Rose the Witch continues her daily luncheons with Harij, her crush and customer. Rose tries not to become accustomed to these meet-ups, as they surely will end when Harij gets his order.
But with the way he’s treating her — kindly, and as a person and not a despised witch — that’s very hard to do. So much so that Rose decides to stop stalling and make the love potion.
The titular love potion is critical to the story, as it both offers Rose hope (time spent with Harij) and despair (he’s determined to get a love potion). Hi, I’m a Witch and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion volume 2 introduces the audience to the person he’s buying it on behalf of: the kingdom’s princess. She is only briefly seen, but it’s clear Billaura is a capable, hardworking princess, and she would never object to anything — even an arranged marriage — as long as it benefits her country. It’s clear she’s someone worth being devoted to, as in Harij’s case.
But readers concerned this means Harij has been harboring a secret crush can relax. There’s nothing to indicate he’s in love with his liege. Frequently throughout the volume, it’s Rose who is throwing his emotions into disarray. He notices how close Rose and Tien are, and then when Rose demonstrates the love potion on herself, well, Harij can barely hold back.
…Until the potion wears off. For Rose, of course her feelings while under the influence were her true desires. To Harij, though, her expressions and words were false, and he’s even more upset when he returns to find Rose seems to dismiss him after completing the order.
Manga artist Kamada asked Mutsuhana, the original author, about how Harij should be depicted in this scene, and Mutsuhana penned a short story depicting the love potion trial scene from Harij’s perspective. This is accented by some illustrations from Kamada. The main story includes both the sequence and Harij’s briefs thoughts after the fact. Despite the short story being primarily for Kamada, I think each take features a slightly different tone as to Harij’s feelings. The original scene while reading the manga seems to have Harij the most in love with Rose, although he hasn’t realized it yet. His thoughts afterwards include some charged language like “filled with rage” and has more of the inclination of he’s going to brute-force his way into her life. Mutsuhana’s text focuses a little more on Harij’s physical desires as Rose cuddles and coos.
Volume 2 has several fluff moments between the two main characters, but this is the pivotal scene. Some readers will argue that all three presentations/thoughts are the “true” version, and any differences are as subtle as some shades of colors. But I think those slight alterations are the difference between Harij being more of a haughty, more domineering type versus a young man experiencing new feelings. The art too continues to struggle with Harij; sometimes he looks just a few years older than Rose, and other times, he appears to be much older. And with Rose’s limited social interaction (heck, she fell for someone she had never even talked to), that can emphasize the wide gap between their life experiences.
However, the target audience for this volume of Hi, I’m a Witch and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion is probably not overly concerned with anything besides the cuteness of Harij standing up for Rose or Rose trying to hide her true feelings. There’s definitely plenty of that continuing closeness here, and even moreso as Harij and Rose both desire for their special times to continue.