It is really sad D: And it makes the mother's motivation look even worse, if you ask me. At least Kohane's kind of fighting back.

No kidding. But I assume they knew there was a male love interest before they started reading. The fandom was tiny when the manga was just released, and scans for volume two took ages to be shared. I even remember going "Who IS that guy" when seeing the first Doumeki/Watanuki illustrations.