The fourth episode of the drama series "Chihayafuru: Meguri" (NTV, Wednesdays at 10 PM), starring actress Ami Touma, aired on July 30th. The episode featured a scene where Meguru (Touma) and Kaze (Jun Saito) of the Umezono Karuta Club, who were participating in a joint training camp with Hokuo Academy, were talking alone at night, which caused a stir on social media.
◇The following contains spoilers.
In episode 4, the Umezono Karuta Club holds a three-day, two-night joint training camp with Kitao Gakuen, one of Tokyo's leading schools. At the camp, Umezono is greeted by Kitao Karuta Club alumnus "Hyoro-kun" Kinashi Hiroshi (Sakaguchi Ryotaro) and current Kitao students. The club's ace and captain, Okuyama Sho (Riku Onishi), was promoted to Class A in his first year of junior high school and is a talented player tipped to become a future master. He is the twin brother of Okuyama Haruma (Takamura Yoshito). However, Sho, ashamed of his Class C brother, doesn't want everyone at Kitao to know, so he calls Haruma and tells him, "If they start to find out, I'll have you go home in a second."
Umezono is exhausted, unable to keep up with Kitao's hard training. Even in the team match, they are overwhelmed by Kitao's speed and loud cheers, resulting in a crushing defeat. Meguru doesn't understand why Kitao keeps calling out to each other, and Yono Sota (Soma Santoki) expresses a sense of crisis about the current lack of players, saying, "There are only four of us, so I think the problem goes beyond the cheers." Later, Haruma, unable to play in the match due to unexplained dizziness, feels responsible and leaves the training camp, but after hearing a voice message from Meguru and the others, he returns and challenges Kitao in the team match. Although the Umezono Karuta Club is completely defeated by Kitao, everyone praises Haruma for fighting to the end... and so the story unfolds.
That night, Meguru and Fuki couldn't sleep, so after buying some drinks, they enjoyed the night breeze. When Fuki offered to exchange the water he had bought for the strawberry milk Meguru had bought by mistake, Meguru thanked him and said happily, "Well, looking back, all we did at this camp was play karuta. But I don't know why, I feel like I'll never forget it." Gazing at Meguru's profile, Fuki looked up to the sky and said, "I probably won't forget either." Later, when Sota saw Fuki's strawberry milk, he asked, "Huh? I thought Shirano-kun doesn't like sweet things?" Fuki replied, "Yeah, but you never know," and then, gazing at Meguru walking ahead, he muttered, "Maybe she actually likes it."
On social media, many people expressed excitement over the exchange between Kazuki and Meguru. Comments included, "It's so romantic and shocking," "It's youthful!", "I feel like I'm going to throw up lol," "A premonition of love...!?", and "I'm not good with sweet things, but it made my heart flutter that they exchanged messages."
