More Than a Married Couple, But Not Lovers – Episode 2 Recap & Review

Imagined, but Not Real

Episode 2 of More than a Married Couple, but Not Lovers starts with Akari waking up Jiro from a dream where he was just about to kiss Shiori. Since she was watching a horror movie, she asks him to stay the night with her as she was getting scared. Jiro is shocked at the request but agrees to do so in order to help his partner.

Jiro wonders why Akari was watching a scary movie if she was so creeped out by it. Akari defends that she was only doing this to so rack up their points as her friend had told her that couples who watched horror films together scored well. Since she is too scared, Jiro turns the tv off. Akari surprises Jiro with matching pyjamas for the couple to wear. Akari begins changing into her pyjamas right there in the living room and asks Jiro not to turn around to look at her.

Jiro is alarmed initially but he too starts changing into his night suit. Suddenly the power goes out leaving Akari shocked. Without having worn her clothes properly, Akari hugs Jiro and the hormonal teenager is shocked by the feel of breasts. He tries to calm himself down and focuses on helping Akari as she is scared.

Jiro uses his phone to turn the flashlight on but Akari stops him from looking at her because she had been crying. Akari asks Jiro to sit close to her and tell her a story in order to distract her. Jiro begins narrating another horror story and Akari is all the more scared. Akari lights up a candle in the room that Natsume gave her as she starts falling asleep to its sweet smell.

Jiro hugs her and is alarmed by his own words when he calls Akari cute. Since a week has already passed, the grades are out and Jiro is shocked to learn that he and Akari had jumped up from E to B grades. Akari tells him that Minami and Shiori had gotten an E grade which was just as bad for them. If both couples who wanted to switch their partners did not have a high rank, the students would not be able to switch partners.

Jiro starts worrying about Shiori and does not know why she scored so low considering she was rather close to Minami. At school, Shiori tells Mei that she was not very comfortable with Minami. She wished to be paired up with a friend because she had trouble talking to strangers. Shiori explains that not being able to communicate with Minami was the reason for her poor score.

Meanwhile, Jiro has fallen sick and is resting at home. Akari texts him saying she will be going out with her friends. Jiro is heartbroken because he wished for Akari to stay home and look after him. Just then, someone rings the doorbell to their house. Jiro assumes it to be Akari but it is Shiori who had come to tend to Jiro while he was unwell.

With her friends, Akari is in a bad mood and tries her best to make small talk with them but she keeps thinking about Jiro. At the house, Shiori tells Jiro that she was there because Akari had told her that he was unwell. Back when they were younger, Jiro had taken care of Shiori when she was unwell and she only wanted to return the favour. Jiro thanks Akari in his heart and agrees to let Shiori take care of him.

Shiori makes some porridge for Jiro to feel better. Jiro recalls his last meeting with Shiori when she had moved away for a while. Back then, Jiro could not muster the courage to propose to her but he had completely stopped thinking about it when Shiori said that they should remain friends.

Shiori brings the porridge to Jiro’s room so that she could feed it to him but our hero is extremely excited and decides to eat it all by himself only to curse himself for being hasty later. Jiro and Shiori get talking about the latter’s poor rank on the Marriage Practical assignment.

Shiori explains how she was uncomfortable around Minami and claims that it would have been way better having Jiro been her husband. Jiro tries to give Shiori a pep-talk but fails miserably and recoils into his bed. Shiori cleans up the dishes and starts heading out. She comes back to Jiro’s room for a final goodbye and notices that he is asleep. She attempts to kiss Jiro but retracts from doing so and leaves.

Akari’s friends try to tell her how letting Shiori stay with Jiro was a bad idea because the latter could steal him from Akari. Shiori also recalls her last conversation with Jiro before moving when she had hoped to confess her own feelings for him. Back then, Shiori had fumbled and said she only wanted to be a friend to Jiro but what she really meant was that she liked him a lot.

The next morning, Jiro thanks Akari for sending Shiori over to make him feel better. He promises to help Akari so that she would also be partnered with someone she loves and not adjust with Jiro. Akari knows this was good news for her but somehow claims that she does not like how that sounded.

The Episode Review

This episode was really interesting considering how Jiro and Shiori both actually had feelings for each other. On the other hand, I am sensing that Akari has started to like Jiro and Jiro also seems to be falling for his damsel in distress.

I am not totally sure why Minami and Shiori are having a hard time scoring well. I would not be surprised if it turns out that Minami has feelings for Akari. The epilogue to the episode shows that Mei has feelings for Shiori so I am not sure how their story would go.

One could guess that Shiori would realise that Jiro likes Akari and vent to her girl best friend about it which would get the two of them close to each other.