TL;DR Version:
Aoba and Sakura fell in love in high school, and then he dumped her via text and she never saw him again. Years later she’s planning to move in with her boyfriend Minato, another friend from High School. A chance sighting of Sakura on the subway disrupts both Aoba and Minato’s lives. When Aoba finally catches up to Sakura again, he speaks to her in sign language she can’t understand. He dumped her, he explains with his hands, because when he started losing his hearing he knew he wouldn’t be able to share the music they loved or talk to her the way she wanted anymore. 

Recap:
It’s winter in Japan, and Aoba meets up with Sakura on the way to school. She stops to enjoy the quiet of snow. Urging him to enjoy it, he calls her noisy, which in Japanese also means “be quiet”.

Hard cut from youthful nostalgia to the bleak present. Aoba wakes in bed next to her boyfriend Minato and opens the curtain to see the rain. She calls it noisy.

The next day we see this is the apartment she shares with her brother, but she and Minato are looking to move in together. She works at Tower Records, where CD sales are not what they once were.

In the train station on her way to meet with Minato, she sees Sakura. He doesn’t seem to see her though, and doesn’t turn around or stop when she chases after him. She ends up missing both him and the train. 

She’s apologetic to Minato, and explains about Sakura, because they all knew each other in High School. Minato thinks it was someone else, because Sakura would have turned if he heard her calling for him.

Both appear shaken by Aoba’s near encounter. Minato asks some other friends if they know where Sakura is, and they tell him not to bother looking, since Aoba is only with Minato because Sakura isn’t in the picture. 

Aoba talks with a friend who remembers that Sakura showed up, dated her, and dumped her. But the friend suggests Aoba wait for him where she last saw him to see him again.

Flashbacks reveal that Aoba got a crush on Sakura when he read a speech in High School. Minato, it turns out, is the one that introduced them and encouraged them to get together. They bonded over music. They had a sweet high school relationship and gave each other the same earbuds, different colors, for Christmas. He dumped her via text saying he found someone else. The headphones eventually died. 

In present day, wearing the new earbuds, Aoba gives up on waiting at the station. In voice over she explains she just wants to know that he’s okay and who he is with now and if he’s happy. We are shown a glimpse of him, signing with a woman.

Minato visits his high school coach for info on Sakura without success at first, but when they meet up again the coach asks why Minato hasn’t gone to Sakura’s old place. Minato admits he tracked him down when he first went missing, and Sakura was fine and told him that he could date Aoba now. Minato knew Aoba would hate hearing herself talked about like an object. The coach though, is in touch with Sakura via text.

Minato goes to Sakura’s place, but it’s Sakura’s younger sister who answers the door. Minato gets Sakura’s number from her, and accidentally learns Sakura has lost his hearing. Sakura’s mom sees Minato walking away as she comes home, and when she questions her daughter they both realize that Sakura’s secret was revealed. Sakura didn’t want his High School friend’s to know.

A shocked Minato sends Sakura a text. Sakura get’s it while with the woman we saw earlier. She’s curious who it was from, hinting it could be an ex. He says it’s just an old friend. 

Minato, with no reply from Sakura, meets a stranger at a bar who is a sign language instructor. He blunders by calling the man kind, and the man points out that being able to sign makes people think he’s nice for that reason alone. The man softens when he realizes Minato’s reason for his curiosity, and gives him a flyer for a lessons. Minato though, wants to talk to Sakura, not sign.

Minato and Aoba meet up and things are awkward. Minato knows Aoba is looking for Sakura, but he hasn’t told her what he’s found out. When Aoba tells him about just wanting to know how Sakura is, and liking his voice, Minato lets go of her hand. She thinks he’s jealous, not realizing why what she’s said is upsetting, and tells him she likes his voice too.

Another day, Aoba heads out ready to move forward on moving in with Minato. She drops an earbud on her way out of the station and they roll right up to Sakura, who is sitting with a book. He runs.

She chases and calls after him. Eventually he stops and she tells him that she was worried about him, wants to talk, wants to have his info, isn’t angry, everything she wanted to say. 

He signs to her in reply, telling her he doesn’t want her to talk to him and look so happy. Telling her he’s lost his hearing. She is confused, but some of the signs are clear without knowing sign language. Probably though, she doesn’t want to believe what she’s seeing. He’s really upset. He wants her to hate him and forget him.

When she wants to write to him, when she tries to keep him from leaving, he signs to her that she’s noisy. Which is what he called her in that first scene where he was still speaking. He finally gets away, and the episode ends with his mother finding his CD collection, and him and Aoba looking devastated.

Thoughts:

Well that’s definitely a melodrama. And I’ve never watched a Japanese drama that’s a melodrama before this one. I’m more used to the fun, over the top, whacky, silly, heartwarming style of drama made in Japan.

But I like melodramas. This one is certainly starting heavy and I wish they’d gone lighter on the music in places. It’s also strange as someone with a hearing impairment to see characters react with dramatic sorrow to someone losing their hearing. But I can only imagine that must be very hard, especially with music as such a big part of his life, and his hearing impairment is more profound than mine. The show hit pretty hard with how important sound is to these characters so that his hearing loss is all the more poignant and I felt that loss for him.

There are some tropes here I don’t love but won’t stop me from watching. Her with Minato, who she seems to like but not love. I’m not convinced the woman we see Sakura with is his girlfriend though, so we’ll see about that. Aoba’s younger brother being so pushy about her and Minato being a couple hit’s on a real pet peeve of mine. It’s one thing to encourage and support and give advice about relationships when asked. Aoba’s brother just kept telling her they needed to be together for no clear reason. Maybe it’ll be motivated further.

On the other hand, I really love it when one small thing changes everything. It’s easy to see here that Aoba seeing Sakura has changed her life, Minato’s life, and possibly others. At this point I’m not sure where these changes will go, though I have some guesses that I’m not sharing yet.