When last we left the hairdresser and his “bully”, they had a nice date together.
Flashback to high school! Kinda!
Hiro waters flowers, and Natsuo bullies him about whether they are edible. I like that Hiro takes Natsuo’s nonsensical questions seriously. Then, School Natsuo turns into Now Natsuo, and Hiro wakes up. I guess it was a dream?
Hiro questions what he’s doing with Natsuo.
Time for a work competition to enter another competition! And it’s Hiro versus Dai. Hiro rudely acts as if Dai isn’t any competition.
At home, Hiro arrogantly declares he doesn’t need any time to prepare. Natsuo is happy Hiro isn’t going to be busy and promises to cook him something special if he wins.
For now, he feeds Hiro a pile of food topped with weird fish.
At work, Hiro looks up places to eat out
After that fish, I guess he’s done. Then, he finds Dai’s sketchbook on the ground. He can’t help but look through it.
Suddenly, Hiro works on his own sketchbook at home. Natuso rings the doorbell instead of letting himself in, then teases Hiro for studying. Hiro sticks a long wig on Natsuo that he can’t pull off as well as Hikaru, but they’re adorable.
Despite bragging about being the hardest working, when Hiro stays late at work, his manager comments that it’s unusual. She’s not criticizing, she wants the hot gossip about who is waiting at home.
In the staff room, Hiro eyes Dai’s sketchbook.
Natsuo has a thoughtful moment
He’s going to leave food at Hiro’s door and go, but Hiro lets him in. He’s still downplaying his preparations, but also wants to hear why Natuso likes his sketch.
Then, Dai shows up. His sketchbook is missing, and he doesn’t want to accuse Hiro but…
Hiro denies he did anything. After Dai leaves. Hiro tells Natsuo he almost took the book, but stopped when he heard the manager. Natsuo thinks the important thing is that he didn’t take it. I agree.
But Hiro is losing self-confidence in the face of people’s expectations. Natsuo won’t let him, telling him to have confidence in himself because he’s amazing.
The next day, Dai apologizes. He found the sketchbook. Hiro admits to being jealous of Dai. He commits to studying, asking his manager to reduce his client load so he has more time to prepare.
Despite this, he loses the competition. The manager says his technique is better, but he put himself first over the client. Ouch. Sounds like a BS drama reason to force Hiro to reflect on his flaws, and it works.
But Hiro tells Natsuo this was his favorite haircut he’d ever done. The model was happy, and that made him happy. Natsuo points out that then he has won, and surpassed himself.
He offers to take Hiro out to eat, but Hiro wants Natuso’s food. Aww.
The plant has started to bud! It’s symbolic
And we get creepy plant POV as Hiro spritzes it and remembers Natsuo’s pep talk. He texts Natsuo, who overwhelms him with replies. Though grumbling and irritated, he agrees to a date, then panics about what Natsuo will ask from him. He realizes he’s suffering more from this revenge than Natsuo.
Their date starts at the orange building again. Despite Hiro’s worries, Natsuo just wants to go to a nearby park. Hiro is even fussier than usual, not wanting to do or enjoy anything.
I’m not sure what’s going on with HIro
But when he pushes Natsuo away for being too close, Natsuo has had enough. Couples should want to touch each other. He leaves.
Alone, in his sad apartment, Hiro questions his own unhappiness. Then he opens his phone and realizes from Natsuo’s profile that it’s his birthday.
He finds Natsuo on that roof, and wants to know why Natsuo didn’t tell him it was his birthday. He would have taken him anywhere. But Natsuo just wanted to be with him, which Hiro finds flattering.
The date is back on!
Natsuo makes them buy matching shirts. Hiro is his usual fuss, but he’s also going along with Natsuo, taking pictures and smiling. Natsuo is thrilled when some girls think their matching shirts are cute, but Hiro gets jealous.
Hiro gives Natsuo a trim and a head spa. Hiro’s attention seems to make Natsuo nervous, while Hiro is back to his arrogant self, saying it’ll be his best birthday ever.
He might be right. Growing up, Natsuo’s parents worked from morning until night, leaving him alone. Nothing special happened even on his birthdays.
We see little Natsuo sitting and eating コンビニ・conbini food alone at a park. He doesn’t know what it’s like to be celebrated. But he really enjoyed celebrating with Hiro.
Hiro pushes him to ask for something more, suggesting the kind of expensive treats he was worried about earlier.
But Natsuo wants a kiss. Hiro tries to refuse, but Natsuo somehow falls out of the chair and into Hiro’s arms. Hiro gives him a sweet kiss.
The delphinium is starting to bloom!
And so are Hiro’s feelings!
Hiro’s arrogance covers a very sensitive core. He’s a jerk, but he’s also really hard on himself for failing to live up to his own expectations (and others’ imagined expectations). When he lost the competition, I didn’t feel bad for him, but I was happy that Natsuo was there to comfort him.
Hiro doesn’t need victories. He needs unconditional love.
His attitude during the date confused me, but I think it’s about expectations again. He worries about what Natsuo wants. Plus, he reminded himself that it was revenge because he was getting close to Natsuo. He has the same attitude towards Natsuo as he did towards the competition. He’s both arrogant and insecure.
Hiro is complicated.
Natsuo is less so, but we got some insight. While being so bright and smiling, he’s also deeply lonely. His parents didn’t pay any attention to him. But Hiro always pays attention to him, even though he’s always annoyed by him.
My favorite romances make me feel like two weirdly shaped puzzle pieces have finally found each other. That’s what this show gives me. It’s like how most people wouldn’t want Natsuo’s food, but Hiro does.
Also, I love Hiro cradling the fallen Natsuo in his arms.
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