Act 1 : Kanojyo no Jijyo : Her Circumstances Miyazawa Yukino wears a false mask of modesty and composure. She has fought for her image all her life, and is accustomed to being the center of attention. However, when she is supposed to make her debut in high school, she finds she is beaten out by Arima Souichirou. As he takes her place as the object of admiration, she swears that she will defeat him and regain the role of model student. Finally, exams come in, and she has earned the number one spot once again... however, Arima's defeat does not affect him in the way Miyazawa had expected. He congratulates her, and she realizes that he is the "real thing"... he is what she has been pretending to be all her life. But then Arima confesses his love to her! She turns him down, and confident once again, she relaxes to a Sunday morning, lazing around the house in her sweatsuit. And then, who should come to call but Arima-kun? Letting her guard down and thinking the visitor must be her little sister, Miyazawa thoroughly embarrasses herself and shocks Arima as she catapults out the door to plant a foot directly in his stomach... and her "model-student" image has now been shattered. Act 2 : Futari no Himitsu : Their Secret Nervously, Miyazawa Yukino awaits her judgment. What will Arima do with his knowledge of her true self? However, days pass, and she begins to think he let her get away with it. She relaxes, only to come face to face with Arima's cold comment: "Miyazawa-san, your face is slack." He says it would be sensational if the other students found out the truth about her. And in exchange for not telling, he makes her help him with his work. Miyazawa is at first miserable and angry, but the feelings give way to something new. Arima had become special to her. But now that he knew what she was really like... his attitude had changed. She wondered where the earlier confession had gone in him. Perhaps he had only loved the mature, composed Miyazawa. At last, heartsick and tired of being used, she tells him she won't help him any longer, and flees. Arima chases her, and tells her the blackmail was only an excuse to talk with her. The two reach a friendship surrounding their secret. Act 3 : Kareshi no Jijyo : His Circumstances Steel and concrete... and memories. A young child is crying in a corner. Arima awakes from his daydream and looks out the window. Miyazawa has suspected that something is wrong as Arima grows colder and more distant. When she demands an explanation, he throws her away and runs. A young child is slapped, and runs through the rain. The next day, Arima talks to Yukino and tells her of his past... his hopeless parents, their debt, their disappearance, and his adoption by his aunt and uncle. He told her that when he was young, members of the family would say to his face that a child of such parents would never amount to anything. All his life, Arima was determined to prove his worth to his family and the parents who abandoned him. When he met Yukino and began following her lead, it scared him. Afraid he would turn out to find that he was really a horrible person, he tried to get away from her. But Miyazawa tells him that true family and friends will love you even when they know your flaws. She tells him she will shed her facade and learn to like herself. Arima smiles and tells her he is glad he met her. And that his feelings never changed, and he had loved her all along. Act 4 : Kanojyo no Nandai : Her Difficult Problem Too embarrassed to reply to Arima's confession, Yukino lets her chance slip by. She later tells herself that she is determined to confess her feelings to him, but all day her confession strategies fail miserably. She is afraid of being hurt. Telling herself he might not love her anymore, and it was okay if they were just friends, she convinced herself that things were fine as they were. However, one evening, at the train stop, Arima turns to her and tells her she still hasn't told him how she felt, and he wanted to know when he would get an answer. Miyazawa remembers all that she had convinced herself of, about being scared to be hurt and being fine as friends... then she turns and flees from Arima, crying. When she gets home, her younger sister Kano consoles her with knowledge taken from manga and novels ^_^ and Yukino's ambition is reanimated. The next day, she greets Arima good morning, and they go into a class committee meeting. Yukino decides that if she's going to get hurt, she'd rather to get hurt by Arima first, and as the meeting drones on, she slowly reaches to clasp his hand beneath the table. |
