Eiji may have graduated, but he and Rin carry on together as a couple with nary a hint of drama. Eiji introduces Rin to her mother, and a flustered Rin is reliably adorable when she suggest she could easily “join the nest” that is the Kitahama household. His mom also overhears Rin shouting things that could be interpreted the wrong way!
The truth is, there’s no hanky-panky going on between these too. Rin finds some clay in Eiji’s literal toy box, and proceeds to sculpt a creature Eiji can’t identify, but I certainly can: Mitty from Made in Abyss! After making herself an origami necklace and crown, she voices her interest in doing something “more adult.”
When Eiji suggests they hold each other, she opens her arms and he hesitates. When she calls him childish, he opens his arms and she hesitates! While being on the spot like that alone in his room is one thing, Rin doesn’t have much issue surprising Eiji with a hug from behind when both of them arrive over a half-hour early for their next date.
Rin gets super serious and focused when Eiji asks her to pick out some mature college clothes for him, as he’d only wear weird t-shirts every day otherwise. After some intense muttering, Rin nails grown-up looking college student look, and can’t hide her delight at how cool her boyfriend looks thanks to her!
Their shopping trip is followed by a visit to a cat café. Here the show’s limited budget is exposed as the cats are only rudimentally drawn and sparsely animated. But the point is Eiji is such a good guy that the cats soon gather around him en masse. Rin only has her one orange cat, but Eiji soon merges his new furry family with hers.
Later, Rin says it’s fine for Eiji to walk her to the bus stop rather than all the way home, but Eiji admits he’s not looking forward to not seeing her for a whole week. He then takes the initiative and draws Rin into a warm embrace so that he can “recharge” until they meet again. They’re so sweet I could die!
That would have been a fine ending to this episode, but we get one more segment in which Eiji meets up with Rin after his first day of college, and immediately tells her that a girl asked him out. He turned her down, but feels down about making her cry. Rin doesn’t know what to say and tells Eiji as much, which inadvertently cheers him up, since he didn’t either!
