Honey and Clover II – 03

Summary:
Yamada and Hagu are admiring all of Yamada’s snow globes, including a Hawaiian one that Hagu considers romantic because it shows snow falling on the beach. At the same time, Nomiya is admiring a similar snow globe of snow falling on sand. He is with Yamazaki in Tottori where their boss Fujiwara Luigi has asked them to get some souvenirs because as Yamazaki explains, Luigi loves junk. Returning to the snow-on-sand thought, Nomiya talks about how it snows in Tottori in December. Thinking about how it’s romantic, Yamazaki imagines himself bringing Miwako here to admire the scenery when it’s snowing, though the image in Nomiya’s mind is more along the lines of Miwako getting excited about the crabs and alcohol. Yamazaki asks if Nomiya wants to show Yamada those sand dunes, and Nomiya’s uncertain answer causes Yamazaki to wonder if he doesn’t want to see her. Nomiya hasn’t contacted her because of how hard it is to reach someone who doesn’t have a cell phone. And there’s also the fact that she lives at home, which is guarded by her father. Nomiya is concerned about her, but feels that it’s troublesome and doesn’t want to hurt her. Yamazaki surprises Nomiya by asking him why he assumes that he’ll hurt the one he loves. Yamazaki thinks that if the right girl came along, he’d always treasure her. Nomiya continues to be shocked at this until the sand blows into his eyes. That night, Nomiya learns from Miwako on the phone that Yamada is working at Rika’s office. They both agree that it’s foolish for her to do this, and Miwako suggests that Nomiya call her when she’s at Harada Design on the weekends.
Sometime later, at Rika’s office, Yamada catches Mayama staring at Rika’s computer and jumps to the conclusion that Mayama is checking out Rika’s net browsing history. A flustered Mayama says that he was wondering about the weather in Hokkaido. Fortunately, he’s saved from Yamada when a fax arrives. He brings it to Rika, asking why she’s getting a fax about a Valencia art museum’s building addition championship that will require Rika to go to Spain. Rika explains that this is something her husband undertook when he was still alive. Mayama is unhappy that Rika didn’t consult with him about this, but she interrupts him to tell him that he’s going too because it’s part of work. For various reasons, it’ll be another half year before they have to get involved. Rika then excuses herself to her room because she’s not feeling well. Afterwards, Mayama shows Yamada a live camera weather forecast for the city of Otaru in Hokkaido – Rika’s hometown. Mayama says that Rika doesn’t talk about herself, but her browsing history is full of visits to this site. He thinks that she’s probably still got some contacts there, but she probably also has never gone back. Later that night, Rika is thinking about how her husband once told her that he wanted to create a huge home for paintings and sculptures and how he wanted to see Valencia. Rika remembers how much fun they had working together, but she knows that this is the last time. She asks him to wait a bit longer because it’ll soon be completed.
The phone starts ringing at the office, so Yamada answers it. Nomiya is calling just like Miwako suggested, and the two of them do some quick catching up. When Nomiya says that he’s surprised that she’s working there, Yamada starts talking happily about Rika and Mayama. Nomiya then asks if she’s ok, and Yamada answers yes, then continues to talk about the things she does at work and the things going on in her life. After she tells him to take care of his health, the two say their goodbyes and hang up. But all is not well with Yamada, as she is crying now that she’s hung up the phone. Nomiya acts on a hunch, gets in his car, gases up, and starts driving. By the next day, Nomiya arrives at Fujiwara Design, but finds out from Miwako that she sent Yamada to Tottori – in other words, where he just came from. Miwako explains that Yamada was looking really sad, so she decided to have Yamada bring some stuff to Nomiya. And unfortunately, Yamada doesn’t have a cell phone so they can’t just call her back. Since Miwako is curious why he came, Nomiya says that Yamada had told him that she’d be staying at Miwako’s place. Nomiya then leaves to go all the way back to Tottori. Miwako tells Leader that she can’t believe that Nomiya couldn’t wait for a morning flight and dashed over by car all the way from Tottori instead.
Yamada, meanwhile, is on the train to Tottori thinking about how concerned Mayama was about Rika the previous night. Upon arrival, she’s greeted by Yamazaki. He notices that she’s looking rather worn out, and she notices that Nomiya didn’t come. Yamada assumes that Nomiya is busy and starts to head back, but Yamazaki insists on taking her sightseeing. After a whirlwind tour, the two return to Nomiya and Yamazaki’s apartment. Yamada still feels that she should go home, so Yamazaki tries to stall until Nomiya returns. Fortunately, Nomiya comes back right then and collapses on the couch. He takes Yamada’s hand and doesn’t let go because he wants to talk to her after he wakes up. Yamazaki springs into action by bringing Yamada a futon and saying “4946” (a play on words on an old Japanese way of invertedly saying 「よろしく」 (yoroshiku)). With no other choice, Yamada spends the night there. Nomiya wakes up the next morning to find her still sleeping soundly, though her legs are exposed. He also sees a bunch of unicorns surrounding her, protectors of her purity. Nomiya goes out and comes back later to wake Yamada up. She notices that he’s brought back various breads for breakfast, and the two eat.
Afterwards, they go out to the sand dunes by the water. Walking along, Yamada asks Nomiya where he went yesterday and he answers Tokyo. She thinks it was for work, but he says that he went so that he could see her. Yamada doesn’t seem to believe him, so Nomiya asks her if something happened. He could tell that she was crying during the phone call. She denies it, so Nomiya says that it must have been after the phone call then. Yamada can’t believe that Nomiya knew. To himself, Nomiya says that he knew because he’s always been watching her, knowing that she’s always looking towards Mayama. Yet that person she’s in love with is going far away with someone else. Nomiya thinks about how Yamada is always crying, and how he can’t comfort her because she’s in a far away place alone. He delivers Yamada to the train station and to her train. There, she thanks him for the great time and the souvenirs, and tells him to take care of himself. As she boards the train, Nomiya tells her that if there’s a time when she doesn’t know what to do, then she should call him. Yamada is confused at that statement and asks him why. A slightly frustrated Nomiya finally says that it’s because he likes her. The train door closes between them, and the train pulls out of the station with Yamada still standing by the train door with a surprised look on her face. Nomiya immediately turns around and wonders why he was so honest, and then spots Yamazaki giving him a thumbs-up from behind a noodle stand. Nomiya thinks this is a disaster. And so while Yamada is nervously chowing down her bento on the train ride back, Yamazaki takes Nomiya out drinking. Following alongside Yamada’s train are of course the unicorns, whose entire force is returning to the Kanto region with the “princess”.

Preview:

I think it’s good that Mayama is going to be going with Rika to Spain – good for both Mayama and Yamada. For Mayama, it’ll allow him to get closer to Rika. For Yamada, it’ll allow her to forget about Mayama…if that’s still humanly possible. And the person who can help her is Nomiya, who finally blurted out his feelings to Yamada after a lot of running back and forth, halfway across Japan, just because he was concerned about her. You can see that her immediate reaction is shock and embarrassment, which may actually be good signs. We’ll have to wait to see how the confession affects her after she gets over the initial shock and how (if at all) it changes her relationship with Mayama.
The unicorns this episode were freakin’ awesome. They’re not typical unicorns either; they’re the multi-colored, foul-mouthed protectors of Yamada’s purity. And there are a lot of them. That was such a great way to end the episode; I pretty much laughed through it because of all those unicorns.
Today’s insert song was Suga Shikao’s 「ココニイルコト」 (Koko ni Iru Koto) from his 1999 single, 「夜明けまえ」 (Yoake Mae). Having listened to it for a while now (I originally heard it on the Sugarless album), I think it’s one of Suga Shikao’s better songs.
Next week, Mayama and Rika go on a trip together and it appears they have to sleep in the same room on the train.