When Tomo boards a bus with Jirou and sits right beside him, the closeness makes her heart race too much, so she stands, bitter that he doesn’t conside her a girl enough to be equally flusterd. However, he shows he’s very much aware she’s a girl when he spots a pervert groping her and puts a stop to it.
Unfortunately for Tomo, his solution is for her to stop wearing skirts, because they “look wrong” on her. What Jirou isn’t sharing with Tomo is that the reason it looks “wrong” is because Jirou is still uncomfortable with his “best bud” being a woman—especially one with legs to the damn moon!
After slugging Jirou, Tomo reports this injustice to Misuzu the next day. She determines that the problem isn’t the skirt, but the bike shorts underneath. She tells Tomo that the key to a skirt is basically the reality that there’s nothing but underwear underneath. In other words, no half-measures allowed.
Misuzu arranges for Tomo to walk home with Jirou (who is eager to make up), but without the bike shorts. Misuzu’s original observation that the skirt is simply too short to wear on its own without errant winds rendering her unmentionables visible. It’s doubly a shame this happens during an otherwise romantic sakura-strewn sunset stroll.
They later make up again, with Jirou rightfully apologizing for presuming he can tell Tomo what to wear. That said, he doesn’t think she should wear anything she doesn’t feel comfortable in. But as we see from his version of a blush, the main reason he’d rather Tomo wear slacks is because he’s just not ready for those endless gams.
The second part of the episode introduces Carol Olston, a blonde student from Britain. Half of the boys in class are in her thrall, while the other half prefer Misuzu’s cool beauty—we know Jirou is interested in neither. She’s also voiced by Sally Amaki, who is bilingual, so I was a little disappointed she didn’t have any English lines.
Carol is introduced to Tomo via Misaki, and Carol is quick to declare that she and Misaki are engaged and have in face already been married three times. Misaki clarifies that they’re childhood friends, hence all the weddings, but it’s clear Carol considers their engagement legally binding—and views Tomo as an enemy who might steal her Misaki away.
This is only half-true and half-nonsense; the latter because Tomo doesn’t like Misaki that way and has eyes only for Jirou, and the former because Misaki does seem to have a little thing for Tomo. In any case, Carol is sharper than her cotton candy looks and ditzy affectation suggest.
When Tomo reports her encounter with Misuzu, it’s plain as day to Misuzu why Carol keeps calling her a baaaka. Then Carol gathers intel on Tomo by speaking to both Misuzu and Jirou, demonstrating her genral oddness by sitting on Misuzu’s desk and hiding in Jirou’s locker.
Carol ends up hiring Jirou to help get her into shape “to defeat an enemy”, but on the surface, and unbeknownst to him, it totally looks like the two are going steady. Tomo is genuinely freaked out by this, and Misuzu, shit-stirrer that she is, sucks up all that sweet sweet energy.
Watching Carol utterly fail to run more than ten feet or do even one push-up or sit-up is amusing, but not as hilarious as a distracted Tomo unknowingly and lazily turning Misaki—who is likely no slouch, karate-wise—into a pretzel.
Misuzu egged Tomo on to confront Jirou and Carol partly for her own amusement, but also because she wants Tomo to display more urgency in trying to win Jirou over, which means defending her claim to him.
But when she does confront the two, it only takes a moment for Carol to read Tomo’s reactions and conclude that she is absolutely no threat to her vis-a-vis Misaki, as she’s only interested in Jirou.
That afternoon, Carol invites Misuzu out for coffee and cake in what Misuzu calls an “unnecessarily long car” as thanks for her advice. Carol confides that she doesn’t have a single friend, so Misuzu suggests she reach out to Tomo, who will surely be glad to have her as one.
The next day Carol thinks about all the times her open hand of friendship was rejected by those who thought she was too pretty, or too rich, or too weird. But just as Misuzu said, Tomo welcomes Carol’s friendship, and thus appears to her like an angel. Misuzu also agrees to be Carol’s friend, because Carol is loaded, and can likely also help her in even more complex and entertaining schemes to make Tomo and Jirou squirm!
Speaking of, the episode ends with Tomo learning for the first time that Jirou and Misuzu briefly dated years ago, which not only explains their cool-yet-close attitude towards one another, but also draws another parallel between Hidaka Rina’s Misuzu and her character Yume from My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex!
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