Recap / Skip Beat Volume 38

Only one of them is actually attending highschool right now.

After Kyoko has cried her heart out about her mother's harsh words, her mood quickly lifts again, and she's determined to change things now. She plans to surprise her mother by setting up a meeting with her, and finally having that face-to-face talk they needed to have for a long time.

When she and Saena meet at her office, the atmosphere is tense. Kyoko has a ton of questions and wants answers to them, but isn't sure how far she can go. Saena agrees to tell Kyoko about her past, and the mistakes she's made, and how Kyoko came into being.

But Saena makes it clear that this knowledge might hurt Kyoko. Is she ready for it?

This volume contains the following chapters

• Act 225: Pop Chord ^note Kyoko is embarrassed for having cried and held onto Ren because of a case of mistaken identity. Ren tries to calm her down, and asks if she wants to tell him why she was crying, but Kyoko declines. Ren shows her the meal videos they agreed on him filming while he was in Guam, and Kyoko actually feels much better. She asks him to give her the stamp that he promised he'd give her when he returns to Japan.
• Extra: Them Then ~The Human Mandala In the Small Hours Of The Morning~ ^note A short look at Ren coming into Darumaya after Act 225 to stamp Kyoko's Love Me notebook. The owner serves Ren some fish, which Kyoko says is a secret test he gives some people.
• Act 226: Marble Flag ^note Lory is shocked to learn from Ren that Kyoko is planning a surprise attack on her mother and going to meet her. In a café, Kyoko is waiting anxiously for her mother's colleague. Todou arrives and the two talk, with him even indirectly mentioning her father. He makes it clear, though, that if Kyoko wants to know about her father, she'll have to ask her mother. The two arrive at the office and Saena looks into the car, seeing Kyoko. Kyoko gets out of the car, ready to confront her mother.
• Act 227: Spiral Echo ^note Saena and Kyoko head into her office and prepare to have a proper talk about their relationship. As the talk starts off on a bumpy road, Kyoko thinks that she might hear why her mother had such averse reactions to her. Before Saena can say much, though, Kyoko thanks her for giving birth to her.
• Act 228: Ground Call ^note Saena is a young lawyer and working for Katagiri on an important case. She meets up with her boyfriend, Misonoi, and talks about her workday and difficulty of interacting with her colleagues. Back in the present, Kyoko bluntly asks if her mother's interaction with her are because she hates her. Saena denies, saying that she's more afraid that she might emotionally hurt Kyoko further.
• Act 229: Ground Call ^note Kyoko isn't sure if she should keep digging into her mother's past, especially since it's clear that it's quite a sore spot for her. Saena tells her, though, that if Kyoko honestly wants to know, then she has a right to know. She continues her story, with a younger Saena working herself to the bone in getting herself familiarized with the important Jousei case. Since Misonoi notices how tired she is, he chooses to have them eat at his place instead of dining out and, after dinner, Saena ends up suddenly falling asleep.
• Act 230: Ground Call ^note Having slept well, Saena is much more refreshed at work and continues to focus on the Jousei case, even taking copies of the case information home to study it. She notices that the floppy disk with the number 2 on it is upside-down. Perhaps she was so exhausted lately that she put it upside-down herself. But when she notices the same thing two days later, she wonders if Misonoi is a company spy. Trying to keep her cool, Saena thinks about her relationship with Misonoi and is intent on learning his true feelings.

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Chapters in this volume contain examples of

• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Misonoi gives Saena one as she falls asleep at his place. She's quite embarrassed, but also pleased about it.
• Angry Eyebrows: Saena has an amazing pair of eyebrows that love to form deep wrinkles on her forehead when she frowns. The deep furrows of her eyebrows has even got them nicknamed the 'Mogami River'.
• Bad Liar: Discussed, as Ruto says that it looks like Kyoko has cheered up a lot already and Lory tells him to not be deceived. That Kyoko is an actress and can fool people, so Ruto says that Lory might have to talk to or see her for himself to know if she honestly was cheered up.
• Can't Hold Her Liquor: Todou mentions that Saena isn't very good at tolerating alcohol. A case of Truth in Television, as Asians are known to lack an enzyme that helps their body break down alcohol better.
• Covers Always Lie: The cover shows Kyoko, Kanae and Chiori as school students attending the same location. Not only is that not the uniform Kyoko wears to the high school she attends, but Kanae and Chiori are also not her schoolmates and aren't even attending highschool themselves.
• Elopement: Saena thought that Kyoko and Shou ran off to Tokyo to secretly get married. Kyoko angrily yells that there was never any of 'that' kind of relationship between them, just to set the record straight!
• Flashback: Chapter 225 has Ren flashing back to how fast Kyoko's moods have always flipped from sad to happy, including a time when she was downcast ten seconds ago, and in absolute tears three minutes prior to that.
• Flower Motifs: It's a shoujo manga, after all.
  • The cover has cherry blossoms flying around from the cherry trees.
  • Some panels have flowers spontaneously burst into existence.
• Forgets to Eat: Saena has a tendency to do this when she gets really focused on her work.
• It's Not You, It's Me: A non-romantic example, with Saena making it clear that Kyoko isn't at fault for their strained relationship.
• The Mole: There are concerns that Misonoi might be a company spy.
• Ordinary Highschool Student: Kyoko wears her high school uniform when meeting her mother, though her school is specifically attended by students that are also working in showbiz.
• Secret Test of Character: The owner of the Darumaya actually pulls this on some people. He serves them some fish and, if they eat it neatly, they pass his test. In fact, this is how Kyoko even got hired to work at Darumaya.
• Sherlock Scan: Todou gives one to Saena in Chapter 228, noticing instantly that she is wearing a different shade of lipstick and insisting that this means something, as she has never before changed her lipstick color.
• Slipping a Mickey: Saena wonders if Misonoi might have slipped her a sleeping pill in her drink, but is certain that she was just at her limit with exhaustion.
• Sudden Name Change: Saena's colleague was initially translated as Fujimichi in Chapter 220, but changed to Todou in Chapter 226 because Nakamura had since provided the official reading.
• The Teetotaler: Saena has become one after Todou got her drunk one night, and she blabbed to him about Kyoko and her reason for coming to Tokyo. She refuses to let her guard down again.
• Tempting Fate: Katagiri says that there's no way his firm and client will lose the Jousei case. The only way it could happen would be if someone managed to steal some of the case information... which makes Saena recall the number 2 floppy disk in her case being put in upside-down, and knowing that she didn't put it that way.
• Was It All a Lie?: When Saena begins to worry that Misonoi might actually be an industrial spy out to steal information of her case, she thinks back to their relationship and wonders if even their meeting was a setup to get close to her.

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