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Short Summary:
Tsukushi, after seeing Tsukasa shivering in the rain so much, offers to treat him to some tea to make up for it. They arrive at a place and take the elevator up, but they realize that the controls don’t work shortly before the elevator lurches to a stop. The two try to escape through the top hatch, but Tsukushi slips and nearly falls, so Tsukasa has to pull her back up which causes them to go tumbling back into the elevator. Tsukasa then collapses from his fever on top of Tsukushi, who covers him with her coat. She falls asleep beside him, and the two are eventually discovered by some workmen. Before they part ways, Tsukasa tries to kiss her, and somehow that shot is photographed by someone and posted at school for everyone to see. Tsukushi is amazed at how well everyone starts treating her since she’s now considered Tsukasa’s girlfriend. Tsukasa himself doesn’t refute their relationship, and instead he tries to push it along by visiting Tsukushi’s family. Tsukushi pulls him away from her family, and the two have a conversation where Tsukasa asks her if she still likes Rui after he sees that she’s still carrying around Rui’s handkerchief. Tsukasa then shares a weird story of how he got Rui to stop eating his favorite food, apples, by saying that they caused premature baldness. Anyway, he’s worried that she’ll fall for Rui, because that’s what usually happens.
As part of her new popularity, Tsukushi gets invited to a club the next day. She meets a guy there who gives her a drink that makes her dizzy. The next morning, she wakes up in her underwear in a room that she doesn’t recognize. She wonders what happened the night before, but rushes home first and then to school. It all comes to light a few days later when she finds the entire school turned against her again after someone has made a pile of several pictures of her lying in bed with a man. Tsukasa sees the photos and walks away shocked, even after Tsukushi asks him to believe in her. On the sidelines, Sakurako watches on with a smile on her face.
This episode is very much about the developing relationship between Tsukushi and Tsukasa. We can see how Tsukushi is slowly falling in love with Tsukasa as they spend more time together and are even recognized as a couple. Tsukasa himself gets plenty of development this episode. Sojiro and Akira really care about him, and Yuki learns through them and conveys to Tsukushi that Tsukasa is quite lonely. I think learning that changes the view of Tsukasa that Tsukushi had, and maybe even allows her to understand some of his past actions. Basically, it boils down to the fact that they’re falling in love with each other.
But there are several forces in the way. Tsukasa’s mother has started to take more interest into what her son is up to and demands an investigation into where he is. The most immediate threat is Sakurako – having pretended to be the nice girl, Sakurako shows up in the club wearing a very revealing outfit, though Tsukushi isn’t quite able to identify her. But we all can tell by her smile at the end of the episode that she’s the one who planted those pictures of Tsukushi in bed with another man. And she’s definitely hiding something in that book she took out of Tsukushi’s hands. It probably all stems from jealousy and her own crush on Tsukasa. Her true character is going to be the focus/villain of next episode if they follow the manga’s storyline (and I see no reason for them not to based on what the preview showed).
Closing Thought: The apple scene was funny and just weird…
