Random Curiosity

Summary:

After the incident with Kajii, Sana visits Asami in the hospital to bring her some flowers and a book. Hearing Asami wonder if this was punishment, Sana tells her that she hasn’t done anything to warrant it, but Asami surprises him by admitting that she wrote the letter about Shuri and Shuusuke in the love hotel. What’s more, she reveals that she confessed her feelings to Shuri back when they were first-years. She and Shuri had originally met during the opening ceremonies in junior high, and Shuri had always been cheerful. Asami explains that she had always pretended to be a good girl when she was young, but she found the mask of being a good girl suffocating. She started wondering about her true self and if Shuri would accept her, and once she started thinking this way, she couldn’t control her feelings. When Asami confessed to her, Shuri at first thought it was a joke, but when she realized Asami was serious, she turned Asami down. Shuri had wanted to stay friends, and even though Asami didn’t think that was possible, Shuri treated her as the same as always the next day. This made Asami start to hate her because it caused Asami to feel that her feelings towards Shuri never existed, but Asami still wanted her as a friend, even if it was just for show.

This went well since Asami was used to hiding her feelings, and soon she began to feel that they really were good friends. It all changed the day Asami saw Shuri’s crying face on the Ferris wheel. This was the first time she had seen Shuri like that, and she realized that it was a face that Shuri would only show to Shuusuke. Thinking about how she had foolishly confessed and gotten hurt, what Asami had been bottling up inside of herself came out all at once. And so, she had wanted something bad to happen to the siblings and had written the letter on the day she knew they were going to the visit their mother’s grave. Asami feels that she’s good at thinking of cruel things, but that was the first time she did anything. She had also drawn the love umbrella on the chalkboard, and she didn’t regret it when she saw Shuri crying. In fact, she felt a thrill in comforting Shuri on the bus to the hospital and wanted to cause her more pain so that Shuri would show her the face that she had only shown Shuusuke. However, Asami ran to help when she saw Shuri in danger because of Kajii, and she doesn’t understand why she did it.

Sana concludes that it was because Asami wanted to save someone precious to her – these were her true feelings. Asami starts crying over this, but she gets interrupted when Shuri and Shuusuke arrive to see her. In the presence of the two of them, Asami returns to her happy self, but when it’s time for them to go, she asks to speak with Shuri alone. Sana and Shuusuke thus go out into the courtyard and chat about Sana’s relationship with Nanaka. Hearing how Sana had vowed to stay together with Nanaka, Shuusuke wholehearted approves. Shuri eventually comes running out in tears, and though Shuusuke doesn’t know what’s going on, Sana privately does. That night, Shuri’s father returns home to find his wife not around because of an apparent class reunion. He tells Shuri that her departure for London is set for this Saturday, and Shuri passes this information along to Shuusuke so that they can plan to leave before then. Shuri still has some doubts about it, but Shuusuke has made up his mind, and Shuri thanks him. When she tells her friends about going to London during lunch the next day, Sana and Aoi try to find a silver lining by saying that this won’t be goodbye forever, but Shuusuke stays oddly silent.

The twins are missing from class that afternoon, and Sana quickly figures out what’s going on after he remembers Shuusuke’s silence during lunch and how Shuusuke had liked the idea of always staying together. Following his hunch, Sana rushes out of class and runs towards the train station, arriving just in time to see the train pull into the station in front of the twins on the opposite platform. As the train leaves station with Shuusuke and Shuri onboard, Sana runs out too and bumps into Aoi’s mother on a bicycle. Borrowing the bike, he chases after the train and somehow manages to keep up with it. Shuri and Shuusuke eventually see him yell something at the train as it passes over the bridge out of town, and though they can’t hear him, Shuusuke knows what Sana said. This is because Shuusuke had said the same thing when Sana had left town all those years ago: no matter where one of them goes, they’ll be friends forever.

Preview:

So, uh, raise your hand if you saw this one coming – I certainly didn’t. I underestimated the writers because I thought Asami was just going to be used to make Nanaka jealous/insecure and as a support character for Shuri. Instead, they actually gave Asami a fair amount of character development, and it was as an antagonist no less. It didn’t feel like they were intentionally trying to play up the lesbian aspect though – more that Asami was just infatuated with Shuri and did some bad things. I never expected to hear Asami sound so evil. At least it now makes sense why Asami’s silhouette is crying in the OP animation as a background to Shuri and Shuusuke. Actually, you could probably go back and make all sorts of connections to how this makes sense (like how Asami never really seemed interested in Sana romantically), but the fact remains that the writers did a heckuva job pulling off a surprise.

Before I go any further, I have to say that, as corny as that last line of the episode sounded, it had quite an emotional impact when combined with Shuusuke crying and that great background song (the same one they play at the end of nearly every episode). Anyway, Asami’s revelation and this episode in general answered a lot of questions (who sent the letter, what Shuusuke said when Sana originally left), but it didn’t really resolve anything. In fact, it probably just adds to the list of things left to be covered because Asami now has to get some sort of conclusion along with whatever happens to Shuri and Shuusuke. Of course, that’s assuming they want a satisfactory ending for all the major characters and not just Sana and Nanaka in the final two episodes. I can’t help but wonder if there’ll be enough time to fit everything in, particularly if Shuri and Shuusuke end up making a return.