Episode 2

## Imagined, but Not Real.

* Episode
* Title Card

## Episode Chronology

****"Imagined, but Not Real."**** (妄想以上、現実未満。, *Mōsō Ijō, Genjitsu Miman.*?) is the second episode of the More Than a Married Couple, But Not Lovers anime series.

## Short Summary

To earn more points for the practical, Akari wakes up Jirō in the middle of a stormy night and forces him to spend time with her by watching scary movies together and wearing matching pyjamas. Suddenly, the power is knocked out and the two are stranded in living room since the doors to their bedrooms require electricity to unlock. As Akari is afraid of the dark, Jirō tries to comfort her but only makes things worse. Eventually, the two share a tender moment by watching a flame-less aromatherapy candle before falling asleep together on the couch. Later at school, the scores are released and the duo learn that reached B-Rank. However, they are shocked to find out that Shiori and Minami are one of the worst scoring couples.

Jirō later catches a cold and Shiori unexpectedly arrives to take care of him. Meanwhile, Akari is hanging out in with her friends, Sachi Takamiya and Natsumi Ōhashi. While her friends appear to happily chat away, Akari seems to be distracted over Jirō. As Jirō falls asleep, Shiori nearly kisses him but stops herself under the excuse that they are not married. Having received encouragement from Jirō before he went to sleep, Shiori decides that she will do her best on the practical. A flashback reveals that Jirō intended to confess to Shiori in middle school but stopped himself short when Shiori accidentally friend-zoned him. Later that night, Akari returns home and Jirō recovers from his illness. It is revealed that Akari was the one who called Shiori over and Jirō thanks her by promising to help her get closer to Minami. Instead of happiness, Akari appears to be saddened and annoyed by Jirō's words.

## Plot

### Prelude

On a stormy night, Jirō is sleeping in his room and is dreaming about Shiori. However, his dream is interrupted when Akari shouts for him to wake up. Jirō, who is annoyed from being woken up like this for the second time, opens the door and tells Akari that her waking him up suddenly cannot start becoming a pattern. Akari suddenly clings onto Jirō and with a nervous look, asks that he stays with her just for tonight.

### Act 1

The scene switches to a horror movie where a jump-scare causes Akari to scream in terror. Jirō questions Akari on why they are in the living room, watching a horror movie so late a night and she responds by saying that doing this activity will help them earn an A-Rank on the practical. Upon seeing that Akari is forcing herself to watch the film, Jirō is unconvinced that the plan will work and in spite of Akari's objections, he turns off the TV. Akari questions Jirō if he is willing to put in the effort to earn points for the practical so that he can be with Shiori, to which he affirms. Happy to hear this, Akari puts into action her next plan to earn points; by having them wear matching pyjamas.

Despite being asked by Jirō to undress in her room, Akari refuses to leave the living room and shamelessly begins changing clothes in front of him. Jirō averts his eyes and decides to change in the living room as well. As they are both getting dressed into their pyjamas, a lighting strike suddenly causes the power in the dorm to go out. Panicked by what just happened, Akari quickly latches onto Jirō and the boy's flustered reaction adds a point to the couple's score. Now in complete darkness, Jirō decides to use his smartphone's flashlight to illuminate the room. Akari shouts at Jirō not to do so but warns him too late and he turns on the flashlight to show her tear-covered face. Embarrassed from being seen by her partner in such a vulnerable state, Akari quickly covers Jiro's eyes with her hands and yells at him to look away.

Akari and Jirō learn that they are locked out of their bedrooms because the fingerprint scans on their doorhandles do not work without electricity. With no other choice, the duo is forced to stay in the living room until the power comes back on. While sitting together on the couch, Akari, who still feels uneasy over being in the dark, asks Jirō to tell her a story in a likely attempt to ease her stress. This backfires when Jirō begins to tell a horror story, which spooks Akari and causes her to angrily insult him. Jirō apologizes and Akari retorts by saying that Minami wouldn't do something so mean to her. Akari then holds Jirō's hand and states that since he is the only one available at this moment, he should at least try be someone she could depend on. Her actions and comments confuse Jirō as he questions himself on whether Akari was being serious or was just teasing him.

Akari later finds a flame-less aromatherapy candle that was given to her by her friend, Natsumi and turns it on. As the sweet fragrance from the candle fills the room, Akari leans into Jirō and begins to feel drowsy. Jirō, who seemed happy watching her, calls her name. When she warmly responds to him, he unwittingly embraces her and calls her cute. During the embrace, Jirō suddenly registers what he just said and gets embarrassed, wondering if Akari had heard it. To his relief, he sees that Akari had already fallen asleep. While watching Akari sleep, he reaffirms his comment that Akari was cute, holds her hand, and wishes her goodnight before falling asleep himself. Unbeknownst to him, Akari had actually heard what he said and silently questions what he meant by that.

The next scene switches to the school where all the students gather to see the current ranking positions for the practical. Jirō and Akari placed 12th, putting them in B-Rank. Meanwhile, Sadaharu and his partner, Satsuki Kaneyama, got placed in C-Rank. Most surprisingly, Minami and Shiori got placed in E-Rank which shocks both Akari and Jirō.

### Act 2

In the aftermath of practical scores being released, Jirō reflects on the current situation and holds mixed feelings concerning Shiori's low ranking. On one hand, he is happy to know that she and Minami are not getting along. On the other hand, he realizes that no matter how well he and Akari perform on the practical, he cannot partner with Shiori if she does not achieve A-rank. Some time later while cleaning the bathroom, Jirō accidentally slips in the bathtub and douses himself with water, catching a cold in process.

The scene switches to the school's music room, where Shiori is watching Mei play the piano. Shiori confides in Mei that she is worried over Jirō being sick and about her current performance on the practical. Shiori is also aware that it was her fault for her low ranking because she is not good with people she doesn't know.

Back at the dorm, an ill Jirō is resting in bed. He is slightly disappointed that Akari decided to hang out with her friends instead of staying home to take care of him which also could have earned the pair more points. The doorbell rings and Jirō gets up to answer it. At first he thought it was Akari and was slightly happy at the prospect of her coming home early to nurse him back to health. Upon opening the door however, he is surprised to see that it was Shiori.

Meanwhile, Akari, Sachi, and Natsumi are shown hanging out in a café. While Sachi and Natsumi are happily chatting, Akari does not partake in their conversation and appears to be mentally distracted. The trio then receive a batch of pancakes to share and Natsumi makes a comment saying that the pancakes are similar to soft lips of a prince. Akari, who was suddenly reminded about her kiss with Jirō, quickly denies the comparison. Sachi and Natsumi then tease her, saying that her denying it meant that something must have happened between her and Minami after that one night they did karaoke but she also denies this. As she is eating, Akari silently questions herself on why she is thinking about Jirō.

The scene switches back to Jirō's bedroom where Shiori reveals to Jirō that it was Akari who contacted her and requested that she look after him. Shiori first replaces Jirō's forehead press before heading into the kitchen to cook a meal for him. While she is in the kitchen, Jirō reminisces about the incident that happened between them during their second year of middle school. A flashback shows a younger Jirō and Shiori sitting on a bench where he had just learned that she is switching to another school and was moving away. At that moment Jirō intended to confess his feelings to her, but stopped short when Shiori asked if they could always stay friends even if they live far away from each other. Jirō apparently decided not to confess because he thought that Shiori had friend-zoned him and begins contemplating if he may be getting the wrong idea again now that Shiori is taking care of him.

Shiori returns to the bedroom with rice porridge, which Jirō happily eats. After finishing his meal, Jirō remarks that Minami is lucky to eat Shiori's cooking every day but Shiori retorts by saying that they take turns cooking. Jirō says that they work well together compared to him and Akari especially considering that Akari does all of the cooking. The conversations moves on to Shiori's ranking on the practical, where Jirō says that he is willing to do anything to help her. Shiori repeats the same thing she said to Mei, that she is not good with boys she doesn't know and purposely puts distance between her and her partner due to anxiety. Shiori then states that it might have been better if she was partnered with Jirō, which stuns him. She then tries to pass this off as a joke but this pushes Jirō to give a passionate speech to her, telling her to have confidence in herself and that he knows that she will do her best. During the speech, Jirō called Shiori by her first name, which surprises her. Jirō then becomes embarrassed from what he just said and hides under his bed covers.

As Shiori is washing the dishes, Jirō is lying in bed, thinking about the possibility of Minami and Shiori getting along, until he falls asleep. Shiori enters Jirō's room and watches him as he rests, saying that she is happy that he finally called her by her first name. Shiori then leans over Jirō, bringing her face closer to his.

Back at the café, Sachi and Natsumi gossip about Shiori, hearing rumours that she was not getting along with Minami. The two remind Akari that Shiori is a beautiful girl and that if she gets along with Minami, Akari will lose her chance with him. Akari, who remained relatively quiet and somewhat distracted, nonchalantly agrees with them, saying that it is a possibility.

Back at the dorm, Shiori stops herself from kissing Jirō under the excuse that they are not married to each other. The scene then returns to the flashback of Shiori and Jirō sitting on the bench. After Jirō had agreed to remain friends, Shiori later told Jirō that she planned to visit since the place she was moving to was not very far away. Before she could ask Jirō if they could go together to see the Christmas lights by the train station, Jirō abruptly ended the conversation by saying there was something he had to do and left Shiori alone. That was the last time the two saw each other until Shiori moved back for high school. As the flashback ends, Shiori questions if Jirō is willing to hear her out till the end should she attempt to try her hardest again.

At night, Akari returns home from café and is in the bathroom taking a shower. Jirō, who had recovered from his cold, talks to Akari through the door. He asks her if she called Shiori drop by and take care of him, to which she confirms in a rather cheeky manner. Jirō then tells Akari that he will work harder to be a better husband to her so that he can bring her and Minami closer together. Jirō then thanks her for giving him the opportunity to spend some time with Shiori before heading to bed. Akari, who was stunned by Jirō words, tells herself that it was great to hear, but unnervingly wonders why she feels so annoyed about it.

### Post-Credits

Mei is sitting in the bathtub reminiscing about Shiori and seems to be frustrated regarding the girl's constant fawning over Jirō. Eventually, she decides that despite this, she still loves seeing Shiori's revitalized spirit after their conversations, saying it makes her look cute.

## Characters In Order Of Appearance

* Jirō Yakuin
* Shiori Sakurazaka
* Akari Watanabe
* Natsumi Ōhashi
* Sadaharu Kamo
* Mei Hamano
* Sachi Takamiya *(Unnamed)*

## Anime & Manga Differences

* In the manga, Akari said she got the flame-less aromatherapy candle from a friend. The anime expands this further by revealing that it was Natsumi who gave her the candle as gift to celebrate the two-year anniversary of their friendship.
* The scene with Shiori and Mei in the music room is exclusive to the anime.
* Sadaharu and his partner were placed in C-Rank in the anime. However, in the manga, Jirō said that they were B-Rank.
* Sadaharu's full name was revealed when it was displayed on the postings chart in the anime. This was not the case in the manga in which his full name was revealed in Chapter 8.
	+ The full name Sadaharu's partner is also revealed on the postings chart in the anime as Satsuki Kaneyama. The manga does not reveal his partner's first name until Chapter 54. The manga also has yet to reveal Satsuki's surname.
* While the manga does not explain how Jirō got sick, the anime shows that he caught his cold when he slipped in the bathtub and doused himself with water after accidentally turning on the shower head.
* The interactions between Sachi, Natsumi, and Akari in the café are different. In the manga, Sachi and Natsumi noticed that Akari seemed troubled and sympathized with her when she lied and said that her dog was sick. In the anime, Akari was instead teased by Sachi and Natsumi, who assumed that something happened between her and Minami that night they went out to karaoke.