Summary:
At lunch, Yamato tells Yasu what happened with the present. Yasu points out that Honoka must have been upset at him shopping with Suzuka, but kept quiet and tried to keep a smile on her face as long as possible, but in the end couldn't ignore him going out with his "ex". Yamato comments that Suzuka isn't his "ex", but Yasu says that to Honoka, it's essentially the same thing. He calls Yamato selfish and tells him that he should apologize. However, Yamato gets mad and yells back that none of Yasu's advice has worked so far and he'll fix his problems on his own. As he leaves, Yasu tells him that he'll end up apologizing anyways.

So of course, Yamato goes to practice and tries to apologize (way to do things on your own there, champ!). Honoka refuses to listen to him and says she doesn't want to talk to them. Suzuka notices Yamato's sad mood and begins to worry. After practice, Yamato arrives home to notice Suzuka waiting for him. She seems worried and asks Yamato if he and Honoka made up. When he says no, she says that she is sorry for causing the problem by shopping with him, but Yamato says it isn't her fault: he asked her to go, so the blame is on him. Suzuka urges him to keep trying to talk to Honoka, by phone or whatever, and things will work out, or at least "should".

Yamato tries to call Honoka several times, but her line is busy - as it turns out, she is talking to Nana. Nana is trying to calm her down, but Honoka comments that she knows that Yamato still likes Suzuka. In the end, Yamato decides to go to Honoka's house to talk to her. When she answers the door, he tries to give her the present again and she rejects it. Yamato starts to get upset and wants to know what's wrong - that he needs an answer because he doesn't understand. Finally Honoka yells at him that she can't accept a present that Suzuka and he picked out so happily and asks him why he couldn't have got ANYONE else to go with him. She also tells him that he asked Suzuka because he wanted to be out with her. Yamato responds angrily, but Honoka starts to run off. Yamato gives chase and catches up easily (I would hope so, he's a sprinter after all!) After Honoka cools off a bit, she says that this situation will happen again and again, and says they need to breakup. When Yamato easily goes along with this, Honoka angrily asks why he bothered to date her when he didn't love her. Yamato replies that he thought he did; that he liked when they did stuff together, from walking to school to eating. He also points out that he wasn't thinking of Suzuka all the time and he doesn't want Honoka to misunderstand. Honoka cools off a bit, thinks about this, and asks for the present back. She says she'll keep it as a rememberance that they did fall in love for a bit. Honoka then kisses him and leaves him.

When Yamato gets back, his cousin asks if Honoka liked his gift. Yamato says "yes" in a despondant way, then goes to his room without eating dinner. His cousin is worried, but his aunt says she should just let him be. In Yamato's room, Yuka and Megumi are drinking. They notice his bad mood and ask what went wrong. Yamato tells them that Honoka and he broke up. Yuka ridicules him for doing so, but later comments that it was probably a good idea. Suzuka also overhears the conversation. After Yuka and Megumi leave, she comes over to talk to Yamato. She starts to blame herself when Yamato has no answers, but Yamato, seeing Suzuka blaming herself, tries to alleviate her guilt by acting like he broke it off because Honoka was bothersome and saying he's relieved to be rid of her (he doesn't intend to be so nasty, he's just trying to make Suzuka not think it was her fault). Suzuka, thinking he's serious, calls him a jerk (more or less) and goes to her room, angry that she could care about such a guy. Meanwhile, Yamato ponders what happened in misery.

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We knew it was coming to move the plot along, and in the end, it didn't go exactly as expected.

I could discuss the breakup over and over, but it was the sum of many different pieces at play. Honoka could not resolve her self-confidence issues, Yamato could never truly love her. Between those two major flaws in the relationship, there was no chance for either of them.

I think the most important part of this episode stands at the end. Time and time again, the series has shown Yamato to be a little too carefree in expressing love and his feelings, and at times, we as the audience feel little sympathy for him. On occasion though, he shows what a glimmer of the person he truly is. We've seen it before - when Yamato took on Arima and made Arima's scorn focus solely on himself rather than Suzuka. We've seen it at other times. It's important to understand this feature of Yamato because it defines his character as much as his depth of feeling and shows how he is growing.

Near the end, Suzuka is all too willing to blame herself for what has happened between Yamato and Honoka. For Suzuka, who is trying (unconsciously) to learn to deal with people after the death of Tsuda and her unrealized feelings, a setback at this stage could be costly: it could knock her back into a shell, unable to cope with having caused someone she cares for such pain. Somehow, Yamato sees this and knows this, and because of that, he takes the onus of blame on his shoulders, by acting like a jerk. The problem is that he doesn't realize he's gone a little overboard, which costs him points in Suzuka's eyes. She really did see a better person, and his acting like a jerk clashes with the view she had of him.

The question will be how Yamato overcomes Suzuka's now broken view of him. He's truly not the jerk she thinks based on his act, but he can't exactly tell her that now. That's where much of the rest of the conflict in "Suzuka" will probably come from - can they get past their problems to realize a relationship, or is it too much for Suzuka to get through.

I look forward to the answer.