Honey and Clover Ep 09

Hagu is busy preparing for the school festival but is not making much progress and cannot rely on Hanamoto since he's not around. She makes up her mind to be independent and tries to relax and follow her usual pace so that she is not overwhelmed by expectations of others around her.

Yamada is also in school for the preparations and recalls that Mayama is no longer here with her. Last year, she used to make excuses to steal a glance at Mayama or hear his voice but thinking of the fact that Mayama has graduated, this makes Yamada rather sad that there's nothing to expect when she walks around the campus.

Yamada goes to Hanamoto's office to look for Hagu and is surprised to see Mayama there. He bought cakes for the group where Morita and Hagu are fighting over a roll of cake. Morita distracts Hagu by saying that she is spending her time on drawing useless stuff i.e. the sketch of a bird on a brooch in order to snatch the cake away from Hagu. Mayama realises that the group has not eaten dinner yet and decides to give them a treat to takeaway food from a restaurant as he's already working. Hagu, Morita and Takemoto are so elated that they hug Mayama and keep saying that they like him. Yamada hopes to do the same too but as she really does like Mayama in the romantic sense, she cannot follow what the others are doing. When Mayama and Yamada look at each other intently and start to blush, Morita gets rid of the awkwardness in the air by creating confusion and runs away with the cakes and bread.

Takemoto and Hagu leave the office to return the keys Morita left behind and to get some materials thus Yamada and Mayama are left alone. This makes Yamada very tense but Mayama tells her that she can take her time to finish the food.

Meanwhile, Takemoto and Hagu happen to see Morita's serious expression when making his sculpture. Hagu is inspired to work harder to meet the deadline and proceeds to continue with her creation. Takemoto is eating Morita's cake in the workshop and sees him searching for a block of wood. He finds one in a light shade which Morita is very satisfied with but Takemoto has no idea what Morita is intending to do with it.

One morning, Hagu is preparing to heat up milk and finds a wooden brooch in her cup which is exactly of the same design as what she had drawn in her sketch book. This makes Hagu go into a daze and she doesn't even realise that Takemoto has entered the office. Takemoto is shocked to see the brooch and immediately associates this as Morita's doing since the brooch was made from the same type of wood which Takemoto found for Morita. Takemoto does not know why he is not telling Hagu about this and recalls Morita's expressions in the past when Hagu was mentioned. He starts to feel that Morita likes Hagu right from the start. Meanwhile, Morita is lying on the grass where Yamada comes to look for him and expresses her thanks. Morita asks why she is thanking him but Yamada does not go into details. Morita does not probe further with regards to this matter.

Morita is shocked to hear that they will not be having a Christmas party this year since Yamada is busy with her family business and Takemoto has to take on a part-time delivery job. Hagu finally musters her courage and wants to ask Morita about the brooch when some juniors barge into the office and tell Morita to compensate them for eating their biscuits. However, Morita refuses to pay up and takes the chance to run away thus Hagu is unable to talk to him. Takemoto realises that Hagu has sensed the fact that the brooch was given by Morita but he doesn't tell Hagu about this and Morita has no intention of saying this too. Nevertheless, Hagu likes the brooch so much that she pinned it on her favourite bag.

Yamada invites Hagu to join her for part-time work but the latter has no experience in working and gets rather discouraged when she feels that she's not of much help. However, Hagu finally gets to prove her worth when she makes a figure from balloons to attract customers with Takemoto's help. Hagu thanks Takemoto for helping her throughout the night and he is very happy to see her smile.

At night, the group holds a party at Hanamoto's apartment where Mayama comes to attend after a hard day at work. Even though Mayama had said that he wasn't coming because there was a party at his company, Morita sees through his lies and points out bluntly that Mayama is here because he went to Rika's apartment and saw that the lights were off, signalling that she wasn't at home. Mayama gets irritated at Morita who seems to know whatever he is doing or thinking.

Takemoto finally decides to tell Hagu about the fact that Morita was the one who gave her the brooch but Morita manages to stop Takemoto from talking.

Takemoto thinks to himself that this Christmas party seems to be the last involving the 5 of them and can't help but feel sad at this possibility...

Morita is such a nice guy! On the surface, he seems to be really idiotic and not serious about anything but he is very observant about things around him and his thoughts are not easily seen by others. That is why he always has these little gestures which are very heartwarming and touching bu he never feels the need to take credit for them. At this stage, I do think that Morita and Hagu like each other but somehow, Morita doesn't feel the need to make a move. On the other hand, Takemoto knows this but something is stopping him from giving Morita and Hagu a much needed helping hand to get their relationship started. And that's probably Takemoto's own feelings for Hagu which he is still unaware about.

As for Mayama and Yamada, it seems like he is treating her slightly differently from before. At least he blushed when Yamada stared at him could mean that he feels more than friendship for her now but it's still not enough to take priority over his feelings for Rika. Who knows if love will blossom between them one day?