TL;DR Version:
Aoba and Sakura’s meeting seems to upset Minato, and their siblings get involved. Sakura feels like he should stop seeing Aoba, but she’s adamant that her love for Minato is firm and they can all be friends. Yet later Minato blows up at Sakura about how hurt he is, though Sakura can’t hear him. Afterward, Minato admits to Aoba that he’d rather be jealous of Sakura than admit how upset he is about his illness.
Recap:
We’re back in High School, but this time it’s Minato’s voice-over, recounting when he realized Aoba had fallen for Sakura. He says he was happy when they got together, though he’s shown being left behind as the two walk off together hand-in-hand. But he also admits he was happy for a moment when they broke up and felt bad about it.
Minato and Aoba didn’t get together until later, after a reunion. He followed her when she cut out early and discovered her working hard at a cafe. Sitting across the table, she talks in a falsely-upbeat tone about her job, where it is clear she is being overworked and sexually harassed. Minato makes her look at funny videos online (a tactic he used to cheer her up last episode too) and sympathizes with her. She cries and then quits the next day.
Their relationship slowly developed from there, but when she went to work at the music store, it reminded him of Sakura. Visiting her work, he kept thinking Sakura would show up, not knowing that he wouldn’t.
Present day, Minato sees Sakura and Aoba together. Minato declines Aoba’s invitation to dinner, standing away from them on the phone. But when Sakura leaves Minato runs after, calling Sakura’s name. Sakura doesn’t turn around.
Minato snaps at Aoba when she pushes for dinner again, storming off. A train signal dramatically separates the two of them.
Sakura’s friend sees him and unzips her backpack for no reason, but it’s a ploy to get him to zip it up for her when they meet. This is the only hint I’ve seen from her for anything more than friendship.
Aoba returns to the apartment she shares with her brother and tells him about Minato being angry. The brother knows about Sakura and tries to see their friendship from Minato’s POV, with Sakura cutting him off cold.
Minato tries calling Sakura, which Sakura’s friend thinks is a form of harassment. The friend asks about what’s going on, and it comes up that he only uses his voice around his family.
Aoba mentions to her sign language teacher that she can use basic phrases with Sakura, and he encourages her to keep signing. The teacher decides to tell her that deaf people usually marry other deaf people.
The siblings are busy. Aoba’s brother checks on Minato while Sakura’s sister complains to her mother about Aoba. Sakura’s mother wants her daughter to check on Sakura since he doesn’t like his mother worrying, but the diatribe causes her to rescind some train money.
Sakura and Aoba run into each other outside Aoba’s job, and Sakura waits to meet with her after work. Sakura is worried about Minato, and we learn Aoba and Minato have been dating for 3 years. Aoba argues that Minato isn’t jealous, and she no longer feels what she once did for Sakura. She wants them to all be friends again. She repeatedly says she loves Minato, not Sakura.
Sakura says he crossed a line and leaves.
The sign language teacher and Minato run into each other at the bar again. The teacher flubs it badly by assuming Minato is Aoba’s younger brother. After a few more flubs he’s worried Minato’s going to hit him. Instead, perhaps because of karma from the marriage statistics he volunteered to Aoba earlier, the teacher gets to listen to Minato overshare. Minato is upset Sakura didn’t turn when he called. The teacher just about rolls his eyes, saying that Sakura just couldn’t hear him.
Sakura’s younger sister visits him after all, encouraging him to talk to Aoba and Minato and suggesting he apologize.
Minato is at Aoba’s place, and she goes to get groceries alone. Sakura is in the area and texts for another meeting, but it’s Minato who spots him first. He basically drags him inside, still trying to talk to him. Minato gets increasingly upset, talking to Sakura’s back about an unfulfilled birthday promise, and wanting Sakura to not ignore him.
Sakura turns around, sees Minato’s face, and is worried. Minato pours out his sadness at him, specifically that he was left out of it so he couldn’t help, even though he knows he couldn’t help. Sakura watches him intently. When Aoba and her brother show up, she signs to Sakura asking what happened and gets no answer. Minato leaves, and Aoba goes after him.
There’s a flashback, this time Minato chases Sakura alone, and Sakura pretends not to hear him until the last moment.
Present-day Minato admits to Aoba that he’s not jealous. While she accepted what happened and learned sign language, it was easier for Minato to be angry with Sakura than accept he’d lost his hearing. Minato collapses to the ground, crying.
Thoughts:
Ack. More feels.
Minato continues to be hard for me to hate outright. After his callous seeming behavior, it was a relief to see him feeling his hurt and sadness as anger. I can understand that he wanted to just be jealous and jilted, rather than face the fact that his best friend from High School will never turn around and tease him that way again. I’m not sure I like Minato. I don’t always like how he handles Aoba and he seems a bit selfish, but I appreciate the depth given to his character.
And also, as a side note, I’ve known people who, even though I wear hearing aids and tell them my hearing isn’t good, still seem to think my not hearing them is some product of inattentiveness. They won’t raise their voices or talk more clearly. So that’s just some weird human thing. But with Minato, there’s the whole history and having been Sakura’s friend, so it’s tied into so much more.
Again, I appreciate how this show makes a point of showing when characters can’t hear each other, don’t answer, or pretend not to hear. The mother’s obvious nervousness at her daughter seeming not to hear her, after her son has gone deaf. I really like how the scenes where Sakura and his friend sign with one another are very quiet.
Considering how adamant Aoba was about being in love with Minato and no longer with Sakura, I’m really wondering about the path this show is going to take.
Side note: Minato is actually that character’s given name, while Aoba and Sakura are those characters’ family names. Since each character can get called either depending on the speaker, I’d meant to stick with just family names but goofed. I’m just going to leave it now though.