After receiving the full force of Winning Heroine Himemiya Karen’s ample…charisma upon catching her from falling down the stairs, Kazuhiko checks in on Chika in the club room so she can sample some of the snacks his little sister made (and he packaged). He notices Chika is hard at work but doesn’t have much to show for it, aside from a huge pile of books she’s collected from the public library. When he accompanies her to the library to return some (and check out others), they spot Koto and Shin holding hands and she hides.
Kazuhiko has a coffee with a clearly depressed Chika. She may be fine with them dating, but seeing them out in the wild is another issue. Koto and Shin welcomed her to the club and made school fun for her, but now that she asked Shin out and was rejected and he and Koto will soon be leaving the club, she believes she can, nay, must look after herself, hence taking on so much of the festival exhibit work herself.
This eventually backfires, as expected, as Chika collapses and ends up in Nurse Konuki’s tender care. Kazuhiko, Koto, and Shin sit by her bed, concerned. Konuki then takes Chika home and asks Kazuhiko to stay beside her. Chika is quite startled when she wakes up in her pajamas, while Kazuhiko meets Chika’s adorable younger siblings and tells them that yes, he’s their big sister’s friend. When left alone, Kazuhiko agrees to let Chika finish writing everything, but she must promise to leave all the other work to him while she rests.
Taking the Chika case in his hands as if it were his and his alone, Kazu sends her completed work to him via LINE, and he heads to school at the break of dawn to start preparing the room. Only he soon finds he’s not all alone either: Lemon and Anna are there to help, as are Koto, Shin, and even non-club members Mitsuki and Chihaya.
They’re there to support their friends, Chika and Kazuhiko, and make sure the festival exhibit is a big success. A charming montage ensues, including Koto making use of her student driver license to haul tatami mats in, and Kaju showing up with lunch for everyone and basking in all the friends her big brother has made.
When a resting Chika gets a message from Kazu saying everything is perfect, accompanied by a photo of the surprisingly fancy setup, her smile says it all, and makes all her hard work (and theirs) worth it. Me essentially being an Anti-Grinch, I was very moved by all the camaraderie and fellowship on display. These are all such good kids!
With everything ready, Kazuhiko is treated to part of a sweet bun from Anna in a rare instance of her giving him food. She speaks from the heart about how much she understands why Chika worked herself to the bone. Chika writes, Lemon runs, and I suppose Anna eats as a release of all the emotional turmoil they’ve dealt with as a result of being rejected by the boys they loved.
All three girls are also in the process of moving on so that they might fall in love anew; they are still kids, after all. To that end, Kazuhiko mentions the samurai guy who looked like he was into Anna, and she’s touched by his jealousy and protectiveness, while also teasing him about getting left behind if he drags his feet regarding Chika, whom anyone would admit is extremely cute.
The sweetness and earnestness of this exchange is somewhat undercut when Kazuhiko discovers that he and Anna are being secretly recorded through a crack in the door by Nurse Konuki. Anna thinks Kazuhiko is about to confess to her but he’s really trying to get her not to say anything more. While she should be commended for tending to Chika, Konuki really should be reprimanded or fired.
