Itoshiki Saigestu (The Loving Times) First Half
Part 1

As Onna! is right around the corner(!) and for the next week I’ll be pretty erratic at updating, here’s something nice and chewy for you from the Yuricon Mailing List. Feel free to join the list and read the notes from the 8th novel, as well!

There was a fair amount cut out of this book for the anime, but also a lot of stuff that was done straight. The stuff that was cut out was mostly insightful chitchat that, while fascinating, I can totally understand why it was cut.

***

The opening scene has Eriko and Sei running into each other in the hall (not literally) and Eriko mistaking the lyrics of a song for something else. When they part, she’s left with lingering thoughts of love.

Rosa Foetida – Full Speed Ahead

1) Minako, newspaper club president and tabloid editor-in-training, does not want to just report news – she wants to make it. As in make it up. Currently, she’s frustrated because she’s trying to discover where the Rosas are planning to go to college. The en bouton aren’t saying and the en bouton petite soeur are clueless. Minako gives us her opinions on the latter: Yoshino is suspicious by nature and doesn’t care about anything other than “Rei-chan.” Yumi is a terrible liar, so she really doesn’t know anything.

Minako overhears three of the newspaper club members wondering why the Roses took exams at all. (And within this scene is, ironically, annoyed at Mami for questioning them like she, Mami, is researching an article.)

The three first-years discuss the main criteria for going to a school other than Lillian – the desire to be in a coeducational institution. Minako thinks that this doesn’t apply to Rosa Gigantea or Rosa Chinensis – neither of them would particularly care whether their school had guys or not – but Rosa Foetida would definitely be going somewhere else, because going to school with guys would be “an interesting experience”.

Minako, it turns out, is also marginally jealous of Mami’s knowledge and comprehension – she’s constantly calling Mami her “not cute” soeur. Minako also remembers being much quieter and cuter as a first-year. She’s sure that Mami is after a big scoop to surpass her; Minako sees the soeur relationship like that of a teacher and student that are locked in an eternal rivalry. Minako burns with a competitive fury.

2) Club member A says that she saw Rosa Foetida at an amusement park on Saturday.

(The first years are labeled by the narrator, “Club Member A”, “B” and “C”, respectively, with a little note that they did have names and Minako certainly knew them, but for our purposes A, B, and C would suffice. ^_^)

Minako assumes that Eriko was there with the rest of the Yellow Rose family, because as she’s graduating soon, it was natural to spend time with your soeur.

(In this scene we get some foreshadowing that Mami will be significantly worse than Minako as a newspaper club president…she’s a tough character with a steel-trap mind, and she rules Minako with an iron fist.)

“A” says that Eriko was with a guy. Scandal! Never before has a Rose, especially, allowed the taint of having a lover before graduation. And Eriko and the guy, who looks 25-26 had their arms around each other! (Eriko’s 18 in this novel.)

Club members B and C had seen her holding hands at a museum and a high-end restaurant with 2 other older men. B had been at the museum with her mother – they had received free tickets because her father had done work for an art client; C was at the restaurant for a family party.

3) The second scene of the body of the novel is our Tsutako scene, as always. Tsutako tells Yumi all of the above in a dead-on impression of the girls’ voice. She had been in the Photography clubroom and as the Newspaper club had talked they had become more animated – and loud – so she heard them clearly. Yumi thinks Tsu ought to be in the drama club with her talent for voices.

Tsutako gives Yumi the photos she took, pretty much to pass the burden on to Yumi.

4) On the way up the Rose Mansion stairs, Yumi worries that if she steps on a weak spot in the stairs, she’ll fall and get hurt or die, and someone might find the photos in her pocket…only, she’d be dead, so it won’t matter what they think – to her, at least.

5) Yumi meets Yoshino in the Rose Mansion and mentions offhandedly that she would like to talk to Eriko. Yoshino suggests calling her, something Yumi never even considered. Yoshino suggests doing it *now* and Yumi thinks that a desperate attraction to anything interesting must be a Yellow Rose trait. (Yet another hint that Eriko and Yoshino are more alike than anyone realizes.) Yumi is surprised that Yoshino knows Eriko’s home phone number by heart. (And why don’t any of these girls have cell phones? I can see them being not allowed on campus, but at home? EVERY Japanese girl has a cell phone!)

Eriko’s mother says that she doesn’t know when Eriko is coming home. Yumi thinks that its odd for a mother to not know, especially on a school night. Yumi posits that maybe Eriko’s grandmother is terminally ill and Eriko is out visiting her. After Yoshino shoots that theory down, Yumi reminds herself mentally to not kill off other people’s grandmothers so easily. ^_^

6) The next scene is one gigantic set-up and is done completely straight in the anime: We see Eriko at a hotel, pouring over a filled social calendar, meeting an older man, thanking him for the clothes. In the novel, we get the added detail that he had the clothes sent to the hotel, where she picked them up and changed into them. Eriko muses that he likes fur (the sweater has a fur collar) and that he has spent a months’ wages on her so far. And, sigh, another night away from home…

7) Yumi tells Yoshino hypothetically about “a girl” who is seen with many men, and Yoshino suggests that its “assisted dating”. To be sure she’s getting the words right, Yumi writes down the kanji. Sachiko walks in, sees the paper and grimaces, stating that she really hates the term Enjyou Kousai, because its just a gilded term for prostitution. Yumi is, quite naturally, utterly shocked to hear Sachiko use the word “prostitution.”

8) A scene you never expect in a Marimite novel: The second-years then begin discussing adultery. Sachiko, again naturally, hates it and likens it to prostitution as well. The first-years, including Shimako, are gobsmacked by this conversation, and can only sit and listen with big eyes as Sachiko and Rei have such an “adult” conversation.

9) Yumi, when questioned as to why she had that word written down at all, lies about it, and Sachiko reaches out and taps her gently on the head with a “you goofball” -type comment. She then comments that Sei is right, Yumi’s face really does change all the time at which Yumi thinks that her face is reflecting her thoughts that this is more sexual harassment by that dirty old man (oyaji – remember this term… It comes back later) of a student.

10) Yumi (who has been trying to find someone to consult about the matter of the photos,) thinks of speaking to Sei. She sees Sei in her mind as someone who is bright from having thrown off the darkness of a murky mist.

11) When Yumi greets Sei, Sei comments that her “gokigenyou” sounds like Yumi needs a favor. Yumi says that Sachiko sent her home early, because everyone was busy with other things today.

Sei throws her arms around Yumi. She understands, she says, Yumi’s lonely. Well, she’ll stand in for Sachiko, and hold Yumi’s soft body, she doesn’t mind…

Yumi starts to think that she is a little lonely because they Yamayurikai didn’t get together, but…!

12) Sei asks Yumi if she called her name a few moments ago. Yumi says no, but Sei thought she heard Yumi’s voice. Yumi realizes that Sei was talking about the very moment Yumi *thought* about consulting Sei.

13) The first-years call the cat “Lunch”, the second-years call it “Meri-chan” and the third years call it “Goronta”. Yumi had never seen any one be able to get within a meter of the cat without it running away, but Sei picks it up and pets it. (Goronta means something like “Purr-y”. Yumi thinks it a rude name for the cat.)

14) This section is long and was almost completely cut up in the anime.

Sei tells Yumi that humans have violated the natural order of the wild, and created an inferior ecosystem as a result. She explains that Goronta, as a kitten, was being attacked by crows in the back of the school when she found him. She saved the cat, sneaking food to him and “believed in him” which is why he lets her close. Sei says that Shimako told her that it was cruel thing to do, that it has made the cat dependent upon her.

Sei had considered taking the cat home, but felt that the school was its home now.

Throughout this conversation, there is the sense that Sei is talking about the cat and Yumi at the same time as she speaks. At the conclusion of this speech, she turns to Yumi and offers her cat food. So, yeah.

Sei ends with the thought that Shimako is wrong, that Goronta (or, indeed, Yumi) would be fine – that he is a wolf that has found his “pack.”

15) Sei then segues into a discussion of Shimako as a wolf that has not found her pack. (Foreshaaaaaaadoooowiiinnnggg!) Sei tells Yumi that she, Yumi, had a fairly easy time of it at Lillian and found her pack relatively easily, so she wouldn’t understand Shimako’s feelings. (Yumi thinks that it’s not that easy being the dull, clumsy little sister of a beautiful, intelligent princess onee-sama, and that’s
she’s pretty much a failure.)

Sei asks Yumi if Yumi worries constantly about what it is to be a human and a woman.

Yumi says, no, I’m Japanese because I was born here, I’m a girl and this is a girls’ school.

But, Sei says, what if you were thrown into an English boys’ school.

Yumi panics, because her English is bad.

Canada, then, or France, Sei attempts to focus Yumi on the point…

Yumi says that she’d be uncomfortable around the other students, and her heart would pound. And Sei says, “Right. That’s what its like for Shimako right now.”

Then Yumi begins to understand that Sei is protecting Shimako the same way she did the cat and is worried about leaving for that reason too.

Sei says that Lillian hurt her, but also saved her and that she has come to love Lillian. That friends have the power to heal. (Konno- sensei! Please put down that foreshadowing club! We get it! We get it!!!)

16) Eriko is thinking to herself that, in a field of chestnut horses, a white horse stands out. Or in a plate of sweets a rice cracker stands out. So it stands to reason that, in a life full of wealthy men, in her mind, a poor one stands out.

When Yumi and Eriko meet up (which was slightly altered in the anime to make Eriko a bit flakier, but was otherwise accurate) Eriko might as well have been speaking Greek for all Yumi can understand her. ^_^

(This is a little joke on my part, since “Hypsilodon” – the dinosaur Eriko mentions – is obviously a Greek word.)

17) Tsutako gives Yumi two more pictures of Eriko with men – one old enough to be her father, and one scruffy-looking guy at the zoo. Tsu is doing two things by doing this – she’s passing the responsibility to Yumi, but she’s also protecting Eriko. Her assignment had been to collect pictures as proof for the newspaper article. And, although, she *has* gotten the proof, she doesn’t want to give the pictures to
Minako.

They head to the Rose Mansion, where Yumi is going to figure out what to do about the photos, when Rosa Chinensis catches up with them. Tsutako tries to escape, but Youko grabs her by the collar and pulls her back. Tsutako immediately responds with, “How radiantly lovely you look today, Rosa Chinensis…”

Youko controls Yumi and Tsutako so well, that even Yumi feels that she’s just been given a glimpse of the Youko that can control Sachiko.

18) Youko looks at the pictures and tells Tsutako and Yumi that now she understands what’s been bothering Eriko the last few days – she’s lovesick.

19) We see Minako, who has overheard Yumi and Eriko’s conversation, in the newspaper office typing. She had, it turns out, wanted to be a novelist before she became a journalist, and this is a great opportunity. She writes a short story called “The Yellow Rose” about Shimai Rieko, a girl who is working part-time at an escort club.

“Shimai” is a brutal pun. The character for “shima” looks not entirely unlike that for “tori”. So “Shimai” would read “Torii” for people reading quickly and who were used to Eriko’s family name. “Rieko” is, of course, the characters for “e” “ri” and “ko” slightly rearranged. Hence Shimai Rieko would be the thinnest possible veil on the true protagonist…even without the “Yellow Rose” of the title.

In the Rose Mansion, everyone is admiring Minako’s photoshopping skills for the cover. Sachiko asks what all this is about and Sei and Yoshino explain the technique behind the picture – not at all what Sachiko was talking about. Sachiko’s temper starts to rise and Youko begins to pull her leg to see how long it will take before she explodes.

This was hysterical, btw…as she carefully gives Sachiko just enough info to make her nuts, Youko is also talking to Sei over her shoulder, and Yumi is “tick-tocking” the time bomb in her head as she watches Sachiko approaching breaking point.

Sachiko demands to know what’s going on and Youko explains that Eriko been going on dates with various older men every night. She them summarizes the plot of the story:

Right before graduation, Shimai Rieko, “The Yellow Rose” is suffering from ennui and an empty heart, where “a cold wind blows.” She takes a part time job at a dating club, and goes out with Mr. A, a baseball player, on an all night drive. Then Mr. B, a surgeon, takes her to an art museum and Mr. C, a gourmet, takes her to a fine restaurant. But Shimai Rieko realizes that changing men like they are clothes is futile. Her heart is still empty. She is discovered on a date by Mr. D, a teacher at her school, who takes her home and scolds her gently. She returns to normal student life, but looks for Mr. D. On the day to her graduation, she decides to propose to him.

Yumi was, ultimately, the catalyst to Sachiko’s explosion, figuring that it ought to be her who bears the brunt. Sachiko explodes (Yumi’s mind: tick, tick, tick…boom!) because she thinks everyone else knew but her. When she finds out that no one else did, she is immediately fine.

They hear Eriko being called to the principal’s office (not really, but you know what I mean, the “Student Counseling Room” or whatever) and they decide to all go.

20) In the hallway outside the Counselor’s Office, Minako is eavesdropping. She had seen four men and Eriko walk by into the Counselor’s Office, and three of them match the characters in her story. She thinks out loud, “There’s A, B and C – why no D?” To which Youko, who has come up immediately behind her, answers, “Because you
made him up.”

Minako is trapped. She goes in with the Yamayurikai members. The nun says they can all come in on one condition – only one spokesperson can talk. Youko is clearly that person.

21) Yes, one of the guys IS in a football uniform (and yes – it is specifically American football). The point is that all of Eriko’s brothers were interrupted mid-activity by their father. (And, obviously, it is meant to be ironic that Minako’s made-up characters were so amazingly close to the actuality. Including, eventually, the assumably made up Teacher D.)

22) Cut out of the anime and what a shame: When Yamanobe-sensei is brought in by Tsutako, Minako sees him and blurts out, “Does he make umbrellas?” That totally made me laugh.

23) When Eriko proposes, Sei (who has already broken the “don’t speak” rule several times) immediately offers a bet to Youko that Yamanobe loses. Youko won’t take the bet – she says that he’ll suffer a crushing defeat.

24) Yamanobe-sensei is, among all the other reasons to not marry Eriko, still grieving over a wife who died about a year ago.

25) This entire scene is played as a sitcom, with Yumi helpfully supplying background noises and music in her mind for us. When Yamanobe-sensei declines the marriage offer, she thinks that, if it *were* a comedy, everyone would face-fault now.

26) Eriko’s father accuses Yamanobe of hitting on a young girl nearly half his age. Eriko replies that Yamanobe was too busy watching the elephant to be paying attention to her. Dad immediately yells at Yamanobe – “You were ignoring my beautiful daughter to watch an elephant? What’s wrong with you?” ^_^

27) When everyone decides for Yamanobe that he’d better date Eriko, Sei says that is he doesn’t she’ll just cling harder. “Snapping Turtle Eriko, we call her.”

Yumi thinks that they’d call Sei “Full of Lies Sei”.

28) Sei walks over to the desk, writes out Eriko’s phone number and hands it to Yamanobe when it’s been settled that he *will* date her.

End of Part 1 of Part One

Valentinusu no Okurimono (Valentine’s Gift) – Part 2

“The Red Card”

Mifuyu is one seriously, unpleasantly obsessed person. In the anime, she seemed harmless and a little sad – in the novel, she’s creepy.

1) Mifuyu’s grandmother was a “old girl” of Lillian and her mother only ever wanted to go as a child. But they lived too far away and she couldn’t, so she focused her obsession on little Mifuyu. When Mifuyu was accepted for kindergarten, mom did a dance.

When Mifuyu’s father was transferred for work, mom complained that it was grounds for divorce (not that she meant it. Mifuyu tells us that they are very close – a little *too* lovey-dovey for her taste…)

When they returned to the area, Mifuyu was able to take the exam for Lillian students (since she was once, technically, a student) and got in to the high school.

2) Even though Sachiko and Mifuyu are the same age, Sachiko always acted like an onee-sama, even when they were little. (The anime did an incredibly adorable rendition of their story, so nothing new to add there.)

3) Because Sachiko had given her her handkerchief and had accepted chocolates in thanks, Mifuyu has, all these years, thought of Sachiko as someone with whom she could become friends. When she returned to Lillian, of course, Sachiko had no idea who she was. And this has scarred her.

4) She attempted to give Sachiko chocolates their first year, but found Sachiko confronted with a LONG line of first-, second- and even third-years, who Sachiko summarily dismissed with “What reason do you have for giving me these? What reason do I have to accept?”

This year Mifuyu gets to school super early to give her the chocolates, but when Sachiko comes through the gate, just can’t do it, because being near Sachiko is too much for her.

5) Mifuyu actually creeps herself out as she “stalks” Sachiko that morning. She remembers the treasure hunt and follows Sachiko as she heads to the greenhouse. The description of super-earnest Sachiko looking this way, then that, and taking a deep breath before entering to hide the card is really *cute.*

6) Mifuyu watches Sachiko refuse chocolates that day – she’s much more gentle and mature this year. The card, like Poe’s Tell-Tale Heart, weighs on her soul. She realizes that Sachiko’s card is meant for an angel – but that she herself is a devil.

The anime is almost identical to the novel with the exception of making Mifuyu less creepy. At the very end, when Mifuyu later sees Yumi once again, she greets Yumi who gives her a perplexed look. Mifuyu smiles, because she realizes that with the new hairdo, Yumi doesn’t recognize her at all. As Sachiko and Yumi walk away, Mifuyu thinks that they make nice soeur couple.

Part 3

“The Greatest Day of Rosa Chinensis’ Life”

This part wins, hands down, for being my favorite of all the V-Day stories. LOL Guys will probably want to avoid this section, because 2/3 of it is menstruation-related.

1) Rosa Chinensis, Mizuno Youko is sitting alone on a bus. Which is good, because the section starts with her saying, “This sucks.” ^_^

She’s suffering miserable cramps. She’s annoyed that only women must suffer this feeling – it’s completely unreasonable. This month came with particularly bad cramps AND 5 days early. AND she’s coming down with a cold. AND today is the day of her university entrance exam.

(Oh, a quick digression – I’ve mentioned how the different characters “speak” differently in text. Sei jumps from really complex thoughts to simple language, Yumi is pretty straightforward, and Yoshino’s sentences are nigh on impenetrable. Well, Youko thinks in very adult sentences with a fair amount of kanji and combined kanji phrases.)

She launches on a long internal monologue about while she knows it’s evolution and all, having your period sucks rocks. ^_^

Not only is she miserable, but she really can’t take anything for the pain or fever, because it would make her dopey – and she had that entrance exam. She had no appetite for breakfast and only managed a 1/2 cup of hot milk, so now she feels anemic.

Now that the exam was over, she had taken two pills and was feeling pretty “duh” and she couldn’t remember why she was on the bus going to school at all. She knew there was some reason she wanted to go to school – but just can’t figure it out.

While lost in thought, Youko misses the bus stop for Lillian.

2) When she reaches the school, there is a line of students in front of the statue of Mary. Youko walks to the front where the student at the head of the line offers to back away so she can pray. Youko realizes that it is a line of students about to exchange chocolates and she remembers why she came back to school – it’s Valentines Day!

3) Once Youko gets to the school, she’s hemorrhaging (Not my choice of word – hers) and really needs to get to a bathroom. She’s looking for a western style bathroom, because its way less awkward – and anyway, she wants to sit. “Stomach hurts, stomach hurts, stomach hurts…” all the way to the buildings.

Since there’s so many girls at the school today, the bathrooms on the first floor all have lines, so Youko has to wait for a stall to be free. While she waits, she whines about how she has never before felt any kind of dissatisfaction with being a woman. She’s never felt that there, objectively, was any difference between the sexes, and she’s always been pleased with her life. She’s very grateful to her parents and her teachers. But this *really* sucks.

While waiting on line, she hears a bunch of girls running outside. She’s amused at the sounds and is glad that the school is so bustling.

4) Once in the stall, Youko hears a series of strange noises, then a girl’s voice shouting “She went in the window!” and more footsteps.

When Katsura asks Yumi what she’s doing climbing through the window of the bathroom, Youko is sitting there, listening. (You’ll remember that Yumi was running from pursuers during the treasure hunt.) When she realizes it’s Sachiko’s Yumi, we get a glimpse of how she feels about Yumi – which is very fondly. Sachiko’s cute little sister is someone that she likes to spoil, like an indulgent aunt. ^_^

Youko takes some more meds, washes her hands, and comes out into the hall in time to meet up with Yumi’s pursuers. She scolds them for running in the hall, which stops them from following Yumi. (They all speak to her in unison, which she finds amusing.)

5) Walking out onto the school grounds, the medicine has begun to kick in and Youko is feeling a bit shaky and odd – like she’s walking through water and all the other students are like fish swimming around. (Which leads one to wonder what *exactly* she took for the pain….)

6) As she walks, she finds herself collecting a retinue of underclassmen, who ask if they can walk with her. She feels like Momotarou, with her army, but they all comment how she has no “kibidango” (a dumpling that gave Momotarou special strength). The girls tell her that they are very happy to be able to accompany her and spend some time talking with her. She’s always been hard to approach because she’s so beautiful and smart etc, etc, but today she seems more laid back, a little bonyari., i.e., doofus-y. Youko laughs as she says that was rude.

This conversation makes Youko realize that she had taken the idea of the dignity of being Rosa Chinensis too much to heart. She never meant to be an unattainable honor student. In fact, she had always wanted to shrink the distance between the Rose Mansion and the rest of the students. At which point, she realizes that she has never once simply wandered the halls of the school and stopped to chat with the students – she’s always had somewhere to go, something she was busy with.

When they reach the Rose Mansion, she looks up at it and sees it completely differently today.

7) Sei is standing inside the Rose Mansion, with some crumbs or something on her face. Youko asks her what she’s eating. Sei wipes her face and smiles, “nothing.” She then goes on to say that Youko looks like Momotarou with his retinue, as done by a female impersonator. lol She greets all the underclassmen, with “welcome, cute guests.”

8) Eriko comes in, hairband slipping, tie in disarray and starts to run (!) up the stairs, exclaiming/asking if they’d heard that Rei’s card had been found.

9) Sei escorts Youko up the stairs, letting the underclassmen follow. When they get upstairs, they can all hear noise from behind the “biscuit-like” door. They all look at each other, then open the door. Inside the council room are 14 people in the room, laughing, smiling, chatting, having tea.

10) Eriko takes Youko’s hand and squeezes it, “Wonderful, isn’t it?”

Sei opens up the window and points out all the students wandering in and out of the mansion, and the school buildings. “At Youko’s request.”

Eriko agrees that they can all retire comfortably now.

11) When the signal is given that the contest is over, the students who were sitting at the table rise, and push their chairs back under the table and turn to the Rosas to thank them for inviting them, tears spring to Youko’s eyes.

Sei asks her is it’s her best day and Youko says no, it’s her “ideal” day – the most ideal day of her entire life.

The End

Afterword

Konno Oyuki begins the Afterword with the usual greeting passage in the beginning of each novel. She mentions that, as this novel was a continuation of the last, it didn’t have the greeting, so it felt an little lonely. ^_^

He then goes on to comment that these two novels are a sandwich: the greeting is the bread, the first section is ham, the next egg, etc.

There are so many food things in these two novels, I can only assume that she was writing hungry. ^_^

Conclusion? Youko’s more fun when stoned, and I worship the author.

Oh, and the “biscuit” door. The door to the Yamayurikai’s meeting room is *always*, without fail, described as “looking like a biscuit.”

Just so you know. ^_^

Part 1, Continued

Main

10) Yumi and Sachiko are in the jeans shop. Yumi hears the rustling of Sachiko’s clothes as she changes, and Yumi goes all “doki-doki”. She begins to imagine Sachiko undressing, then stops herself and blames Sei’s “dirty old man” influence.

Yumi wonders how long the cuffs of the jeans are for Sachiko. For her, there’s enough extra to make a purse – on Sachiko it might only be enough to make a pen case. Yumi then wanders off into a mental rant about how Sachiko’s waist is slender, her legs are long, her bust is bigger than hers, Yumi’s. She complains to God that it’s so unfair. lol

When she sees Sachiko in jeans, Yumi is surprised, because she’s used to seeing her in socks/stockings. She thinks Sachiko’s legs are very grown-up looking and for a brief moment, Yumi understands leg fetishists. (Seriously – that’s what she says!)

11) When Minako questions Tsutako, the photographer covers for Yumi’s first date, not wanting the newspaper club president to know that Yumi and Sachiko are here.

12) Yoshino, in an attempt to make herself feel better, buys herself a book, then orders herself an expensive lunch set (which, if Rei and Chisato ordered, would have blown their whole budget for the date.) She realizes that she just feels lonely without Rei – doing anything with Rei is more fun – even just sitting under the kotatsu reading. Rei fills a hole in her life. With Rei, a breakfast of toast is fine, she doesn’t need fancy food. Without Rei, everything feels empty.

13) We learn that there are several security guards that patrol Lillian during the week but on Sunday, there is only one and the main gate is closed.

To get in to the school, Shizuka tells the guard that they have left books in their classrooms. She tells Shimako that she actually did have that happen once and it get her back onto the grounds, so she’s used it once before to come to the school just to be there when its empty.

Several of Shizuka’s lines in the anime are actually things Shimako thinks, like the line about sudden words being close to the heart.

Shimako resents Shizuka for reaching into the darkness inside her heart and touching it.

14) When Yumi and Sachiko meet up with Yoshino, Sachiko asks Yumi how much money they have left, then asks Yoshino to give Yumi the right amount for the cake set they are going to have at the cafe.

(Let me digress a second again – this is the second time I’ve used the idea of a “set” and I want to explain it briefly. Most Japanese restaurants have price fixed meal choices which they call “sets”. The cake set is probably a choice of one of a limited selection of cake and coffee for a fixed price.)

Yumi is *mortified* at Sachiko for asking Yoshino for money, but Yoshino, while she hands over the money, tells Yumi that she thinks Sachiko is right. It makes her part of the date, and she doesn’t feel as if she’s intruding, or that she should treat, or they should. Yumi, overcome with emotion, rushes over to Sachiko and hugs her arm, then tells her that doing things together with Sachiko today has made her incredibly happy. And it doesn’t bother her one bit that there are people around or that Yoshino is there watching.

Sachiko (have I mentioned how romantic Sachiko is???) reaches down and takes Yumi’s hand in her own and entwines their fingers as they walk. Yoshino, on seeing this mutters “Go! Go!” under her breath. LOL

15) When the three arrive at the café, the woman tells them that it’s so busy that they’ll either have to sit at the counter, or share a larger table with other people. Sachiko had asked Yoshino to join them with “The more the merrier”, which was exceptionally un-Sachiko- like. She now tells the lady to seat them with the strangers – another very un-Sachiko-like thing to do. It shows just how far she’s lightened up.

Of course, the “strangers” are Tsutako and Minako.

In the end, Yumi completely forgot to get the dried cod her mother requested that she buy while out shopping. lol

16) Shizuka’s interfering classmates actually went so far as to create a date schedule book for her and Shimako, with bus schedules, movie times, good places to eat in the area… (these are the same classmates who made her run for Student Council, so they sound like a fun group.)

Shimako thinks that the white card was really her heart and that she hid it to protect it, but was really wishing that someone would find it, and understand it. (Shizuka shows exceptional understanding of Shimako’s heart.)

Shizuka takes her leave of Shimako, and tells her that she can have all the cheesecake they bought for dessert as a reward for having to clean up the mess herself. Shimako grumbles a bit at the cleaning part (of course to herself).

17) The scene with Chisato and Yoshino was hacked to pieces in the anime.

Chisato begins by telling Yoshino that she and Rei met in town, walked a bit, then took in a movie, ate handmade lunches they had brought and parted. Rei claimed a lack of budget for the skimpiness of the date, and needing time to write up the report for not lingering.

Yoshino apologizes, because she realizes that it was Rei’s polite way of rejecting Chisato’s interest.

Chisato says that she picked the movie, knowing it really wouldn’t be Rei’s thing (again, that mixed-up questionnaire! Rei likes romance films, but Chisato doesn’t know that.)

At first Chisato is very prideful, telling Yoshino all of this almost as a boast. She starts to cry a little as she talks. She admits to having seen Yoshino on the pedestrian bridge and taking Rei’s arm on purpose to make her jealous.

Yoshino tells Chisato that she really wanted to hit her when she saw that – Chisato admits that she dislikes Yoshino, and thinks of her as a tragic maiden who keeps requiring her knight Rei to save her over and over again. Yoshino says that Rei never *had* to be by her side – she did it out of love.

Chisato asks Yoshino why she calls her “Rei-chan,” then says that Rei called her “Yoshino” 5 times.

As they stand in the foyer hugging, Yoshino thinks that they look like idiots – and they look like best friends.

Dessert

18) Yuki comes into Yumi’s room as she’s practicing the many versions of her phone greeting (depending on who answers the phone). He tells her that it sounds like Buddhist chanting.

And, when she shows no sign of actually dialing, he grabs the phone and dials. She gets it back before he connects. As we know, the phone rings before she gets a chance to dial. :-) It’s Sachiko – she had fun, we’re all happy, see you tomorrow.

After she gets off the phone, Yumi rolls back and forth across the bed in sheer happiness. LOL

End of Part 1