This Modern Love

For those who know me well and follow the Special A series, it's not a mystery why Tadashi and Akira relationship fancy my interests compared to the other many adorable pairs in the series such as Takishima Kei and Hanazono Hikari. A breakdown: Tadashi is a carefree guy who wants to travel wherever his feet may take him, while Akira is hot-tempered and sort of — scratch that — does wear the pants in the relationship. It's also not surprising that this particular pair suffers a gender identity crisis, mainly because they similarly share the same hair length or hairstyle, which goes for these two couples I adore. I've never noticed that pattern before, but a good friend of mine noticed so. Interesting... Akira and Tadashi also happens to be my two favorite characters in the series.

In case you might be curious about the title of the fanlisting, "A Certain Romance," it is just a named I picked up while going through my music playlist. The song title comes from the awesome indie rock band, Arctic Monkeys, but in no way does the song's lyrics match the pairing at all. I guess it caught my eyes because the two's relationship differs from the rest. They are the one couple that didn't go through as much crazy!drama before dating, but of course as part of shoujo tradition, they faced their own set of trials and share of "Let's make my boyfriend jealous to prove his love for me!" Moving on, let's learn more about Tadashi and Akira below. As per usual, spoilers are to be expected ahead.

KARINO TADASHI ｢ 狩野 宙 ｣ : The son of the school director, Tadashi ranks as the 5th student of the top seven students of Hakusenkan Private High School. He likes to laze around, loves eating food, especially those prepared and cooked by Akira and travel to places on his own (thus is nicknamed as, "The Wanderlust"), disappearing from time to time on some journey. He's a bit of a careless character, with a reckless behavior which results him to being attacked by either Akira or Kei. It's also not a surprise he drives his very own motorcycle too.

TOUDOU AKIRA ｢ 東堂 明 ｣ : Akira ranks as the 6th student of the SA students and she is the daughter of an airline company president. She's aggressive, has a short fuse and what usually triggers her nerves is either Tadashi or Kei. She had a sad childhood which resulted in her not having any female friends so she treasures her best friend Hikari and adores cute girls. Not only is she a great cook and is a tea enthusiast, Akira is also the fashionista of SA and probably hasn't worn the same outfit twice in her lifetime save the mandatory school uniform.

When Pain Is Love

Watching Tadashi and Akira's love unfurl isn't much of a show compared to the other potential pairings in the series since their feelings for one another weren't so obvious in the beginning. It wasn't until Akira realizes that she fell for Tadashi did anything happen between the two. Akira and Tadashi have always known each other since elementary school along with the rest of the SA members. The way they treat one another is nothing new to their friends, but in public, Akira might come off as some abusive crazed woman, hence Tadashi nicknamed her "Devil-Woman," while Tadashi is some helpless guy that anyone would feel sorry for. In reality, Tadashi actually likes getting beaten up by Akira and also enjoys to tease her, make rude comments or tell her to make food. Why? It's his way of getting her attention somehow and probably enjoys her feisty side. Not to mention this behavior of his slowly unfolded his own feelings for her.

When Akira is feeling low, Tadashi is one of first people who always wants to cheer her up along with Hikari. He hates to see her down and even finds it "disgusting" because he just wants her to be herself. We even find him comforting her during the time when Akira thought she made a girl hate her. Akira had a terrible history with making friends during her childhood, especially when it comes to girls. So when she felt that it was her fault she pushed another girl away in her life, it only reminded her of her past. It surprised her that Tadashi would be so concerned for her and it shocked him even more when she thanked him for assuring her self-confidence.

As Tadashi showed more empathy towards Akira, she tends to blush around him when he shows any sign of concern. She also became very jealous when she found Tadashi hanging around with a girl who happened to be a granddaughter of another school director. During the Kokusen Academy school festival, Kei and Hikari realizes that Akira is infatuated with Tadashi as he spent more time with another girl. A beating even came to Tadashi's way when Akira misunderstood thinking that he was planning to give the girl a ride on his motorcycle. Filled with rage, another male student tries to comfort her, but Tadashi was there to tell him to stop touching (he was holding her shoulder) her.

Another mini drama finds the blooming pair when Akira was planned to meet a matchmaker by her parents. It saddened her that Tadashi wasn't there to stop her and instead encouraged her to attend which made her cry and get angry at him. Oblivious, he didn't really understand why, and Akira realizes she was wrong so she planned to apologize to him. Preparing to make him a few sweets before she asks for forgiveness and thinking that it was Hikari who walked into the SA kitchen, she accidentally blurted out that she likes Tadashi. Of course, it wouldn't be perfect unless Tadashi was the one person who walked into the kitchen that very moment. Embarrassed and unable to think, Akira gives him a good punch before she runs away. Tadashi runs after her and she finally confesses that she does like him and told him that the reason why she was crying before was because he did nothing to stop her. So he told he to not attend those matchmaking sessions at all. It made Akira glad and the new couple shared a sweet moment.

...but their happy ending doesn't end there. Also let me formally take back what I said about these two these two not experiencing as much drama as others. Way too much on their side, actually. :P Till next time!