Hitohira ep07 - 友達なのに…
Nono-san with long hair <3 <3

Preparations for the drama festival are well underway, both clubs pinned up their posters and for the drama research club’s poster, Asai is on the cover. Chitose sneaks out of her club to find Takashi but she heard Asai’s voice, Asai had improved so much better than last time. Chitose realizes that she needs to train up more.

Mirei realizes that Chitose had sneaked out and went out to grab her back for training but only to find a kneeling Chitose to ask her to train up strictly. Seems like Chitose is going all out to train up for her role in the drama. It started to rain and Nono waited at the porch while she starts to recall the recent past.

She remembered the day when she left the drama club as she did not wanted to give up yet even though her throat condition is getting bad. Takashi approached her and offered her an umbrella but was rejected somehow as she finds it a bother. Poor Takashi was rejected, Mirei asks him to give it up as it is obvious that Takashi likes her. The next day, the drama club noticed that one of their black cloth was missing, apparently it was taken by Risaki and Nono was “furious” over it.

Mirei went to the storage room to searh for the black cloth that had went missing. She slots in the key and turns it and wanted to open the door but she realized that it was locked. She struggled for 10mins until she had realized that the door was actually unlocked in the first place and she should not have turned the key (-.-). She starts hitting gently on Nono’s head with some rolled up paper. The both starts to throw sacarsitic comments at each other again and they decided to sort it out with a battle!

Mirei tripped and pulled Nono down with her and both of them landed on some cardboxes. The both of them decided to stop and leave the room but Nono realizes that she couldnt open the door. Mirei tries but was unable to. Both of them were trapped. Mirei decided to shout for help, Nono joins in and shouts as well. Mirei asks her to stop knowing that her throat condition does not permit her to.

Nono took out a sketchbook and writes on it,telling her that she’s unable to speak out, which obviously shocked Mirei. Back at school, Asai’s worried about Nono as she had not returned for a long time to return the black cloth back to the drama club. Her imagination is very creative though, to think that both of them are fatally involved in a battle (lol). She asks the drama club members if her leader was around but their members told her that she had left for the storage house.

Mirei starts to blame herself for the cause of Nono’s throat, she recalls the days when Mirei asks Nono to join the drama club. She was the one who teaches Nono how to perform, the one who gave her encouragement, the one who turned the once-shy and Asai-alike Nono into what she is now….

and that was how Nono went through her high school life, the days Nono had with Mirei were close. Nono works hard everyday until there was one day, she realizes there was something wrong with her voice and eventually diagnosed that her vocal cords were numbed. (dont ask me for the medical term.). Mirei understands that and decided to find another person to substitute Nono’s character in the drama. Nono refuses and although Mirei blames herself for all this, she quarrels with Nono and will not change her decision.

That was how Nono decided to leave the club, Mirei persuaded her that she can stay until her throat recovers but Nono rebutts that there is not enough time left for her as there is less than half a year before she completes high school. She wants to do it her way and perform in a drama. Mirei starts to cry even more and blames on Nono’s stubborness and her recklessness for losing her voice. Mirei regrets what had happened to Nono and blames herself again that this would not happen if she did not start the drama club that time. Mirei asks Nono if she hates her. Mirei asks if she ever have friends given her kind of rash and reckless nature. Nono writes on the sketchbook that she has friends. Mirei thought she was refering to Risaki and Takashi, Nono writes on the sketchbook again this time with a name - Mirei Sakaki. Mirei does not know what to say and starts crying again.

Nono gave her a smile and hugs her. Asai  overheard but gave a sneeze, Mirei realizes that and asks Asai for help to open up the door. The next day, the club was suprised that Nono’s voice recovered after a sleep (lol). Mirei was “pissed”, prolly embarassed for what she said back then and starts chasing down Nono. The episode ends with Asai telling herself, for the sake of her senpai (Nono and the rest) and for herself as well, she is gonna work hard for the festival.

Wow…I loved the way on how Nono and Mirei’s past is explained, they are obviously friends and Mirei has been a good friend to Nono and Nono is well aware of that but to fulfill her dreams, she pushes on despite her vocals, while I am not sure if Nono pretended to lose her voice but due to that she was touched by Mirei’s truthful words. I prefer the story to be this way though since Nono can be quite pesky at times too. Mirei is a true friend indeed, as a leader, she cares about her health just that Nono’s perisistance and stubborness was what that caused the drama research club to be formed.

Touching ending for this episode imo, I liked it along with the soundtrack when Nono gave Mirei a hug, expressing that she still considers Mirei a friend.  A wonderful episode about Mirei and Nono, the next episode is gonna to talk about the actual rehearsal for the school festival (or maybe the real performance).