This week was an intriguing episode because we actually managed to get insight of Minato’s habits from an outsiders perspective, along with a brief hint of the complicated feelings he truly feels inside. This in particular stood out in the scene when one of the guys he was hanging out with made a comment that Minato doesn’t know what it’s like to be sad when he mused that he’s sad. Well I beg to differ! I feel like in that moment, that was one rare instance where he was actually showing how he was in that moment. That was a face of disappointment and hurt knowing that Koyuki’s firmly keeping up her walls around him, while she has lowered it for others like Youta.
Interestingly, Minato doesn’t necessarily hide the fact he’s feeling sad, but given the aloof attitude he tends to portray, people around him don’t typically take him seriously when he actually says it. There was such instance when he was talking about his break-up to Miki and Koyuki realized it wasn’t fair of her to presume that he didn’t, and apologized for it.
That being said, it does seem more and more likely that Minato does have a Savior complex going on, and it exists because it’s tied to his self-worth. Being a saviour and ‘helping’ can give a sense of purpose/self-fulfilling, like he’s contributing to something good. That’s why if he can’t do that, it doesn’t feel as rewarding so to speak.
But as result of this, even if we didn’t see Minato hold those keys last week, I know for certain that this episode would have still left me feeling icky about the way he approaches the so-called “Pitiful Targets”. Throughout the entire episode, Minato was constantly calculating and then recalibrating his questions as he attempts to probes into his target’s heads. Every thing he asks and everything he does is done very intentionally, and while Koyuki doesn’t know that, she at the very least senses something’s amiss. So she rightfully keeps her guard up and is wary of his intentions.
However the difference between her and past peers he has approached is that Koyuki’s not truly lonely, and most importantly, she has become comfortable with solitude. She’s content with just having Miki as her friend, she doesn’t need to be glued to the hip with her at school to get by the day, she has established her own comfortable routine.
But what Minato can’t wrap his head around is why Koyuki has opened up to Youta of all people. But it isn’t exactly rocket-science. Koyuki will accept the company of those who she senses does not have ill will, and most importantly, respects her boundaries when it comes to sensitive topics.
And this is why Minato can’t wrap his head around it: Because he doesn’t know not do that. So it perplexes him that Youta (of all people) had been able to earned her trust in just one encounter while she hasn’t opened up to him at all. In-fact, it was quite interesting to hear Minato muse to himself that Youta’s a bad choice to have feelings for. So we’ll have to see what’s that all about as everyone here has their own set of personal issues.
But here is yet another main difference between the two of them: Youta has shown he isn’t the nosy type like Minato is. And that right there is a key reason why Koyuki has become comfortable with his presence. He’s not in her face (unless he’s trying to see her because he doesn’t have his glasses/contacts), and he’s not actively pressing to know things that Koyuki would rather not talk about. Another thing Youta seems to be good at is sensing when someone feels uncomfortable with Minato’s probing. It’s unclear whether or not he generally would step in these situations, but at least for Koyuki’s case, when Minato had suddenly asked if she was dating anyone, it was Youta who told him that’s enough. Doing so, he was also able to break the tension that was forming at the table, and reassured her to just brush off what Minato says because he’s always like this.
Of course Youta saying things like ‘don’t take him seriously’ does Minato no favours should he ever become serious about someone. But that’s his own fault for going about it the way he does. Minato has yet to realize that his approach to befriending/dating people is just digging himself into a deeper hole in the long run.
Unfortunately the tension didn’t quite go away, because there’s Miki who was watching all of this unfold with a sour look on her face. Koyuki was panicking because she’s worried that maybe Miki likes Minato– and while it’s still unclear whether that’s truly the case, there was a good reason why Miki was making that face.
Back in middle-school, Miki didn’t have it easy either. While on the surface things seemed fine, she learned one day that the girls often talked behind her back, chiding her for how ‘cringe’ she is and so on forth. (This pretty much explains how and why this “saintly” version of her came to be once she entered high-school.) But it was because she realized she couldn’t fit in her school that she decided to attend cram school outside of her city in attempt for a fresh start. When she was too scared to approach other groups that had formed, it was Minato who approached her first.
Later at some point when she was thinking inwardly how nice it’d be to be asocial butterfly like Minato, that she learned through Youta that apparently Minato can’t help but intervene when someone seems lonely and seem pitiful. That however, was quite a blunder on Youta part, because not only did that not strike Miki fancy (immediately retracting her wish to be a ‘social butterfly’ like him), but it made her wonder if maybe Minato had decided to befriend her because she was viewed as “pitiful”. So it makes sense why she hd asked Minato what he thinks of Koyuki. She wants to know whether or not he’s genuinely interested in her, or if he’s trying to befriend her because he pities her. I do wonder how he plans to respond to that though, because I highly doubt he’s going to be upfront and say something along the lines of she looks lonely. In-fact I’d be genuinely surprised if he has the guts and lack of tact to say anything along the lines that to Miki’s face. So we’ll have to see how it goes.
Last but not least, that wasn’t the only thing that came up this week. When Minato was looking for subjects of common interests with Koyuki, he somehow managed to bring up the absolute worst subject of all: Igarashi. This is the guy who’s connected to Koyuki’s trauma in middle school, so she did everything in her power to deny any connection to the guy. The only thing she did take advantage of was noting exactly when Igarashi was going to show up at their school so she could avoid him at all cost. She was so stressed over the fact of knowing he was going to show up that she couldn’t even hear what Minato was talking about. I just hope since Minato has been watching her reactions carefully, that he doesn’t look to exploit her insecurity, but rather take a hint to understand he should NOT to bring her name up to Igarashi. And if anything, help her avoid him at all cost. The problem here however, is whether he genuinely doing this because it’s the right thing to do, or it’s his way of scoring points to get her to open up to him as though it’s a game. I would certainly hope not, as it’d be better if he does have or eventually developed genuine feelings towards these individuals he has purposely approached.
One right there is one more observation I almost forgot to mention: It appears Youta may be self-conscious around Miki. I didn’t notice it the first time when they were at the vending machine last week, but when we got the flashback, I realized Youta has dropped things whenever Miki leans close to him. And not to mention, there was a little blush today when they were picking up the pens. And considering he did bring up Miki as a link of common interest with Koyuki when they were heading to the community center, so maybe he might actually have feelings for her? Or maybe it’s something else altogether, but so far this is a pattern that might be worth keeping an eye on, and perhaps this is what Minato was alluding to when he made that remark about Youta after-all.
