Episode 5

## More Than a Nosebleed, but Less Than a Kiss.

* Episode
* Title Card

## Episode Chronology

****"More Than a Nosebleed, but Less Than a Kiss."**** (鼻血以上、キス未満。, *Hanaji Ijō, Kisu Miman.*?) is the fifth episode of the More Than a Married Couple, But Not Lovers anime series.

## Short Summary

While getting prepped for class duties, Jirō learns that he will be paired with Shiori and thus giving him an opportunity to get closer to her. Shiori had actually conspired with her friend, Mei Hamano, who was originally supposed to be paired with Jirō for class duties before deciding to give her place to Shiori. Despite the fact that the two are happily interacting with each other during the day, they do not progress romantically. Mei encourages Shiori to make the first move and kiss Jirō before the chance is lost. Meanwhile, Akari, who is concerned on why Jirō is not answering her texts, spots him with Shiori. Not wanting to interfere with Jirō's time with his crush, she leaves them alone. Shiori almost musters up the courage to kiss Jirō but she gets cold feet and changes her mind. Later that night, Jirō is reminiscing on his dorm's balcony before being joined by Akari, where they talk about his current standing with Shiori. During the conversation, Akari asks Jirō to call her by her given name to which he does after some convincing. However, Jirō backtracks and calls her by her surname again, saying that they should forget about what he just said. Akari rejects this and tells him to call her by her first name again before exclaiming that it was unfair that she is calling him by his first name which only makes it look like that she is the one in love between the two. The two were caught of guard by what she just said before Akari retreats back into her room, flustered and confused.

A few days later, the school announces a surprise testing period that will evaluate the academic performances of each couple. Jirō is worried as he is not sure how well Akari does in terms of academics. Although Akari had originally planned to skip studying to go out with friends, Jirō eventually convinces her to cancel so that they can study together. During their session, Jirō struggles to get his partner motivated to study but eventually succeeds in getting her to learn the material in the end. Akari is grateful to Jirō for tutoring her and begins to tease him with the intention to get him to admit that he is getting aroused. When Jirō resists her flirting and touching, Akari pushes him to the point that he begins to succumb to his desires. Noting Jirō's serious expression and lack of self-control, Akari attempts to stop him before she herself begins to succumb to his advances. The two nearly engage in an intimate moment but are interrupted when Jiro's nose began to bleed. After the incident, Jirō questions Akari's recent actions to which she nonchalantly says that she did it to help him relax since he is pushing himself too hard to keep up with Shiori. Jirō explains that he not doing it only for himself as he wants Akari to be with Minami as well and that by helping her with academics, he could feel that he is contributing towards the group's efforts since he believes that Akari is pulling most of the weight when it comes to the practical. Akari is taken aback by Jirō's words and appears saddened knowing that if they do succeed with switching partners, it will mean that they will go back to being just classmates.

## Plot

### Prelude

At their training dorm, Jirō informs Akari that he is leaving for class duties. Before he leaves, Akari decides to help him straighten his necktie but strangles him with it after he catches him staring at her chest. She then hugs him as she wishes him a good day. Before Jirō could return the hug, she stops it prematurely and reminds him to take out the trash. While Jirō sighs in disappointment, a point gets added to their score.

### Act 1

Jirō arrives at school and enters the classroom to find Shiori cleaning the blackboard. At first, he is confused because he thought that he was supposed partnered with Mei but Shiori tells him that Mei asked her to switch days with her because she had to attend the club president meeting after school. Jirō is happy at the prospect of being paired with his childhood crush while Shiori silently thanks Mei for giving her this opportunity.

Later that day, Shiori and Mei are eating lunch together outside where the latter learns that Shiori had failed to make any intimate progress with Jirō for the entire morning that they were together. Mei pushes for Shiori to confess to Jirō, saying that he is never seen talking to other girls but Shiori says him being only close to her and not other girls is precisely why she doesn't think that Jirō has feelings for her. Mei restates that she purposely switched days with her so that Shiori could get closer to Jirō and that she should kiss him to get him to notice her. This idea flusters Shiori, but Mei tells her to have more confidence before jokingly telling her that she risks losing Jirō to his practice wife.

At the same time, Akari is sitting in the school cafeteria eating lunch with Sachi and Natsumi. The trio gossip about how some pairs in the marriage practical are in real relationships. When Akari says that these pairs are just going with the flow of their predicaments, her friends then begin to tease her about her closeness to Jirō. Akari awkwardly rebukes this by praising Minami, which causes Sachi and Natsumi to realize that she has not given up on her chase for the boy's affections.

Jirō and Shiori begin to finish up the remainder of their class duties; first by hauling textbooks to the library and then returning to the classroom to clean the blackboard. While cleaning, Shiori strikes up a conversation to Jirō about an old teacher of theirs. Akari is then shown walking down the hallway and wondering why Jirō isn't texting her back after she had asked her to go shopping with her. She then spots Jirō in the classroom and attempts to call his attention, but stops herself when she sees that Shiori is with him. Remaining unnoticed and questioning herself on why she is hiding from them, she ultimately decides to leave the two alone after seeing Jirō happily interacting with Shiori.

As Shiori and Jirō continue wiping the blackboard, their erasers bump into each other and the two gaze into each other's eyes. Shiori then asks Jirō to bend down and close his eyes. Believing that the two are about to kiss, Jirō does what he is asked and hesitantly puckers his lips. Shiori then brushes his hair and tells him that it had some chalk powder in it. Jirō plays off the misunderstanding by giving a forced smile and thanking her for removing it but is internally embarrassed and disgusted with himself. As Shiori moves to the window to clap the erasers, she silently reveals that she couldn't go through with the kiss and apologizes to Mei for wasting the opportunity.

Later at night, Jirō is back home standing on the training dorm's balcony, thinking about the lack of progress he had with Shiori despite spending the entire day with her. Akari emerges from her bedroom and joins him, offering him some warm milk to which he accepts. Akari asks him if things went well with Shiori and then teases him when he lies about them being alright. The conversation then switches to the night sky where Akari notes the stars and how they would look prettier if Minami was with her. Jirō sarcastically apologizes for not being the boy of her dreams and says that the stars would be honoured if they were seen by Minami. Akari then requests him to call her by her first name which startles Jirō and causes him to spit out his milk. Akari argues that Jirō has called Shiori by her first name but yet does not call his own wife by hers. Jirō retorts by saying that Shiori is a unique case which is met with more teasing from Akari, who calls him out on being afraid to call a girl by her first name. Akari then briefly mentions the meaning of her first name which means either "star" or "bright" and further states that him calling her by her first name will give her confidence in times where she would need it.

After a brief moment of silence, Jirō suddenly forces himself to say Akari's first name which surprises the girl. He then goes on by saying that Akari's name suits her well unlike his own before repeating it once more. Akari stares at Jirō in disbelief over what she had just heard before Jirō changes his mind and tells her to forget about what he just said. Akari refuses and asks him to call her by her first name again. She further states that it is unfair that she was calling him by his first name and him not doing the same back would make it seem that she is the only one in love between the two. After another bout of silence, the two begin to register what Akari had just said. Akari attempts to nervously clarify that her being in love was hypothetically for the practical before she hastily retreats to her bedroom while wishing Jirō goodnight. She is later shown sitting in her room, confused and flustered over what had just happened.

### Act 2

At the school, the students are informed by their teacher about the drop in concentration since the practical began and it appears to be worse than the previous year. Noting that their academic performances are being negatively affected by the practical, she announces that their will be a spot check where the students will be given written tests. She clarifies that each couple will be evaluated based on their combined scores and that a failing score will result in both partners being required to attend mandatory extra classes. Jirō is horrified to learn this, knowing that he himself gets below average grades on some subjects while Shiori and Minami are expected to ace their tests. His worries then switch to Akari as he notes that she comes to classes but mostly to hang out with her friends and that he is unsure on how well she does academically.

After school, Jirō asks Akari what their study plans are for today only for the latter to say that she had made plans to go karaoke with her friends and some boys from another school. Jirō then asks her about the test to which Akari affirms that they will be alright and they will figure it out as they go. Her answer only worries Jirō who then asks her what subjects she is weak in. When he sees Akari struggle to even name the topics being tested on, he is unconvinced and tells her to come home with him so that they can study. Akari says she can't under the excuse that it was a boy who asked her out and that she cannot turn down an invitation from them. Jirō retorts by saying that he is also a boy who is inviting her. After some hesitation, Akari relents and chooses to go back home with her partner to study.

Meanwhile, Shiori is sitting in café where she is tutoring Mei for the upcoming test. Mei jokes that she will thank Shiori by for tutoring her by teaching her about kissing. This causes Shiori to get embarrassed and Mei further stokes the fire by making fun of the time that she did not go further with Jirō during class duty together around two days ago.

Back at the training dorm's living room, Akari throws a fit and demands that she gets a break from studying despite only solving a few of her math problems. Jirō learns that while she hates studying, she does pick up on the material quickly. Jirō then tells Akari to continue but she responds under her breath by confirming if all this effort is for Shiori's sake before playing with her mechanical pencil. Suddenly, Akari leans into Jirō and starts to fondle his shirt. She asks him if he wants to something other than studying which causes to Jirō to feel flustered. Although he hesitates, he manages to resist Akari's flirting and tells her that he wants to study. Akari then sighs in disappointment as her plan to get out of studying fails. Jirō then points out to her that she got some questions correct which motivates her to solve more problems.

After a long session, Akari is relieved that they are finally done studying and Jirō praises her for what she had accomplished. Akari returns the praise by thanking him and playfully calling him her teacher which incites a nervous reaction from Jirō., Akari takes note of this and asks Jirō if calling him the teacher is getting him aroused to which he denies and quickly tries to get the topic by dropped by telling her to clean up so that they can get something to eat. Akari follows this up by again calling Jirō the teacher and then rubs his arm. Seeing that Jirō is not getting worked up from her teasing, Akari becomes frustrated and suddenly lunges at him. In another attempt to get Jirō to admit that he is getting aroused, Akari is shown sitting between his legs while forcefully holding his arms around her. Noticing that Jirō is resisting, Akari takes it one step further by pressing her breasts against his chest and even giving him consent to peek at them. Still not getting the reaction she wants, Akari hugs Jirō which causes them to slip and fall on the couch. This results in them being in an intimate position where Akari is lying prone on the couch with her arms around neck the of Jirō, who is now on top of her.

After a few moments of silence, Akari tells Jirō that she can feel his heart racing to which Jirō finally admits to being true. Satisfied, Akari declares victory but her expression switches from smug to disturbed when she notices that Jirō has a serious, aroused look on his face. Akari realizes that she pushed Jirō too far with her teasing and that he is beginning to succumb to his desires. Akari nervously tells Jirō to get off of her but he does not appear to be listening as he now lost control of himself. Now in a vulnerable position, Akari pleads to him that they cannot go further but the unresponsive Jirō begins to caress her cheek, causing her to jitter. As Jirō continues with the intimate actions, Akari apparently begins to reciprocate his advances when she starts stroking his arm. Before anything further could happen, Akari alerts to Jirō that his nose is bleeding, which snaps him back to his senses.

The scene switches to a visibly irate Jirō folding clothes with a tissue up his nostril while Akari is laughing at him about his nosebleed. Jirō calls out Akari's recent behaviour towards him but Akari brushes it aside, saying that she did it because she felt he was pushing himself too hard to keep up with Shiori and wanted him to take a breather. Jirō retorts by saying that he is doing it not just for himself but also for Akari to get together with Minami. He further states that although he is holding Akari back since she is the one who usually earns points for them, he felt that he could least be more useful by contributing to their progress via academics. Taken slightly aback by his response, Akari tells Jirō not to talk so confident with a tissue up his nose which annoys the boy as he focuses back to folding his clothes.

Akari is then seen with a sad expression on her face, pondering on what will happen once the two decide to switch partners. She notes that if they were to switch, she will no longer be able to welcome Jirō home or wish him a good day. She then focuses her attention to her clothes and begins to smell her blouse, noting that they will no longer share the same scent as Jirō's once they part ways. Akari wonders if this is the way things are supposed to go before reminding herself that everything they are doing together is just practice after all.

### Post-Credits

Jirō is shocked to learn that Akari had outscored him on their Japanese test. Apparently one of the tasks was to imagine something more fun than studying and then to write it down. Unfortunately, Jirō could not write anything appropriate since all he was able to think about was when Akari was seducing him during their study session.

## Characters In Order Of Appearance

* Jirō Yakuin
* Akari Watanabe
* Shiori Sakurazaka
* Mei Hamano
* Natsumi Ōhashi
* Sachi Takamiya
* Sadaharu Kamo *(No Lines)*
* Minami Tenjin *(No Lines)*

## Anime & Manga Differences

* In the anime, Mei and Shiori are eating lunch outside while in the manga, they are shown eating lunch in a classroom.
* In the manga, Akari praises Minami's English speaking pronunciations while gushing about him to Sachi and Natsumi,. This was not mentioned in the anime.
* Shiori tutoring Mei in the café is exclusive to the anime.