Want to Make You Blush

How many times have we had a story in which Yume goes on the offensive in nothing but a towel? Well, whatever. It’s a good situation and you can never overuse good situations.

While writing this, I began thinking that for rom-coms, it’s more hilarious when the protagonists are all idiots. I realized that Mizuto’s IQ in the previous volume was too high. Starting this volume onwards, I’ll make him a fun idiot. You’re all gonna love it!

Aisa’s the type of character I really like, so I hope you all enjoyed how she acted in this chapter. I wonder why it is that people who have no success to speak of like to give advice to others.

The Way You See Me

Yay, sports festival. If you can’t tell, that’s sarcasm. It’s an event that I personally couldn’t care less about. I’d even considered skipping over it entirely, but I backtracked when I realized that a treasure hunt’s a thing. Oh, and the rules by which participants can switch their prompt is something that I came up with. I have no clue if it actually exists anywhere.

Just as Yume is interacting with a new community, Mizuto and Isana interact with Nasuka and Maki. The reason for this is mostly just for fun.

If Yume had been in the mix, there would’ve been seven of them there. It’s hard to write that many characters at once, so I hope they don’t all hang out together too much more. Well, I guess Mizuto and Isana ended up in a world of their own, so at least for them, the environment wasn’t too different from usual.

TakayaKi is really good at drawing undergarments, so I’ve been waiting for the chance to have one of those illustrations, and I finally had the chance to do so. And then, Isana’s bra broke... Come on, girl...

Because You Watch over Me

Despite this being a lighthearted rom-com, this is where I figured I should tone that down and dial up the seriousness a bit. Asuhain-san is the only one on the student council who’s easy to respect. After all, she’s different from all the other members who are obsessed with love but suck at getting results. I have absolutely no plans of changing her hatred for guys!

On a similar note, this won’t be the only glimpse you’ll get of Aisa’s little sister. I fully plan on writing something with her. Oh, right. I almost forgot. Aisa’s little sister is the very same androphobic middle schooler who appeared at the cultural festival. Should be obvious, right? Both of them have the same hairstyle.

Just a Bit More Like This

It’s the long-awaited birthday story! November 3, aka 11/3. Two prime numbers, right next to each other. In other words, they’re impossible to divide.

I also used this chapter to resolve the untold stories about what the student council members had been doing up until summer. It’s nice how proud Aisa and Suzuri tried to act about their feats. It would’ve been nice to see them in their swimsuits and winter clothes, but as stated before, there wasn’t enough space for illustrations. I’m all for fan art, though!

Originally, I was going to have Yume and Mizuto go out on a date, but when I actually got to writing, that never happened. After all, while I wrote, I realized that birthdays are much more important events for families than for couples. So, ultimately, the affair turned out much more laid-back than I’d originally anticipated.

The last illustration of the book is of a scene that I’ve wanted to write for quite some time. It was the first time in a while that I dictated the contents of the illustration. Witness what mutual one-sided love looks like, O world. Also, Mizuto’s past gift to Yume was a pink book sleeve, so go take a look at the cover of the first volume of the series.

It was really fun not having to think about difficult topics and instead writing a straight-up rom-com. Next time, though, we’ll be getting serious again and getting back on track with things that were foreshadowed in Volume 6. Well...maybe. Or maybe not.

You might have noticed that Kawanami and Minami didn’t have much screen time in this volume, so next volume they...might be featured a little more. Or they might not. Beats me, honestly.

Anyway, this has been Kyosuke Kamishiro’s My Stepmom’s Daughter is My Ex Volume 7: Just a Bit More Like This. Why “just a bit more,” though? Let’s keep this going for another five volumes or so. Whaddya say?