It’s Sports Day, and while Mitsumi believes it’s some kind of big dark secret that she sucks at sports, everyone is already aware. She needs a coach for her class’ volleyball match against the other classes, and picks Mika, who is adept at the sport.
Mika partially agrees because it means more time with Sousuke. The more time she spends with both him and Mitsumi, the more she realizes he’s a genuinely good person and not just putting on an act, or using Mitsumi in some way.
I love how Mitsumi so earnestly wants to get better, but her small town sensibility shows once again when she offers a bag full of fattening treats and sweets as thanks for coaching her. Mika refuses all but the healthiest item in the bag.
Mitsumi notes how dainty and girly Mika’s lunches are, blissfully unaware that Mika was once chubby and gains weight easily, so she can’t just eat whatever she wants, even if she wants to. It’s another example of the well-meaning Mitsumi inadvertently causing friction with Mika.
When they go to the gym to practice, there are third-year boys in there, even though it’s the first-years’ day to use the gym. Mika tells Mitsumi to ignore them, but Mika ends up getting bumped into by one of the hulking lads. Mitsumi puts on the bravest face she can (which is hilarious) and confronts them.
When they ignore Mitsumi saying it’s the first-year’s gym today, it makes Mika feel like she used to feel all the time when she was younger and heavier: ignored, looked over or through. Mika puts the two boys on her internal shit-list, but Mitsumi notes the name another third-year boy who tells the other boys to beat it.
Faced with a stunning beauty in Yuzuki on one side and a pure, straightforward person in Mitsumi leaves Mika feeling lost: why would anyone choose her, who is neither of those things? What is all the effort she puts into her appearance and outward personality for?
She asks Mitsumi why she chose her as her coach, she suspects it’s because Mitsumi is “getting back at her” for being nasty to her. But Mitsumi’s answer surprises her. She chose her because she wouldn’t sugarcoat things, and because it’s clear to her she worked her ass off to get as good as she is at volleyball.
This re-energizes Mika, and by now Yuzu and Makoto are also there, so she goes into full Drill Sergeant Mode to motivate everyone to play to win. Sousuke appears behind her, and she’s mortified he heard her shouting, bue she shouldn’t be. He’s probably delighted to have seen a different, more candid side of her.
On the day of the class matches, Yuzu gives Makoto a cute fishtail braid for her table tennis match, while Mika fixes Mitsumi’s hair with some pins. The volleyball team plays well and makes it to the knockout round. In between matches they have lunch and also check out the boys’ basketball match.
Mitsumi always knew that Sousuke was “hot” and popular with the girls, but didn’t quite appreciate the scale of that popularity until a day like this came about. He’s surrounded by fawning girls of all three years, to the point even someone as inexperienced in such situations as Mitsumi realizes she can’t just walk up to him and give him some of the pickled vegetables she made.
To do so would place several dozen targets on her back. So instead of approaching him, she leaves the gym. Sousuke, towering over his admirers, watches her go, and seems crestfallen. He’d rather she watched him and talked to him than all these randos!
The volleyball team makes it to the final, where they’re up against a particularly tough team featuring actual players from the volleyball team. Mitsumi thinks about how much of a bother she must’ve been to Sousuke on her first day…and yet he still reached out to be friends even after she became known as “the Puker”.
While the other team’s captain delivered a vicious serve that bruised her arm, Mitsumi snaps out of her thoughts long enough to bear down and successfully dig out the next sere, which Mika leaps for and spikes for a point. It’s not just a beautiful culmination of the training Mika instilled in Mitsumi, but an example of what can happen when two very different kinds of people cooperate.
The more talented team ends up beating them, but after resting with the team, Mitsumi decides to run to the basketball final by herself so she can cheer for Sousuke, something she wants to do more than she fears the potential consequences. As Mika watches her run off, she’s a little envious Mitsumi could make that choice.
But at this point, Mika is seeing Mitsumi less as a rival to be defeated or stepped over, but something like a friend she can support, and who can maybe support her with what she lacks. That lacking something is key: having watched Mitsumi with Sousuke, she believes that Mitsumi provides something that he lacks, and vice-versa.
That explains their effortless chemistry, while also hinting at the beginnings of love, not “just friends” vibes. Sousuke is much happier hearing Mitsumi cheer him on than anyone else. She’s special to him, and he to her. I can’t wait to see where that goes as the school year progresses.
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