Sasameki Koto – 06

「二人の夜」 (Futari no Yoru)
“A Night Together”

Well that was unexpected. The second year senpai from episode one, Nishikigi Chizuka (Hayami Saori), wants to make up with Ushio all of a sudden. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Sumika in this situation, watching Ushio spend a night over at her place for some emotional “best friend” support while still unaware of her true feelings.

It’s borderline cruel when I think about it, but it’s not like Sumika doesn’t bring it upon herself as well. She won’t come out of the closet with her unrequited love, but she’s allowed herself to become more and more infatuated with her best friend as of late. Instead of being opposed to a yuri relationship like she was early on, she’s pretty much accepted the fact she’s a lesbian at this point. It’s probably fair to say that she’s fallen hard for Ushio too, seeing as she’s willing to try and be a klutz to appeal to her tastes. Granted, people can’t control who they fall in love with, nor the stupid things we tend to do when we’re head over heels, but there are the level-headed few who know when to call it quits. Given Sumika’s personality, I sort of expected her to be someone in the latter category.

However, herein lies the beauty of it all. You have a person who seemingly has their act together in life crumble inside because of her secret love for her best friend. This leads to some pretty entertaining and heartfelt moments alike — more so than I would’ve imagined anyway. At times, you can relate to Sumika’s silent turmoil, thinking how we’ve all been there. At others, you kind of wish she’d just speak up and make her feelings clear without worrying so much about the outcome. In both cases though, I can never really weigh in what the better decision is, so I’m naturally curious to see how she handles things. They say patience is a virtue, which hopefully means Sumika will be rewarded for all this in the end. If not, we’ll get to witness how cruel reality can be.

Much like before, Tomoe and Miyako continue to support for Sumika’s cause, even though their methods are questionable at best. Kiyori on the other hand is as laid back as ever, making me believe she would make an awesome partner for anyone if she were a lesbian too. As for Sumika herself, her boyish aspects gave me a good chuckle this time around, especially when her nose bled uncontrollable at the sight of Ushio joining her in the bath. That said, Sumika’s aware that Ushio still doesn’t see her as anything more than a really good friend, but her words “I love you” evidently hit very close to home — enough to keep her up all night at the very least.

* P.S. I can’t help but point out the Ryu brothers living in the Murasame house.

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