(This has not yet been released in the English server, so I took the Japanese translations for this part. Huge credit for Furan4su on YT for translating. Spoilers ahead for those in the EN server who don't want to read JP stories.)
This second event story is told in a series of flashbacks brought about by lingering insecurities. As the illustrator of the unit, she feels that she's lagging behind the talents of the others in the group and needs to catch up with everyone else's growth. This triggers memories of her old art class in middle school, where she believes her talents are falling behind compared to everyone else in the group. While others in her class are praised for their artworks, she is always on the receiving end of harsh criticism.
She becomes obsessed with comparing herself to others to the point where she loses sight of what she wants to be. I think the scariest moment of this story is where she loses the light in her eyes, utterly consumed with jealousy and self-deprecation.
From this point she "runs away" from her class. She fails to complete the last task of the art class (the drawing of "self") because she doesn't know who she is or what she wants. She doesn't attend another art class since and is constantly reminded of her "running away".
Once her friends figure out what's been putting her down, they give their insights on her situation. Even after that art class, she didn't "run away" from art itself. She continued making art on her own and she has actually been improving. Still, one comments, she has room to improve further, but everyone loves the artworks she put out for them. They again emphasize that they saw something in her art that felt akin to the songs they put out as a unit, and that reassures her of her passion and her purpose of becoming an artist.
Back to the present, Ena eventually comes around to attending art classes again despite being afraid of falling behind her peers. Years ago, she was too consumed by self-deprecation to properly know who she was (and failed to depict her "self" in the last day of class), but in the present she finds peace in herself and manages to describe better who she really. She reflects this in her "self" painting during the last day of art classes. She realizes she worries too much about the growth of others and the harshness of criticisms to the point where they become unhealthy obsessions. She cannot control what others say or do, but she can control how she deals with these for her own good.
The story does not end with Ena being highly praised for her artwork; rather, she takes criticism with tears in her eyes and a heart of steel and pushes forward towards improvement. Instead of complaining about the word choices of her mentor, she accepts that his comments are true and he did nothing wrong, but she is proud that this time around she did not run away from criticisms.
What I love the most is that this scene depicts my main mantra:
comfort is the enemy of growth. Once you get too comfortable to praises, you fail to know how to take criticisms and improve. Growing is always about going out of our comfort zone. It will hurt, it will make you feel lost, but by knowing your areas of improvement and acting on them, you are essentially growing as a person. And Ena realizes this. What a self-improving queen.
Just like the first story event, Ena also has her own song for this. It's called "Nomad" and has a more melancholic feel than the first (but is still a very fire song). I think the mood of this song is perfect for the story: throughout the story Ena is high-strung and bombarded with emotions left and right, but her song finishes off with her simply stating her wishes of living in the moment. Nomad is also a perfect title, as a nomad is someone who is constantly on the move. This is similar to Ena, who realizes she cannot keep staying in the same comfort zone if she wants to become a professional.
As a footnote to this story, one of the side characters (Futaba) mentions that perhaps it's difficult for others to understand Ena's art because Ena sees the world in a different way. This is so, so important, because Ena becomes a vessel for expressing emotions that others similarly feel but cannot quite explain. She has the talent to put to light issues that are often misunderstood. I personally think art can be done for whatever reason (art's sake or society's sake), but I feel for Ena, she finds purpose in creating art for society's sake. This greatly reflects what she's said in the first story event, about how she can't give up on art yet because she knows other people need her art.
Rosalina
The diversity of everyone's favourite characters is fire!
and she has a fascination for bugs too its so cute (even tho I don't like bugs myself its still adorable)
