When confronted with nasty rumors, the honorable Ryuuto has no choice but to let the cat out of the bag: he’s dating Runa. When Runa confirms it, it send the class into an uproar, and Maria runs off. Ryuuto follows and learns she started the rumors. Well, that certainly blew up in her face!
It would be enough if a rivalry between Runa and Maria for Ryuuto’s love were to proceed from there, but Kimizero felt that wasn’t soapy enough, so it also drops the the bombshell that Runa and Maria are fraternal twin sisters, and Maria has a chip on her shoulder the size of Kyushu.
Ryuuto, for his part, doesn’t kick Maria when she’s down. Heck, he even tells her he can relate to how hard it is for him to express his feelings, even if he can’t fully understand her plight as the “plainer” sister. When she slips on the steps, she catches him. When he leaves, Maria is determined not to fall for him for real…but I’m not holding by breath!
Ryuuto returns to a happy Runa and, to his surprise, a happy Nicole as well. Runa may not know it until he tells her (which makes her heart swell all the more) but Nicole is all to aware Ryuuto did what he did for Runa’s sake, and thus proved to her that he’s worthy of her.
When he tells Runa he couldn’t stand for the rumors against her, she asks how he knows they’re not true from when before they dated, which is a fair question. Yet even if Ryuuto didn’t hear Maria admit she started them (something he doesn’t share with Runa), he’s fine with letting the past be the past and move forward with her.
The next day, Ryuuto expects a wave of hate to come crashing down on him, but everyone acts normal. He even gets good mornings from girls who normally wouldn’t speak to him. After school, a Runa eager to learn what he likes gets Ryuuto show her a live stream he likes, and watches along with genuine interest.
The close proximity has him yearning to kiss this girl he’s liking more and more. Worried that it’s a bridge too far, he decides to try to start with holding hands. His pals put aside their jealousy to help him devise a plan, which involves going to Ueno Park.
When his thoughts wander in class and his name is called, Maria bails him out by telling him the question they’re on, then tells him she hopes he doesn’t hate her after what she did. He tells her he doesn’t hate her, so sweetly that it doesn’t help her goal of not falling for him one damn bit.
That weekend, Runa brings Ryuuto a homemade bento for him. For some reason Ryuuto has decided that the only way to hold hands with his extremely open, honest, and affectionate, straightforward girlfriend is to help her onto a boat. This plan fails twice when she gets on and off the boat all on her own.
Ryuuto is so discouraged by his failure, Runa mistakenly interprets his sour mood to mean they’re about to break up, since in her experience guys always made that face before dumping her. After emphatically disabusing her of that notion, he says he simply wishes they could go on another boat ride.
She’s all for that. This time it’s a rowboat, and this time he gets on first, so she takes his hand to hop aboard. As he rows, she admits to wanting to hold hand for some time now, and had been trying to get closer to do so. He admits he was thinking the same thing, and Runa rolls the dice and does something else they’ve both been thinking of: kissing.
Runa notes that all the little relationship checkpoints they’re clearing— holding hands, kissing, a first-name basis (once Ryuuto is comfortable)—wouldn’t be so embarrassing if they’d had sex first. But that’s okay with her; she’s enjoying these little embarrassments and the joys that result from achieving them, and above all wants to know and adore Ryuuto more and more.
Unfortunately for Runa, their road of love is about to hit some brunette bumps courtesy of Maria. Going over Ryuuto’s words about not trying to be exactly like Runa, which is impossible, she decides (with an accompanying eerie light from below) that to take Ryuuto away from Runa, she’ll have to become Runa. I wish her good luck, and look forward to the messiness!
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