THE UPDATE WAS SO WORTH THE WAIT! I got the email this morning but only just got around to playing and seriously this is a great progression. I've only tried Benji's route so far but my god is this an awesome progression.
As much as I like the romantic pathway with him, I can't help but enjoy how you explored his clinginess via the friendship pathway. Act 2 for Benji felt like an awesome mix of uneasy and charming, his romantic pathway has so much sincerity and his friendship path were great at showing the more uneasy sides to him (the shower bit in this path especially worked to show his default overbearingness in the player's life).
I have the same compliment before, that being how you characterise the player - I ADORE getting to play the perspective of a genuinely moldable character rather than the same forgiving and naieve MC. The way you allow the player to stand up for themselves and challenge Benji was such a relief. Going forward I hope you're able to explore the darker side of Benji's psyche within his route, I adored seeing the subtle peeks into his unhealthy behavior (i.e. him isolating the player by disregarding the cops as a reasonable source of support)
Hopefully we get to see his inner creeper come through, especially in his platonic pathway. Awesome update, counting the days for Act 3, keep up the awesome writing, was awesome to chat last update (plus the new sprites and music were awesome) :)
P.S. Just noticed a bug in Ellis' route, when you call him during day one and think to yourself how unaffected he sounds, the player's name is written above as if it's spoken dialogue. Just an FYI, I haven't seen anything else similar