From S02E10 of the anime adaptation of the manga [The Quintessential
Quintuplets](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/93612/the-
quintessential-quintuplets-
aka-%e4%ba%94%e7%ad%89%e5%88%86%e3%81%ae%e8%8a%b1%e5%ab%81-is-%e5%b1%8a%e3%81%8f%e3%82%93%e3%81%a7%e3%81%99-it-
reaches-a-mondegreen):

> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ibkmE.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ibkmE.jpg)

Above, Miku Nakano (left) is a younger identical quintuplet of Yotsuba Nakano
(right). Miku and Yotsuba are high school students. Miku is working part-time
at some bakery. Yotsuba is visiting Miku at the bakery. Miku's seniour
colleague (middle) refers to Miku as Nakano-san when talking to Yotsuba about
Miku's initial failed cooking/baking.

Below, a few seconds later in the episode (which I guess is maybe an hour
later in the characters' time), the seniour colleague addresses Miku as Miku-
chan when Miku does a little better in the cooking.

> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/MlX5n.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/MlX5n.jpg)

This is not just the subtitles. The dialogue really says this. Ah here I found
something on youtube: See for yourself [from 11:40 to
12:15](https://youtu.be/GDJH8n3ErXA?t=700).

**Question** : What's up with this? Is Miku's seniour colleague really
referring to Miku so differently from addressing Miku? Is the time skip here
perhaps actually not 1 hour but several days (and so Yotsuba actually visits
Miku more than once) ?
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manga politeness culture anime
How I address a juniour colleague is different from how I refer to the colleague around the colleague's sibling?
> Is Miku's seniour colleague really referring to Miku so differently from
> addressing Miku?

In short, that sounds about right. A third person's presence can affect how
someone refers to another person like that.

Also, honorifics can be used performatively, like "I'm intentionally using
this version of honorifics to present myself more distant/closer to you in
this occasion".

To distinguish one interpretation from another you would need a lot of
context.
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answer