For a lot of people, Paris is this idealized city full of cultural icons (e.g. the Eiffel Tower), good food, good wine, and romantic, passionate people. Then you go to the real Paris and realize that, like any other megalopolis, it can be kind of a dump. That’s Tamon in a nutshell. That cool, hyper-confident idol onstage belies the fact that, in real life, he’s a hot mess who threatens to commit suicide (jokingly or not) whenever his housekeeper rejects him. He might seem cool and gallant when he pleads with Utage to be true to herself in the season finale, but that’s the sneaky thing about Tamon. Whenever he needs to, he can always turn on the performance; he can always become the idealized Tamon in a pinch. When you interact with the guy and Hottiehara comes out of nowhere, you can never truly know if he’s being genuine or just putting on the fake stage persona. I especially don’t buy his act in front of the children one tiny bit. At the end of the day, we have to rely on our evidence, which is what we’ve seen of the real Tamon over the previous twelve episodes. Ultimately, if you had to pick between idol Tamon or Tamon’s b-side, who would you choose? In theory, you’re not supposed to want the simulation. You’re supposed to want the real thing — the person whom you will actually be spending most of your time with. Tamon’s idol self is a performance, and your lover can’t perform 24/7. In fact, go to the doctor if it lasts longer than two or three hours.

It’s the day of the cultural festival, and if you’ll recall, the F/ACE boys are filming scenes at the school today. Wouldn’t this cause a riot? No, it’s okay! The boys are all concealing their faces! This way, they can walk around the school unbothered! Actually, I feel like this should have the opposite effect. If you saw a dude donning a gorilla mask, wouldn’t you be suspicious? And of course, the dickbag Ori would be the gorilla. Typically, the trope dictates that the main couple spends precious time together walking the grounds, taking in all the activities. Unfortunately, Ori insists on third-wheelin’ Utage and Tamon. The sad part is, at the end of the day, Tamon will tell Utage how much fun he had with her, she’ll return the sentiment, and neither of them will even remember that Ori was with them. Dude’s a complete non-factor, but he’s still trying to get with someone else’s fan. Ori has no shame.

Once again, Tamon is in the corner sobbing. It’s the same ol’ conflict again. He wants to be closer to Utage, but she wants to maintain a safe difference between the two of them. Not because she’s an uber professional or anything, but because she’s an idol fan. Utage says it herself: her biggest priority is Tamon’s dream. She will not do anything that threatens that dream, i.e. fostering a personal friendship if not relationship with the guy of her dreams. More importantly, what Tamon personally wants is immaterial. He’s lonely? Suck it up, buttercup. I would feel bad for the guy, but he did threaten to kill himself earlier in the series in order to manipulate her. As a result, I’ve gone cold on this… this… whatever you call this “romance.”

Utage’s new teacher Asuka is also a F/ACE superfan. In fact, she likes the yellow one. I didn’t think this would be something to shake on, but… here we are. I guess this is what it’s like when superfans meet in the wild. So to pile coincidences on top of coincidences, Utage immediately bumps into Natsuki at a store. Small world, blah blah blah. Anyway, on camera, Natsuki is… very over-the-top cheerful, so knowing how they tend to write characters on this show, he’s probably the opposite of that in reality.

Ori thinks Tamon and Utage kissed on the beach that day, and he’s been obsessively replaying the scene over and over in his head. By the end of this week’s episode, he will admit to himself that he’s in love with Utage. But why? Literally why? What does he even know about her other than that she’s crazy about Tamon? Oh, she tells him to be his pure and sincere self? That’s enough to be in love with someone? C’mon, get out of here. I’m not convinced. I’m simply not. Ori was right the first time: “I thought I only wanted to get her to look my way because of my pride…” He has his own fans — a veritable sea of them — but he wants what he can’t have. He’s just another petulant child.