Vol. 18 cover, published October 1, 2004.
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Shock[]
Part 1[]
This story takes place just before the trip to Italy. This year’s Yamayurikai play is revealed to contain both first and second year students as actors and actresses. Since it was the day after the Sports Festival, the Roses and their boutons were having a relaxed lunch at the Rose Mansion when Sachiko stood up, interrupting the calm air. She announced that they will be doing Torikaebaya Monogatari, and one by one, each of the girls casted their eyes on a confused Yumi. Shimako brought out the infamous copy of classical Japanese literature that she had borrowed from the library. It was Sachiko who had originally borrowed the book and recommended it to Yumi, so once Yumi was about to return the book, Noriko claimed it, followed by Shimako, and just now, Yoshino made an inquiry to check it out after her. Yumi identified the book as such, and Sachiko looked at her disapprovingly since it’s taking Yumi a while to understand the pivotal role this book has on their decision for the play this year.
Sachiko told Yumi she couldn’t reveal what the play was earlier for fear that Yumi would oppose it. Everyone continued to cast their eyes on Yumi, awaiting the appropriate response of shock. Yoshino took it upon herself to fill her in slowly, playing word association with classical literature pieces until she finally landed on Torikaebaya Monogatari, to which Yumi responds “identical twins changing places.”
There was no use in complaining to her onee-sama as everyone had already expressed either their approval or sympathies since they couldn’t easily pass off to resemble Yuuki. After the shock has died down, Sachiko asked Yumi sternly what her answer was in taking the role of this year’s play. If it were anyone else, she would have said no, but because it was her onee-sama, she accepted.
Part 2[]
Yumi has been in a daze since hearing this year’s play. Yoshino, Shimako, and Yumi were outside of the classroom, explaining to Yumi everything that they know about the play. Yoshino mentioned that Rei and Sachiko had considered the play about a year ago, but recent development that Yuuki existed only helped to solidify the idea. Shimako offered her perspective, saying that Eriko wanted to do Kaguya-hime, the tale of the bamboo cutter who finds a tiny princess from the moon. At the mention of Eriko, the former Rosa Foetida’s name sent shivers down Yoshino’s spine. Shimako looked concerned till Yumi gave her a condensed version of Yoshino’s and Eriko’s agreement of meeting Yoshino’s petite soeur in a few months. Back to the conversation at hand, blunt Noriko joined the conversation, adding that the choice for Torikaebaya Monogatari was simply because Sachiko could no way be cast as the lead. Yumi was determined to give Sachiko a piece of her mind until Yoshino asked her what she was going to say. Unfortunately, there was no issue that Yumi had thought of hadn’t already been countered and remedied by Sachiko. The three offered their fullest support given the circumstances, and headed back to class.
Yoshino stopped Yumi right before entering their classroom since their teacher hadn’t arrived yet to talk about her anniversary with Sachiko. Yoshino and Rei celebrated their anniversary by eating Rei’s homemade cake. Yumi likened it to a husband who goes out and buys flowers for their wedding anniversary, however, the wife (in this case, Yoshino) forgets and makes the usual dinner instead of something special. Yoshino was off in her own world, thinking that it was wonderful how their anniversary coincide with the school’s festival. Instead of being happy, this gave Yumi another thing to think about. They were interrupted by the School Festival Executive Committee, telling them that they were going to start figuring out the schedule for their class’ food stand before homeroom starts. They were coordinating schedules and shifts in conjunction with Shimako’s class.
Part 3[]
It was Yumi’s job to inform Yuuki of his newfound lead role during the Yamayurikai’s play. Naturally, he had the same reaction that Yumi did when she first found out and while there wasn’t an appropriate time to tell him, she needed to tell him before her trip to Italy. This would give the Hanadera boys at least a week to look over the script.
Yuuki was comparing himself to the former Hanadera student council president, Kashiwagi Suguru. Because of the type of guy he is (cool, handsome, confident, rich), he of course had no problem working with and being surrounded by girls. Some students at the Hanadera school even call him a “lady’s man,” except in his case, he’d be a “man’s man.”
This year’s plan, however, puts the student council president in an even more difficult spot compared to last year’s “Cinderella.” Yuuki was hoping that his acting abilities would change Sachiko’s mind about him and Yumi being the leads, but she didn’t pick him for his acting abilities, but instead his face.
The siblings talked amongst each other, sharing that if they had a choice when they were born, they would have chosen to resemble more like their mother. Instead, they inherited their father’s raccoon looking face, which was a moot topic since this was something neither of them could change.
As Yuuki admitted defeat, he stood up to go take his bath. As he descended the stairs, he stopped and called out to Yumi, explaining that it wasn’t the amount of lines he had to memorize that he wasn’t enthusiastic about being the lead, it was that he had to dress up like a woman. Yumi finally understood that his feelings for rejecting the lead of the play was different than hers.