Episode 19

"
**It's just a misunderstanding / It's just a hallucination / It's just a narcissist / It's just a group decision for the school trip.**" is the seventh episode of the second season of the Komi-san wa Komyushou Desu anime series.

## Synopsis

Embarrassed by holding Tadano's hand, Komi decides to write a letter addressed to Najima explaining the situation. Tadano returns to school and tries to deduce whether or not Komi came to his house or not after he misdialed her. The self-absorbed and unctuous Naruse tries to talk with Komi, but practically fails at every attempt he tries to engage in conversation with her. A school trip is announced, and Komi hesitates about it due to a traumatic event.

## Summary

### It's just a misunderstanding

On the final night before winter break ends, Komi sits at her desk, filled with terror about Najimi possibly seeing her touch Tadano's hand, and also flustered that she even held Tadano’s hand in the first place. She tries to calm down, but then imagines an alternate version of the events in which Najimi clearly saw what happened and then smirked knowingly. Motivated by this, and too anxious to check with Najimi to see if they actually saw what happened, she decides to write a letter explaining the situation, in which she claims she only held Tadano’s hand as a sign of their friendship and had no ulterior motives. However, she quickly shreds the letter when she realizes that Najimi will twist the language regardless (but also assumes that Najimi would assume something lewd and not the more obvious implication that she likes Tadano). She eventually calms down when she rationalizes that hand holding isn’t that big of a deal, but gets flustered all over again when she realizes, to her, it WAS a big deal. Komi ends up staying all night deliberating, but manages to write a letter. The following day, Komi goes to Najimi’s shoe locker, intending to drop the letter there, only for Najimi themselves to catch Komi in the act. They quickly snatch the letter away and run off, jokingly declaring that it is a love letter. Komi lets this go since Najimi has the letter regardless, but then Tadano - who is feeling better but still recovering - arrives and greets Komi. This makes Komi realize that she is more concerned about him possibly finding out than Najimi doing so. Meanwhile, Najimi reads the letter, which simply states “I was just checking his pulse”, leaving Najimi confused.

### It's just a hallucination

The scene cuts back to Tadano’s perspective from earlier that day. After assuring Hitomi that he feels much better, he thinks back to Komi’s visit the other day. Because of his usual self-doubt that Komi would come visit him (despite having been to Tadano’s place in the past), and also because of how delirious he was that day, Tadano questions if Komi even stopped by. He then begins playing a scenario in his head of him thanking Komi for visiting, only for her to get creeped out as, in this version of events, she never came. Worried this would actually happen if he thanked her, and also realizing that he can’t ask Komi if she came by, he decides to ask Najimi if Komi was there, as he knows for a fact they were there due to the stuff they brought him. Arriving at school, he sees Najimi dash away with the “love letter”, leaving Komi behind. Since he can’t just ignore her, Tadano says hello, but she bashfully looks away. Eventually, she asks Tadano if his fever is better, but Tadano reasons that this could be because of the accidental call and not because of her coming over. Tadano says he feels better and apologizes for yesterday, doing it in such a way that it could go either way. He hopes to use this to see how Komi reacts and go from there, but her response is nervous, leaving Tadano at square one. As they walk down the hallway, Tadano asks her what Komi did “afterwards”. However, because of the open-endedness of the question, she believes he was inquiring about her touching his hand, and consequently thinks that he was conscious when she did so. Flustered, Komi runs away as fast as a track and field sprinter and hides in the bathroom, leaving Tadano in the lurks. Tadano then sees Najimi and asks them what Komi did yesterday, but going off of the letter, Najimi blankly answers that she was checking his pulse, leaving Tadano even more confused.

### It's just a narcissist

The narrator goes into a brief telling of the Greek myth of Narcissus, and explains how the word “narcissist” comes from it. As she does this, she then explains that a good example of a narcissist is a Class 1-1 student, Naruse Shisuto. Naruse spends his time at the back of the classroom, looking at his reflection in the mirror, fidgeting with his bangs, slouching in his chair, and listening to Justin Bieber. All of this is commented on sardonically by his sole actual friend and the student sitting in front of him, Kometani Chushaku. He also deludes himself into thinking that everyone is gathered around to see him, when in reality, they are all gathering around Komi. In fact, Naruse actually has a crush on Komi, believing that her extreme beauty makes him the only match for his own beauty, and this delusion causes him to not even notice that Tadano exists. However, he is perturbed since she hasn't approached him once since the school year started. At first, Naruse believes that Komi has social anxiety (something Kometani actually knows is the case with Komi), but he rules that out because he believes no one that attractive would have such a disorder. He then decides to approach and introduce himself to her; however, unbeknownst to him, the other classmates sense this and begin physically pushing him away so that he doesn’t get the chance to confess to her and ruin their own chances. As class exits, Naruse tries to deduce why everyone is trying to stop him from seeing Komi, but concludes they did so because that they were HIS fans and were trying to prevent him from seeing someone, not the other way around. He then spots Komi in the hallway, but Yamai stops him and whispers a virulent diatribe into Naruse's ear (similar to the one she gave Tadano when she first met him). Naruse continues to be stopped by each of his classmates throughout the rest of the day, including Nakanaka, Kishi Shinobino, and even Yadano. By the end of the day, Naruse concedes defeat to his “fans”. He decides to go to the restroom to cheer himself up by looking at his own reflection, all while the class eyes him and Kometani follows him. As he leaves, he drops his handkerchief, and Komi sees this. At the restroom, Naruse experiences a stress attack, causing his usual self-therapy to not work. He walks out into the hallway, where he encounters Komi, who returns his dropped handkerchief. As the day wears on, Naruse interprets this act as a way of Komi confessing her love for him. The following day, Naruse and Kometani confront Komi and Tadano in the hall. Without saying a word, Naruse holds out his phone, intending to exchange numbers with Komi. However, Komi doesn't understand what he is doing and merely touches his phone before walking away in a panic. Unable to register this, Naruse extends the invitation to Tadano instead. Tadano is confused by this, but Kometani assures him it is okay since, while Naruse may be full of himself, he isn’t a bad person. Tadano thus accepts the offer, and Kometani speaks over the narrator that Tadano made a new friend. That night, Naruse begins texting revealing selfies of himself to Tadano, much to Tadano’s dismay.

### It's just a group decision for the school trip.

The school trip to Kyoto is coming up, and so the Homeroom Teacher announces that the class with be deciding groups whom they will be put into for the trip. After school, Najimi and Tadano talk about the upcoming trip; Najimi is excited to have a great time having fun as always, while Tadano - revealing himself to be a fan of old architecture - discusses the places he would like to visit, boring Najimi. Tadano asks Komi where she's interested, but she is spacing out, and after some prodding, she answers its Ginkakuji. After this, Komi then says she must leave for a bit, which concerns Tadano. Afterward, the trio walk home and talk about their junior high field trips. Komi states that she went to Kyoto on that trip as well, making it her second time there. After Najimi leaves, Tadano asks if she's alright; in turn, Komi asks what he means. Tadano replies that she's been acting sad as the trip approaches, but Komi claims that she's fine. Tadano decides to let it go, but he still offers to lend an ear whenever she needs it, which touches Komi. When they go their separate ways at an intersection, Komi suddenly calls Tadano while they are on other sides of a corner. On the phone, Komi confesses that she lied to him and that, while the trip was to Kyoto, she never actually has been.

Komi then recounts how in middle school, in sharp contrast to her high school popularity, she was an outcast who no one was friends with and, on top of that, no one seemed to want to be friends with. When everyone was deciding groups for the Kyoto trip, she was the only one who didn’t get into a group. Forced to have her, the groups started playing games of rock paper scissors, and the group that came last ended up having to take Komi on. Distraught by their lack of interest in her compared to each other, and also unable to communicate her feelings to them properly, she was too scared to go on the trip, and is now worried that the same situation will happen this time around. Tadano assures her that this won’t happen, since she now has many friends and can just go with him and Najimi who value her over everyone else, but Komi reminds him that the groups are going to be sets of three people based on gender. Tadano then makes an offer: if she is excluded, the two of them will ditch the trip and hang out together instead. Komi refuses, as she knows Tadano really wants to go on the trip, but she is touched by his offers to value her over his own desires, as well as for listening to her story, and decides to go on the trip with renewed faith that even if something bad happens, she now has friends who truly value her.

The following day, when the homeroom teacher arrives and asks the students to form groups, Komi is swarmed by her female peers to join their group for the class trip, which touches Komi and Tadano. Having predicted it would come to this, the teacher has set up a lottery system for who goes with whom, disappointing everyone.

## Characters

*In order of appearance. Bold denotes debuting characters.*

* Komi Shouko
* Tadano Hitohito
* Najimi Osana
* Tadano Hitomi
* **Naruse Shisuto**
* **Kometani Chushaku**
* Chiarai Shigeo
* Ren Yamai
* Sonoda Taisei
* Shinobino Mono
* Omoharu Nakanaka
* Satou Amami
* Kishi Himeko
* Yadano Makeru
* Inaka Nokoko
* Agari Himiko
* Nene Onemine
* Otori Kaede
* Onigashima Akako

## Adaptation Notes

**This episode adapts the following material:**

* Manga Volume 8
	+ Communication 100: A Misunderstanding
	+ Communication 101: A Hallucination?
	+ Communication 102: The Narcissist
	+ Communication 103: Choosing School Trip Groups