A Condition Called Love Ep 8

So Saki has gotten permission from Hotaru to apply to her workplace (and he was hired). Her friends brought up a good point that it’s important for the two have alone time, but at the very least I’m glad that Saki did ask permission from Hotaru first and they talked about it. That said, I do think Hotaru has the right mind set of encouraging and helping Saki ease his way into broadening his horizons.  She doesn’t want him to be 100% reliant on her, and if he can befriend like-minded people that’ll always be good.

Though contrary to her friends’ concerns, it does appears it was a good thing for Saki to apply to her workplace though. He not only likes books, but he’s also a longtime customer, and the manager Kuroe knows him very well. But you’d think otherwise with how they started out. He and the manager sort of started on the wrong foot because Saki and Hotaru were under the impression that Kuroe didn’t like him very much. But in truth, it was just Kuroe being very awkward about it cause he was very flustered and uncertain about how he should interact with a long time customer. Thankfully the misunderstanding was cleared sooner than later, and as it turns out, Kuroe remembers Saki very well, as well as what books he had purchased over the years, and that is very endearing to say the least. And honestly that bit was sweet to see because Saki isn’t used to being “remembered” by anyone, and it was cute to see him be embarrassed about it.

Next we got to see Hotaru bring up the discussion of their ‘dating policies’. It didn’t really go anywhere since neither really knew what to suggest, apart from Saki asking for one thing: Please don’t leave him behind. (Which shouldn’t surprise anyone given his abandonment trauma). Though there was one other little policy that popped up with Saki telling Hotaru to just give him a signal when she’s comfortable to have their first kiss, which is always good to see.

We also got to see Hotaru willing to try and overcome her awkwardness with Yao when she asks him the favour of whether he could let Kyo meet his dog. Keigo (Kyo’s boyfriend) had invited her over, and Kyo is afraid of dogs, so Hotaru was looking for ways to help her feel a bit more comfortable about it. We also got some insight on how Hotaru and Kyo became friends in middle school. Kyo was there for Hotaru when she was isolating herself from others because she was (understandably) afraid to make friends after that incident. It was really good to see Saki recognize and accept that Kyo will always have a special place in Hotaru’s heart because of it. He’ll never get in-between the one who was there for Hotaru when she was at her lowest point.

As for Yao, we do need to give this guy some credit for recognizing the awkwardness (though it troubles him that he doesn’t know the cause of it), and has gone as far as listening to Hotaru’s request of not being called by her nickname, and going back to referring to her by surname. I do appreciate the effort on his part to do that, especially since he doesn’t want this friction to continue. However it’s because he doesn’t know the cause of their awkwardness that he obliviously suggests they look at their elementary year book, which Hotaru did not want to do. Saki knows this, and also recognized that Hotaru was very uncomfortable with that idea, so he stepped in to get them back on track to why they were there in the first place.

That said… We did finally get confirmation that Saki did attend the same elementary school. The reason why neither Hotaru nor Yao could recall him is because were in different classes from each other. However it’s still unclear how he’s involved in the incident that scarred Hotaru, and for whatever reasons, he’s been keeping his mouth shut about it, and doesn’t want her to know about it. But that secret is bound to come out at some point or another, so really it’s just a matter of time before the cat’s out of the bag.