After scolding the class, Yuu volunteers to be the other class rep, but Umi swoops in and draws the winning (losing?) lot. Hm, it would’ve been nice if she had defended him. Instead, she gets to have all the fun pairing up with Maki even though Yuu did all the heavy-lifting? Gosh, I dunno about that. Umi then tells Yuu that the latter had gone too far. Huh? Hold on a minute. Hoooooold on. Moments ago, everyone was trashing Maki left and right. Just straight up insulting the guy to his face. How is a little scolding from Yuu “going too far?” What the hell is Umi talking about? She then actually makes Yuu apologize to everyone. My gast has been thoroughly flabbered.
I think I’ve asked this before, but if I haven’t, let me ask it again: am I supposed to like Umi? ‘Cause right now, she’s not looking too good. Why the hell is she defending a bunch of bullies? Then afterwards, Maki calls her amazing! For what?I One, she didn’t defend him, and two, she didn’t do shit but steal Yuu’s thunder! What’s amazing about that? Am I in bizarro land?! Yeah, she praises Yuu… after the fact… and also to Maki. How ’bout telling your best friend that? How ’bout telling your best friend how proud you are of her? Umi even admits she prioritized class harmony over doing the right thing, so why is she the one getting praised?
Afterwards, it’s Yuu’s turn to thank Umi! She says she would’ve said nastier things if Umi hadn’t stopped her. Huuuuuuuuuh? By the time Umi spoke up, Yuu was already volunteering to become the class rep. She had already stopped addressing the rest of the class. Also, “nastier things” implies that what she said was nasty in the first place. Fine, let’s fucking go over her words:
“Do you all hate Maehara-kun or something? Why are you acting like this? Why do you have to shun and exclude him so much? He hasn’t done anything wrong. So tell me why?”
She immediately turns and asks her teacher if she could volunteer to be class rep. So where is it? Where’s the nastiness? Where? I just don’t know why we’re pretending as though Umi saved the day when all she did was your typical, soft-ass “keep the peace” bullshit. Y’know, placating assholes at the expense of their victims.
On a particular Friday, Maki and Umi don’t do their usual hangout, because he’s busy working on the mosaic for their class project. He eventually misses her, so he rings her up and invites her over anyway. Yuu strangely decides that now is a good time to confront Umi about her “trysts” with Maki. I mean, I like that Yuu isn’t afraid to be direct about her feelings, but you gotta admit this is a little weird. Sure, she finds it strange that her best friend would feel the need to keep these hangouts a secret, but why now? Why not wait until Umi is alone and have a talk with her privately? Why do it in front of Maki like she’s trying to catch them in the act? Sigh, I don’t get any of these characters.
The audience finally gets confirmation that Umi feels inferior to Yuu. People think Yuu is amazing. People literally turn down plans with Umi to hang out with Yuu instead. So I guess she didn’t want Yuu to know about Maki, because she was probably afraid that he would fall for Yuu as well. Unfortunately, she doesn’t open up to her best friend about this. I mean, might as well just get it all out there. But instead, she excuses herself and ends the night on a bad note. Maybe she’s afraid of hurting Yuu. Maybe she’s embarrassed and doesn’t want to admit it. Maybe she’s trying to prioritize the “vibes” as usual and she thinks she can sweep this under the rug if she just ignores the problem. Maybe all of the above. In any case, she would then proceed to leave Maki on read even though she’ll exchange greetings with him in person. Otherwise, she’s been avoiding him. Faaaaake. So fake. But seriously, what the hell did he even do? He was just a bystander to Yuu confronting her! Do I feel sorry for Umi? Honestly, all of my goodwill went out the window when she failed to defend Maki and made Yuu apologize to the class. Now that I know for sure what Umi’s problem is, I think she only made Yuu apologize to knock her down a peg. Sure, it sucks to be insecure, but it sucks even worse to be a bad friend. Besides, she has Maki to feel sorry for her.
Eventually, Maki asks Umi if he could speak with her privately. She tries to turn him down, but her friends more or less force her hand. When Maki and Umi are alone, she scolds him because they’re supposed to keep their friendship a secret. How did he expose it? By asking to speak with her? Huh? Again, I’m just so fucking confused. I know what the implication is. He said he had something “important” to tell her. Idiots — like the ones in their class — might assume that he’s about to confess to her. But they’re also class reps, so they can always just make up an excuse that he had oh-so-important “class rep” matters to discuss with her. This is so stupid, I fucking swear. But after seeing him be so nice and patient with her despite, y’know, all of the above, Umi finally relents. She finally accepts that she needs to set things right. As a result, she swears that she’ll “fess” up to him after she hashes things out with Yuu. And right before the credits roll, we see Umi confronting those fake friends. “It’s my fault for being a green-eyed ass… but it’s really their fault if you think about it!” I jest, I jest… kinda. We’ll see how next week’s episode plays out.
Stray thoughts & observations:
— By the way, I haven’t forgotten that the teacher remained quiet. Hell, she still is quiet! Take control of your class, ma’am! You’re supposed to be molding these children into proper adults! I can’t believe people can just openly trash one of your students in front of you and you still haven’t said a thing about it!
— What, is he going to blame himself for his classmates bullying him? Ugh.
— Umi volunteers her friends to get dressed up for the festival without even asking them first if they’re cool with it. Again, am I supposed to like this girl?
— So Umi lied about drawing the winning lot. Okay, add “liar” to the list. It’s not the worst thing she’s done this episode, but whatever, I’m on the hate train now.
— Umi even gets jealous when Yuu shows off her drawing skills.
— A couple of the mean girls thank Umi for, again, “stepping in.” Did they say anything to the guy they were bullying? Or Yuu for saying anything about it in the first place? Ugh.
