Chika’s sudden confession catches both Shintarou and Koto completely off guard. Kazuhiko, Anna, and Lemon can only stand by and watch as All The Drama unfolds: Shintarou asks for some time to think about it, and Chika runs off, and when he doesn’t quickly confirm to Koto that she and he are “just” childhood friends, she slaps him and runs off herself.
After seeking advice from Kazuhiko, Anna informs them that Koto has packed up and left by herself. Shintarou tracks her down, and sure enough, there was a fundamental misunderstanding between them: Shin thought he had asked her out last Christmas and she’d turned him down, but all he actually told her is that he’d be fine marrying her someday if she couldn’t find anyone else.
In reality, Koto has been waiting so long for Shintarou to ask her out for real. As she embraces him and cries, Chika commiserates with Kazuhiko. For one moment, Shintarou considered choosing her. She’s happy about that, but the fact he ultimately didn’t means she can’t stop herself from crying.
But this isn’t a zero-sum game. Sure, Koto gets Shintarou, but Shintarou and Chika remain friends as he promises to help her navigate the novel publishing website. Chika also asks Koto to keep coming to club; otherwise she’ll be lonely. Koto, despite being the “winner,” is so touched by Chika’s words that she starts to cry, and gets a hug from Chika.
Anna gives Kazuhiko a knowing look, now that everything is mended between the three Lit Club buds. But while she and Kazuhiko seem to be the most stable pair (other than Kazuhiko and Lemon), that all blows up when she starts waving to him in class, and he overhears other girls (bitches, if we’re honest) talking shit about the two of them.
They laugh at the fact they don’t even know what Kazuhiko looks like, but conclude that Anna must have bad taste. Such is the double-edged sword of popularity: you’re surrounded by potential friends, but it creates the possibility that everyone thinks they’re entitled to critique how you live your life.
Kazuhiko, whom until recently had no friends of any kind, chooses to react to this by cutting ties with Anna. He values sandwich she makes him for lunch at the exact amount she still owes him, and when she points that out he tells her he’s been “taking advantage” of her.
Anna doesn’t feel that way at all; in fact, while the bento thing started out as paying him back, she started to enjoy it, and enjoy his company. When he tells her about the rumors, she grants him what he’s apparently asking for, and agrees not to talk to him any more, says it was “kinda fun” and “bye”, and leaves the stairs where they met so many times.
When they meet again in the club room, Kazuhiko makes sure to tell her he had come to look forward to their lunches and had fun too, but now she seems to be over it, and him, and heads off to hang out with her friends. Chika meets him on the steps with a bag full of croissants for her lunch to gloat about him being “dumped”, as he thought he could “be happy while we suffered”.
Sousuke, Anna’s childhood friend who rejected her, has only just heard that she’s been hanging out with Kazuhiko a lot. Kazuhiko thinks he’s about to get shaken down for lunch money, but Sousuke just wanted to thank him, since he’s happy Anna has moved on and found someone else.
As Kazuhiko tries to explain that he and Anna aren’t like that and in fact Anna still likes Sousuke, Anna herself shows up, having been told by Chika that Kazuhiko was being “bullied by some stud.” Sousuke tells Anna he’s happy she’s found someone else. That’s when Kazuhiko comes between them and tells him he has no right to tell Anna how she’s supposed to feel.
Anna then shoves Kazuhiko aside, taking exception to the fact he’s treating her current state like some kind of a happy ending. The truth is neither of them get to tell her how to feel. She’ll keep liking Sousuke, and move on to someone else, when she feels like it. On her urging, Sousuke apologizes to Kazuhiko, and Kazuhiko apologizes to her.
As the semester ends and summer break arrives, Anna’s balance due to Kazuhiko remains 0 yen, but their business is far from concluded. Now that they’ve made up, she once again joins him on the stairs, but now they’re joined by Lemon and Chika, all of them now members of the lit club. They’re looking forward to sharing in more club activities, which Koto is sure to arrange during the break.
When Chika sheepishly asks Lemon to give her some pointers with running and the two head down to the schoolyard, Anna and Kazuhiko climb up to the rooftop, and Kazuhiko tells Anna he has something very important to ask her. Assuming he’s going to ask her out, she shouts out that she only sees him as a friend just as he asks her earnestly if she’ll be his friend.
Upon hearing his request, Anna bursts into laughter, as she turned him down before he could even truly ask her out. Kazuhiko maintains he was never rejected or dumped by her because it wasn’t his intention to ask her out, but the bottom line is, he didn’t have to ask her to be friends, because they already are.
The drama this week reminded me of the classic Toradora!, itself no stranger to interpersonal messes boiling over and characters having it out and making up. Kazuhiko, Anna, Lemon, and Chika are never not a delight to watch, and just when I thought Anna was devolving into Kazuhiko’s bosom buddy/partner in crime (who eats a lot, lol), she showed a new and compelling side of herself. Kudos to her seiyu Toono Hikaru for really bringing it when it mattered.
P.S. Between her crayon-scrawled masterpiece depicting their beach outing and her penchant for catching bugs, Lemon may actually be Rin from Pseudo Harem’s little sister’s summer boyfriend Shiro
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