Recap
We get a replay of Hira and Kiyoi’s kiss, only this time we see Hira’s phone going into some water. He decides to leave it there and move on with his life. 

College goes better for him. He joins the photography club, where Koyama helps him when he gets stuck stuttering. Hira is grateful and feels comfortable with him, but when Kiyoi comes on TV he’s immediately distracted.

Koyama learns Hira has only ever taken pictures of one, beautiful person. When Koyama realizes that person was a guy he gets flustered because Koyama is gay. He invites Hira to go out with him on his birthday.

They go to an immersive theater experience, where Kiyoi is one of the actors. Koyama did this as a surprise for Hira since he caught Hira watching Kiyoi’s commercials. Koyama’s older brother is part of the production and he calls Kiyoi over.

Kiyoi calls Hira a stalker and gross. Koyama doesn’t like that. Kiyoi doesn’t like Koyama rubbing Hira’s back when he stutters. Kiyoi invites Hira to an afterparty. Hira wants to go, but can’t because it’s Koyama’s birthday. 

At his place, Hira compares Koyama and Kiyoi. He gives Koyama a cake and a present, and when he’s gone Hira pulls out his photos of Kiyoi.

Hira shows up for Kiyoi’s play, and this time goes to the afterparty. He sits apart from Kiyoi and overhears gossip that Kiyoi is gay and involved with someone. He imagines Kiyoi making out with this person and gulps down his drink. 

Outside, a drunk Hira encounters a drunker Kiyoi. He brings Kiyoi drinks like old times. Kiyoi complains about having no place to rehearse and Hira invites him to his place. Kiyoi gets his number and asks why he changed it. 

As they walk to the trains, Kiyoi wants to know if Hira is dating Koyama. He’s not satisfied with a no, wanting to know if Hira might date Koyama or is interested in him. When he asks Hira who he likes between Kiyoi and Koyama, Hira gets confused and Kiyoi kicks him in the shin. 

The next day, Hira wonders if he should keep chasing Kiyoi. He misses a call from Kiyoi about the rehearsal space. Hira is immediately all in, but Koyama is sick and needs someone to take him to the hospital.

We cut to Kiyoi, who is rehearsing and thinking about his own fixation with Hira. He doesn’t understand him, then or now. For several insipid years, all he did was grow up.

Thoughts
This episode is another strong one, so there will be no long complaints from me about the differences from the book. I’m not sure why they decided to make it a several-year time skip from High School to College, the book has several, smaller time skips, but it’s not that big of a deal.

In this episode I’m more aware of the tragedy of them not having another episode or two, so they can really flesh out what’s happening without having to rely so much on voice-over. As it is, I think they do an admirable job of getting in what they can. 

We get to see that Hira has tried to move on with his life and get over Kiyoi. His life is so much better than it was in High School. And yet… It’s a perfect illustration of Hira’s true feelings when we see him in the warm comfort of Koyama’s company, but helplessly drawn to Kiyoi the moment he’s on screen. 

Poor, sweet Koyama. There’s an amusing tragedy in how he unknowingly plays a part in sabotaging his own romantic hopes when he brings Hira to the play. Not that he had that much of a chance anyway, Hira doesn’t find him interesting enough and needs more than warm comfort from a partner.

So it only takes that one meeting with Kiyoi for Hira to fall back into obsession mode, hard. The seductive quality of that kind of obsessive love is not a foreign idea to me. There’s something scary and wonderful about loving another human being with that intensity. 

Poor, arrogant Kiyoi. He really doesn’t understand Hira’s thinking and is upset and confused when Hira doesn’t immediately say he likes Kiyoi more than Koyama. It messes with his otherwise strong level of self-confidence.

And poor, confused Hira with his aching shin. He doesn’t understand Kiyoi’s thinking but what’s worse, he thinks he knows what Kiyoi is thinking and is completely wrong.