It seems my fascination with yuri has spilled over to girls’ love (GL). ^_^;
I finished watching the GL arc of Renai Shindan on Saturday night. For those who don’t know, Renai Shindan (恋爱诊断) is a Japanese drama themed around forbidden love. Episodes 1-3 is about BL, episodes 4-6 revolves around a brother/sister relationship, and episodes 7-9 is GL.
The GL arc takes place in an all-girls’ school which the protagonist Seiru (I’m not sure if I got this right, but the kanji is 青空) has just transferred to. She’s the short-haired girl in the picture.
The story starts with Seiru musing, presumably in hindsight, about how everything in life is predetermined - the things that should happen do happen, and you meet the person you should meet. This person, as we quickly find out, is Kurumi (くるみ), who turns out to be both Seiru’s classmate and roommate. In between skipping classes, exploring the school and Kurumi teaching Seiru how to dance (on the rooftop, of all places), the two soon build up a fast friendship.
Seiru is a rather shy and reserved girl who seems to have only one friend in Kurumi, so it wasn’t a surprise to see her falling for Kurumi so quickly. In fact, by the end of episode 7 (the first episode of the GL arc), Seiru gets up in the middle of the night to steal a kiss. Kurumi however seems to have a crush on a senior in the dance club…
The next day, there’s a rumour circulating about how Maria-senpai (the one Kurumi likes) was caught with her boyfriend in public and might be forced to quit school. Kurumi appears down after hearing it; later on, she visits Maria-senpai and asks her if she really likes him (the guy she was seen with) that much, but apologizes and runs off before her senpai answers. In the afternoon, while Seiru is browsing through a book on dancing she suddenly receives a text message from Kurumi, saying that she (Kurumi) is waiting on the rooftop.
There, Kurumi suggests that they go out that night, in their yukatas. Seiru mentions she hasn’t brought hers, and Kurumi offers to lend her one of hers. Seiru feels she’s always borrowing Kurumi’s stuff, even her uniform; but Kurumi says it’s all right. Then Seiru says that if they’re going to be wearing yukatas, Kurumi will have to bun her hair up. Excitedly, she skips over and gathers Kurumi’s hair up in her hand, mimicking the bun. While they’re looking at each other, Kurumi leans down and kisses Seiru.
Sure enough, they meet up that night, playing with sparklers and setting off fireworks. Later, when they are cleaning up, Seiru asks Kurumi if she finds it strange - that by the time you realize you’ve fallen for someone, you’ve already set your heart on that person. She goes on to talk a bit more, but stops and turns around when Kurumi doesn’t respond. There is a sniffing sound; Kurumi’s crying. Seiru asks her what’s wrong, but Kurumi says it’s nothing, that she’s only tearing because of all the smoke.
In a later scene, Kurumi gets caught by their teacher using her mobile phone in class. She was looking at a picture of Maria-senpai. Kurumi rushes out of the classroom when lessons end. Seiru follows and calls out to her, but Kurumi ignores her and breaks into a run. Seiru chases Kurumi all the way to the soccer field, where she finally catches up. Kurumi apologises; Seiru says she doesn’t understand why Kurumi has to run away from it, because once stuff like pictures were deleted, everything would be fine, wouldn’t they? She says Kurumi’s kissed her before - she did that because she liked her (Seiru), didn’t she? But Kurumi answers that she really wants to fall for Seiru, because things might have been easier that way. She apologises again. Seiru hits her, calls her a liar and runs off.
When it’s time to leave for the holidays, Kurumi goes off with her friends, leaving Seiru behind - and alone.
At the start of episode 9, we see Seiru in the classroom, thinking about Kurumi. She walks over to Kurumi’s unoccupied seat, sits on it and rests her head on the table.
Then she leaves to find Maria-senpai, who teaches her some dance steps. After, Seiru confides in Maria-senpai, telling her that the person she likes likes Maria-senpai instead. To this, Maria-senpai admits that she has someone she likes, too, and Seiru says she knows (she’s referring to the guy Maria-senpai was seen with) but Maria-senpai says things aren’t like that, that her feelings are also unrequited. She then suggests they go to the pool.
In the pool (after they’ve had their fun splashing each other and such of course), Maria-senpai tells Seiru that she was in love with her senpai, who graduated the previous year. She says she wishes she had said it out then, told her senpai about her feelings, got ten rejected and then cried over it; because years later, that would have become a happy memory.
Alone, Seiru broods in the room she shared with Kurumi. Then we see her cycling furiously to the train station - she’s decided to visit Kurumi! Unfortunately for her, she reaches the station just as the train is leaving, and the next train would come almost an hour later. So Seiru decides to cycle there on her own. ^^;;;
When she finally reaches her destination, she calls Kurumi out to meet her and apologises for hitting her. She tells Kurumi to hit her back, but Kurumi simply touches her face. There’s a cute scene here where they talk about how much they’ve wanted to see each other, but I won’t go into details about that here.
Seiru tells Kurumi to hop on her bicycle, and she cycles all the way back to school again (heck, this girl has really strong legs!). When they get to the gate, Seiru tells Kurumi to confess her feelings to Maria-senpai, because she doesn’t want Kurumi to regret not doing so in future. Eventually, Kurumi agrees.
When it’s done, Kurumi joins Seiru at the swings. Kurumi muses over how the word ‘thank you’ also seems to mean ’sorry’ in this context. Seiru tells her she’s been very courageous, that she’s worked hard. Seiru starts swinging, then suddenly jumps off it. She faces Kurumi and says she likes her a lot, that she wants to say it out clearly, too. Kurumi thanks her, and says she likes Seiru a lot as well. Seiru smiles, then starts crying a little. Watching her, Kurumi begins to tear, too. They hug.
Seiru thinks to herself that this is special to her and that she’ll never forget everything that happened, because it’s the first time she’s managed to pluck up her courage to confess her feelings to the person she likes.
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