In the manga Shy Intentions by Syouko Takau, Yoshiyuki, described as "sweet and serious" on the jacket, begins to date extroverted, forthright, affectionate Kaoru--described as "savvy."
In one scene, a loud friend of Kaoru describes Yoshiyuki as Kaoru's "#1." Yoshiyuki takes this quite literally to mean that there is a #2 and a #3 and he is despondent.
Yoshiyuki has the type of personality to take a comment literally. However, that literalness resonates with all of us--because it's where the brain goes in a relationship. Did they mean that? What did they intend? What do they really want? The classic break-up scene, for both women and men, is a character picking apart the ex's every phrase.
As Dorothy Sayers once said, about advertisements, "[If] by the most far-fetched stretch of ingenuity, an indecent meaning could be read into a headline, that's the meaning that the great British Public would infallibly read into it."
For lovers, this "reading into it" can become a full-time job. Not desired. But unfortunately very normal. Manga captures not only the over-reading but the relief the characters feel when the over-reading becomes a non-issue.
Yoshiyuki and Kaoru work things out.
