So let's back track a bit from that famous page. Of course we've had previous interactions.
Moving on from that we have when they saw the meteor shower(the milky way) at the old factory and for Punpun and Aiko this was an amazing moment. He's taking a liking to a girl from first sight or as some may say 'love at first sight' even though I hate to say sthat because it wasn't really love at all but whatever. She introduces her self whilst Punpun is mesmerized. The exact start of chapter one when punpun is at his desk entirely innocent but then the teacher announces they have a new student with the loss of Miyo(their former classmate). It's Asano really trying to push the emotion of every thing we have seen from Aiko, every interaction that Punpun and Aiko had. The panel you see punpun looking at iko hanging in that I guess some sort of scrap yard of some sort, I don't really know the exact location of it. Ive defeated with myself long enough where to start this and I've came to the conclusion that I should tell the ending from when you see aiko hang herself.
Okay before we get into anything else we have to first address the ending of the manga.