Ah, we're coming to the end. Thank you to author-san and the translating team(s) for the intriguing work.

For those confused:
Takayanagi talks about Schopenhauer's belief that people forfeit three-fourths of themselves to be like others. Humans have a natural instinct to bond into groups. It doesn't really matter how these groups are formed. These groups must share some core beliefs in order to exist. People who wish to be in a group may go against their own beliefs and try to match the beliefs of the group. As the number of groups increases, more of the true personality is forfeited in this manner.
Shoga is quiet because he prefers to be so. That is part of who he is. Why the cicadas? People typically view cicadas as gross and annoying, but not everybody does (implication that Shoga is one of these people). Shoga is unwilling to forfeit that part of his personality (or his implied liking of cicadas) to conform with the rest of the people around him.
This is why Shoga responds that he has only forfeited half of himself, but Takayanagi believes Shoga has only forfeited a fourth himself. Takayanagi believes Shoga is more true to himself than even Shoga thinks.

Had this series at my library, got hooked. Glad to see it here.

If you're gonna have same day updates, might as well put them together

GILF is married, husbando still alive. No NTR in this house.