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.

From the back cover:
Tsukasa’s mother, Kaede, is back! Can Tsukushi really stay in the home of the woman with whom she is at war?! Kaede takes a new and vicious tack in her obsession to tear Tsukushi away from her upperclass son. If Tsukushi can’t be bribed, then maybe Kaede can destroy the lives of Tsukushi’s friends! Tsukushi is forced to take extreme measures—but which course will she choose?!

Review:
Kaede’s return has everyone in turmoil. Tama, the elderly maid who has been instructing Tsukushi in her duties, manages to keep Kaede from kicking Tsukushi out of the mansion, but Kaede simply turns to other means at her disposal and pulls strings to threaten the jobs of the fathers of Tsukushi’s two closest friends. Ultimately, Tsukushi agrees to stop associating with the Doumyouji family in exchange for their jobs being reinstated.

At first, I found this volume to be kind of frustrating, despite some nice moments. The scene in which Tsukushi attempts to hide from Kaede under a table is painfully dumb, for example, and Tsukushi’s decision to give up Tsukasa seemed like just another way to extend the drama for a few more volumes. But then that last page!

That last page made me cry! I shan’t spoil it, but suffice it to say that this volume contains a couple of very important actions and realizations on Tsukushi’s part, and the impact is enough that I immediately forget all the silly business and enjoy reading the last half dozen pages several times over.