Recap / Skip Beat Volume 6

Can these two work together to come out on top?

Kyoko and Moko celebrate after getting the roles they auditioned for with an impromptu date, but Moko's old enemy Erika isn't going to let them off so easily.

This volume contains the chapters:

• Act 30. "The Secret Stamp Book" ^note Kyoko and Moko got the roles they auditioned for! In celebration, Kyoko takes Moko out on a friendship date. Meanwhile, Erika Koenji is absolutely livid Moko got the best of her. She's ready to take down Moko with extreme prejudice... that is, if she can get past Kyoko's defenses.
• Act 31. "Together in the Minefield" ^note Kyoko and Kanae film their commercial. LME president Lory and his granddaughter Maria visit the shoot with Ren and Yashiro in tow. Later, Yashiro catches the nasty bug that's going around at LME, and Kyoko is assigned to be Ren's temporary manager.
• Act 32. "Her Lost Youth" ^note Kyoko starts her duties as Ren's temporary manager, but it's proving to be a harder job that she though. Meanwhile, Lory has good news that he's eager to share with Kyoko.
• Act 33. "An Emergency Situation" ^note Lory tells Kyoko that he enrolled her at a high school with a special class for actors and idols. Kyoko is overjoyed, but she quickly finds herself brought back down to earth when it turns out the invincible Ren has caught a cold.
• Act 34. "Image Crash" ^note Ren refuses to let up on his busy schedule, even while sick. But his next acting gig takes place in the rain, and his cold isn't getting any better...
• Act 35. "Dislike x Dislike" ^note Kyoko takes care of a sick Ren while studying for her high school entrance exam. It's all part of her job as his temporary manager, but is that how he really sees her?
• Extra: "A Scary Story That Really Happened" ^note Erika schemes to add Ren Tsuruga to her Jewel Squad, but she's interrupted in her machinations by Maria's new toy.

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Chapters in this volume provide examples of:

• Catch Your Death of Cold: A rather nasty cold seems to be going around the LME offices. Ren's manager Yashiro catches it and takes the day off just as Ren starts to get sick, leaving Kyoko to take care of a feverish celebrity who doesn't believe he can catch a cold.
• Coincidental Dodge: Kyoko seems to be subconsciously attuned to the Jewel Squad's attempts to injure Kanae in chapter 30 - every time they get close, she suddenly drags Kanae off to another fun activity she's always wanted to do with a girlfriend. Erika gets tired of watching the Jewel Squad fail and tries to bludgeon Kanae with a Colonel Sanders statue from a KFC, but Kyoko unknowingly pulls Kanae out of harms way just in time for Erika to fall into the fountain behind them.
• *Drool* Hello: In one of the extra installments of the manga, Lory's granddaughter Maria has a rather large, remote-controlled robot spider she uses to scare off women who get too close to Ren - including Rich Bitch Erika Koenji.
• Flower Motifs: It's a shoujo managa after all - the cover has Kyoko posing happily with a handful of bright red flowers, and most chapters have a few instances of panel backgrounds filling with unexplained flowers. Kyoko and Kanae even get to frolic in a flowery meadow when they're shooting the commercial for the new Kaindo Dorinko soda.
• Forgets to Eat: Ren can get so absorbed in his busy acting schedule that he'll forget to eat for days at a time. The powers that be decided Kyoko ought to step in for Yashiro because Ren would be too polite to skip a meal if Kyoko was around.
• Groupie Brigade: Kyoko has to get Ren through a barely restrained mob of screaming fans during her stint as his substitute manager. Complicating that is that fact that she's 5'4" and can barely see over the heads of the girls in the mob, while Ren has almost a whole foot on her at 6'3". He ends up being the one to get them through the crowd, much to Kyoko's consternation.
• Joshikousei: Kyoko and Kanae (who are both high school age but unable to attend school due to their busy schedules) play a pair of high school best friends in their commercial debut for Kaindo Dorinko, complete with Sailor Fuku uniforms.
• Pet the Dog: Moko gives Kyoko a 100% full marks stamp in her Love-Me stamp booklet after Kyoko's fallen asleep on the bus, and writes a note explaining how helpful Kyoko has been to her.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Even as Erika threatens to scar Kanae's face with a sharp piece of jewelry (which would cause Kanae to lose the acting job she just scored), Kanae delivers a brutal "reasons you suck" speech. Kanae tells Erika that she has never considered Erika a true rival, as Erika has only ever relied on her father's money, her family name, and outright sabotaging the competition to succeed. Kanae tells her she'll never improve her acting if she continues to resort to such deceitful and underhanded methods instead of her own talent. This hits home for Erika, who vows to improve her acting so Kanae will have to consider her a worthy opponent.
• Rock Theme Naming: Erika wants to add Ren Tsuruga to her "Jewel Squad" as Diamond, her favorite stone.
• Sailor Fuku: Kyoko and Kanae wear matching school uniforms in their debut commercial for the Kaindo Dorinko soda brand. Kyoko is overjoyed to get to wear the uniform even for a little while, as she effectively dropped out of high school to support Sho in his dreams and never got to experience being a regular high school girl. She's reluctant to take it off when the filming ends.
• Sick Episode: Acts 31 through 36 could be considered this - first Kyoko has to sub in for a sick Yashiro as Ren's manager; then she has to take care of Ren when he refuses to admit he's caught a cold.
• Soup Is Medicine: When Kyoko stays overnight at Ren's apartment to take care of him while he's recovering from a bad cold, she makes him vegetable soup for breakfast in case his throat is still too sore to eat anything solid.
• Suggestive Collision: When Ren faints from his cold he collapses squarely on top of Kyoko, and she's unable to push him off or wriggle out from underneath him. She's only able to get him back on his feet by reciting the lines from the drama he's acting in, which jolts him back into consciousness because he's just that good of an actor.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: In a flashback segment, Ren admits that his younger self began to see the young Kyoko as this because of her kind, selfless nature.

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