From the back cover:
Tsukushi has been unconscious for two days and wakes up in Tsukasa’s cousin’s home! This terrifying man saved her life and now he’s courting her! What is the secret behind this mysterious cousin who so closely resembles Tsukasa, and what could be the reason for his intense hatred of Tsukasa? Why does Tsukasa not know anything about him?

Review:
I find I’m kind of running out of things to say about this series. Each volume is usually a combination of good scenes between Tsukushi and Tsukasa and silly plot happenings that often border on ludicrous. Volume 24 manages to be pretty decent without much direct interaction between the two leads, at least.

Tsukushi is pursued by a guy who claims to be Tsukasa’s cousin, though he pretty quickly reveals himself (to the reader) to be more than he’s letting on. Tsukushi’s rich friends are suspicious and take it upon themselves to investigate, and though this involves a bunch of mistaken notions about detecting, it’s all still kind of sweet.

The best part of the story at this point is kind of underplayed. Tsukasa has already asked Tsukushi if she’s never once regarded him as just a guy, and seeing a rival version of himself without all the rich boy baggage is bothering him. In an attempt to prove how normal he is, for example, he decides that he is going to travel by train. The experience is almost entirely played for comedy, but there is one moment with Akira where Tsukasa asks, “Akira, I’m not very different from these other guys on the train, am I?” Alas, he doesn’t get the answer he wants.

Once the truth about the cousin is revealed, Tsukushi gets good and fired up and demands to see Kaede. While she’s feeling rebellious, I’d like to see her finally confess her love to Tsukasa, but I have a feeling that’s still several volumes away, at least. Sigh.

From the back cover:
Tsukushi ends her visit at her parents’ quiet seaside home and returns to Tokyo. She is welcomed back with a “girls’ night out” and ends up meeting a ton of guys! Unfortunately, they all turn out to be losers. In fact, one of the boys is downright terrifying and bears a striking resemblance to a certain curly-haired ex-boyfriend! Could they be related?!

Review:
The fishing village story line wraps up fairly decently, actually, with some nice awkwardness between Tsukushi and Tsukasa (in which she has trouble not confessing her love), the “No-Account” dude being reunited with his girlfriend, and, back in Tokyo, the Makinos being given use of a condo by Shigeru. It turns out that all of Tsukushi’s rich friends wanted to lend her accommodations and had talked about it at length to figure out whose generosity would put the least strain on her. Aww.

Of course, Tsukushi is determined to get a job so that the Makinos no longer need depend on Shigeru and so that she can fund her brother’s high school ambitions. Sakurako dangles the carrot of a high-paying job that she knows about and manages to get Tsukushi to attend a group date along with Shigeru and Yuki. These scenes with the four girls hanging out (and trying to help Tsukushi forget Tsukasa) are a lot of fun and I hope we see more of them together. I can even forgive the ridiculousness of encountering a Tsukasa look-a-like on the date and Tsukushi’s subsequent moron moment as she keeps mistaking him for Tsukasa.

As usual, the final scene of the volume offers some particularly scrumptious angst between our two leads. It’s worth noting that Tsukasa, who had said that if the two-month dating experience didn’t work out that he would let her go, is being true to his word and not exerting any effort to get Tsukushi back. I’d like this scene better if the Tsukasa look-a-like didn’t show up at the end, but it still serves to acquaint Tsukushi even further with her true feelings, so I can’t complain much.

I can complain about the Story Thus Far, however. Usually, this is pretty decent but this time it contains errors. It says of the final chapter in volume 21 that “Tsukushi does not reveal the real reason for leaving Tsukasa, and instead, tells him that she no longer loves him.” Er, that’s completely untrue. She specifically mentions his mother and the threats on her friends’ families. Also, how could you tell someone you no longer love them if you’ve never told them you love them in the first place? What she did do was allow Tsukasa to think calling things off was easy for her because she had no feelings for him.

From the back cover:
Tsukushi has left her on-and-off boyfriend Tsukasa, his mansion, her school, and Tokyo altogether! Down and out, she heads for the seaside village where her family has gone to live and work. Unfortunately, her parents are about to be run out of town. Just then, visitors from Tokyo arive!

Review:
What a disappointment! After the awesomeness at the end of the last volume, I was expecting something much better than this. Instead, we get a ridiculous plot where Tsukushi flees to the fishing village, where her incredibily annoying parents have told everyone that Tsukushi is engaged to Doumyouji and are racking up bills with the expectation that he’ll pay them. She also meets a slacker surfer guy who is waiting around for the girlfriend who left him to return and who has garnered a reputation as a “no-account.” Inexplicably, everybody in the village seems irate that Tsukushi is hanging out with this dude, and there’s a completely dumb scene where they all turn out at her parents’ house to confront her.

Meanwhile, Tsukasa is reverting to his violent ways, threatening his friends with bodily harm when they come to talk to him about what’s happened and being cruel to a girl who takes advantage of Tsukushi’s absence to confess her feelings for him. This, at least, is better than the fishing village story line and I kind of love the scene where Rui, having seen Tsukushi on TV (some kind of program was filmed at the beach and had Tsukushi in the background), goes to goad Tsukasa into going to see her, pushing all the right buttons by exaggerating her frail condition.

Ultimately, the best part of the volume is the ending, in which Rui and Tsukasa turn up at the village just in time to prevent some angry mob action. Yes, it’s completely goofy, but that Rui came himself (thinking he had failed to motivate Tsukasa) is actually pretty sweet. I’ve learned my lesson, however, and shan’t be anticipating any greatness out of the next volume just because this one ends well.