Takemoto is at the park to reserve a place for the hanami (spring blossoms viewing) party tonight and thinks about his lack of purpose in life recently. He falls into a daze as he recollects certain images in his mind which is like a video being played repeatedly.At the hanami party, Hanamoto, Yamada and Takemoto feel sorry for Dange-sensei who is upset at Morita not being able to graduate again. Thus, he will be the first student in the university to stay for 8 years where Takemoto becomes his schoolmate in the same grade even though he was Morita's junior. However, the culprit causing this situation is nowhere to be found.
Just at this time, Hanamoto sees flyers being scattered around which are self-drawn posters of Morita as an enka singer. Morita appears in front of a packed audience of middle-aged ladies waiting for him like star-struck fans and is enjoying himself so much that his friends wonder why he's got the time to fool around like this despite not making it for the graduation project deadline. Mayama joins them and says that this is the 5th time he's seeing Morita's performance and wonders why he never got sick of this.
Hanamoto asks Mayama about his company's hanami party yesterday and he says that it was a disaster since it was raining and they changed it to a mahjong party instead. Unknown to them, when Mayama had seen the fallen sakura petals in the rain, he thought of Rika again when he saw her scarred body in the bathroom. Hanamoto asks Mayama why he is in a daze and he tries to pretend that everything is fine. Yamada tells them that she's leaving the group to join the shopping street's owners' party held nearby.
Yamada gets dead drunk and the fellow 3rd generation shop owners keep grumbling how stupid Mayama is to give up a gem like Yamada. Somehow, Mayama senses the daggers being shot at him by the Yamada admirers and wonders if this is his own imagination. However, Ippei, the 3rd generation owner of the bakery speaks up for Mayama who had the guts to say no to Yamada despite how much she loves him and finally stops the rest of his gang from viewing Mayama as an enemy.
Morita comes to join Hanamoto, Takemoto and Mayama after his "concert" and flaunts his gifts from the audience which the trio is amazed at his popularity. Suddenly, Morita asks why Hagu is not around and feels disappointed about not being able to make fun of her. Mayama asks Morita if he had overdone his affection for his pets when he was a kid which Morita responds in the affirmative. As such, the trio understands somehow why Morita is always behaving in this way. When Morita leaves the group, Hanamoto asks Hagu if she wants to start having dinner where she had been hiding between the trio when Morita was around. Takemoto has noticed that Hagu seems to be listless these days and this started after she went out with Morita for the shopping trip. He doesn't know what happened between them but he does see that Hagu is no longer wearing the brooch given by Morita even though she likes it very much. He starts to wonder if Morita had noticed the change in Hagu.
One day, Yamada comes to Hanamoto's office to look for Hagu who had gone out to buy lunch. She offers to go and look for Hagu since she has taken a long time and should have been back by now.
Meanwhile, Hagu is alone in a park to play with a cat when Morita happens to see her. Hagu is shocked to see him and tries to run away but is caught by him. Morita gives his red muffler to Hagu because the weather is still cold and wraps it around her neck. When he takes a close look at Hagu's face, Morita's expression changes and he bends over to kiss Hagu gently. However, when he realises what he has done, Morita runs away in shock and leaves Hagu behind who is still in a daze. Yamada finds Hagu who has fainted from the shock and informs Hanamoto about Hagu's condition...
Takemoto goes to Hanamoto's office and grumbles about how he was mistaken as a freshman when he's already in Year 4. The latter teases Takemoto for being so popular that he's given so many promotion flyers for newbies. Takemoto asks about Hagu's condition and Hanamoto says that she's still down with a fever and is sleeping most of the time for the past week. Even though Hagu does get feverish easily due to stress or pressure, Hanamoto feels that something is not right this time as the illness has dragged on for longer than expected. In addition, Hagu's refusal to reveal the reason for the illness and her recent lacklustre performance worries Hanamoto. Takemoto mentions that Hagu has been listless of late and they have a hunch that this has to do with Morita.
Hanamoto reveals what Hagu told him on the night she returned from the shopping trip with Morita where she grumbled about the nervousness and anxiety she experienced with his presence. Hanamoto says that Hagu is so silly as she failed to realise that such symptoms are signs of her feelings for Morita and Takemoto feels down upon hearing this because Hagu is always relaxed in front of him since she regards him as an ordinary friend. If being in love means being nervous in front of the person you love, Takemoto feels that he has all along been in a one-sided relationship with Hagu.
Takemoto returns home and is shocked to see Kaoru barging into the apartment and heading straight to Morita's room. He is amazed at Kaoru's ability to break the security settings to prevent access to Morita's room even though Kaoru is fuming mad at Morita's deliberate attempt to cause more trouble for him with his excessive prompts for passwords in the security system. Actually, Morita had locked himself out of his room many times because he forgot the password despite him being the designer of this security system. Due to this, nobody has managed to enter Morita's room before so Takemoto is very curious to see it since Kaoru has broken the door down by force. Takemoto is shocked to see lots of high tech equipment in the room and even more surprised when he finds out that Kaoru is looking for Morita's passport and that Morita is currently at the Narita Airport.
Takemoto stops Kaoru to find out where Morita is going and the latter reveals that he's going to US for work. Takemoto asks Kaoru to send him to Narita as he's Morita's friend and wants to send him off. On the way there, they are caught in a traffic jam and Takemoto decides to run to the airport instead. However, he's too late to meet Morita and can only shout at the departing plane to voice his unhappiness about Morita for leaving without a word at this time despite Hagu's condition.
Later, Takemoto realises that he has forgotten to bring his wallet and can only ask Kaoru to send him back when he realises that Kaoru has heard what he said. Takemoto notices that Kaoru and Morita look rather similar and realises that they are brothers but Kaoru doesn't like people to associate him with his younger brother. He also says that if not for Morita's talent in making money, he would be regarded as a good-for-nothing. Kaoru tells Takemoto that according to Morita, his list of friends include him and Mayama only which makes Takemoto quite happy. When he asks Kaoru the exact date of Morita's return, Kaoru throws the question back at Takemoto by asking whether he wishes for Morita's return or not and he is too stunned to answer...
Oh, Morita-san! He really makes me crack up with that enka performance but seeing how serious and loving he was when he kissed Hagu, he made me swoon. I never expected him to do that which is a concrete expression of his feelings for Hagu. Now that he's going to be away for a while in the US due to work, things might get a bit serious because Morita is usually the humour king of the group who makes everyone exasperated with his antics. Besides, his departure without a word would also affect the relationship between Hagu and Takemoto since nobody knows when he is going to return.
When Kaoru raised the question of whether Takemoto wishes for Morita's return, I am guessing that he has a very strong gut feel like his younger brother when it comes to detecting other people's feelings. He must have thought that something wasn't right between Takemoto and Morita especially when he heard Takemoto scream at the airport and he did make reference to losing Hagu if Morita left without a word at this time. Well, for Takemoto, he's in a fix because as a friend, he would want Morita to return but as a rival for Hagu's love, I doubt he can say without a doubt that he wishes Morita to return. And this question seems set to bug him at least till the next episode.
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