Hidamari ga Kikoeru

A free lunch is never really free. For Taichi Sagawa, the price of one homemade bento turns out to be a whole semester of lecture notes. Hidamari ga Kikoeru (ひだまりが聴こえる), known in English as I Hear the Sunspot, is a gentle Japanese BL drama about two university classmates who meet over food and stay for each other.

Kohei Sugihara (Motoki Nakazawa) is a second year law student. He has hearing loss, and over the years he has grown used to keeping people at a distance and eating alone. Taichi Sagawa (Toranosuke Kobayashi) studies economics in the same year. He is bright and straightforward, with a short temper that keeps getting him fired from part time jobs.

One day a hungry Taichi crosses paths with Kohei, and Kohei silently hands over his lunch. To return the favour, Taichi volunteers as Kohei's note taker, writing down what the lecturers say in real time so Kohei can follow the class. The deal is simple: notes for bento. The feelings that grow out of it are a lot less simple.

Fair warning: the circle around them keeps growing. Taichi's friends Yoko (Takuma Usa) and Yasu (Omi Natsuki) watch the pair get close. Kohei's mother Ryoko (Naomi Nishida) teaches a cooking class, while Taichi lives with his grandfather Genji (Denden), a retired carpenter. First year student Maya Sakuragami (Yua Shiraishi), whom Kohei tutors, brings fresh tension, and later Seishiro Sai (Ryo Ikeda) and Yuichi Chiba (Shunsuke Daito) of the company sig-n open a door that could change Taichi's future.

Underneath every lecture and every lunch box sits one question: can two people who hear the world so differently learn to truly listen to each other?