|Episode Six|

Judging by how things are turning out, this little spot of happiness in Takao’s life may be extremely short-lived.

Can I reiterate that Takao has a lot of dumb luck? After the disastrous ending to his date the previous day, he’s relieved to find out that Saeki didn’t see her gym clothes that he was wearing underneath his own. Maybe his white shirt wasn’t transparent enough to notice, or perhaps she was too shocked by the incident that she didn’t look at his drenched clothes. It’s nothing short of a miracle that he’s lasted this long without Saeki or anyone else finding out about his secret.

Things get even more complicated with Nakamura approaching Saeki to be her friend. When your blackmailer is trying to get close to the girl of your dreams, you know things are about to go downhill very rapidly. Of course naive little Saeki can’t say no, bless her soul, and starts talking to Nakamura in an attempt to form a friendship. So now the most popular girl in class is dating the Loner and befriending the Crazy. She’s just too nice; no wonder everyone likes her so much. However, with her now firmly involved in Takao’s world, I don’t think that even she will come out unscathed.

Something that keeps being brought up is Takao’s affection for Saeki, which borders on obsessive at times. He keeps putting her up on a pedestal as a goddess and a “muse” who is pure and gentle. I know some men have been known to do that their beloved ones, like with F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda for example. But even that ended in tragedy and with Zelda living out the rest of her days in a mental asylum. It’s nice that he thinks so highly of Saeki, but while he thinks of her as pure, his own thoughts may not be so pure and might’ve been corrupted by his act of stealing her clothes.

Naturally, Nakamura is there to shatter whatever ideas he has of Saeki’s supposed pureness by calling her just as much a deviant as he is. He tells him that Saeki wants to fuck him, which Saeki ends up accidentally overhearing. It’s enough to put her into shock and causes her to skip school. Nakamura firmly believes that everyone in the world is rotten at the core and that everyone is hiding some kind of deviant nature inside, including someone like Saeki. Could she be right? After all, you and I must be deviants for finding some kind of enjoyment in watching Aku no Hana all this time…

Lingering thoughts:

• “Saeki wants to fuck you!”