Episode 5

## Can We Spend Our Mornings Together...?

**Can We Spend Our Mornings Together...?** (一緒に朝活できるかな…？, *Issho ni Asa Katsu Dekiru ka…?*?) is the fifth episode of the A Couple of Cuckoos anime series.

## Plot

Due to a picture that was reported to her school principal, Erika is expelled from her school and is forced to attend Nagi's school. This makes complications arise as Hiro starts to become rather friendly with Erika.

## Summary

On a bright sunny morning, Erika finds a lethargic Nagi lying on the couch, who notes his desire not to attend school. However, Erika insists that Nagi goes, and he does. On his way, he internally reveals that he's depressed to go to school after Hiro rejected him because she's engaged. Riding on a train, Nagi thinks about going to school for the first time after the rejection and contemplates whether or not Hiro was trying to tell him something. As he does this, Hiro appears as if he is going to vomit, scaring those around him, but manages to withhold himself from doing that.

Arriving at the school library, Hiro meets him and notes how she studied his work pattern. Nagi interprets this as Hiro liking him, then asking him to study with her, which corroborates one of his thoughts that she wants him to take her away from her fiance. Because he's so tense, Nagi asks Hiro a series of questions, and it doesn't relieve Nagi whatsoever. Nagi then tries to excuse himself to the bathroom, but trips over his chair and falls onto the ground spilling the books out of his bag. One of the books was a shrine stamp book, and Hiro also had her book. Hiro doesn't like shrine stamps; she considers herself a collector of them in her own words. Hiro shows Nagi some of her favorite stamps, and Nagi thinks she's an otaku for them. When asked by her if he often goes to collect stamps, Nagi lies that he does it with his mom and hides the fact that he wants to skip school and visit shrines. Looking through Nagi's book, Hiro finds a super rare stamp that she could not get due to attending a memorial. Curious to know how many stamps Nagi has collected so far, Nagi answers forty-two, but Hiro has collected a hundred eighty-seven. This leads to a bit of a back and forth between them in their contest between them. Once the school bell rings, Nagi leaves for class, and Hiro stops him commenting that he's a lot of fun, and asks to continue having morning sessions with him.

In class, Nagi reflects on how awesome the day went. This leads him to believe that they will get married one day. Once the homeroom teacher arrives, he announces that they will have a new classmate. Internally, Nagi had hoped to tell Hiro the following day about his fiance so they could both break their engagements together. In a shocking twist, the new student turns out to be Erika.

Later outside, Erika talks with Nagi about why she's now attending his school. Erika was expelled from her old school because a friend of hers reported the accidental photo taken of them that was uploaded online to their principal. She found out about the expulsion was the same day that Nagi collapsed from his cold. By her father's suggestion, Erika was enrolled in Nagi's school, and the rest is history. Feeling guilty for being partly to blame for the incident, Nagi mentions how cruel her friends were for having her expelled by reporting the photo to her school. This remarks a comment from Nagi claiming that Erika has some friends, but she comments that she doesn't have any friends. Erika then changes the subject making Nagi promise to reveal to anyone that they're engaged.

Putting away his shoes in his shoe locker, Nagi laments over his current predicament and overhears people talking about Erika. Nagi then heads to class and finds many students surrounding his classroom where Erika was, but nearly no one dared to approach her. Although Nagi was tempted to come and talk with her, Hiro approached her and started a conversation with her. At first, Nagi likes this, but then realizes it'd be terrible if they become friends. As Hiro leaves with Erika to give her a school tour, Nagi stalks them. He watches them as they're approached by a swarm of their female peers who want to take pictures of them together. Nagi tries to grab Erika's attention throughout the day, but fails every time.

At the end of the day, Nagi hopes to have the chance to talk with Erika; this plan, however, fails when Erika and Hiro decide to walk home together. When an opportunity strikes, Nagi tries to go for it but gets hesitant to do so when he recalls Erika talking about her "friends". Nagi realizes that this is the first time Erika has made a true friend, and seeing Hiro cry makes Nagi believe that Erika did something wrong. Coming out of his hiding spot, Nagi tries to defend Erika, but is told by Hiro that she's, in fact, a huge Erika fan and hugs her. Hiro then shows off many photos that Erika posted, and her favorite one was one that Nagi took. Curious to know why Nagi knows Erika, she reveals that he's a fan of hers too, which makes Hiro apprehensively state that she's a bigger fan of Erika.

While they all walked home, Erika revealed that she had trouble keeping up in class due to how far it was from her old school. Hence, Hiro suggests that Hiro join her and Nagi's morning study sessions.

## Characters

* Erika Amano
* Nagi Umino
* Hiro Segawa
* Namie Umino (Mentioned)
* Souichirou Amano (Phone)
* Shion Asuma (Debut)