When last we left our conman and lawyer, the conman confessed his love and the lawyer realized his feelings for the other man were also love.
Which is not the answer he wanted
Shiba sits alone in his dark living room. When Haruto returns he’s upset by how late he’s been out. His jealousy pleases Haruto, who ignores his denials and back-hugs him.
Haruto has solved their case. Shiba doesn’t care and I don’t either, but anyway. The woman employee was blackmailing that other employee because he was leaking info. They both got terminated. The end.
New case time! It’s from their New York office. If Shiba succeeds it’ll spread his name across that state/city (they aren’t specific). But he only has a week to produce results. That’s it.
Shiba is in “crap I’m in love” mode
He focuses on work to distract himself. Kazama visits him to grind in the importance of this job and bring up how he’s doing well in work and love. So he figured out Shiba wasn’t talking about a friend?
Shiba denies the love part. Kazama gives him an energy drink, implying love is an energy drink. He cackles and walks backward out of Shiba’s office and I love Japanese dramas.
That doesn’t convince Shiba, who can’t focus because visions of Haruto dance over his head. He’s decided that to become the Guardian of Law he must quit being in love. He rejects Haruto’s text offering to help and drowns himself in work.
Haruto at least has the succulents keeping him company. But he arrives at Shiba’s office with a change of clothes and food. Shiba can’t resist and likens Haruto to a poison spreading through his system. It’s like he knows the title of the show.
He lets Haruto feed him an onigiri. The onigiri represents poison.
After he eats Haruto’s food, Shiba focuses and figures out how to handle the case. He wonders if love is the best energy drink.
Kazama is an agent of chaos
Shiba tells him about his triumph at the bar. Kazama decides to tell Shiba about another brilliant lawyer whose career and life were ruined by love. Shiba reminds him of this lawyer. Cool story Kazama.
I believe Shiba is super resistant to pursuing love, but I wish it had taken just a little more to scare him away. Because now Shiba remembers he can’t fall for Haruto because he’s a conman. That’s all it took.
At home, he collapses and wakes up in bed. Haruto wants him to keep resting. He’s read Shiba’s law books and organized his work for him. He’s impressed by how the law is meant to protect people. Setting himself up for heartbreak, he says this is the most fun job and he wants to work harder and help people.
This is Shiba’s cue to break his heart, throwing his words at him and saying he’s a selfish conman from the underside of society. Haruto wants to know how long he’s known — you did steal his car dude?
Shiba tells him to leave, Haruto thanks him for everything before walking away.
Haruto cries and it’s the worst thing ever
At first, he thought of Shiba as someone to tease, but now… He calls himself stupid, a fraud, and can’t believe he fell in love.
Wearing a magnificent orange sweater, he meets up with some teenagers hanging on the street. One wears a shirt Haruto wore earlier. Haruto hands them money and promises more soon. He’s going back to where he started. A creepy warehouse.
I don’t feel sorry for Shiba, who looks miserable with his succulents, eating a protein bar, and remembering Haruto leaving.
Things are great at work. He impressed New York and is on his way to becoming Guardian of the Law. He’s got his 101st partner: a creepy AI that does not make his heart flutter. He misses Haruto’s onigiri.
Kazama accidentally fixes what he accidentally screwed up
He tells Shiba the scammers scammed someone again and now the police will get them. The scammers in the picture with Haruto.
Shiba runs to warn Haruto that he needs to run. He goes to the bartender and luckily one of Haruto’s street kids is there. He wants to know if Shiba is Haruto’s boyfriend Ryo.
Shiba drags the kid out. He’s certain Haruto told the kid everything and Shiba will be in trouble. But the kid doesn’t know anything so Shiba isn’t in trouble.
Shiba meets the rest of the kids and learns Haruto gave them his money and wants to make enough to provide a safe place for them. Shiba guiltily remembers how he told Haruto he only cared about himself.
The kids don’t know where Haruto is, but he texts a picture to one. Shiba knows where he is. You know what that means.
Runnnnnnnnnnnnnnning!
Haruto tries to leverage his new understanding of the law to get more money from the horrible people employing him. They do not want to pay him more money.
But Shiba arrives! To take Haruto home to finish his contract. He rolls up his sleeves to fight and gets taken down in one punch. While being beaten he apologizes to Haruto. He knows he was risking himself to help those kids
Haruto gets the energizing power of love, beats up the thugs, and gets Shiba out of there. They run to a bridge, as you do in Asian dramas.
Shiba wishes Haruto had beaten everyone up earlier. Haruto is aware that Shiba can’t fight because he’s never hit anyone, he’s different from Haruto. He wants to know if Shiba came because of the contract and because he’s a useful partner.
Shiba says he is a useful partner, but that’s not all. He confesses his love, and they’re both crying. Haruto calls Shiba awkward, sensitive, and difficult. But that’s what he likes about him.
They kiss, and Shiba thinks about how a lover’s smile is more beautiful than the starlit sky. That’s deep.
At home, he lets Haruto share his bed and is stone-faced while happy on the inside. But Haruto has a nightmare with a knife. Seeing his distress, Shiba whispers his name. Haruto whimpers and cries for his mom.
We get ominous VO that back then he had no idea about his lover’s mysterious past.
Here we have a rarity in Japanese BLs
At least the ones I’ve watched: our characters are already together halfway through the series. A lot of Japanese dramas, which are relatively short, end with the couple getting together. I like seeing couples work out differences while in couple mode. Especially when they are as different as these two and still have things to work out like Haruto’s past.
Haruto’s acknowledgment that Shiba is, well, a PITA, is sweeter to me than blind love. It reassures me his love doesn’t have rules. Too recently I’ve seen the opposite.
In the last episodes, I got into translating Haruto’s confession. Time to analyze Shiba’s, because unlike the standard “のことが好き”, he says ”お前に恋してる”/omae ni koi shiteru. 恋/koi is another way to say love (and the word used in the title), but I wasn’t sure of the nuance. According to this worth-reading article, I think we can interpret that Shiba is saying that he’s fallen hard. It’s a lovely wording choice, and I’m glad I can (kinda) catch it.
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