Skip to Loafer – 02

「そわそわ うろうろ」 (Sowasowa Urouro)
“Fidgeting and Wandering”

It was inevitable that Mitsumi and Sou would be the class officers. If it wasn’t already clear last week, it’s even more clear now that Sou and Mitsumi are polar opposites. Mitsumi charges to the front of the classroom with a detailed future plan and a diagram of her home town to boot. Sou saunters to the front to casually announce he has no plan-except for maybe working under Mitsumi. Mitsumi’s always on edge while Sou has a constant laid-back smile. However, as Mitsumi notices, there’s a sadness hidden behind Sou’s puppy dog smile. Something tells me the source of that burden Sou carries might have something to do with his career as a child actor that fanboy Kanematsu accosted him with.

That Mitsumi is loud and proud about what she wants to do with her future while most normal high schoolers don’t is what draws them (or at least Sou) to her-they are curious about her and perhaps want to know what she has and where that confidence comes from that they don’t have. Hilariously, Mitsumi draws a connection between Sou and her family dog-same hair, similar name. Mitsumi in particular has reason to be cautious around Sou: her head in the clouds personality plus zero experience with boys equals a perfect recipe for heartbreak. I don’t think Mitsumi has anything to worry about in that regard. From the way he politely brushed off Mika, he doesn’t come across as a playboy and his interest in Mitsumi seems genuine.

Like Mitsumi, I totally read Mika wrong. Initially, I thought she was going to be the solid bestie who takes on the role of looking out for her and that the karaoke party was a smooth way to get the intel on Sou to see if he’s serious about Mitsumi. Turns out both Mitsumi and I were both wrong- Mika was there to get with Sou with Mitsumi as the carrot on the stick. Thank goodness Murashige was kind enough to tell her. I did kind of get the sense even before then that Mika had pegged Murashige wrong.

I’ve never been to karaoke and would be curious to try it once for the experience. But I have to say, at least here, the environment seems rather stressful with the overwhelming loud noise, the awkwardness of the students trying to put on a good face for the opposite sex-I imagine it’d be hard to hold a serious conversation there. It’s the reason I tend to not frequent bars.

Honestly, that was a shit-tastic thing for Mika to do. Mitsume’s not had much social experience, with her nose constantly in the books on top of coming from a small town, so she’s an easy target for bitches like Mika looking to take advantage of that. For a socially awkward, inexperienced person, making those first friends and developing that social confidence is super hard-you’re not sure how to be yourself around them or of the social cues to pay attention to, or even what to talk about. To have one of those “firsts” be a false friend really hurts.

Her overanalyzing even simple statements like a question about her pin was so relatable. “Is this person interrogating me, making fun of me, how do I answer them”. I’ve learned over the years, it’s best not to analyze too much and just dive into the conversation-things are less stressful that way and often, the worst case scenarios you imagine in your analysis don’t happen and the other person isn’t trying to play mind games-something which Mistumi seems to be getting the hang of.

I do like the way they handle gender presentation here-Nao-chan isn’t a stereotype or comedic relief, but a human. When people cause a stir on the train over Nao-chan’s identity, Mitsumi handles it by simply taking Nao-chan’s hand and practicing how to smile, reminding the passengers that Nao is human too with family and friends just like them. There’s a lot more to Nao’s story, I think, than we can see, judging from that ring. Kanematsu running around school in dresses and heels, acting the female role due to a shortage of actresses is also treated matter of factly-even though it is for a play, the characters/writing doesn’t turn him into a fool or a gag of any sort.

While running around school, Nao stumbles upon Sou, identifying him as the actor in a favorite show, unnerving Sou, who desperately wants to keep that part of his past a secret. The drama performance no doubt reminded Sou of his past, explaining his low spirits which even Mitsumi noticed. Of course, the question of the hour is what went down with his acting career. This doesn’t come as a terrible surprise-it’s almost a matter of course for a romance standard that the male lead have some sort of dark or otherwise unhappy past looming behind him.