The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity

Episode 3

There comes a point in life when you realize that people who aren't just like you are human, too. Gender, socioeconomic status, and strengths don't actually matter when it comes to people just being people, and a lot of the barriers society or smaller groups erect around themselves are as artificial as blue raspberry flavoring. All of this is to say that this is the week when Rintaro comes to the astounding understanding that Kaoruko is as human as he is, even though she attends Kikyo with some girls who think that boys in general and Chidori boys in particular are the mud beneath their shoes.

A lot of Rintaro's reticence comes from within, unlike what we've seen of the Kikyo girls. He's spent so long being beaten down that he's just conditioned to assume that people will think poorly of him. Every small kindness hits him like a ton of bricks, even something as seemingly mundane as Usami saying that he really wants to participate in sports day because Rintaro will be there. It's a pretty normal thing to say to a friend, but Rintaro clearly places outsize importance on Usami's off-the-cuff remark. Getting good grades would be nice, but it's not the be-all, end-all to him. But doing sports day with a friend? That's a reason to pull out all the stops and pass midterms. And really, that's the better reason – there comes a point in life when no one cares what your GPA was, but good friends don't have an expiration date.

It's Usami's words that give Rintaro the courage to ask Kaoruko to tutor him, but again, that comes after he recognizes her basic humanity. If he still thought of her as Rich Kikyo Girl, he might never have mustered up the nerve, but that he asks after she tells him that she's just a regular person from a normal family who got in on a scholarship, he finally feels like it's possible to be friends with her. Suddenly, he sees her as Kaoruko, someone more or less like him, and that's a person he can talk to.

The contrast between the moment when Rintaro realizes this and Subaru enters the scene is one of the strongest pieces of the episode. Kaoruko has gone out of her way to make it clear that she wants to be friends with Rintaro; it may originally have had something to do with the family cake shop, but she always saw him as a potential friend. (And maybe more, judging by all the blushing.) But Subaru just sees a Chidori thug corrupting her friend, and her rudeness and over-the-top reaction speak volumes. She despises Rintaro on sight based strictly on his gender and school affiliation. Unlike Kaoruko, who got to know him, she can only think of putting him in what she sees as his place and “protecting” Kaoruko from him. It's all the more frustrating because of Rintaro working to move past his own assumptions mere minutes before.

That said, there's probably more to Subaru's reaction than just snobbery. When Saku zeroes in on her silver hair, she flinches, and her body language when she's “protecting” Kaoruko screams “fear” rather than conceit. Kaoruko mentions that she knows Subaru has trouble with boys. That may indicate that she's been harassed or assaulted in the past, and given what we know about how Rintaro's bleached hair is treated, she's almost certainly been harangued for her looks, too. She seems to genuinely think she has to protect her friend, and Saku's poison-tongue remarks only drive that assumption home.

Rintaro knows a little something about reacting based on how you've always been treated. He's not going to let Subaru get in the way of being close to Kaoruko, but he's also not going to just let Subaru's assumptions stand, even if he's not thinking about it in those terms. He doesn't have to convince Subaru to let him see Kaoruko, but that he wants to, even in the small ways he does this week, shows once again what a good heart he has. Hopefully, others will be able to see that, too.

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The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity is currently streaming on Netflix.