What ARE those things!?!

It’s festival time! Let the pushing begin!

Hirose decides to bring an old momento from his deceased mother to school. However, with the village’s native festival looming, he doesn’t realise the significance of bringing such a momento to school…

Well, turns out the bell is a form of love token which a boy gives to a girl before the festival. Hirose may be oblivious to this but the girls certainly aren’t. This obviously leads to Some interesting moments. It is also pretty obvious that they each are trying to be matchmaker for the other (the lucky bastard).

Talk about one-sided…

Tsundere Yui gets the wrong impression as usual and even invites Hirose to talk behind the school. She gets stood up of course since Hirose obviously has other girls to be concerned about.

In the end, the bell gets broken by Hirose and Hayami offers to fix it for him.

Our fanservice shot of the episode comes in the form of a midnight dip in the spring by Hayami and Hotaru.

However, the peace is shattered when someone sets fire to Hayami’s home.

It would seem that while the children have more or less accepted Hayami, the village in general (particularly the adults) still bears a considerable amount of hatred towards the Kohinata family. And since Hayami is the only member of the family in the village, no prizes for guessing who gets the brunt of it. I still dun get why Hayami is still staying in the village when the rest of her family has left. If I were her I would have left long ago, “taking responsibility” be damned. Especially since it is no fault of her own.

A village meeting is called and the perpretrators of the fire (who remain nameless just like their respective children Goons A and B) urge the village chief (i.e the old man) to expel Hayami for causing trouble. To the surprise of the villagers, the old man brushes their accusations aside and even goes as far as to suggest arson, which is pretty much the truth and also indirectly absolving Hayami of blame. This turnabout in the old man’s attitude is rather startling as I was expecting some sort of drastic measure akin to what he did here as punishment for Hotaru’s rebellion. Now it is as if he approves of Hayami’s existence, even going so far as to say it is retribution, or karma.

“I’ll be your new maid from today onwards”

Predictably, Hayami thus ends up staying with Hirose. Fortunately, Hirose’s uncle is one of the rare few who holds no grudge against Hayami. Alone with Hirose, Hayami convinces him to tell her about his mother by arguing that she knows nothing about him, only to find out that she had committed suicide. *cue background music and shocked expression*

And it would seem Hirose feels that he had been abandoned by his mother. I wouldn’t blame him though. Must be traumatizing to have it happen to him when he was young.

The festival begins and Hayami passes the repaired bell to Hotaru, being too ashamed to pass it to Hirose herself after the night’s shocking conversation. Hotaru shoves the ball right back to Hayami’s court, stating that the fact Hirose opened up speaks of his feelings for her. Not to mention he had left a message with Hotaru telling Hayami to meet him at the hill they first met. Hayami rushes to the hill and into an embarrassed confession by Hirose.

[Overall Impressions]

Step aside Hotaru, Hayami’s taking centre stage. A Hirose and Hayami pairing was pretty much obvious from the start. Nevertheless, that confession at the end was still wonderful to watch. Gotta love the moon as a backdrop. Although I couldn’t see for sure, I’m pretty much sure Hotaru cried while dancing in the festival after relaying the message to Hayami.

What surprised me most how Hotaru’s grandfather seems so resigned to this turn of events all of a sudden. He’s not giving it to Hotaru caveman style and is even defending Hayami from the villagers! What gives? However, Hirose’s uncle’s frowning face at the village meeting has me worried. Who knows? Also, at episode 9 we still have some ways to go. Hirose’s story is just beginning to come out, there’s still time for another twist in the plot. ^^

The next episode is [Kohinata]. Something about Hayami’s family? Just to go out on a limb, what if Hayami is Hirose’s undiscovered cousin? Or half-sister even? (lol True Tears) NoooOOOOOOoooo……

As usual, more random pics.

I’m rendered speechless by this one. “Takuma LOVE!!!”

O.o

Omg! Hotaru is evil!