Impression – Aku no Hana, Episode 09

|Episode Nine|

“I won’t break up with you, even after what you did.”

Takao has dumb luck. From the lunch money incident to his disastrous date to getting away with the classroom destruction, he somehow manages to get out of each situation without really doing anything. Granted he doesn’t come out unscathed from any of these incidents, but his string of misfortune should’ve caught up to him by now.

But now I’m not so sure if this counts as dumb luck. After discovering the truth about the classroom vandalism and her stolen gym clothes, Saeki actually refuses to break up with Takao. The news is shocking to both him and me. After all, his biggest fear was what her reaction would be if she ever found out all the things he’d done. She practically begs him to reconsider trying to break up with her. Maybe she just grew really attached to him and is still in denial. Or perhaps she’s willing to look past his crimes to try and make their relationship work. The latter idea would be crazy to believe, but hey, high school romance is weird like that.

The weirdest development thus far has to be what I assume is a “love triangle” between Saeki and Nakamura over Takao. I say “love triangle” in quotations because honestly, I don’t know what Nakamura is really feeling. She is an incredibly difficult person to read and all of her actions towards Takao seem to border on sadistic pleasure. The events of the classroom vandalism and the walk home afterwards seem to imply that she feels a deep connection with him now, so I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that she wants Takao. After all, she considers herself just as much a deviant as he is.

“I’m kind of happy about the gym clothes!”

As for Saeki, I’m afraid that she isn’t the pure and innocent girl that I, and Takao, envisioned her to be. I thought that maybe she was in denial over Takao’s deeds or was just willing to forgive him out of a sense of attachment for him. But now I’m starting to think that maybe she’s a bit too forgiving. She feels happy that he stole her clothes, saying that it must be “normal for a guy.” Um, what? Saeki-san, I don’t know what your definition of normal is, but it’s probably the same as my definition for “pervert.”

Takao of course can’t deal with all of this happening around him, so he runs away from home. It seems that running is all Takao can hope to do. He’s still very much a weak individual, unable to confront his problems head on. It’s the reason why he got into this mess in the first place, because he kept hesitating to get rid of Saeki’s gym clothes. Actually, it’s rather ironic that he keeps running away from his problems, because this all started when he ran away with her gym clothes in tow. I think he should just stop running altogether.

It looks like with the end of this episode, he has chosen to be with Nakamura rather than Saeki. In one day, all of his dreams have been shattered. The pure and angelic Saeki that he thought existed is now turning into a clingy girl in denial. Even though Nakamura has caused nothing but pain for him, he still chooses to leave the town with her. After all, in this dull town, these two deviants can’t seem to find a place to belong.