Period 5

Period 5 starts off with the 3 girls shopping for foodstuffs.  Yuri and Chika has planned for a "nabe" (steamboat) party at Aki's apartment.  Yuri wants to show off her cooking skills and they intend to find out more about the progress between Aki and Halu, who seems to be going nowhere with their relationship.

The Blue Scorpions are in their bus (and oh boy, Kimura looks soooo cute in that student-like grey suit) and due to some construction on the usual road, the driver changes route.  Yamato suddenly turns pale and starts to tremble. Halu noticed it and immediately draw the curtains in the bus but Yamato continues to tremble as the bus passes by a bouquet of flowers by the roadside.

In Aki's apartment, Halu, Tomo, Makoto and Yamato joins them for the food. Yuri's food turns out to be not that tasty after all, and Yamato remains sullen and unhappy.  Everyone tries to improve the mood until Makoto notices the photo on Aki's cabinet. Aki tries to grab the photo but Halu nonchalantly says that that is Aki's boyfriend and that they are on a temporary relationship until her boyfriend comes back. Yuri voices her objection that Aki will be hurt and Yamato loses his temper on her.

After everyone left, Aki and Halu are still in her apartment and she asks Halu about Yamato's weird behaviour just now. And he briefly mentions about Yamato remembering some bitter memories on their way back on the bus.

At a Blue Scorpion's match, a middle-aged man in the crowd jeers and hurls obscenities at Yamato. This man, Egawa Ken (played by Kazama Morio) appears at every match.  Makoto and Tomo are angry and wants to confront the man, but Halu and Yamato remains stoic.

After the match, Halu visits Youko and asks her about her relationship with Hyoudou coach. And she tells Halu how she knew Hyoudou first and didn't manage to wait for him but married Anzai instead.

Meanwhile, Aki storms into Yamato's apartment and demands an explanation on why he wants to break up with Yuri.  Yamato shocks Aki by saying that he does not have a right to have a girlfriend as he had killed someone before.  Aki later asks Halu about this matter and Halu tells Aki that it was really an accident that happened when Yamato was in high school.  The boy suddenly appeared on the road and Yamato knocked him down even though it was not his fault. He was called a murderer by the boy's parents and because the boy had wanted very much to be an ice hockey player, Yamato decided to take up ice hockey and had been doing so for the past 12 years.  Aki asks Halu to help Yamato.

Halu brings Yamato out for a jog and they jogged for a long time and reaches the place where the bus passed by with a bouquet of flowers.  Yamato is shocked and breaks down in front of Halu.  Halu wants him to start his life anew and realize that what happened 12 years ago was just an accident.  Then, the whole team appears with the bus and and everyone calls Yamato's name and encourages him.  However, Yamato says that he couldn't forgive himself and apologizes to the team and walks off.

Halu goes and look for Egawa to request him to forgive Yamato.  Surprisingly, he invites Halu cordially to sit with him.  However, his wife Kyouko (played by Yamaguchi Miyako) is very against having Halu in the house and maintains that she will never forgive Yamato.  Her husband orders her to stop and tells Halu that he had long forgiven Yamato.  Of course he felt hatred and resentment initially, but a long time had passed since and he had seen how Yamato tried his best in the game that his son wanted to play. Kyouko is still adamant and refuses to forgive Yamato, feeling that if she forgave, she will soon forget about her son.  [Here, you see that the story changes and emphasizes on Halu. Halu commented on how she is like a very traditional woman and it is heartwarming to see how she protects her son.  Egawa asks Halu whose side he's on actually.  But it is apparent through the intense look that Halu gave Kyouko, it was like she was the kind of mother he dreamt of having.]

Yamato finally plucks up enough courage to visit the grave of the boy by the roadside. And there, he saw the pucks of all the players with their jersey numbers on them and he looked very emotional and touched.  A match is starting soon and the team arrives without Yamato. However, Yamato arrives by himself and joins the team.  Hyoudou coach informs them that the Green Monsters (the current champions) will be watching them play tonight and tells them to win the game. Before going onto the rink, Halu calls Yamato and told him to look out for another 2 special guests today.  Halu tells him that their son wanted to be an ice hockey player but he was killed in an accident.  And they made a charm for his son long ago to keep his son safe from injuries during games and now they want Yamato to have it.  Yamato starts to tear as he hears what Halu is telling him and Halu binds the charm onto Yamato's gear.  [As Halu is doing so, somehow the pain in Halu seemed even more intense.  It was as if he envied Yamato for having that charm, one made by a loving mother for her son. Although there were no tears, Halu seemed to be crying inside.  Out of these 3 incidents that he went through with Makoto, Tomo and Yamato, Halu seemed to be most emotionally affected this time.]

Period 5 ends with Aki and Halu on the bridge after the match. Here, I don't quite catch what they are saying and anyway, it was too hard for me to concentrate since the whole setting is sooooo romantic.  They are talking about their relationship and Halu mentions that Aki's is waiting for her boyfriend and they will not go any more serious than this. And Aki asks him could you be really falling for me and Halu replies "sou kamoshirenai .. maybe." Then snow starts to fall and Aki gives Halu a present. A box of chocolate and she says it is like their relationship.  It is sweet but maybe, it could be bitter. And later, *gasp gasp* Halu takes both of Aki's hands and breathes onto them to warm them...

- Surf, Feb 11 2004.