Recap

As the opening onscreen text promises, this is a silly love story. 

We’re in high school with Aoki. His friend Akkun won’t lend him an eraser so Hashimoto, who sits on the other side of him, offers hers. Aoki has a crush on Hashimoto because she once gave him chocolate cake. But Hashimoto’s eraser says “Ida-kun ❤️”. Ida is the guy sitting in front of Aoki. Ida sees this eraser, and to cover for Hashimoto, Aoki says it’s his eraser.

Ida is startled and realizes Aoki has been nice to him in the past. Aoki says he’ll clear things up on the rooftop later. 

Before that, Hashimoto gets her eraser back and realizes what Aoki saw. She’s grateful for his secrecy and kindness. Aoki encourages her to confess, but she isn’t ready. Aoki reveals he too has a crush, and Hashimoto obliviously encourages him.

Aoki now really can’t reveal her secret. On the rooftop, he tells Ida he has a crush on him but to keep it a secret and forget about it. Ida is even more confused. Aoki is frustrated and also realizes the cake from Hashimoto was probably originally intended for Ida. Aoki tells Ida that he seriously fell in love, but Ida wouldn’t understand.

Ida, trying to understand, chases Akkun down to learn about Aoki. Ida doesn’t learn anything useful.

Akkun and Aoki run into Hashimoto and Ida in the hallway, and Akkun teases Hashimoto and Ida for being together. Hashimoto runs off, and Aoki goes after her to ask why she didn’t take that chance to talk to Ida. She says it’s easier for her to talk to Aoki.

Aoki tries to confess to her, but she’s so eager to be an understanding friend that he is defeated and gives up.

Ida sees how upset Aoki is and, because of a different eraser falling on the other side of the fence, thinks Aoki is going to jump off the roof. Ida wants to know what it’s like to have a crush. Which, Aoki realizes, means he doesn’t like Hashimoto. He tries to get Ida to describe his ideal type, and it’s the opposite of Aoki, more like Hashimoto.

Ida hears Aoki describes his crush on Hashimoto, which Ida thinks are Aoki’s feelings for him, and is inspired. He wants Aoki to wait, so Ida can know him better before answering. 

Thoughts

Silly as it may be, it’s a nice little setup for a story. Boy likes girl. Girl likes Other Boy. Boy accidentally leads Other Boy to think he likes him. Boy cannot reveal the truth because it will betray Girl.

Of course, Aoki could have just said it wasn’t his eraser but that he won’t reveal the real owner and killed the story there. But it’s pretty in character for Aoki to flail and panic and confuse things further. 

I had actually forgotten how exaggerated these characters are. Aoki is the human equivalent of a bouncing rubber ball while Ida is ridiculously slow, not even reacting to seeing the eraser at first but needing more than a few seconds before he turns back to Aoki in confusion.

I don’t mind exaggerated characters as long as they still have sincere feelings and humanity, and I think you can see it even in this first episode. Aoki may be flailing around and not thinking straight when he’s about to climb the rooftop fence for his eraser, but he thoughtfully considers Hashimoto’s feelings outside of his crush on her. Ida, meanwhile, takes Aoki’s seeming crush on him with absolute seriousness and wants to do right by him. 

It’s silly. It’s sweet. It’s fun. I’m enjoying rewatching.

If anyone is confused as to where they’ve seen Ida on my blog before, Meguro Ren also plays the male lead in Silent, a very different drama that I recommend highly.

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