Misa sits in the Macross officer's lounge and thinks about what she said to Hikaru after he rescued Minmay. Claudia comes in and asks Misa if anything is wrong, but she wants to be left alone. Claudia knows there's been trouble with Hikaru, so she sits down and gives Misa a box of black tea. She tells Misa that if she's having a problem with Hikaru, they should drink some tea and make up. On the airfield, Hikaru lands after completing his patrol and is informed that Misa wants him to contact her. He thinks she just wants his patrol report, and he hates how enthusiastic she is over her job. He storms into the Macross's command center and tosses his report on the console in front of Misa. He tells her what she did was low, especially if it was out of jealousy. She tries to say something, and he says she wouldn't understand him because all she loves is her job. He goes over to Vanessa and asks her if she wants to go out with him. Misa tells him he's horrible and runs out of the room. Vanessa tells Hikaru that wasn't a smart thing to say because Misa is in love with him. He finds that hard to believe because he thinks Misa only loves the military. After he leaves, Vanessa, Kim and Shammy discuss the situation and see that Misa hasn't told Hikaru how she feels. Later, Misa walks home at night and is caught in the rain. She stops in front of Hikaru's house and pulls out the box of tea. Claudia appears with an umbrella and tells Misa she'll catch a cold in the rain. She offers Misa a drink at her house if she isn't ready to see Hikaru yet. Hikaru sits in his bed and thinks he might have gone overboard when he spoke to Misa earlier. At Claudia's house, Misa begins to gulp down glasses of wine. Claudia tells Misa she's lucky that the man she loves is still alive. She says that after Roy died, she took up alcohol every night to deal with the pain of his death. Misa asks Claudia if her relationship with Roy was always good, and Claudia tells her it was rocky until they both came to the Macross. She tells Misa that she met Roy during the Unification Wars when she was a young officer. They were both stationed at a base in the middle of nowhere, but he was a hotshot pilot always looking for a girl. She remembers him asking her out on a date in the middle of a battle as she spoke to him on the radio from the control tower.
Claudia tells Misa that her first impression of Roy wasn't very good. She didn't really understand him, but on a whim she decided to accept his offer to go out on a date. When he finally showed up for their date, it was with three other girls in tow. Claudia was infuriated and stormed off. Afterwards, Roy came to the control tower everyday to give her a small present. He said that he intended to keep doing so everyday until she agreed to go out on a date with him. Claudia says that soon after, the Unification Wars ended and he was transferred to South Ataria Island. She says that for a whole year he never wrote her a letter or spoke to her. Eventually, Claudia was also transferred to South Ataria Island and became Misa's roommate. She decided to visit Roy at the hangar where he was working on the prototype transformable VFX-1. She gave him back all his little presents, but he seemed more concerned with the VFX-1, so she stormed off. The next day, she came to see him before the test flight and found him fooling around with three girls. She was furious again and ran off. After the test flight, Roy called her in the middle of the night and asked her to come outside so they could speak. As they stood in the rain, he told her that he got in trouble for messing around with those girls. He said that people believe test pilots don't have a care in the world, but as a test pilot one never knows when they can be killed. He also told Claudia that he had a lot of woman friends, but she was the only one he could think of to confide in. Claudia says that afterwards they fell in love. She says she also remembers Roy telling her about Hikaru and saying that he's someone who can't easily express himself. Hikaru realizes that Misa is indeed in love with him, so he runs out in to the night to find her. He finds that she isn't at home, so he calls the Macross, but she isn't there either. He calls Claudia and tells her he's coming over. Misa doesn't know what to do, and Claudia gives her the tea box again. Hikaru and Misa walk in the rain, and he apologizes for what he said earlier. Misa tells him she has rare tea and asks him if he wants to share it. Hikaru says he would like to, and together they head back to his house.
This is one standout episode for the series. It provides something that's all too rare these days in anime series: time for solid character development. There's not a single battle or Zentradi attack in this episode, and no Quamzin anywhere. That's all perfectly fine, because it brings the problems between Misa and Hikaru to the forefront. Misa still hasn't told Hikaru how she feels, and he has no clue that she's in love with him. One of the great parts about this episode is Claudia's story about Roy. It's good to see him again since he's been dead for so long. He didn't get much development while he was alive, so it's good to see a backstory developed for him and his relationship with Claudia. Things now seem to be going well for Hikaru and Misa, but that won't last for long.
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