Rintaro has his study date day with Kaoruko this week! Gosh they are so cute together, ugh they were so self-conscious about how they looked and both of them were just dashing~. It was a good and productive session as Rintaro was able to learn a bit more about Subaru through Kaoruko today, which proved to be important later on when she had suddenly appeared to pull him aside to talk.
As one would expect given how she responded to the insults last week, when Subaru was little, she was bullied by the boys in their neighbourhood for her hair color. It was Kaoruko who stood up for her back then and protected her from those bullies and the two been best friends ever since. And it’s precisely because Kaoruko has supported her so much that she wants to do everything she can to help her too.
And it was precisely for that reason Subaru put Rintaro put in a difficult position. But rather than dipping into the whole cliche of ‘you can’t be together because…’ Subaru did actually present a legitimate concern that Kaoruko hasn’t quite considered– and that’s the risk of Kaoruko losing her scholarship or being frowned upon for simply hanging out with a student from Chidori. And of course while the school has no business sticking their nose into who she hangs out with (especially when Rintaro is not a bad guy), who to say they wouldn’t look for any excuses to potentially be stripped of her scholarship or be ostracized by her peers. So it’s understandable why Subaru, who knows just how badly Kaoruko wanted to get into the school and how hard she worked to achieve her scholarship and to maintain her rank, would go as far to ask Rintaro of this. This was just her way of trying to protect for Kaoruko’s efforts.
But it’s also important to recognize that Subaru was mentally prepared for him to refuse her request. Not only does she acknowledge how happy Kaoruko is with Rintaro, she also knows Rintaro is genuinely a good guy, so she doesn’t chide him further for it refusing to fulfill her request. And not only that, she knows that what she’s doing is out of line and Kaoruko may hate her for it.
And while Rintaro refused her earnest request to not meet Kaoruko anymore, he does understand where she’s coming from. He recognizes just how much she cares about Kaoruko, and how much pain she’s in to feel so powerless to help her. And while he didn’t regret his decision, he’s not so heartless to not feel bad about it. But her words has gotten through to him to some extent, as we’re seeing some hesitation to immediately text Kaoruko about the results of his exams.
Speaking of exams, thankfully both he and Shohei manage to pass! That means they can participate int he Sports Festival! Yipee!!! Rintaro was so happy about it, I thought he was gonna cry, but I’m proud of him! He worked hard for it! But it seems that joyful mood will be cut prematurely now a classmate accidentally knocked his desk over which caused Kaoruko’s study guide slip out. And of all the pages that it had to fall open to– it had to be the one where Kaoruko included a note of cheering him on.
While the rest of the class may assume it’s just a girl (from just about any school other than Kikyo), Saku on the other-hand… I feel like this is a lot more damning to him. He might feel hurt to see this since he has helped Rintaro and Shohei study, but here he is using a study book from the girl who’s attending the school they hate. It may seem like a trivial issue, but I can see Saku potentially feeling like this is a brief of trust or feeling disappointed that he seems to be closer to Kaoruko than them. It sure looks like Rintaro’s desire to participate in the sports festival with his friends may not go as smoothly as he’d want to if they don’t feel like he’s reciprocating their efforts to be friends with them. Hopefully it doesn’t turn out as messy as I fear it might, but we’ll see.
Apart from the concerns for a potential fall-out that follows from that reveal, it was super nice to see the two girls whom Rintaro had given up his table for at the library bumped into him on the train. He didn’t hesitate to give up his seat so they could sit down, but they weren’t going to let him move along without saying a word of thanks this time. And it was so sweet to see, because Rintaro’s just not used to being thanked, but ever since meeting Kaoruko, who thanks him often for even the smallest things, now he’s finding himself encountering more and more people who aren’t simply judging him by his appearance, but by his generous actions. Thanks to those little efforts, more people are seeing ‘wow, he’s a really nice guy!’, and that’s a wonderful thing. It really does a lot to boost his self-esteem, and it also goes a long way of restoring his faith in others to respond positively towards him rather than negatively.
Oh and one last thing I did want to mention before I wrap it up! We did also get a chance to see that interestingly, Subaru isn’t as afraid of little boys suddenly judging her for her looks as she would be with older guys. It’s a bit of a curious thing considering she was bullied when she was a kid, but she did show some fear that the kid she helped up would say something bad, but thankfully the kid had a good head on his shoulders and said her hair looked super cool– which (though he didn’t say it out loud) was the first thing Rintaro had thought too.
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