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All synopsis are by Zahara Medina, and cannot be used anywhere else without her permission. As she is just a student of Japanese, any help, comments or corrections are more than welcome! ^^;
Please, go to the Image Gallery to see the covers in full! ^^ (And remember to buy these tankobon if you like the summaries, it's the best way of thanking the authors and the synopsis are nothing compared to the real thing! ^^ )

Note: B/w scans are from the magazine, where the print is in low quality paper and different ink colors so it sometimes scans pretty bad and leaves lots of noise in the picture. The tankoubon quality is, of course, much better (perfect, that is).

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Chapter 12 (Jul'2002) [ vol.03 ]
(I'll come back and work on this some day, I promise T_T ) Kyouko and Ruriko wrestle it out (literally!) and Kyouko finally awakens to the truth that "nice Ruriko" was a lie all along. Meanwhile, Ruriko has her opportunity to make the tea ceremony scene with Ren, but she is too distracted by Ren, so the director cuts and tells Kyouko to step in. Ruriko is goaded by the director and Kyouko... Kyouko's ankle hurts a lot, but she remembers Shou's mother's explanations about not crying in front of customers and hiding her bad feelings, so she surprises everybody by acting just like if she had not a problem in the world. Ren recognizes this talent and so does the director. Kyouko continues with the scene as Ruriko hears the praise from the rest of the crew. However, Ren changes tactics and decides to jump over the written dialogue to show a bit of really cool acting designed to change the way the scene is supposed to be played and put Kyouko on the spot!
Chapter 13 (Aug'2002) [ vol.03 ]
Ren and Kyouko continue their scene, while the director compliments on her. He explains Ruri that she can't make Ren give the best he can, unlike Kyouko. He tells her that Kyouko is acting like a profesional. Meanwhile, Kyouko is really hurting and having flashbacks about similar situations at the Inn... she keeps on telling herself that it's just a little more, just a little! Ren continues with his lines, but when he turns to look at her, she stops in shock. The director has noticed also and runs forwards, yelling a stop. He tells Kyouko that's it's ok, to stop it. Poor Kyouko is looking as hell and so totally concentrated she doesn't really hear what is happening. She says that it's ok, things aren't finished... The director says he understand her feeling but... Ruri starts having flashbacks about some time in her early debut days when she was having a fever but she didn't want to stop singing and begged for a little more time because she loved her songs so much... But then popularity and fame came and changed her. Ruri wonders when, along the way, did she forget about that one moment. Kyouko says that there is still a client... Client? What the...? The director finally realizes that she is refering to Ren, and tells him to step out of the tatami mats. Once he does so, Kyouko finally relents and faints. Ruri remember that she once also felt like that, and decides to go to the director and humbly ask for another chance. The director smiles and seems to have expected this, so he gives it to her. Some time later, Ruri's manager asks for forgivenes because it was all Ruri's fault about the ankle. Which is now in a cast... (and Kyouko is definitely back to her normal self!) To Kyouko's total shock, Ruri gives her a 100 point stamp, because she tried so hard... like a pack of hyena... (...) But even after a little of banter, Kyouko thinks that Ruri is a good person after all. As she looks out of the room, she sees Ren, who looks back at her. Things are definitely not over between them!
Chapter 14 (Aug'2002) [ vol.03 ]
(With thanks, thanks, thanks to anime-cat for her help!) Long after the shooting, Ren and his manager talk in the cafeteria of the hotel where the crew is staying. The manager tells Ren that he had the impression Ren has some feelings towards Kyouko because his acting with her was serious. He then leaves Ren and goes to watch a special photo session for Kyouko, which the director arranged as a thank-you gift, but unfortunately he is too late and they are already finished when he arrives. The manager talks with Ruri's manager and learns that a reporter from a show magazine called Boost has been asking about Kyouko, because she is not in the staff or cast but she just had a photo shoot session and is talking with the director. The director tells Kyouko that he thought her acting was better than Ruri's, but Kyouko says she is glad that she lost to Ruri because she thinks her acting came that well only because Ren forced her with his great acting. She is not too happy that Ren is so good that he can make the other actor feel what s/he is supposed to feel in the part. (So she is not really coming from her own power but from her reaction to him) After, Ren and the manager take Kyouko back to her room, though she tries to ignore Ren. The manager asks where she learnt about the tea ceremony, and Kyouko goes into almot-demon mode! She suddenly remembers about her lessons at the inn and suddenly realizes that the only reason she was taught all of this and therefore was able to use it in her acting is because she was being prepared to be Shou's wife! The reporter comes around to talk with Kyouko, but Ren has seen her face and sends him packing. He helps Kyouko up, thinking her ankle is hurting. Meanwhile Kyouko thinks that today it was the first time she has thought about wanting to become better at something for a reason other than Shoutarou. She thinks she wants to become as good an actor as Ren, and from this moment on she will create herself, instead of being goaded into creating by others. At her room, the make-up girls try to convince Kyouko to clean off the make-up, but she doesn't want to! (Who knows when she will be able to use such make-up again...) Ren drops the hint that if she doesn't have a good skin tone, Shou will be winning over her because he is in a skin care products ad... That settles it real fast. (^^) Next morning, Kyouko takes her leave from the director and crosses paths with Ren and his manager. Kyouko tells Ren that it wasn't because her ankle was hurting that she was feeling so bad the night before, but because the tea-ceremony talk had reminded her of certain horrible guy... Ren catches on right way. "Ah, him." Ren says that then all her hard work the day before was for the sake of her revenge to him, and Kyouko agrees, even though internally she thinks that it was that but only for the start... Ren smiles very sweetly. As Kyouko returns to the city, she looks at her stamp book, which know has a new -10 points stamp from Ren! Ren's manager finally arrives to the conclusion that Ren's feelings towards Kyouko are that he really doesn't like her at all! (Kyouko screams bloody murder for Ren...(^^))

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All images © NAKAMURA Yoshiki, Hakusensha (except backgrounds).