I knew this wasn’t going to be one of those happy love stories. Once again turbulent action as Mika gets attacked by Hiro’s ex, and feels as if she cannot talk to him about the situation.
Mika has become the talk of the school since her classmates speculate why Hiro would be going out with such a plain girl. However, Saki, Hiro’s ex, is absolutely furious at Mika, and after Hiro drops her off home on his bike one night, Saki and a group of boys kidnap Mika and lead her off to an abandoned building. They start to attack her and take pictures of her. Luckily, Hiro realises whats going on and saves Mika in the nick of time, beating up the boys and smashing their digital camera.
Hiro takes Mika back to his house, where his older sister Minako tends to her wounds. Minako tells Mika that she must be Hiro’s first love as he’s never been this serious about a girl before. Moments later, Hiro arrives, dragging Saki by her hair behind him. He asks Mika what he wants her to do to Saki for payback, but Mika is to horrified by Hiro’s violent side to respond. Minako gives Saki a pair of scissors and tells her that she knows what she must do.
Hiro takes the speachless Mika home, and introduces himself to her sister and mother as her boyfriend, and apolgises that Mika’s wounds are from where she fell off of his bike. The pair are a little shocked by this, but respect the way in which Hiro has politely introduced himself. Hiro meets Mika’s father on the way out, but instead introduces himself as just a friend.
The following day, Mika deliberates on whether she should go to school or not, following the attack. However Hiro phones her up and tells her to look outside, where he’s already waiting to take her to school. Cheering up, Mika tries to forget about the previous nights events, until she sees slanderous words about her have been written on every blackboard in school. While Mika tries to calmly remove the graffiti, Hiro gets mad and drags her off into Saki’s class, wiping the blackboard clean and threatening to hurt whoever did this to Mika. Later, Saki (now with short hair) confronts Mika and tells her she will do whatever she can to break her and Hiro up, and later that evening when Mika crashes her bike when her breaks fail and she realises just what lengths Saki will go to.
Mika feels as if she can’t tell Hiro about the threat Saki has made, as he’ll really hurt Saki, however, Tatsuya notices her distress and manages to get her to open up to him about her problems with Saki. Tatsuya informs Mika that he’ll tell Hiro about Saki’s behaviour, despite her objections, because he cares about her. After school, Mika and Tatsuya wait for Hiro, who isn’t pleased by what Tatsuya tells him as he wishes Mika could have told him herself. Infuriated by jealously, Hiro breaks all the windows in school that night and frames Tatsuya which ends in Tatsuya being expelled from school, despite Mika knowing the truth, she’d rather sacrifice Tatsuya than loose Hiro.
Realising her relationship is making lots of people unhappy, Mika decides to break up with Hiro, who angrily rejects this and storms off. Hiro finds Tatsuya and apologises for what he’s done, and offers to make things right. Tatsuya is a little taken aback, and instead tells Hiro to look after Mika in return for framing him. After parting with Hiro, Tatsuya phones Mika and tells her not to worry, Hiro apologised and he was thinking of dropping out of high school anyway to take over his dad’s bakery.
The following day, Mika and Hiro make up at school, as Mika realises that Hiro understands her feelings and they can work together to solve their problems – they are no longer two separate people, they can work as one. She finally feels comfortable, physically, with Hiro, and the two sleep together.
Two months later, and Mika’s looking froward to her high school culture festival and attending with her family, who have now warmed to Hiro, although her father still refers to him as a hooligan. Mika keeps feeling sick in the mornings and nauseous during meals, so her family force her to go to a check up at the hospital, and Mika’s father volunteers to take her before work. He becomes distraught though when he ends up in the maternity department with Mika, realising that his precious daughter is pregnant with the “hooligan’s” child.
The Verdict
Ah – the self involved lives of teenagers! Things moved fast in this episode again, and everything was done tastefully. However the characters are becoming a bit weary, and I do feel a little bit detached from Mika and Hiro – they’re like those friends you had in school who shouldn’t be dating because they’re so destructive. It does take me back to my school days a lot, especially with some of the oblivious characters who crop up, and the fact that every character seems to think the world revolve around them.
That’s applicable to everyone except Tatsuya, who seems to be the only good guy in the series. He stands up for Mika despite not being her boyfriend, and despite already taking a punch from Hiro! I love underdogs, especially loyal ones, and Tatsuya is no exception.
The most unbelievable storyline however is that of Mika’s pregnancy – more to the point, I wouldn’t be worried about getting pregnant, but rather catching something from Hiro if I were her. Never mind, at least Hiro’s small face isn’t bothering me any more – and the story on a whole is still entertaining more than irritating, so I’ll continue to watch!
