Soredemo Ikite Yuku [ep 3]

In this week's episode, the focus shifted to Hiroki's mother. Futaba and Hiroki ran into her at the festival in the previous episode. Hiroki didn't dare to tell her Futaba's real identity, so as to not make things more complicated among them. Later on, Hiroki heard from the little brother that their mother had been paying huge sum of money to private investigation company to do prank calls as well as spreading news/rumors about Futaba's family. O_O I didn't expect that it was her all along who had been doing this!

Somehow, Futaba and the mother met again in town one day and they got along pretty well. The mother opened up a lot to her, telling her sweet memories of Aki (Hiroki's little sister). But there was always one issue unresolved for her, the thing she feared most. Whether or not Aki was sexually assaulted before her death.

Watching the mother like that, Futaba wasted no time to tell Hiroki and asked him to save her. She told him about his mother's fear and they went to the city to find any lawyer that could help them. They stumbled into a woman, who had connection to a reporter who specifically works on juvenile delinquency cases.

Spending a night at the internet cafe, Hiroki asked Futaba about the incident where her brother had tried to kill her before. Apparently, he used a muffler and tried to smother her while she was sleeping but she woke up. Futaba felt like it was her fault that he shifted his interest to Aki, after not being able to kill her. But Hiroki insisted it wasn't her fault.

Finally, after getting the autopsy report, Hiroki went to find his mother. This particular scene was soooooo friggin touching!!! Hiroki read out loud the lines and you just couldn't help feeling their pain as it revealed in more details about Aki's precise injuries and findings.

Autopsy report

His mother's fear was finally erased when Hiroki told her that nothing like a rape occurred. Hiroki also broke down and found the courage to say sorry to his mother for leaving Aki alone at home when he was supposed to take care of her that fateful day.

Aki wasn't raped, she was killed instantly- Hiroki

Thoughts:

This is another heartwarming/touching episode. Despite how the mother never showed much expression after the daughter's death, it was then revealed that under all the facade, she was suffering all this while, like the father. She even went all the way to make Futaba's family's life hell. And most of all, her fear that her daughter had been sexually assaulted. I think it's all very surreal. 

Also, I really salute Futaba for helping a lot in liberating the thing the mother feared most. Normally, if that person was the one making prank calls and spreading rumors about your family, causing you to move around the city several times and losing jobs, you won't want to help that person, at all cost. But she didn't mind that, instead helping Hiroki find the autopsy report. I guess that's one of the shining characteristics she has in her. This episode also had a very precious mother-son moment at the end. Eita rocks in his role as Hiroki, I hope he gets nominated soon in Best Leading Male category xD He deserves it if he keeps this up till the end, provided the storyline doesn't screw up halfway.