False Start

False Start
(Intermission)
Chapter	“128.1” of 129 (list of chapters)
Published	March 11, 2026 (2026-03-11)
Page count	6
Major characters	Lucy, David, Paulo, James
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Paulo finally asks what happened between Mike and the rest of the group, and David’s answer involves jealousy, an Uno reverse card, and at least one murder. Lucy, meanwhile, insists it’s all ancient history. Her footrace against James says otherwise.

Synopsis

The gang is walking down a tree-lined path, where Lucy and James have agreed to settle their rivalry with a footrace to the tree on the hill. Paulo, though, hangs back and asks David to be straight with him about what happened between Mike and the rest of them. David is happy to explain. By his account, Mike got needy, got jealous of people who still crush on him, and stopped caring about Paulo and Daisy. “And so.. I killed him!” The rest of the recap involves an Uno reverse card, dangerous levels of girlhood-trembling, and someone called Final Fantasy Cat.

James comes rushing back in a panic, because Mike has started skipping track and the team is going to blame him for it. David breezily pins that on James, who did ask him to kill Mike in the first place. Paulo begs everyone to please stop talking about killing Mike. Up ahead, Lucy quietly drops her backpack and marks out the race course.

James feels guilty enough to apologize for the group being jerks, since she surely doesn’t want to hear them going on about Mike. Lucy tells him not to worry. “Nah. That’s all ancient history. Talk about whatever you want.” The smile she gives him is bright, but there are bags under her eyes, and dark static creeps in around the edges of her panels.

The race itself goes to James. He pulls ahead on the wooded path, slaps both hands against the tree, and gloats between breaths. Lucy slows in behind him, breathing hard, one hand pressed to her side. She looks down at it for a moment. Then she relaxes into a gentle smile and concedes without a trace of her usual bite: “Yeah, I don’t have much of an excuse. Good job.”

Character dynamics

David’s account of recent events is not what you’d call unbiased.

• Lucy and the group: Since Lucy came back to the lunch table, Mike has been the subject nobody raises around her. This chapter is where she lifts that rule herself. When James apologizes for everyone being “such jerks,” she waves the whole topic off as ancient history and tells them to talk about whatever they want. It’s a visibly false new normal, though — she hands out the permission with bags under her eyes while dark static closes in around her.
• Paulo and Mike: Paulo is the only one still openly worried about Mike, and the group leaves him very little room for it. His questions earn him David’s nonsense version of events, both of his attempts to raise the real Mike get talked over, and his plea to stop joking about killing Mike goes nowhere. He ends the walk knowing more about the fallout than he did, and none of it makes him feel any better.
• Lucy and James: Their rivalry is still brand new. James mostly knows her as “arcade girl,” and the footrace itself was arranged back in Line in the Sand. He wins it fair and square and gloats accordingly. Instead of the trash talk he might have expected, he gets a gentle concession from a girl quietly holding her side.

Trivia & observations

• This chapter debuts the comic’s new limited-palette art style, replacing the full-color look in place since Guest of Honor. In the commentary under the final page, Veronica points to burnout from working in phases, nostalgia for the monochrome Volume Two era, and a wish to push back against the full-color expectations Webtoons has set. The palette itself was provided by Suyari, and Veronica and Oliver attended Comitia 151 partly to find inspiration for the new look.
• Veronica’s commentary describes the chapter as “intended as the start to Volume Nine.”
• She is also under no illusions about David’s storytelling. Her note under his recap reads “Nice summary, David! Not biased at all! You are incredibly reliable to listen to!”
• “Final Fantasy Cat” is David’s nickname for Augustus, made official in Line in the Sand.
• David has cheerfully declared a friend dead before. Back when Lucy was the one who had vanished, his report was “I heard she died.”
• The dark static that closes in around Lucy carries over from the end of Made Fresh, where it surrounded her at Augustus’s door as his phone buzzed on.
• Lucy holding her side after the race visually recalls her landing in Love Again, where blood pooled under her abdomen in the snow. Veronica’s entire commentary under the page is one word: “Ouchie.”

Related chapters

• Line in the Sand: David’s whole recap is his version of this chapter, in which Augustus confronts Mike at the track in front of everyone and David talks Lucy into coming back to the lunch table. It is also where James first challenges Lucy to the race they finally run here.
• Love Again: The heaviest part of the history Lucy shrugs off is in this chapter, where she jumps from the roof of the Old furniture place and lies bleeding in the snow, begging to die.
• Date Night: David’s line about Mike turning James down points back here, where James kisses Mike on their night out and gets an apologetic no in return.