What if, in Season 3's Valentine's Day episode, Takagi had been slightly more alarmed by those three chocolates in Nishikata's locker? What if she had... overreacted? For extra enjoyment, compare with S3 Episode 11.
Takagi-san was bad. No, she wasn't just bad. She was horrible. As she stood there, peeking out at Nishikata and gripping her bag until it shook, she wanted nothing more than to sink deep into the earth.
Stealing was a sin. Her parents had taught her that well, and she would have never imagined taking something that rightfully belonged to another.
But when she had practically run into the school early that morning, nearly gushing with excitement to surprise Nishikata with her gifts, only to discover not one, not two, but three beautifully preparedboxes of chocolate already in his locker, Takagi panicked.
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Nobody else in their year had a crush on him; she had figured that out years ago and pretty much everyone else knew that she liked him. But she had become so accustomed to their relationship that she hadn't even considered him being pulled away by some other girl in a younger... or older... grade. Let alone three other girls. She immediately became acutely aware of every other girl excitedly streaming into the school around her, several of whom had their own Valentine's gifts wrapped in hand. All at once, she had become very insignificant, just one minuscule speck in a world of people.
Takagi was not a thief. She never had been. But in that frightening early morning moment, as she realized that at any second, Nishikata might arrive and be stolen away from her, she panicked.
And as she panicked, she snatched all three gifts, threw them into her bag, and fled to the classroom.
Regret immediately washed over her and she couldn't keep her legs from trembling. Takagi was never impulsive, but something like this had never happened before either. She and Nishikata weren't a couple; she didn't have any weird, possessive stake over him nor any right, and she had never even been truly honest and straightforward about her feelings anyway. Only days earlier, she had started acting mean when Nishikata couldn't tell her about his conversation with Houjou, and had already privately vowed not to repeat herself.
This wasn't like that—it was much worse.
Takagi loved Nishikata; how could she excuse such a damaging act?
She was convincing herself to put them back, along with her own gift, when Nishikata arrived, probably having come early to try to fool her original plan. Seeing him, hearing him make jokes, intentional or not, made her heart flutter, which further intensified her fear of him being pursued by someone else.
Still, she knew she shouldn't meddle with others' business. But just as she was building herself up to apologize and surrender the gifts, or at least excuse herself to return them, Mina had walked in. That had reminded her that she wasn't the only girl in love here, and scared her back into hiding the gifts.
She just couldn't. How could she just let someone else lure him away?
But as the day progressed, Takagi could feel the guilt growing within her. She was being unfair and was totally unjustified. It felt worse than having the flu, and she knew deep down that she didn't want to win Nishikata over like this. She didn't want a clouded conscience any longer and vowed to put the gifts back before it was too late, then double down on showing him that her own gift was just as significant as the others.
