#Hirano's realizations are surprisingly complex when analyzing them

[squealing-for-harusono-sensei]

Hirano to Kagiura Ch.15 Analysis: Changing his mind

Ch.15 is the one where Hirano and Kagiura make up after their Valentine's Day argument and is a massive turning point for Hirano. He has in large part been ignoring the fact that Kagiura is in love with him, but not after this chapter. There are multiple parts to Hirano's new mindset, so lets talk about that.

The first change is when Hirano stops himself from wondering about how long Kagiura has been in love with him.

The last time we saw Hirano wonder about it was in ch.10, where it was in context of Kagiura appearing uncomfortable around Hirano after the confession. Both times Hirano is wondering for how long he's been in some way hurting Kagiura. But this time he stops himself and reminds himself of some of what he knows about Kagiura.

That Kagiura is honest, faces things he doesn't like directly, and is so serious about basketball that he wakes up early even though it's hard for him. And I think that when Hirano's eyes sparkles between thinking about that and thinking about the fact that Kagiura is studying seriously to stay together with Hirano even though it really isn't natural for him – I think Hirano realizes the parallel between Kagiura's seriousness about basketball and his seriousness about Hirano.

But lets put it back into the context of Hirano worrying about how long he's been inadvertently hurting Kagiura. I think it's useful to look back the H&K ch.2, where Kagiura was feeling bad because of a loss in basketball. Even though Kagiura loves basketball, that doesn't mean that is doesn't sometimes hurt. But that doesn't mean that he should quit, it's just something you have to face and move through. And Hirano might be better at realizing that the same thing is true for Kagiura's feelings for him now that he has the comparison with Kagiura's feelings about basketball to better understand them.

I'm also thinking about how Hirano reacted to Kagiura losing sleep from studying. First he wanted to make things easier for Kagiura by giving up on rooming together, but after seeing how serious he is about staying together, he started to help him study instead. It's a similar case here, where Hirano stops wanting to help Kagiura by avoiding the issue to wanting to help him deal with the issue.

But aside from recognizing that he isn't helping Kagiura by avoiding the problem, and that Kagiura doesn't want to avoid it, Hirano at that moment also finally starts to recognize that Kagiura's romantic feelings for Hirano is a part of the whole package. That "The Kagi-kun that I'm fond of...is the one that's in love with me."

Which is important to remember during in the "I like you...as a person" page.

I actually want to talk a bit more about Hirano's thoughts on this page. That "I trust wholly...in this year I've spent with Kagiura Akira." Because I think you could exchange it with "I know Kagi-kun" and the meaning would basically be the same. Hirano has been worried that he hasn't actually been making Kagiura's life easier, hasn't actually been making him happy. It's why he has been wondering about how long Kagiura has been in love with him. But Hirano has genuinely been making Kagiura happy, even with the romantic feelings that Hirano has been associating with hurting Kagiura. And now Hirano also recognizes it.

But it's not just that. It's that Hirano trusts that he does understand Kagiura. In no way completely (e.g. not understanding that "I like you...as a person" was not the best way of getting that point across), but he understands enough that Kagiura in the end would much rather that they face the complications of the romantic feelings rather than avoiding them. Because he know Kagiura, he understands that he should be honest and tackle any issues stem from them not feeling the same thing (from Hirano's perspective at least) head on.

Basically Hirano went "Oh, I have actually been making Kagi-kun happy. Also, I should be more like him when facing him."