A typhoon is headed their way, so Kannawa wonders if she should tell her mentee to even come to work. Uh, no? There’s no way in hell you would find me in the office if there’s a typhoon warning. Not only that, the weather forecast is literally telling people to stay home. I think it’s wild to put work over your own personal safety, especially when you’re just a grunt in the office. If your bosses can’t understand that, you’re probably working for a black company. But as she leaves her apartment, the “camera” lingers on the umbrella she has left behind. Y’see, you can’t have a doki doki “let’s share an umbrella” moment if you don’t go to work and risk your life!

But seriously, this is so silly. What adult still gets butterflies over sharing an umbrella? Not only that, unless you have a massive one, someone always gets rained on. It’s really not as romantic as you think it is. The problem with light-hearted romance series featuring adults is that they often just reuse the same boring tropes from stories featuring high schoolers. I might as well be watching two teenagers awkwardly trying to flirt, because the only difference here is the setting.

Sure enough, when Kannawa gets to the office, she finds it completely empty. Wow, it’s almost like a typhoon is coming and this is dangerous! But of course, Kamegawa soon shows up, because it’s more important to have a romantic moment at the office than, y’know, being safe. I mean, no one else is here, right? So just… go home? But no, Kannawa tells Kamegawa that they should finish their work first, then go home. Insane. Seriously insane. This is not healthy. You’re not going to get a raise for going to work right before a typhoon hits. And even if you did, it’s not worth it.

Kannawa even lectures Kamegawa for coming to work in his regular work shoes that obviously won’t stand up to the heavy rain. Still, this is pretty rich coming from the girl who forgot her umbrella. This is also pretty rich coming from the girl who should’ve set a good example and stayed home. Even now, she could’ve gone home early once she realized that the office was empty. Nah, I’m not done beating this dead horse, because it’s literally raining so hard that their umbrellas can’t take the punishment. Even though Kamegawa brought two umbrellas, they end up having to share one.

It’s storming. It’s storming so hard that they’re struggling to even walk. As I suspected, there’s nothing romantic about this. There’s nothing awkward about it either. But even so, Kamegawa tries to argue against sharing the bigger, stronger umbrella with her. For what? Because it would be embarrassing? Are you kidding me? Are you like twelve? What is wrong with you people? A typhoon is not the time to get all bent out of shape about walking next to a member of the opposite sex. Plus, this is what I was talking about earlier! I don’t feel like I’m watching a pair of working professionals. I feel like I’m watching two preteens be all bashful about sharing a fucking umbrella in the middle of a typhoon. Do you know an adult who acts like this?

Oh my god, just kill me with this nonsense. I swear to you that no sensible adult in this entire world would get self-conscious about being close to someone in a storm. But instead of worrying about her life or her mentee’s life, Kannawa starts thinking about how tall Kamegawa is — how manly he’s being right now as he steadies the umbrella against the torrential downpour. Hilarious. The best part is that they’re not even going straight home. No, they left the office and braved the lashing winds just to attend a business meeting. We couldn’t postpone this? Really? Showing them the samples couldn’t wait?!

So did they go home after the meeting? No, of course not. They went right back to the office. Look, man, you gotta work! Who cares if your life is in danger! Work > life! How else would Kannawa get to be all cute by putting on Kamegawa’s suit jacket and playing around in it? First, they just walked through the pouring rain twice, so it’s probably wet as all hell. Second, I would be so weirded out if I came back to my seat and found my coworker wearing my clothes. Like what the hell, woman? But Kamegawa likes her, so she can probably do no wrong. Some of the degenerates in the audience would even take that wet jacket home and sniff it all day.

It starts thundering, and I can’t believe I completely forgot about yet another basic ass romance trope: anime waifus are always scared of thunder! Of course! So now we have another silly reason to be at the office. If they hadn’t braved the storm and come in against all odds, then Kamegawa can’t comfort his precious Kannawa! See? Totally worth putting your life on the line. But even after he sufficiently comforts her, it’s still not time to go home. They still have work to do — work that can’t possibly be done remotely.

Even when Kannawa gives Kamegawa a reason to go home early, he ends up getting roped into doing another department’s job. Ah yes, I had also forgotten that he’s basically a golden retriever who can’t say no to anyone. He almost got peer pressured into drinking at a work party, and now he’s busy being a lackey for the sales team. Kannawa ends up having to come to his rescue yet again. To be fair, this is the only time all episode that she’s even remotely cool in my book. She’s totally right. Even if Kamegawa wasn’t such a golden retriever, the other guy still put him in a difficult position. It’s hard to turn down work from someone who is your senior.

Nevertheless, Kannawa needs to look in the mirror and follow her own advice. How can a mentee go home early if their mentor doesn’t? If she runs around doing everything despite the fact that a typhoon is headed their way, what is he supposed to think? Wouldn’t it be natural for him to assume, “Oh shit, I need to work just as hard in order to climb the ranks in this company!” So it’s all fine and dandy that she can scold another team, but she’s setting a bad example herself. But again, work is more important than your own life, so neither of them leave early. They pretty much just worked their full shift. Not only that, having doki doki moments is also more important than life. So naturally, they once again share an umbrella just to get to the train station. Wow, how romantic.

How much do you wanna bet one of them gets sick in next week’s episode? And then the other person has to drop by and hand feed them congee or whatever?