Episode 3 Recap
It’s been days since Horikiri Chiyomi moved into Minami Shunichi‘s room. She’s still small and hasn’t return it to her original size. Standing on Minami Shunichi‘s desk wrapped in a tartan handkerchief, Horikiri Chiyomi daydreams about a kiss from a prince having the power to wake up a princess. In this day dream of hers, she lies lifeless on her bed with four elves by her side, in tears. The prince from a neighbouring country (Minami Shunichi) turns up to kneel by her side, “Please accept my love and come to life again” he asks her then proceeds to kiss her. The princess wakes. The elves cheers. The prince proceeds to ask her to marry him, which she accepts and they live happily ever after.
Back to reality, Horikiri Chiyomi wonders if a prince’s kiss could turn her back to her original size. Minami Shunichi (who in the middle of drying her blue Moon Bunny outfit) scoffs at the idea. He’s not rejecting the idea that a kiss could bring a princess back to life again, but at the idea that Horikiri Chiyomi possesses any qualities of a princess. Minami Shunichi goes on to ask who the prince is, which has Horikiri Chiyomi sheepishly deny having anyone in mind as her eyes moves up to look at Minami Shunichi. He asks her if it’s Takagi Riku, but he doesn’t let her reply. He carries on, saying he could understand how she could get carried away thinking a kiss of a prince could return her to original, but thinks she should think of a more realistic way to return to her original size.
Horikiri Chiyomi gets offended at his comment about her getting carried away and starts stamping her feet. She tells him that she is thinking seriously and that’s when the handkerchief around her body falls off with her bare body in full view. Minami Shunichi looks away quickly (but probably not quickly enough as it feels like he lingers just a split-second too long!). In the process Minami Shunichi burns his left hand as he forgets where he’s pointing the hairdryer.
After the incident with Horikiri Chiyomi losing her clothes, she and Minami Shunichi visit her parents’ place under the pretense of looking for some yearbook photos, but are actually on a mission to look for change of clothing in the form of doll clothes which are stored in a box, under the bed in Horikiri Chiyomi room. They find it, but seemingly fail to bring them back as Horikiri Chiyomi is seen wearing the same Moon Bunny outfit the next day. (Horikiri Chiyomi‘s sister, Horikiri Asuka, had paid Minami Shunichi a visit when he was looking at the box of doll clothes with Horikiri Chiyomi, causing him to stow the box of clothes back under Horikiri Chiyomi‘s bed for fear that she’d wonder what he wanted with a box of doll clothes.
No change of clothes retrieved from Horikiri Chiyomi‘s room, they go shopping for dolls’ clothes. She is brought along to attend her first class since her disappearance in Minami Shunichi‘s pocket before they head to a doll store. There at the store, he is given strange looks by the counter ladies behind him for seemingly having such a fussy interest in the doll clothes and talking to himself, not knowing he’s talking and showing them to Horikiri Chiyomi for approval. He picks a few out for her which she rejects for being not normal enough, not cute enough and weird. (It’s a scene to show how little he knows about women’s taste in clothing.) He picks a red dress with a side bow at the waist and an accompanying set of pearls as a necklace. She finally approves and they head out of the store.
They take a break and go buy ice cream at a cafe. Horikiri Chiyomi is enjoying her big spoonful of ice cream. It’s a great life for her in situations like these. She gets to eat more than usual she exclaims. Minami Shunichi sighs at her carefree attitude. He on the otherhand is worried about when she’s going to return to her normal size.
It’s understandable, too, since with her in his pocket, he looks like he’s talking to himself when he speaks to her and he’s made to go to places he normally doesn’t visit. He’s looking very suspicious to people like Horikiri Asuka and probably the Kendo Club member that keeps pestering him about returning to the club: he spotted Minami Shunichi in the doll store and had quite a surprised expression.
Horikiri Chiyomi apologises to him. It’s the fourth day, Minami Shunichi says. He then asks if Horikiri Chiyomi saw any signs of changing back. She tells him she doesn’t know before apologising again. He seems to accept it quite well as he tells her to hurry up and eat her ice cream before it melt. Seemingly it’s quite unlike Minami Shunichi as Horikiri Chiyomi stares at him in surprise before smiling and takes another bite of her ice cream.
As Horikiri Chiyomi enjoys her ice cream, Minami Shunichi suddenly recalls back to the story about the One-Inch Princess which his grandmother had told them. The One-Inch Princess didn’t stay small her whole life. She actually became big, got married, had children and became protective god of the people. The legend says that it was by shaking the lucky mallet on the night of the full moon that had turned her big. The mallet is said to bring one luck just by looking at it. If one makes a wishing on the night of the full moon whilst shaking it, it can grant the wish.
The idea has Minami Shunichi thinking. As he does so, Nomura Sayori shows up and is surprised to find him eating ice cream all alone after leaving class in such a hurry. She reaches his side. She bends down and tells him that he’s kind of cute sitting there having ice cream. The whole time, she’s not noticed that he hasn’t been listening to her. He’s busy thinking of a way to get into the shrine which holds the lucky mallet is. Nomura Sayori continues talking to him: she asks him if she could take a bite of his ice cream. Not waiting for his answer, she begins to take a bite of the ice cream, when suddenly, Minami Shunichi decides to stand. The ice cream hits her right in the chin.
Minami Shunichi finally registers Nomura Sayori‘s presence and quickly apologises. He doesn’t stop to help her clean her face, though. After apologising, he hands the ice cream to her and heads for the building in the shrine where the lucky mallet is.
The shrine is locked, but luckily Horikiri Chiyomi is small and is able to fit through the gaps between the wood bars of the window to unlock the door for them both to enter. They find the genuine sitting on a tray. Minami Shunichi takes hold of the mallet; Horikiri Chiyomi sits in front of him on the tray which held the mallet. The moment the full moon reveals itself, the mallet starts to glow. It’s time.
Horikiri Chiyomi clasps her hands together and wishes to return to her original size. Minami Shunichi follows her, pleading the mallet before he swings the mallet across to the left and right repeatedly.
Horikiri Chiyomi can’t believe it. With this mallet, she can finally go back to the world she lived and the life she used to have. She can go back to her family, to her friends Mikimoto Ami and Takagi Riku and to her dance. She then recalls the way she and Minami Shunichi used to be, the last thing he said to her, “I don’t like you anymore”. The mallet suddenly stops glowing. They failed.
The police enters at this point. Minami Shunichi‘s mother is called about his break-in. No charges seem to have been laid, though. He seems to have been let off, free to walk home with his mother. He seemed to have used his worries over getting into Med School and tuition as the reason he visited the shrine so late at night. With Horikiri Chiyomi in his pocket, she learns the truth of his family situation. She learns about the hardships he’s going through, how he’s worried about not being able to attend the Med School he wishes to attend because of their financial hardships and how he’s thinking about limiting his choices to universities with tuition waver programmes. She also hears that he’s been working hard to to protect his mother and grandmother. All of this has been the source of his uneasiness, worries and serious demeanor.
For a brief moment, the serious, heavily burdened Minami Shunichi returns; but his mother brings him out of it. His mother tells him that he can aim for a med school he wishes to attend and to not underestimate his mother because it’s super easy for her to send him off to the university he likes. This super optimistic declaration of his mother’s has Minami Shunichi break a smile. They then hurry home just before a storm blows in.
It’s raining hard, thunder is booming and lightning is flashing just like the night Horikiri Chiyomi suddenly became small. It has Minami Shunichi try recreating the night Horikiri Chiyomi disappeared and became small. He heaeds to the cave with her and the same clothes she wore that night. He plans to leave her, since that was how she was when she fainted from the sound of thunder and turned small, but Horikiri Chiyomi pleads against him doing so. She’s small and she might die before she even returns to being big again, she says to him.
Minami Shunichi stays through the night, just sitting leaned against the walls of the cave. Horikiri Chiyomi lays next to him in her small bed. She dreams of becoming big again, but when she wakes, nothing has changed. She’s still small.
It takes all Minami Shunichi‘s effort to return home with Horikiri Chiyomi. As soon as he does, he collapses onto the floor between the entrance hall and his living room. Horikiri Chiyomi crawls out from his pocket. The night in the cave has caused him to catch a cold and come down with a high fever. With no one home, there’s no one to help him. Fortunately, he does end up getting up moments later. He drags himself up the stairs, leaving Horikiri Chiyomi downstairs to try and help him bring his fever down.
As she watches him make his way up to his room, she thinks of getting into the fridge to get something to cool down his fever. The only thing is she’s too small and weak to open the door. She makes her way up the stairs, heaving and puffing. Seeing her, Minami Shunichi brings her up onto his bed to be by his side. She cries, pained and apologetic. She couldn’t bring him anything to ease his fever. She could only get herself back up to his room. Minami Shunichi wipes her tears and tells her to just stay where she sat, by his side on his bed.
Minami Shunichi sleeps throughout the whole day as Horikiri Chiyomi watches him struggle. His fever is still rising. He gets up only briefly during this time to see to the door. A couple of members from the Kendo Club has come to try convince him to re-join the Kendo Club. He turns them away before heading straight back up to his room with a small snack for Horikiri Chiyomi then falls back on to his bed to rest again.
Not long after he does so, the door bell rings. Minami Shunichi thinks it’s the Kendo Club members again, and thinks about ignoring them; but he remembers that he forgot to lock it. He starts to get up, but is stopped when he hears Nomura Sayori call him from inside his house. She’s invited herself in and coming up the stairs.
Horikiri Chiyomi quickly hides behind Minami Shunichi‘s school bag.
Nomura Sayori‘s come to check on him. She tells him she was worried so she came. She stays around to cook for him and bring down his fever. Horikiri Chiyomi watches from behind Minami Shunichi, feeling anger towards Nomura Sayori, but then it switches to concern followed by relief as well as her gaze moves to Minami Shunichi being taken care of.
Nomura Sayori stays by his side the whole evening, refreshing the towel on his head with water and placing it on his head as Hoririki Chiyomi continues to feel awful for not being able to do anything for Minami Shunichi. From behind the school bag, she sees Nomura Sayori move to steal a kiss while he lay asleep. She cries out for it to not happen. “Minami-kun!” she calls out to him in her head. She can’t watch. She covers her eyes with her hands.
Comments
What a horrible thing for Horikiri Chiyomi to have to hide and watch the whole scene between Minami Shunichi and Nomura Sayori. It’s fortunate Nomura Sayori turned up to take care of Minami Shunichi, but how we feel for her. Then that last scene where she watches Nomura Sayori lean over him to give him a kiss. Ahh!
We really like the interaction between Horikiri Chiyomi and Minami Shunichi at the opening of the episode. Minami Shunichi was talking normally to her and even made a joke and teased her about not having princess qualities. He’s really warmed up to Horikiri Chiyomi a lot more over the last few days. He’s listening to her go on about her fairy tale and drying her clothes. He doesn’t even get angry when he’s doing embarrassing things for her like helping her choose doll clothes.
We do wonder what it would have been like if the shaking of the mallet worked and it did turn Horikiri Chiyomi back to being big again. Would the relationship between them return back to the way was? It feels like his niceness is born from need to help her because she’s small and vulnerable. She’s in a situation she requires help and he doesn’t turn away from the vulnerable. But when she turns big again, there’s every possibility the relationship would slowly return to how it was before she turned small.
The idea to go to the cave in the storm to try and recreate the night of Horikiri Chiyomi‘s disappearance and becoming small, it felt like it came from not wanting Horikiri Chiyomi to know too much about his private matters. The mention of med school and his family’s financial situation seemed to cause him to come up with—what he himself called—a foolish idea.
In this episode, Minami Shunichi and Horikiri Chiyomi‘s relationship has improved by a mile. He’s much nicer to her, but it’s hard to tell if it’s because of the situation and the fact that she’s small and vulnerable or that he actually is warming up to her.
What’s also hard to tell is whether deep, deep, deep down inside, Minami Shunichi still has feelings for Horikiri Chiyomi. At the beginning of the episode where he questions Horikiri Chiyomi about Takagi Riku and whether he’s the prince she’s thinking of, it was sort of hard to tell whether he was teasing her about even having a prince to kiss her or if he was trying to find out who she liked and if it was Takagi Riku. Was he secretly curious about who she likes? There’s also every possibility that the purpose of the scene was to show Horikiri Chiyomi that the young Minami Shunichi who confessed to liking her and wished for them to be together forever no longer exists in the present Minami Shunichi. We like to believe it’s because he’s secretly curious. It makes us feel so much happier! :oD :oD.
That scene where Horikiri Chiyomi is crying on his bed for not being able to do anything for his fever, he went to actually went to wipe her tears. He definitely does not hate her. What a nice Minami–Chiyomi moment!
We really can’t wait to see how this story gets Minami Shunichi and Horikiri Chiyomi together. Wish this drama was longer! We’d happily sit and watch more than 10 episodes of this. We just love seeing the small Horikiri Chiyomi in the big world. Her doll dresses are so cute. Of course, we love seeing the relationship between Horikiri Chiyomi and Minami Shunichi progress!
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