“Actually, I’m not really okay, but it’s fine” is certainly a mood. Chiyo asks Asa an even more pointed question a little later: “Did you think your life was over [after your parents died]?” The answer changes depend on when the question is asked. At the start of the series? Asa probably wouldn’t have an answer for Chiyo. These days, however, it’s an emphatic no: “It’s not over, because I’m alive!” And Chiyo can take solace from that. The sexist university administrators being caught red-handed won’t solve systemic discrimination overnight or even anytime soon. But unless she’s six feet under (or in an urn), she can keep fighting the good fight. She can keep trying to make the world better not just for herself, but for future generations of girls like her. And sometimes, we don’t need to score big wins. Simply going to school shows that you haven’t given up, and that’s a win in itself. A small one, but it’s fine, right?

Apparently, Makio and Emiri’s mother are lunching, so Asa tries to invite Emiri over to hang out. Unfortunately, her friend continue to brush her off. Emiri is likely busy spending time with her girlfriend. It’s the classic scenario where you’re in the honeymoon period of a relationship, so everyone else in your life just fades away from existence. But at the same time, Asa hasn’t exactly been the bestest of friends. She has taken and taken and taken — and understandably so due to recent tragedy in her life — but this can drain the people you care about, the people who are trying their best to support you. So sometimes, two friends need to put some space between them so that the friendship can breathe again. I hope that when this is all said and done, Asa and Emiri will at least hash out where things currently stand for them. Even if it ultimately leads to the dissolution of their friendship, they should at least try to understand each other.

We get a lot of loose, seemingly disconnected scenes at the start of the episode. A guy checks in on Chiyo, the girl who was apoplectic about the medical school scandal. Apparently, she’s given up on school ever since she found out about it. Can’t blame her. It must be disheartening to know that you can’t succeed just because you don’t have the right parts between your legs. But sometimes, you just gotta fight through it. Do what you want to do. You might not have those opportunities here and now, but you can always find them elsewhere. Emiri continues to not care about the popular guy and his love life, but her friend — not Asa this time — expects her to. Why? Should all girls be into hetero romances? A bunch of reckless boys run through the hallways and nearly knock Asa over. Unfortunately, they refuse to even apologize. A microcosm of the times? After all, a lot of people will write this behavior off as “boys will be boys.” We then see another kid quit the baseball team due to toxic, bullying behavior. His coach, however, thinks he should just tough it out. If you want to be a part of the team, you gotta take it. Again, “boys will be boys.” In the background, a baseball player gets kicked by a man who appears to be one of the coaches. As a result, the victim has to bow to his aggressor, because he’s expected to.

This week’s episode opens with Shingo complaining about his father’s rudeness. He and Makio muse over breaking the curse. The curse of what? Makio says, “Well, you learn to pass down the good and get rid of the bad.” Going by her own words, they seem to be talking about disinheriting their parents’ worst traits. But if that’s the case, isn’t Shingo already in the clear? He seems positively delightful as a person. I can’t imagine him being rude to a nurse like his father. Naturally, Asa overhears the conversation as she always does in this tiny apartment. She must be wondering what curse she must have inherited from her parents. Well, we know her mother was a strict, judgmental woman, and her father was an emotionally distant and selfish man. As you can tell, this episode is all about curses. We are all cursed — cursed by family, society, and ourselves.

After posing as a runaway girl in last week’s episode, it’s back to school for Asa. She tells her clubmates that she got a nasty cold. In her absence, another girl has been chosen to play with the band, so she mutters under her breath, “It’s not fair.” Does Asa need more time off from school or does she need some semblance of normalcy? The latter hasn’t really been working out. The school finally has her speaking to a counselor, but Asa isn’t very receptive to the idea. It’s actually pretty surprising to me that this is the first time we see her receive any sort of mental help, and I’m a little wary of the fact that it’s linked to the school. To be fair, the counselor seems nice enough from what we can see. Even so, and maybe this is just my cynicism speaking, I would always wonder if they have my best interests at heart or the school’s. It’s like with HR, y’know? Are you here for me or for the company?