Who is Eve? You do remember that let us choose the names? I absolutely hate to do so in any game like this. By Eve you mean the childhood friend of MC? Whan I was talking about the past decisions I was talking about the MC's decision to believe to the rumors about her. I don't believe I would have done it. I always weighted hard evidence much more than any words. And since not so long ago I started weighting more the feelings of those I care about. You could say I started to learn how to care about people. So I don't think in my case it could've been done believable. That's why I like amnesia troupe. It can look as cheap trick but it deletes the untold past you should share with MC and that really makes it easier to believe in his decisions like in your own. It wont work if writing is bad, but your writing is just excellent. Mur Mur uses it really good. After the moment where the girl friend of MC's childhood friend (what have you done! Please, don't make us choose the names anymore in your projects!) shares whith us that all rumors are fake and MC's childhood friend not a bitch but just a weak person who give up fighting everyone around her I really believed in all choices like in my own. Almost in all. When in the end MC started talking 'it's a fate' talk I was upset with him. I prefer to own my choices. Even if they lead into a bad situation. "I choose what I choose cuz I believed that I was doing right choices. I own my choices and I meant everything I said." - that would be my talk. (I don't know how to talk about specific ending without spoilers). That ending left me disturbed but I still appreciated it. After how Domekano had ended I started to think of polyamory as of the solution in any story with similar conflicts. This ending reminded me how real people would see it. It's hard to make. You need to be dedicated. You need to know what you want clearly. And you need to be ready for failure. Thanks for reminding me that real people don't make life easy.
I guess you haven't played the most recent version of the game. For several reasons, I have removed the option to rename the girls after v0.5.5.
Eve is indeed the "Childhood friend", Cassie is her friend. Jack, the MC, is the only one you can still rename. I still think that renaming the MC can be useful for immersion, but renaming the girls was useless and annoying. I won't make that mistake again in any hypothetical future game.
After v05.5, depending on the path you choose, you can also learn more about what has led Jack (MC) to make that decision in the past. I won't spoil it. But it's a human reaction.
Real people don't make life easy. I like that. Despite their best intentions, people are selfish, afraid, ashamed, shy and many other traits that make discussions and relationships ambiguous and uneasy to read. A lot of players don't like that. They want to be a manly hero who understands everything immediately and is always right, forward, confident, strong and successful. Jack isn't like that at all. He is a human being and so are the other characters of Summer Scent. They're all flawed and I believe that's what makes them endearing.
I agree with 99% of your reply. But obviously I'm in the minority with the renaming of the girls. I really like that as a feature of any VN - one quick example, in the "Evil Asshole" playthrough I named Jack, "Adolf" (for obvious reasons - although I didn't appreciate how evil it would get!) and it would have been good to be able to rename the girls with a consistent naming convention. But your game so your choices, I respect that.
Removing the renaming option wasn't an easy decision but I still think that was a good one. The mistake was to offer the renaming option in the first place. I do understand, however, that the player may want some degrees of customisation to improve his immersion. As with everything, that's a thin line to walk on.