Summer is here, and so is the cultural festival. Nevertheless, the girls are kinda doomin’ and gloomin’, because they can’t help but think of all the things that have happened with their respective boys. Y’know, I’m kinda doomin’ and gloomin’ too. Kids learn really fast not to touch a hot stove, and that’s why it’s often better to let them make a mistake than to coddle them all the time. But we just keep relitigating our problems on this show. Miki keeps thinking about Yota, and Koyuki keeps thinking about Minato. And inevitably, this makes them despondent. How many times are we going to keep doing this before the show is over?! I… I really wanted to procrastinate on this post. I even briefly considered finding an excuse to stop watching this show. I just don’t know how many times we can keep circling around the same issues over and over! Alright, let’s just rip the band-aid off.

— The kids’ class is doing a play, and I guess it’s Arabian themed? Is it Aladdin? I can’t tell. I couldn’t spot Koyuki anywhere until I remembered that she was playing a camel. Right after the show, Miki’s friends compliment her, but Yota as well. Welp, time to feel bad again.

— The girlies know how Koyuki feels about Minato, but they still encourage her to take a photo with him. His cape — his freakin’ cape — barely grazes her t-shirt, i.e., not even her actual skin, but she starts blushing profusely. Not quite the same as feeling bad, but still feelin’ pretty awkward over nothing!

— Then it’s Minato’s turn to feel bad. Out of nowhere, he has a hard time walking, he has a hard time swallowing his food, and there’s a certain sense of cognitive dissonance. Most of all, he keeps picturing a chained-up door. This guy prides himself on unlocking people’s hearts. But Momoka’s heart isn’t in chains. All he needs to do is be her boyfriend. She wasn’t depressed or anything before him. No, he’s staring at his own unhappiness, but I don’t think he realizes that the chained-up door belongs to him. Well…  I’d feel bad for him, but I don’t. He got himself into this mess.

— Minato’s idiot friends don’t help. One of them sees the dry and impersonal exchange between him and Momoka, and mistakes it as “lovey-dovey.” Bro, there was nothing lovey-dovey about that. In fact, Momoka wouldn’t be so anxious if she actually got to have lovey-dovey moments. She thought she got everything she wanted when Minato agreed to date her, but she didn’t. She’s missing out on that floaty feeling when you’re in love precisely because Minato won’t give it to her. Nevertheless, Minato probably sees this reaction from his friends and thinks he’s on the right course. Yeah… yeah! I am being a good boyfriend! Look how jealous my friends are! It’s laughable, man.

— Right before a concert begins, Koyuki sees Minato and Momoka together. So guess what? Yup, she feels bad again. How many times are we going to keep doing this?!

— Miki and the Nishi-clone try to help Koyuki get over Minato. Miki asks if her bestie couldn’t at least consider a different guy. Well, who? If you’re gonna ask that, you gotta give one or two examples. The first guy that pops into Miki’s head? Yota. So she starts feeling bad. Stop it! Stop touching the stove! In fact, you turned on the stove in the first place, and now you keep burning yourself!

— Then Miki starts wondering why Yota has seemed so okay around her. Even if he was heartbroken, what does she expect from him? To mope around every single day? If he had done that, she would’ve just accused him of trying to guilt-trip her! But then she starts wondering if maybe he has found a new crush! Who cares? You don’t like him…. right?

— Later, Koyuki notices how Minato tries to make sure everyone feels included, and she connects it back to how he did the same with her. Then when Minato finds himself alone — or rather, he thinks he’s alone — Koyuki tries to cheer him up but also find some closure for herself. She tells him that some people like being alone, but at the same time, she appreciates what he tried to do for her — that he helped her break out of her shell. Okay, that’s nice, I suppose. If this honestly unburdens her heart, then good for her. There wasn’t really anything inappropriate about this exchange.

— Unfortunately, some people are not normal, and these people just happen to be around the corner. Momoka and her girl friends overhear everything, and her friends actually want to confront Minato. Meanwhile, Momoka just stews. She’s taking her unhappiness with the relationship and turning it into this big thing about how Koyuki must be trying to steal Minato away from her. Time is a flat circle, so I’m sure she’s going to start bullying Koyuki just like Akine’s sister. Ugh.

So here’s my dilemma? Do I keep forcing myself to write this show up even though I find it to be quite a chore? But if I cut this show out, then I’m down to two main posts a week! Two! But watching these kids is slowly killing me. I’m a simple guy! See problem, solve problem. See new problem, solve new problem! But we’re not solving anything! We’re just running in place for… probably the duration of the season. Momoka was uneasy about Koyuki at the start of the season, she’s still uneasy about her now! Koyuki has regrets about Minato at the start of the season, and I’m not convinced their latest talk has completely unburdened her. When Momoka starts treating Koyuki like shit, I’m sure all those painful feelings she thought she got over will come roaring back! Minato still hasn’t accepted that he has a problem! As long as he’s in denial, he’s never going to unfuck his problems! Yota is doing his best to just be friends with Miki, but she can’t stop gloomin’ every time he gets brought up! We have the same problems now as we did in week one. The only difference is we keep looking at them from a different angle with each new episode! The only “situation” that got resolved was the one between Koyuki and her ex, but he doesn’t even go to the same school! It was like getting closure on something that didn’t really matter in the first place! Point is, we keep picking at the scabs! Just pickin’ and pickin’ and pickin’ and…. aw shit, now we’re bleeding again!