A Star Brighter Than the Sun Episode 9

Sae has finally decided she’d confess to Koki at the end of the school festival. But one person (that being Yushin) couldn’t wait till till then, and basically confessed to Sui on the spot. As one would expect, she had promptly and brutally rejected him. This caused a mess for Mio, because she (who volunteered in Sae’s place, as the teacher almost forced her into the leadership role again), and Yushin have been assigned as the class representatives for their festival exhibit. Unfortunately and predictably, Yushin is wholly unreliable and all the work has been pushed onto Mio’s plate. But she’s not a pushover, and just about had it with him when she learns he bailed out because of a heartbreak. Do not push Mio’s patience, otherwise consequences will follow.

Hilariously, Mio did know exactly where Yushin would go while having a heartache, which was by the river. So Koki went ahead to look for him there, while Sae and Sui decided to follow afterwards.

But at last, we finally got to see Yushin getting called out on not doing his part. Koki just about had it with him throwing his presumptions around and accusing him that he has no worries and the likes. He was particularly ticked off being framed as brainless. Koki also had to explain to him that it’s not about solely being attracted to someone based on their looks. It’s more than that when you fall for someone– at least not for him anyways. He used this reasoning to explain that’s probably why Sui rejected Yushin, because anyone who isn’t serious about her is automatically out of the picture (and he was right about that).

That said, it was hilarious though to see Koki stepping in so fast to squash the misunderstanding that Sae might be into Yushin. He was like: YOU CAN’T BE NICE TO HIM! Basically echoing the exact concern Sui and Mio were talking about earlier if Sui went after him alone. But we all know why he was jumping on that as fast as he could, hahaha.

As for Mio, she was justifiably furious to see Yushin slacking on the job. Sure he just had his heartbroken, but he hasn’t actually done anything to lighten her load and Koki made sure to call him out on that, which was good to see! It’s always annoying to see characters keep getting away with this without anyone calling them out for not doing their part. Hopefully Yushin will stay true to his word and finally get his shit together and stop slacking off. Well… if that doesn’t set him straight, it’ll be Mio he does, so make your choices wisely sir.

With the subject of rejection being the forefront of the conversations this week, Sae found herself feeling quite anxious about what she’d even do if she were rejected by Koki. It’s something she’d rather not think too hard about because it does scare her. But to her credit, she’s still determined to see this through.

Koki on the other-hand, was actually out of the loop about this rumoured tradition. It wasn’t until Sui blurted out what it was about that he finally got his answer. This did make Sae a bit more antsy that he’s now in the know about the tradition, as she was probably hoping to lead up to it a bit more subtly. But now that Koki actually knows about the tradition of confessing after their requested song plays, it’ll be interesting to see who makes the move first. Prior to learning about this, Koki mentioned he might suggest a song (Stellar Days) that Sae happens to like as well. So it’d be cute and funny if both put down that song with the intention to call up on each other to confess! With the two being so in sync with each other, I’m eager to see if this will happen! (Also using Stellar Days was a nice way to connect to the OP Song, which happens to be my favourite this season! I never skip it!)

And last but not least we got Subaru! Her vibe has changed since Sae told her upfront that she never thought of Koki as childish. Last time I couldn’t really get a read on her intentions, but this week felt more like friendly teasing? She also knew that Sae wasn’t to blame (even before Koki stepped up to her defence) when she saw her crouched in front of her vandalized painting. Subaru said she has a lot of enemies (perhaps rivals would be the way to put it), so seeing someone mess with her work isn’t anything new to her. Still, it sucks to see. Although she is certainly a ray of sunshine in public, it goes without saying that she definitely has her own set of problems that she’s dealing with. Whether we’ll learn more about that at some point, I’m not sure, but in the mean time, at least (and hopefully) it doesn’t look like she’ll serve as an obstacle anymore.