Filthy Casual for Life

SERIES SUMMARY

Hotaru Hinase is a first-year high school student who treasures her family and friends above all else. Unable to understand romance, she decides she will be content living without the experience of falling in love.

While Hotaru is spending time at a cafe with her close friend, she witnesses the relentless breakup of a handsome honor student, Hananoi. Encountering him sitting alone in the snow on her way home, she extends her umbrella to him in a gesture of kindness.

The very next day, Hananoi appears in Hotaru’s classroom, asking her to be his girlfriend. Despite being rejected, Hananoi sticks closely by Hotaru’s side, performing selfless acts in hopes of pleasing her. Hotaru begins to feel emotions she had never felt before. Believing that these emotions could blossom into love, Hotaru agrees to date Hananoi.

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EPISODE ONE: NICE TO MEET YOU

At a cafe, a couple is sitting at a table. The male is telling the female that he either didn’t give her enough love, or she wasn’t his soulmate. She splashes water in his face setting the scene for a nasty breakup.

At a different table, our protagonist, Hotaru, and her friend, Kyo, are eating parfaits. They turn around to observe the break up. Kyo notices the male as a classmate, Hananoi. She concludes that even the ultra-handsome goes through terrible breakups. Hotaru makes it clear that she can’t be bothered with love if it meant caring about someone more than family and friends. After eating their snacks, the two girls part ways. On the way home, Hotaru notices Hananoi sitting on the bench collecting snow on his shoulders. Out of a gesture of kindness, she covers him with her umbrella and tells him he’s going to catch a cold.

The very next day, Hananoi seeks out Hotaru. In front of the whole class, he introduces himself to Hotaru, confesses his feelings, and asks her out.

Hotaru politely declines. The next day, Hananoi is waiting for her outside the station. She asks him why when she declined his request. He tells her that he should give her a chance to get to know him first. He walks with her to school. She overhears students behind her talking about how they thought she would be prettier. She’s distracted with that conversation while Hananoi is trying to gather more information about her. Hananoi is asking what kind of hairstyles she likes. She thinks and decides she likes short hair because it’s easier to take care of. Hotaru asks why he likes her. He explains it was her kindness with the umbrella.

The next day, Hotaru is looking at an advertisement for special meat buns at the cafeteria. Hotaru is holding a box of documents when Hananoi shows up and offers to carry the box for her. As she looks up, she notices something very different about Hananoi. He cut his hair!

He asks if it is more to Hotaru’s liking. She immediately retorts that she thought they were talking about HER hair and not his. As they walk to the faculty room, she apologizes to Hananoi because she doesn’t know what it means to have special feelings for someone. It is apparent that she feels guilty he is trying so hard. Hananoi counters with the proposal that she go out with him to see what it is like. She tells him that people like her have no business falling in love, but Hananoi doesn’t let that train of thought derail him. Instead, he counters that there is no such thing as someone who shouldn’t fall in love.

At lunch, her two best friends made other plans leaving Hotaru alone. As they walk off, Hananoi walks up and asks her to eat lunch with him. Guilty because she has already turned him down once, follows him to the stairs. He then offers her the cafeteria’s special braised pork bun. Of course she wanted it! Being the sweet girl that she is splits it with Hananoi.

As they are eating, she notices he isn’t wearing his earrings. He tells her that he thought she probably didn’t like flashy things like his earrings. Once again, she tells Hananoi that he doesn’t need to change himself for her. However, the sentiment flies right over his head. Hananoi tells her he will put his earrings back in if it bothers her. As he reaches for them, he notices one is missing.

While talking to her friends in gym class, she ponders why Hananoi is doing so much for her. Her girlfriends tell her it is because he wants her to like him back. Another classmate runs up and asks if anyone has hair pins. Hotaru lends her two hairpins with stars. While she is running in gym class, she has thoughts of Hananoi. Why is he doing so much? Why doesn’t he think of himself more?

At the end of the school day, Hananoi stops by her class to walk her home. She tells Hananoi that she has to look for something. Her classmate lost one of her hairpins. However, when they go outside to look for it, the track is covered in snow making it impossible to search. Later at home, Hotaru is thinking about the hair pin and decides she will go early in the morning to look for it. Just as she decides, her phone starts to ring. A call from Hananoi. He asks her if her hair pin had a ribbon. She tells him it has a star. When she asks him where he is at, he tells her he isn’t at the school. She knows better. She immediately runs out to find Hananoi.

She arrives at the school to find Hananoi bent over in the snow, wet and cold, looking for her hairpin. Hotaru tells him she still doesn’t understand his feelings and why he would go to such lengths. He replies that he wanted to make her smile.

Kneeling in the ground, he tells Hotaru to head on home and not worry about him. He continues his search. Hotaru drops her umbrella and hugs him from behind. She asks him to stop. When he comments that he even gets a hug from her, she swivels him around and calls him a dummy. She rips his glove off to find raw hands from the cold snow. Hotaru tells him that if he gets sick, she won’t be happy at all. Hotaru tells him he could die. Without much thought, Hananoi responds that if he made her smile, he would die happy. Hotaru gets mad and tells him she doesn’t want to fall in love if only one person gets to be happy.

She grabs his hand and takes him into the school. She barges into the teacher’s lounge and asks for a towel and a blanket. She sits him in front of the heater and dries his hair.

A few days later, her friends notice that Hananoi hasn’t been around. She admits that they got into a fight. He starts to come down the hall and ignores her. At the end of the day, he is waiting for her. He apologizes for bothering her and tells her he won’t bother her anymore. However, he wanted to give her one last thing. He found her hairpin. She tells him that it was a present from her family. She asks him if he knew it was special to her. He replies that he noticed she has a lot of special things she uses all the time so he figured she’d be sad if she lost the hairpin.

Hotaru comes to the conclusion that Hananoi treasures what is important to her. If that is what it means to love, that is a wonderful thing. Hotaru then hands him his missing earring. He immediately puts it back on. She tells him to take care of the things that he likes. He apologizes and looks sad. She notices it and thinks it is cute. The emotion catches her by surprise. As he walks away, she grabs his coat arm. She tells him she never once NOT liked him. She admits she’s not in love with him, but asks him if he thinks she can fall in love someday. He tells her he knows she will. As he walks away again, she asks him if he was serious about giving it a try.

He asks her if she is willing to go out with him. She nods yes. She wants to give it a try. He immediately embraces her and tells her that he’s happy.

THOUGHTS

YES! This is going to be a good one. I feel it in my bones. I can only hope that they teach each other how to grow a healthy relationship. As it stands now, Hananoi is over-the-top and has grandiose ideals of what love should be. He sacrifices himself for the other person which probably leads to pushing the other person away. Hotaru’s indifference to love will hopefully reign in Hananoi so that he isn’t as self-sacrificing. She has already told him that being in love is not worth it if it only means one person is happy. She’s already teaching him love is a two-way street.