The rain finally lets up, and Sorano walks Fuyutsuki home. That sounds simple enough, but this episode turns a quiet walk into one of the most quietly devastating romantic beats the series has pulled off so far. The whole first half moves at the pace of two people who both know something has shifted between them and neither wants to be the first to name it.
The Kiss That Wasn't a Joke
Fuyutsuki asks if Sorano has a girlfriend. When he says no, she lets out a small “What a relief.” He tries to play it off as a joke, suggesting maybe it meant she had feelings for him. She calls him mean. Then, at her door, she asks if he knows the trick about touching someone’s face to see what they look like when you’re blind.
What follows is the kind of scene that could easily tip into melodrama, but the show keeps it grounded. She traces his face with her fingers, slow and deliberate. Then she asks, “Kakeru-kun, can you take this kind of joke?” and kisses him.
The line matters because it throws his earlier deflection right back at him. He joked about her having feelings. She responds with a kiss framed as a joke. But the way she says good night and disappears inside makes it clear this was not a joke at all. It was a test, or a confession, or both. Sorano stands there afterward, and the only thing he can process is the smell of her lip balm still on his mouth.
That detail stuck with me. Not the kiss itself, but the lip balm. It is such a sensory, specific thing for a show about a blind character to linger on. Fuyutsuki experiences the world through touch and smell and sound, and now Sorano is doing the same without realizing it.
The Monjayaki Scene Goes Off the Rails
The second half pivots hard into comedy, and it works because the show has earned the tonal shift. Sorano wants to ask Narumi for advice about the kiss, but Hayase shows up at the monjayaki place too. What follows is a genuinely funny sequence where Sorano accidentally gets served an alcoholic drink instead of oolong tea and proceeds to get completely drunk.
The drunk confession scene is the kind of thing that could feel forced, but the show commits to the bit. Sorano slurs his words, laughs at nothing, and eventually stands up in the middle of the restaurant to loudly declare his love for Fuyutsuki. He even flubs his own name first, which is such a perfect drunk detail.
Hayase, being Hayase, records the whole thing and sends it to Fuyutsuki. The episode ends with Sorano realizing what happened and wanting to crawl into a hole, while Narumi and Hayase cheer him on like he just won a prize.
What Sorano Actually Said
Before the confession, there is a quieter moment that tells you everything about why Sorano likes Fuyutsuki. Hayase asks him directly what he likes about her. He resists at first, then admits something real.
He talks about how Fuyutsuki is always smiling. How if he lost his sight, he does not think he could maintain that kind of positive attitude. He brings up his parents’ divorce and how he spent years whining about it, tiptoeing around everyone. Then he saw Fuyutsuki and thought she seemed free.
That word, free, is doing a lot of work here. Sorano has spent the whole series building walls and rationalizing his feelings. Fuyutsuki, who cannot see, moves through the world with more openness than he does. She is not free because of her blindness. She is free despite it, or maybe just free in a way he cannot access yet.
Hayase gets it too. She talks about how Fuyutsuki dresses herself up every day, never misses a lecture, and never uses her eyes as an excuse. Then she admits something harder: Fuyutsuki is sincere and true to herself, and Hayase feels like the exact opposite. That moment of vulnerability from Hayase caught me off guard. She has been the blunt, pushy friend up to this point, but here she shows why she admires Fuyutsuki so much.
The Drunk Confession Is Actually Good
The confession itself is ridiculous. Sorano stands up in a monjayaki restaurant, announces his full name, and declares that he loves Fuyutsuki Koharu and wants to go out with her. Other customers applaud. Someone yells “Ah, youth.” It is embarrassing in exactly the right way.
But the show does not let the comedy undercut the sincerity. Sorano means every word. The alcohol just removed the filter that has been stopping him all series. He has been rationalizing his feelings since episode one, using psychology terms and self-doubt to avoid saying anything real. Drunk Sorano has no such defenses.
The fact that Hayase sends the video to Fuyutsuki immediately is the kind of chaotic friend move that feels true to her character. She has been pushing Sorano toward Fuyutsuki since she first asked him to be her student guide. Of course she would take the decision out of his hands.
Where This Leaves Things
The episode ends on a cliffhanger that is not really a cliffhanger. Sorano confessed, the video was sent, and now he has to live with the consequences. The narration confirms that days pass without any response from Fuyutsuki.
That silence is the most interesting choice the episode makes. Fuyutsuki kissed him first. She asked if he had a girlfriend and seemed relieved when he said no. She clearly has feelings for him. But a drunken video confession is not the same as a real conversation. She might be hurt that he could not say it sober. She might be embarrassed. She might just need time to process.
The show has been building toward this confession for six episodes, and it finally happened in the most undignified way possible. That feels right for these characters. Sorano was never going to confess smoothly. He was going to stumble into it, probably with Narumi and Hayase watching, probably while making a fool of himself.
The opening line of the series, “I want to go on living even after my death,” still hangs over everything. We still do not know who said it or what it means. But this episode makes me think it might be about the way people leave traces on each other. Fuyutsuki’s lip balm on Sorano’s mouth. A video confession sent to her phone. The smell of rain and shampoo. These are the things that linger.
I keep thinking about Fuyutsuki touching Sorano’s face. She asked permission first. She was careful. Then she kissed him and called it a joke. That is not the behavior of someone who is unsure of her feelings. That is the behavior of someone who is terrified of being rejected and decided to leave herself an escape route.
Now Sorano has confessed, but through a video, while drunk, in front of an audience. Neither of them has managed to say it directly to the other in a quiet moment. The gap between them is still there, but it is narrower than it has ever been.
The next episode has a lot to answer for. Fuyutsuki has the video. She knows how Sorano feels. The question is whether she can believe it, and whether Sorano can say it again when he is sober.
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