Kasumi is wondering why Saya doesn’t want to join the band. The reason becomes obvious.
From the flashback, the band Saya is in is about to perform. Saya doesn’t see her parents. She called her and finds out that something bad happened to her mother. Her mother collapsed. With that, Saya rushed back home to find out what happened to her mom. After this, she quit the band. It’s understandable why she did that so that the same this dramatic incident won’t happen again.
With the culture festival happening in a few days, Kasumi looks for a drummer. She goes to the music store where Hina is at. Obviously, Hina is hinting Saya since she was part of a band. It makes it quite obvious why Saya doesn’t want to be part of the band, even if she wants to.
After she heard about what happens from the band members that Saya was a part of, she went to her house. This is where things got emotional. Saya finally tells what happened during that day. However, she tells Kasumi she can’t join the band since she is afraid that her mother will collapse again. As a result, she sees herself a burden to others.
It’s understandable that Saya is worried about her mother, but she can’t keep making excuses. This ranges from spending too much time with the band and risking her mother collapsing again to having no time to do both. It’s obvious that she doesn’t want to experience that traumatic event again and it’s understandable.
However, telling Kasumi that she will never join is not a good idea either. She will miss an opportunity to play in a band. Not only that, she is taking too much responsibilities when she doesn’t necessarily need to. Her mother can simply hire workers to take her place. Nevertheless, she thinks it’s troublesome to do so.
With that, this is the choice that Saya can only make. Will Saya pass up on this opportunity? It’s obvious that she will, but how she will do it? We’ll see next time.
As you said Saya’s dilemma is relatable and while her fears are understandable it is also a bad idea to carry all the burden by herself. It’ll be interesting seeing how she works things out and joins Poppin’ Party.
Hopefully there will be an interesting resolution to Saya’s problem. Still, can’t wait for the actual performance next time.