Random Curiosity

Summary:

When Makoto calls Kotonoha one night, her little sister answers the phone and is very excited to be able to talk to her big sister’s boyfriend. Kotonoha takes back the phone after she gets out of the bath, but she’s less than happy about how Makoto decides to call her little sister Kokoro-chan while he’s still referring to her by her last name Katsura. During lunch the next day, she reveals that Kokoro wants to meet him, which Makoto interprets to mean that he’ll get to go to her house. Sensing reluctance in Kotonoha’s voice, Sekai advises that she shouldn’t be too lenient with him, though Kotonoha claims she’s okay with it. When she returns back to class, Kotonoha is confronted by her classmate Katou Otome who demands to know where she went for lunch. Otome blames Kotonoha’s brief absence for personally getting stuck with committee work, and the other girls in her posse then figure out that Kotonoha went to see her boyfriend. This causes Otome to question if Kotonoha’s boyfriend is more important than her committee work, and after Kotonoha denies it, she gets left with all the paperwork.

On the way home that afternoon, Makoto notices something bothering Kotonoha and urges her to tell him if something happened since they’re lovers. The thought of being lovers with Makoto causes Kotonoha to touch his collar, and Makoto thinks that she wants a hug. What really strikes a chord with Kotonoha is how he continues to call her Katsura, and when they arrive at her station, she pushes him away and runs off the train. Unbeknownst to either of them, they had been seen by one of Sekai’s friends Hikari who then sends a text message to Sekai telling her about it, except that Hikari refers to Makoto as Sekai’s boyfriend. Sekai replies back that he’s not her boyfriend, and she proceeds to give Makoto a call to lecture him on it. Makoto thinks that the hug was okay since they’re lovers, but he gets an earful from Sekai about considering Kotonoha’s feelings. Sekai wants him to apologize to Kotonoha, but Makoto doesn’t get his chance the next morning because Kotonoha takes the bus instead of the train.

Makoto doesn’t see Kotonoha again until lunchtime when she joins him on the rooftop of the school. He thinks that she might be still angry, but since she’s not, he changes the subject to visiting her house to meet Kokoro. Although today is too sudden, Kotonoha suggests Sunday, which makes Makoto very happy. Sekai meanwhile didn’t join the two for lunch because she didn’t want to get in the way and instead ate with her friends who tease her about her closeness to Makoto. At her job later, Sekai gets paid a visit by Setsuna who wants to know if she really isn’t going out with Makoto. Sekai immediately says that she’s not and reassures Setsuna that there’s nothing going on between them. Sunday soon arrives, so Makoto pays a visit to the Katsura home and spends the way playing with Kotonoha and Kokoro. During a tea break, Kokoro suddenly asks why Makoto calls her sister Katsura, causing Kotonoha to look away painfully. It’s not until the walk home that Makoto asks Kotonoha if what he calls her is that important. She quickly answers that it is, so Makoto decides to start calling her by her given name, and Kotonoha decides to do the same for him to.

On the train platform before they part ways, Kotonoha asks Makoto to close his eyes. Makoto thinks that she’s going to kiss him on the lips, so he puckers up, but to his surprise, she kisses him on the cheek instead. That night, Makoto tells Sekai over the phone about what happened. She feels that this is the real start of his relationship, but after thinking about it, Makoto tells her that that it’s tiring dealing with Kotonoha.

ED Sequence

ED3: 「ウソツキ」 (Waltz) by いとうかなこ (Itou Kanako)

The episode’s overall pacing was a bit on the slow side, but they ended on a pretty good cliffhanger with what Makoto says. And here I had actually been thinking most of the episode that he hadn’t done anything quite as bad as last week and had maybe even redeemed himself a little by getting things smoothed out with Kotonoha. Still, I suspect that the placement of that line at the end of the episode makes it a bigger deal than it really is. It may be an indicator for how he’s feeling at the moment, but I don’t expect Makoto to stop trying with Kotonoha until he gets her in bed. Whether or not that’ll come to pass, I don’t know, though it should be noted that next week’s episode title is 「無垢」 (muku), which means innocence or purity.
I guess this could also be a good place for Makoto’s feeling to start shifting towards Sekai a little, so the story could head off in that direction too. As much as she continues to deny it, Sekai definitely has feelings for him, especially since the subject up keeps being brought up. However, without something big happening to disrupt Makoto and Kotonoha’s relationship, I just don’t see her stealing him away yet. “Yet” of course is the key word there since there are plenty of episodes left for something big to happen.