Valentine’s Day has arrived, and the girls want to get together to make chocolates. Yamada suggests her place, and invites Ichikawa too. When he encounters Serina and Chihiro outside Yamada’s place, he pretends to just be passing by, but thankfully his wingwoman Moeko shows up to drag him along. When they’re greeted at the entrance by Yamada’s mom, she makes a concerned face when she notices a boy is among them.
Thinking fast, Moeko takes Ichikawa’s arm and says he’s her “bae.” Mom seems appeased, but Yamada is understandably less enthused. The ensuing chocolate making progresses with not-great-to-bad vibes, not just because Yamada’s mom is loitering around. Finally, it’s Serina who shouts that “this just isn’t right,” obviously referring to Moeko’s ruse.
Ichikawa naturally believes his presence is what’s causing the awkwardness, and even though Cool Kyou tells him to set things right, he chooses an Irish exit instead. When Yamada’s mom notices him leaving, he admits he’s not Moeko’s boyfriend. That’s when Mom realizes that this is the Ichikawa Anna talks so much about. With the ruse lifted, Ichikawa comes back in.
By then, Yamada’s dad has appeared, and he resembles a giant Ichikawa (now we know where Yamada gets her impressive height). Just as Ichikawa developed a sour look and hid an eye in his bangs as a defense mechanism, belying his sweet nature, so too does Dad look a lot scarier than he is.
In fact, he’s elated to have another gamer in the house, though Yamada ends up grabbing Ichikawa’s controller and playing against her dad. This results in a beautiful scene of (hopefully) things to come, as Ichikawa is surrounded by Yamadas.
After the chocolates are done, Yamada pulls Ichikawa behind the curtains for a private tasting. He takes a bite of the piece she saved for him, which is very pointedly missing the full “obligatory” label, making it special. He declares it a bit too sweet, but she takes it from him and eats the rest (casual indirect kiss), then beams brightly, saying she’s glad he came.
That night she calls him and asks him what he thought of her parents. While scary at first, he admitted they were very nice and pretty much exactly what he expected her parents to be like. She says the same about how they regarded him, adding that her dad thinks his last name is Yamada (since they met in the elevator when he was wearing her jersey).
Kana is impressed by the strides her little bro has been making, even to the point she teases that he’s already built himself a harem. She then cracks open a 9% highball for herself and an amazake for him, and asks upfront, when he’s going to ask Yamada out. From what she’s seen, she sees no reason why he couldn’t.
Ichikawa talks about how he has no idea how she feels or what his “chances” are. When Kana says it’s fine, there are plenty of women out there, but he goes on, perhaps due to the effect of the amazake. He’s certain he won’t fall in love with anyone other than Yamada.
That said, he’s worried that as she keeps moving ahead and through mistakes, and keeps being loved by so many people, she may well end up somewhere far away, and forget about him in no time. And he doesn’t want her to. Kana being the Best Big Sister, tells him it’s not about “chances”, but what he wants to do. What he wants.
What Ichikawa wants, he admits to Kana, is to be Yamada’s boyfriend. And while the amazake may have worn off by morning, his feelings haven’t changed. Even if there’s no guarantee they have a tomorrow, in the meantime, he’s going to try for what he wants.
So on the way to school when Yamada decries the fact she hasn’t found out what chocolates to give “the guys”, he grabs her sleeve (a reversal of the usual), stopping her in her tracks, and tells her not to worry about the other guys. After some momentary shock, she smiles and nods her head in agreement. After all, this isn’t the story of her and the guys, but her and Ichikawa.
Ichikawa being so honest with his sister in admitting what he truly wants and deciding he’s going to at least try to achieve what he wants is a huge breakthrough. I’m sure he’ll try to backtrack a little due to his deep-seated anxiety about being hurt, but his actions and words this week have convinced me he will eventually confess to Yamada and properly ask her out … if she doesn’t beat him to it, of course!
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