Because Rin is still busy at work, Sensei and Otoha decide to spend some time in her dorm room to pass the time. Before they enter, Otoha reminds Sensei that Nodoka has another one of her maniac phases and that they should humor her a little before retreating to her side of the room. They try to talk with her, but she is too wrapped up in her creative process to be reasoned with. Otoha wants to leave her be, but Nodoka demands Sensei’s help first. He gets closer to her and sees how much of a mess she is, but she gets inspired, puts her face as close to his as possible, locking eyes with him and speaks about her thought process.
The world turns negative for a moment and Sensei goes back to Otoha, who thinks that he was able help Nodoka since she’s become quieter now. He notices a lot of notebooks around her laptop and she explains that she’s trying to write a song, but hit a creative wall. He suggests her to organize her notes better so she doesn’t have to jump between so many notebooks, but she lashes out at him, gets flustered for doing it and apologizes to him. She feels overwhelmed since nothing she does works in her favor and Sensei thinks she should start by fixing one specific problem. She doesn’t want to talk about Rin, because the song she’s currently working on is for her, but she hit a wall since, so far, she has no idea what she wants to convey to her.
Otoha knows that she’s going overboard, but claims that she has it under control and that her efforts will pay off in the end. Sensei explains that a lot of artists thought like that and how most of them failed in the end. She assures him that she’ll be fine and Sensei tells her that he hopes so and confesses that he likes her. She’s shocked to hear him say it in a decent way, confesses that she felt comfortable in his presence today, that she feels like he’s the first person getting close to be considered her surrogate brother and that she’s able to look past his true intentions for now.
He’s happy that she can look past them, even though her flushed face is making them worse, but he realizes that he can’t act on them now since he’s aware that Otoha is slowly falling into the same pit other artists have. He contemplates that most works of art are only appreciated once the artist has died, when there is some beauty in life, counting Otoha as one of them. He tells her that she should take it easy and that everything will turn out okay-ish if she does, which she’s fine with. They continue their conversation until it’s time for them to leave.
Otoha Affection
