Rhapsody: The Reunion

Hayashi finally pieces together the truth: Asakura's dragon tattoo, her past, and the guitarist she never mentions are all tied to one person—Kenji Takeda, the lead guitarist of LABYRINTH. He was Asakura's first love and bandmate, the one who left her behind to chase fame, and the wound is still wide open. Hayashi, Nao, and Shin quietly conspire to reunite them at the upcoming LABYRINTH concert—the same concert Asakura gave Hayashi tickets for. Before the show, Hayashi drags Asakura home to meet her family. It's a strange, intimate trip: Asakura, who never speaks of her own mother, watches Hayashi's parents bicker and fuss and love each other in their messy, flawed way. That night, Asakura admits quietly that she hasn't seen her own mother since childhood—and that she envies Hayashi for having a family to go back to, even one that just closed the door on her. Hayashi, stunned by the confession, realizes she's been taking her family for granted. She holds Asakura's hand in the dark and promises nothing. She doesn't have to. At the concert, Hayashi watches Asakura's face as Kenji steps onstage. Asakura cries silently—and Hayashi takes her hand without a word, grounding her in the middle of the crowd. Backstage, Yasu—always the quiet engineer of fate—passes Kenji Asakura's contact information. He calls. She agrees to meet him at his hotel, just to return his old apartment key and the necklace she's kept for two years. But old feelings resurface, and they spend the night together, rekindling what they thought they'd buried. Hayashi waits at home, pacing, hoping. Days later, the reunion settles into something fragile but real. Asakura and Kenji agree to try again—though Asakura insists on keeping her independence, refusing to fully fall back into the old pattern of being his shadow. Hayashi, seeing Asakura lighter than she's ever been, feels a pang of loneliness she doesn't name. The loneliness drives her to distraction. At a mahjong night at Room 808, she meets Takashi Nomura—LABYRINTH's bassist, devastatingly charming and utterly dangerous. He's everything Hayashi shouldn't want: a womanizer, emotionally unavailable, and too good at making her feel special for exactly one night. She learns that Yasu once dated Rei, LABYRINTH's singer—a revelation that dashes her quiet hopes about Yasu—and she turns her attention to Takashi instead. He calls her. They go out. She sleeps with him, knowing his reputation, hoping—against all logic—that she might be the exception. He leaves for tour the next morning with a vague promise that feels like goodbye. Hayashi tries to pretend it didn't mean more than it did. Meanwhile, Nao—who has been quietly falling for Hayashi—watches from the sidelines, too gentle to push, too afraid to lose her. The tension between what Hayashi wants and what she needs is pulling her in two directions. Asakura, distracted by her own reconciliation, doesn't notice how far Hayashi is drifting. The episode ends with Asakura moving in with Kenji, leaving Room 808 for the first time since they met. Hayashi stands in the empty apartment, surrounded by boxes and silence, realizing that the woman who became her anchor has chosen someone else. And the only person she has left to call—the only number she reaches for—is Takashi's.

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