Apparently, the timeline has moved over to summertime. It was literally the start of the new school year last episode. I suppose Missing Pieces makes it a dead giveaway now but time is definitely progressing quickly within Horimiya.
Anyway, we begin this episode with Ishikawa helping Sakura Kono (Reina Kondo), a member of the student council, with returning papers to the student council room. Once that is taken care of, Ishikawa hangs out with Miyamura and Sengoku. I guess Sengoku go over his PSTD Miyamura gave him. Sengoku tells Ishikawa and Miyamura that they’re free to chill with the A/C in the student council room so naturally, all the named high schoolers in this show takes up on that offer. Honestly, I don’t know why Sengoku is shocked. You offer A/C and everyone will come on over.
During the hangout, Miyamura and Hori get tasked with getting drinks for everyone. Remi is apparently still curious if Horimiya is a thing so she ponders about it out loud, finding out that some of the others have been wondering the same thing. I kind of feel bad for Ishikawa here. The dude just isn’t given a chance to let go of his feelings for Hori. Still, I can’t deny that this show has managed to milk some good comedy out of it, as evidenced with a misunderstanding that happens between Ishikawa and Miyamura during this hangout.
One development that arises in the A part of this episode is Sakura’s budding feelings for Ishikawa. Ishikawa blurts out admiration for Sakura’s hard work as she’s arguably a more invisible member of the student council compared to Sengoku and Remi. With words such as those, Sakura naturally begins to fall for Ishikawa. I’m curious if a relationship between Ishikawa and Sakura will pan out. To be honest, I kind of figured Ishikawa would eventually hook up with Yoshikawa, if only because they’re the second most major characters in the show after Hori and Miyamura. Then again, Ishikawa and Yoshikawa haven’t really interacted much with each other apart from small talk.
At Hori’s home, Hori asks if Miyamura ever gets embarrassed, having realized that she rarely sees him in such a mood. In response, Miyamura admits a recent encounter with his middle school buddy, Koichi Shindo (Taku Yashiro). Shindo has somehow heard about Hori so he asks Miyamura if Hori is his girlfriend. Miyamura doesn’t outright deny the claim so that Shindo will shut up though he soon realizes that doing so only complicates things. The funny thing is that after Miyamura explains all of this, Hori mumbles that she’d actually be okay if Miyamura doesn’t clarify things. I guess her latent feelings for Miyamura are overriding her rationale.
The next day, Hori meets Shindo by chance. Miyamura and Ishikawa run into them shortly after and Miyamura smacks Shindo in the head to prevent him from doing anything stupid. I find it hilarious that Miyamura keeps attacking the other male characters in his age group. At this point, I feel like I should pray for the next guy who’ll get added into Miyamura’s circle.
Joking aside, I really like the friendship between Shindo and Miyamura. It’s nice meeting someone who’s known Miyamura for years and knows him well enough that he can actually rile the guy up. There’s a flashback scene that elaborates on how the two met and props to Shindo for realizing that Miyamura needed a friend and defending Miyamura against some of his own buddies, pointing out that it’s because of their ostracization of Miyamura that the guy is socially awkward. Honestly, you get why Miyamura has stayed in contact with Shindo and puts up with his nosiness. It’s thanks to Shindo that his middle school years weren’t completely depressing.
For the final segment, Hori catches the deadliest disease in anime: the common cold. With both her parents out for work, she has no choice but to stay home alone. Being so young, Souta genuinely thinks his big sister is going to die so he decides to call his big brother to check up on her. Things get very intriguing when Miyamura leaves Hori’s room for a bit and the latter gets scared and asks him where he’s going. There’s a couple ways to look at that. One is that Hori simply isn’t thinking straight due to her cold. The second is that Hori is so used to looking after someone so she’s understandably clingy now that she’s in the reversed situation. Of course, the exchange gets very loaded when you factor in Hori’s feelings. Perhaps she wants Miyamura to stay because deep down, she just wants his company.
As for Miyamura, he certainly makes his feelings clear to Hori. Miyamura sure has peculiar timing. Last time, he drops a confession right after Hori flubs hers and Hori doesn’t catch that. Here, he drops it when there’s the potential off chance that Hori might be too sick to remember it. The dude clearly wants to advance the relationship but he doesn’t seem confident enough to do so as he keeps gambling on whether or nor Hori is within earshot. That said, I don’t think Miyamura will be doing this a third time as Hori actually hears his confession this time around. Now, the question is how Hori will respond to it.
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