Recap
Akkun redeems himself for his earlier behavior by being totally enthusiastic about Aoki and Ida now. Aoki isn’t confident though, and Akkun de-redeems by shoving Aoki inside the gym to ask Ida about his feelings. This would work for no one.
The volleyball team strategy meeting is about how the manager of another team has a crush on someone on their team and will give them a gift at the game tomorrow. It’s agreed that Ida is the most likely target. Aoki’s legs are shaking and Ida looks at him in concern.
Akkun advises Aoki to text Ida to ask about his true feelings. Then Akkun shares a look with Hashimoto and for some reason thinks Aoki owes him advice. Akkun is not helpful.
At home, Aoki accidentally sends Ida a text asking if they are dating. Ida texts back that they’ll talk at school. This doesn’t help, and the next day Aoki spies on Ida’s team.
Ida catches him and Aoki is so awkward he starts rapping. Ida confirms they’re dating but he’s not sure if he likes Aoki. Poor Aoki. The manager then chooses that moment to give Ida her gift. Aoki leaves quickly.
After the game, Ida looks for Aoki and finds the manager instead. She asks him out, but Ida returns the gift and tells her that he knows she really likes the teacher but was rejected. He didn’t say anything earlier because Aoki was there.
The manager is embarrassed, but Ida thinks she’s great for liking someone that way. She startles him by guessing he likes someone too, that’s why he’s distracted.
After she leaves, Ida reveals that Aoki was hiding and he knew it the entire time. Even though he saw everything, Aoki thinks Ida would be better with a cute girl than him.
Ida says he thinks he might like Aoki, and maybe it’s too early to call it dating but he hopes they will be dating. Aoki is grateful for Ida’s honesty and would like Ida to ask him out for real one day.
Aoki starts the next school day in a much better mood. Then he gets a text from Hashimoto that Akkun turned her down and she’s on the roof.
Thoughts
The actress playing the manager is Ohara Yuno, who is the lead in Sweat and Soap, another very cute jdrama I may recap one day.
I like it when a couple’s conflict is sympathetic on both sides. I completely understand Aoki’s feelings of insecurity when he likes Ida so much and Ida doesn’t feel the same in return. I also completely understand Ida’s confusion over his feelings and his desire to explore them without leading Aoki on.
I’ll be honest, that last conversation confuses me a little with what they decided and it may be a language thing that is too nuanced for me to catch. It seems to me like they were deciding that they weren’t a couple but were dating, but that’s not how the translation I watched put it. Regardless, they seem to know they are at the beginning of things and it’s okay.
I think it was cute how the manager liked the teacher and saw a similarity between him and Ida. It’s nice when the girls in a BL aren’t evil, and she managed to get in the way and cause trouble for Ida and Aoki without having any desire to hurt either of them. She was too focused on her own impossible crush. And big sympathy for her, I had age-inappropriate crushes in High School too, though I never acted on them. I’m glad the teacher turned her down (but Japan has plenty of teacher-student relationship shows and movies if that’s your thing).
And ultimately, while she caused trouble, she helped Ida gain some clarity on what was going on with him and Aoki.
Akkun just doesn’t know when to stop. His intentions are good but he did annoy me this episode. It was like he hadn’t learned his lesson. Maybe I’m being unfair, maybe he was overcompensating by trying to help where he’d screwed up before.
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