Man it really was a good thing that Yamada had swung by, because Akane was so ill she had to be taken to the hospital for an I.V. drip before being allowed to come home again. Fortunately he stayed with her the entire night to make sure she was getting better and not worse. It was so funny how she couldn’t believe he was there so she thought it was a dream!
The way she would have such emotional reactions as if she were drunk– though in the cutest way– and how she couldn’t believe he was actually was absolutely hysterical. The hilarity didn’t end there, with Akane passionately praising a book about breakups that Yamada had picked up to read while he watched over her. There was also more cute moments between them when her leg cramped up (something I know all too well since it happens every now and then, and it’s the ABSOLUTE WORST!!!!). Gotta hand it to his dodging foot skills, though he did get bonked in the head and nose hahahaha. But man they had a moment that was such a tease with the tension!
This week the first half of the episode largely focused on Yukari and how she befriended and eventually fell for Yamada. Thanks to that, we finally got some backstory on what caused Yamada to become uncomfortable around girls. When he was little, there was a girl in his class who was bullied and eventually stopped coming to school. Since he lived near her, the teacher gave him handouts to deliver to her, and that’s how the two of them became friends. However the girl developed more feelings for him, but it was one-sided. Yamada shot her down in a honest and pragmatic sense, but the fact he made her cry is something that continued to haunt Yamada to this day. It’s something he constantly wonders if it would have gone better if he worded it differently, or perhaps been a bit more tactful. But in all honesty, I think his answer was fine for what it was simply because it was as true and pragmatic as it could get. To promise to be together forever is something that can be easily broken, and it was also something he knew he couldn’t commit to– especially when he had delivered the handouts and became friends with her because his teacher told him to.
But we also got the completion of the memory, revealing the part where after the girl had cried, she smiled, thanking him for being her friend. For so long the last part of their farewell was overshadowed by her tears, but now thanks to Akane’s explanation about that’s just how romance is, and about how it’s better to smile when rejected or breaking up instead of crying because it means the last memory of her is not one of taking a fit of tears, but one to be remembered as in a good light. And hearing this helped Yamada get some closure the memory that haunted him for so long because it was something he couldn’t understand and got tired of trying to understand.
That said, I can understand why Yamada has become exhausted and just done with girls and the subject of romance in general. Rejecting people is an exhausting process, and it has gotten to a point where Yamada considers receiving confessions to be a pain. However it’s because he has made the girl and many others cry by rejecting them because he doesn’t care for their feelings or what they think of him (good and bad), and that’s why he doesn’t consider himself to be a good or kind person. And perhaps that might explain why he likened himself as a ‘nobody’, and holds Akane to such a high regard. Compared to how he thinks of himself, Akane is someone he knows in his heart to be a genuinely kind soul.
And that’s was what makes the contrast between Yukari’s flashback of how she befriended and eventually fell for him, and the Yamada we know of in the present day. so interesting. We can see how much Akane has opened up his heart to the point he deeply cares about her, to the point where how she feels about him matters. And I appreciate this part of the slow-burn of their budding relationship.
With that said, although we didn’t see too much of what was running through Yamada’s head, there were times when there was definitely a different look in his eyes, and it didn’t go unnoticed by either Akane. She noticed the way he was really looking at her, though it was pretty funny how he can shift the mood so quickly when he reached to pick up the spoon and she got all flustered– he did laugh because it must’ve clicked to him why she was denying she had moved away when he drew closer hahaha. They are so cute!
Gosh there’s only three episodes left for this one, I’m going to miss it! At least I can continue by reading the manga~ which I already caved after ep 1 or 2, I can’t remember, and binged to the latest chapter so–haha i couldn’t hold back. All I can say is :3c Heh~
