Momoka reaches out to Koyuki first. She then directly asks her “rival” to stay away from Minato. She’s direct like that. She’s shameless like that. Well, Koyuki instantly agrees to Momoka’s request, and Momoka still isn’t happy. I get why, though. I’m not saying that Momoka’s justified, but hear me out. Later in the episode, she also asks her boyfriend to stay away from Koyuki. He also agrees. Momoka is still unhappy. You might be screaming, “Why?! Why are you still unhappy? Isn’t this what you wanted?!” But neither Koyuki nor Minato is being completely genuine. I do believe they both think they’re trying to do the right thing. But let’s face it, Koyuki avoided answering whether or not she likes Minato. Yes, she will likely honor her words and stay away from Minato at Momoka’s request, but it’s out of obligation to what she thinks is right, not because it’s what her heart wants. And that bothers Momoka. It’s the same situation with Minato. He initially plans on staying away from Koyuki because he thinks that’s what he needs to do in order to be a good boyfriend. It’s not, however, because he genuinely likes Momoka more than Koyuki, and she can sense that. They’re both being honest and dishonest to Momoka. She’s just too dumb, immature, or some combination of the above to voice what truly bothers her. But she can feel it.

I almost thought Koyuki was cool at first when she semi-lectures Momoka on how the girl shouldn’t be using others as her pawns. As it turns out, Akine confessed to Koyuki that Momoka has completely stopped talking to her. Momoka is selfish like that. She’ll act friendly to your face like she’s your bestie, but only until she no longer needs you. Then all of a sudden, you’re nothing to her. Where I’m disappointed is that Koyuki ultimately ends up beating around the bush. Sure, I get it. Akine didn’t ask her to confront Momoka, so it might seem somewhat gauche to pull her into this mess. But I’m a confrontational person. I’m very direct. I can’t stand when people talk in circles, and Koyuki’s sage advice is rendered impotent when she can’t be specific. You gotta understand, Momoka is immature and a little dumb. You gotta spell it out for her.

Does it seem like I’m nicer to Momoka? I just don’t expect anything from her. She’s exactly who I thought she would be. I do, however, kinda expect better from the other two. And while I wouldn’t come to the same conclusions as Momoka, I get why they bother her. Their words and actions don’t feel completely genuine.

Minato nearly passes out from the stress, but whatever. I feel no pity for the kid; he did this to himself. What can I say about Minato that hasn’t already been said? I’ve pretty much psychoanalyzed the guy to death since the start of the series. So outta nowhere, we get his older brother, who used to be a rebel without a cause. Unsurprisingly, the guy has mellowed out with age, and with that newly acquired maturity, he worries that Minato may have overcorrected from watching his family bicker all the time. After his brother leaves, Minato has the epiphany that we’ve all been saying since day one: dude is scared to be the bad guy. He’s scared of rejection, he’s scared to be alone, he’s scared of disharmony, he’s scared that no one will ever reach out to him if he doesn’t build those bridges first, blah blah blah. He ultimately concludes that he can’t keep dating Momoka, because even if she is a childish brat, she deserves someone who genuinely likes her for who she is, not someone who just wants to feel good about himself (and ends up collapsing from not feeling good anyway). Cool, glad Minato finally realizes this. Now we get to play a different waiting game: how long is it going to take him to break the bad news to Momoka, and how long is it going to take him to confess his feelings to Koyuki?

But of course, that’s not even the biggest problem, which is that Momoka is going to lash out at Koyuki. Will Minato notice if Koyuki is being bullied? ‘Cause I bet you Koyuki tries to bear the brunt of it and hide her pain. She’s like a cat. And even if he does notice it, will Minato clean up his own mess and tell Momoka to back off? Eh. This show will more than likely have a happy ending at the end of all the drama, but I’m not going to pretend that I have a lot of faith in Minato.

There’s only one good boy in this entire show, and we all know who it is.