Just Because is such an unusual little show.  The pacing here is so unhurried, so patient – and unorthodox, too, because it doesn’t progress in jumps from one meaningful event to another the most romantic dramas do.  I think the reason the downtime, the waiting game between moments of crisis, is given equal time with this series is because its the point of the story more than the “events” are.  It’s been a while since I’ve seen a teen romance that was more interested in the time spent worrying over relationships (and potential relationships) than the relationships themselves.

What do we see happening here?  Well, a few things seem clear.  Yoriko (have I mentioned I love her?  Sweatpants under a skirt – very hot) is pushing hard for Hazuki to give Haruto a real chance.  Not, I think, because she believes they have a real chance but because she wants her friend to experience at least one fleeting moment of high school romance.  And it seems as if Hazuki is very much thinking about it – Souma may have been too chicken to respond to her text for four days, but she did still send it – and I think it was more than an attempt to apologize for having rejected him.

That very much puts the onus on Mio to state her piece now if she’s ever going to do so – and she does manage to at least return the eraser (or at least an eraser) to Haruto.  He’s too clueless to pick up on what that means of course, but at some point he’ll either figure out or be clued in by Eita (or Mio himself).  Meanwhile Eita remains in a holding pattern, not saying anything to Mio, and Komiya continues to hound him – ostensibly for permission to use the photograph, though it’s becoming increasingly clear that another motive is developing there.

It’s a testament to how serious Eita is that he’s studying for the entrance exam for Mio’s preferred university, despite having gotten a recommendation (tantamount to an automatic acceptance) to another – and to how nuts it is that he still won’t come clean.  Eventually he challenges Haruto to a one at-bat standoff, ostensibly (there’s that word again) to force him to settle things with Hazuki, but Haruto demands that Eita put up a stake of his own.  We’ll never know if he would have followed through on it, since Haruto again wins in the end.

Ultimately this episode was a lot of kids not saying what they felt, saying one thing and meaning something else, and doing something for a hidden reason that was more important than their stated one.  Deception is the primary currency traded in adolescence, no question – self and otherwise.  The pattern with Just Because is for external event to be the trigger than finally forces things to move forward, for the truth to come out – and perhaps Mio seeing Komiya riding behind Eita (after having been nabbed by a cop for taking a photo without permission) that will force something to happen between Mio and Eita at last.  Haruto and Hazuki may be bad at returning messages, but their relationship is an open book compared to Eita and Mio – and that may finally be about to change.