[Kaoru Chujo]

I like all the characters in this show. Including Jun. And including Hiromi. Jun is a dangerous guy, all right, but he is acting in his sister's interest, and hasn't done anything to Hiromi except take her out to a movie. Touching her cheek/lips reminded me of his scene with Noe and seemed to me a symbol of Hiromi potentially getting a place in his heart, as well as showing his ability to turn on the charm when he thinks it's needed.

And I think Hiromi is being unfairly criticized. What was she supposed to do? Go to Shin at the beginning of the show and say: "I can see you have feelings for me, but I have to tell that your father slept with my mother and I'm probably your sister." It took a lot of heartache before she lost control and told him that, and she felt terrible afterwards.

I still think Hiromi wasn't lying when she said she had feelings for "#4." Not like she has feelings for Shin, but she didn't make it up out of nothing. She even told Shin the details of how she came to like Jun.

I rewatched the ep where the bargain was made and felt sorry for Shin. He told Jun that you can't toy with people this way, and made a bitter joke about a trade. But single-minded Jun took the suggestion and ran with it. Shin was so surprised he couldn't get it together to say: "Whoa!"

Jun and Noe are actually quite similar. Dangerous to be around: they don't seem to have the normal social limits. You never know what they might do. But neither has done anything bad so far, in my opinion. Still, being with either of them is like riding a tiger.

Either Shin or Hiromi could call a halt to this, but Shin I guess still thinks Hiromi wants it (despite her telling him he was a busybody to arrange it). And Hiromi could easily say -- as I think she might have been about to when Jun dropped her off -- that their being together doesn't work. But she doesn't, perhaps because she actually likes being with Jun. There's no question that he's "cool" in both senses. He makes the other males in the show look like real wimps.