The shit hath hitteth the fan! As news of Keigo’s scandal breaks, none of the record companies want to sign him. Kaoru confronts him in his apartment, but he’s nonchalant about it. If his image is tarnished, he’ll just go somewhere where no one knows who he is. “What, will you go to the ends of the world?” Kaoru demands, which makes sense seeing that he IS rather famous. “Yup,” he replies with a mirthless smirk. And fade away on the image of the globe spinning around.
Masaki passes by a video game arcade, and sees her brother inside. He’s being shoved around by some boys, who extort money from him in return for keeping quiet about his sister. Of course the silly boy pays up. Bullying and extortion in Japanese schools was quite a big issue some years back. She goes in to get him, but Satoru only says in his funny prepubescent voice, “I hate you!”
When she gets home, her father yells at her for shaming the family with her admission. Apparently Satoru is now refusing to go to school, since he is embarrassed. Okaa-san tries to be a buffer, but Masaki just tearfully apologises to her parents and heads upstairs, while her father maintains his obstinate expression.
Keigo and his lovely t-shirt-and-shirt combo have been cut adrift by the record company, and his agent is delivering the bad news. No matter, he’ll go abroad! Kaoru turns around in shock. “I’ll start from scratch in America,” Keigo reassures them. Up on the rooftop, Kaoru ingratiatingly lights Keigo’s cigarette for him, then declares that “you go, I go too!” Yeah, whatever, go away. “I want to go alone,” Keigo hints. “You and your ego,” she shoots back. Er no, maybe he just can’t stand you. So she takes the guilt-trip approach. He’s insensitive, he never considers other people’s feelings, and that’s how he killed her sister, by being too absorbed in his music. “You’re right,” he concurs. “Aren’t you glad I’m out of your life?” Hahaha! Can’t win with this guy la.
Oh noes, mysterious music is playing! Masaki stops at a newsstand and sees her supposed “tell-all” about her “passionate night” with Keigo! Okaa-san has a consultation with Masaki’s doctor about the side effects of her medicines. As she’s returning home, her former lover is waiting for her. Persistency pays off, but not for this guy as Okaa-san tells him to go away, she’s busy with her HIV-positive daughter.
Masaki enters the lobby of some posh building, and it’s showdown time as Kaoru’s eyes gleam fiercely as she sees her. Kaoru rushes down the stairs and none too gently grabs Masaki’s arm, while telling her to come along. Then the recriminations start. “Because of you, Keigo’s career is in ruins! No one in Japan wants to hire him!” Yeah, and his rubbish work ethic didn’t come into play at all. The guilt-tripping works better on naïve young Masaki, who goes outside to sit on a curb and cry.
Keigo is packing up his stuff, which includes a small cactus. His lackey comes in to tell him that they’re rehearsing for a concert, then leaves. Keigo’s cellphone rings. “It’s me. That girl just came to the office.” Poot, it’s Kaoru. “I sent your No. 1 fan away even though she wanted to apologise. Did I do good?” Add some eager tail-wagging, and you couldn’t have a better lap dog. Keigo gives her a pat on the head, but he looks slightly perturbed.
Back home, Masaki eats more delicious candies from her Sanrio pillbox. Her mother offers her 1 yen for her thoughts, and Masaki unloads all her guilt over causing so much trouble for everyone, including the person she loves! “It’s great you have someone to love,” Okaa-san says. Meanwhile Oto-san is standing at the door, listening to all this. “Cherish the love you have,” is Okaa-san’s final advice. In this scene, it’s amazing how fair Okaa-san is, compared to her daughter who seems 3 shades more tan.
Oto-san took himself off to a bar and stayed there until the lady boss tells him it’s closing time. Next scene, he barges into his room and throws his briefcase on one of two twin beds. Wild, they have separate beds! He packs his stuff and tells his alarmed wife, “You’re in love with another man while your daughter is ill. You don’t need a father in name only!” and leaves, and it falls to Satoru to point out the obvious: it’s Masaki’s fault. Again.
Our whipping girl trudges into her bedroom and looks up at the giant poster of Keigo. She picks up her cellphone to call him, but Kaoru’s recriminating voice stops her, and she plops down onto her bed instead.
Keigo is still packing, and someone should tell him it’s not a good idea to have a lit cigarette when you’re packing lots of paper. He sees two small pieces of paper with girly writing on it. Reading Masaki’s “thank you for last night” letter cues a flashback montage where we see Masaki at her best. Then Keigo folds up the letter and chucks it onto his desk.
Masaki invades the office of the record company and tries to convince an executive that Keigo’s contract is worth renewing, and he still has a loyal fan base. Of course he’s not listening to her, but then she collapses!
Cut to Keigo in a rehearsal studio. As he’s praising them for a good job, his lackey enters and informs him that the record company called. They *whisper whisper whisper* and Keigo’s eyes go wide. “Collapsed?” and he zips out of the scene so fast, the camera can only capture a blur. A jealous Kaoru wants to know where he’s going, but of course she already knows. She’s just upset. Her hands on his convertible door are no deterrent, as he just guns the engine and leaves her to eat dust. Which, as you’d know from Little Britain, is a lovely no-calorie alternative to actual food.
Hibino enters Masaki’s bedroom, and she says she’s fine. It was the medication that gave her a funny turn, but this was already foreshadowed in Okaa-san’s meeting with the doctor. Meanwhile, she’s been spending time writing request cards for Keigo’s song to radio stations. Even if it’s useless, she wants to do something for him! Hibino now has the classic face of a man who has realised he’s on the ‘friend’ ladder, and he’s stuck there.
Downstairs, Okaa-san has prepared a dinner that’s slowly going cold, because her husband ain’t back. Said husband has taken himself off to some motel, where he’s being a slob and downing beer. Our heroine has fallen asleep writing cards, and there is a polite “ping-pong” of the doorbell. One of my Japanese language tutors told us that Japanese doorbells don’t go “ding-dong”. Okaa-san opens the door to reveal Keigo,who actually took the trouble to slick down his hair. Okaa-san is starstruck!
Keigo tells Hibino not to wake Masaki, but he sees the cards strewn all over anyway. Hibino explains that she’s sick from the side effects of the medication, but she still did all this. All I know is, he’s a lousy friend for not waking her! A dose of Keigo is much more effective than sleep!
“Do you love her?” Keigo asks Hibino. “Er, she’s stupid but she tries hard,” he replies. Keigo totally misunderstands, and leaves a ticket for Kaoru’s concert on Masaki’s desk. As he reaches his car, a voice calls his name. Okaa-san had more sense than Hibino, and woke Masaki up so she could chase after him. She thanks him for the ticket, and he informs her that it will be his last concert in Japan.
“Are you going on a world tour?” asks the ever-optimistic Masaki. He drops the bomb. “Good luck, I’ll be cheering you on from Japan,” she mumbles. Then Keigo decides to be an rear-end and snaps, “I don’t need it,” and gets into his car.
The bad karma from being a rear-end finally gets to Keigo as he’s shown having a sleepless night, despite the satin sheets. Masaki is crying. Bla bla bla.
A cargo lift opens to show Keigo, looking uncannily like one of Takeshi’s other roles, The Returner. He goes into the rehearsal studio, which is in disarray. Oh poot. Keigo’s agent explains that the sponsors pulled out of the concert because of the scandal, so it’s been cancelled.
It’s daytime again and Keigo wanders to where his posters were put up. One of them is ripped in half, symbolising his shattered career. He goes to sit on a park bench, where he sees a schoolgirl feeding the birds. He perks up until she turns around. Erk. SO not Masaki. He goes to a ramen-ten and picks at the meat slices, remembering the time he ate here with Masaki. He goes back to the concert venue and stands on the stage, remembering the last time he stood there as 10,000 teenage girls chanted his name. He sits down at the grand piano and starts to play, when a very real “Keigo!” breaks his reverie.
There is a long banner, reading “I love Keigo” in a dozen different typefaces, hung on the top row of the seats. Then *poink!* a flag pops up and starts waving, followed by Masaki. Keigo sits there emotionlessly. “It took me a week to make this,” she informs him. “Are you going to make fun of me? Go ahead.” She’s a relentless battering ram, chipping away at the walls he put up around himself. “I can’t stop loving you!” she tearfully informs him.
Keigo slams the keyboard, resulting in a discordant chord. Looks like he’s going the rear-end route, as he tells her she’s a pest, a pest that has cost him his job, his reputation, and his life in Japan. “Love is a burden,” he says seemingly to himself. “Why do you make me feel this way?” is his final question, as he steps in front of her and embraces her. And cue the opening chord of my ringtone. As the verse starts up, he kisses her. On the mouth! And they don’t stop kissing until they’re back in his car. She thanks him and kisses him goodnight, giving her flag a final wave.
Security at the concert venue must be nonexistent, if a girl and her 100-metre long banner can just waltz in. And trust me, I know how heavy banners can get. Plus, the chemistry in the last part isn’t terribly convincing. The kissing scene is ho-hum, I’ve seen better. This is one of the more mediocre epsodes.