Though it’s only been two episodes, for Hotaru and Saki it’s been three weeks and their trial period it almost over. Hotaru still isn’t sure yet whether she has fallen for Saki, but at the very least she does know she likes him platonically. They are exceptionally cute, and I like how determined Hotaru was to be the one waiting for him for an exchange, that she tried every single day to be a little bit earlier than usual– and only succeeded once she made it 2 HOURS EARLY. Damn girl, I must commend you for your efforts. But Saki showing up 2 hours early everyday is obviously crazy, but I’ll get to that in a bit.
I also really liked her idea of doing an exchange notebook of things they want to do together, and appreciate that she’s not skittish and shy over the idea of simple things, like holding hands. Though she definitely surprised me when she was even willing to go as far as suggesting maybe they should kiss, or be close to doing a kiss to see if it will make her more conscious of her own feelings towards him. Saki certainly didn’t expect her to bring it up either, but he wasn’t about to turn down the offer, though we are seeing some bits of hesitation there. He did tell her that to him that while it might not mean a lot to her, it makes his heartache because he wants to touch her. Whether he’s okay with being the only one to feel that way to carry through with will have to wait till next week! DARN CLIFFHANGERS!!!!
While we definitely had some cute moments, this episode definitely drew attention some the other sides of Saki that Hotaru’s has yet to really see. Apart from his obvious flaws discussed last week, Kyo’s boyfriend Keigo gave us an outsider’s perspective of Saki. He revealed to others, he’s considered a prickly guy, and guys think he’s taking advantage of Hotaru. But what they don’t realize is that he admires her. He said so himself, after giving us a glimpse of his prickly self when he glared at the girls who had the audacity to yap within earshot how Hotaru’s too boring to be his girlfriend. (ʘ‿ʘ)ノ✿ Keep your thoughts to yourself you little shits. I’m glad he shut them up with that glare.
We also saw some red flags about some of the problems Saki’s facing right now, and pointers as to why he’s so obsessed with wanting to be special to someone. It was very alarming to see how the pictures of his parents were deliberately cut out to only include them, and not whoever else was featured in the shot. Considering they are doctors travel around the world, heavily suggests the individuals who have been so deliberately cut out are the children his parents are treating. Considering Saki lives alone, and his grandmother only comes by to check up on him on the weekend, it’s obvious as plain of day that he’s incredibly lonely, jealous of the fact his parents are spending more time with those children than him.
So I can see where that dangerous root of possessiveness is growing from, and I think to some extent, he’s aware of it himself (since he tossed out a page, where he wrote, “I want you all to myself”), and is probably trying to keep himself in check. That’s probably also the main reason why he tells Hotaru that they can’t be friends if she won’t be his girlfriend. He will never be be satisfied with that. As he said, he wants to be someone special, not just another face in the crowd.
This also explains why he goes through such lengths to be special to someone. Waiting as early as two hours every day so he’d make sure not to miss her in the morning, pulling an all-nighter to prepare notes on every subject for their upcoming exam, that’s definitely overdoing it, to the point it’s basically driven by desperation. And then there’s that supposed Hotaru shrine… though whether that’s really the case or not, I’m not sure, but it was still probably better that Hotaru didn’t look. Anyhow, with the time limit over their heads, Saki’s certainly feeling the pressure of doing everything he can to make her finally fall in love with him, but what Hotaru need at the moment is time. Not everyone falls in love at first sight, and in this case, she has only known Saki for a short period of around a month, maybe a little more than that if we’re to include the period before they started their trial (which has been going on for about 3 weeks). Considering how Hotaru is trying hard to learn what it feels like to be in love, it’s only understandable why she’s the type of person who needs more time. Needless to say, the trial period wasn’t in vain, because she definitely learned things from it, and just by observing others, she understands that a relationship can’t be one-sided, and both parties need to be happy.
With that said, we’ll have to find out how things evolve next week! I can’t remember for the life of me if they decided to start officially dating from this point on or not, so I’m going in blind all over again ahaha!
