Taiki faces a huge, albeit ironic problem in Blue Box chapter 169: he’s trapped in a literal box. Now that his relationship with Chinatsu is public knowledge, some jealous students have taken it upon themselves to lock him in the school’s store shed, thus depriving him of precious time to spend with his girlfriend at the school festival. Can Chinatsu find him before time runs out?

It’s almost painful that Blue Box decided to focus on Chinatsu and Taiki this week, because last week’s chapter left off on a massive cliffhanger as Kyo finally confessed his feelings for Moriya, before then hearing that she’s now going out with someone. Oh no! Aside from just being a tense situation, the romance between Kyo and Moriya has been building ever since she was first introduced, so diverting attention away from them should be frustrating. Nevertheless, Blue Box chapter 169 manages to smooth over this by being a perfect encapsulation of Taiki and Chinatsu’s beautiful relationship.

Somewhat predictably, Taiki tries to use force to resolve the situation, but Chinatsu is the hero of the hour here. While he’s pounding on the steel door to try and get someone to open it, she’s running around the festival doing detective work to see if anyone knows where he went. There’s one moment where a jealous student attempts to try and trick her by saying Taiki was walking around with another girl, but Chinatsu doesn’t believe it for a minute. “Taiki would never do that,” she confidently declares, before eventually piecing together the fact that he’s been locked away.

As Blue Box chapter 169 shows, the core of Taiki and Chinatsu’s relationship is trust. Just as Chinatsu trusts that Taiki would never cheat on her, Taiki probably knows deep down that she’ll come to save him - she’s his precious senpai, after all. Even now that they’re dating, that aspect of their friendship hasn’t changed. They both know that they’ll each do anything to achieve their goals, all the while trusting that they’ll be there for one another when they most need it.

On a broader level, the idea of ‘solving’ the romance in Blue Box was always going to be a risky move. Most authors prefer to keep the main characters in a state of ‘will they, won’t they’ as this provides the story with the most strong forward momentum, but Blue Box chapter 169 proves that stories about fulfilled romances can be just as effective as unfulfilled ones. Plus, even if the question of one relationship is settled, you can always create another - just like Kouji Miura is doing now with Moriya and Kyo.

You can read Blue Box chapter 169 for free via VIZ Media’s Shonen Jump.