|
|
The first day of high
school, she saw a boy taking pictures and asked for his name-Matsuyuki
Aoi. He gets mad at her because she made him miss the wind.
Moka thought that he wanted to photograph the falling leaves, but actually
he was trying to get panty shots! That started their
antagonistic relationship. Whenever the
cheerleading team does something, Aoi is always there taking panty shots,
and he calls them the panty team.
One day, the soccer
team asks Moka to bring the cheerleaders to their game after school.
She agrees. But that afternoon before the game, when she gets ready,
she finds that she’s lost the picture! Without it, she can’t cheerlead,
and she runs away to look for it. She runs into Aoi, who asks what’s
wrong. She says she lost an important keepsake photo, and Aoi suggests
that he take another one for her. Moka says he wouldn’t understand,
and leaves. She thinks about how that photo gave her courage to dance
with all her heart and to start the cheerleading team. She is looking
in some bushes when it starts to rain. Inside, the other cheerleaders
say that the soccer game will have to be delayed because of the rain.
Moka is crying in the rain, when Aoi comes up behind her, saying if it
was that important she should hang it around her neck. He’s found
the photo, and he gives it to her, saying he tired himself out looking
for it. Moka thanks him ecstatically, and he tells her to get to
the game. If the ‘panty team’ isn’t there, the players won’t have
any spirit. Moka agrees and runs off, thinking that maybe Aoi isn’t
such a bad guy.
In the stands at the
game, a boy comments that Moka got there after all. Aoi says he brought
her, and got rained on because of it, and the boy hands him some money,
saying he should make sure to get *really* good pictures of her.
Aoi smiles and accepts...
Part 2 (June
1999): Because of Aoi helping her, Moka sees Aoi a bit more favourably
than before. She's thinking this in class when her friend, Hana,
notices her watching him and asks if she likes him, which Moka denies.
She says they're eternal rivals, and she longs only for Ryo. Moka
looks up when Aoi calls her name and finds him right in her face, which
makes her blush. He says Hana told him she was asking for him, and
tells Moka not to call him without a reason. After he leaves and
Moka gets mad again, Hana says that's the difference between longing for
someone you don't even know and normal liking. She tells Moka to
give up on a faraway love and go for the one which is right in front of
her. Moka daydreams, thinking it would be nice if Ryo was right in
front of her, and without realizing reaches out her hand and touches Aoi
on the shoulder(he sits in front of her). He asks her, annoyed, what
she wants, and Moka sees several panty shots of the cheerleading team on
his desk, along with money from guys who are buying them. Moka whacks
Aoi and thinks she was a fool to ever think anything good about him, and
Aoi has his camera and the money taken away from him by a teacher.
Consequently, Aoi is in a really bad mood after school, and says that if
he can't take panty shots there's no point in coming to school, and starting
tomorrow he won't come. Aoi and Moka are fighting when they're interrupted
by a girl wearing tight shorts and a bra top throwing herself at Aoi and
hugging him. Aoi, blushing in embarrassment, tells her to let go,
and Moka asks who she is. The girl announces that she's Aoi's girlfriend,
Nanase Kanna, and Aoi tells her not to lie, she's just an annoying acquaintance
from middle school. He asks why she's wearing that outfit, and she
says she just started a new club, the Kouyou Dance Club, just for
Aoi. Moka abruptly says they have to practice, and Aoi says he's
going home. Aoi tells Moka there's no point in watching the cheerleader
practice if he can't take panty shots, and Moka tells him to do whatever
he likes. They angrily walk away from each other, and when Hana comments
that Aoi and the girl seem like pretty good friends, Moka says it has nothing
to do with her who Aoi is friends with.
The next day, Moka is astonished
to see that Aoi actually didn't come to school. The female students
says it's her fault, and Moka says she's sure he'll come the next day.
But he doesn't come the next day, or the next, and Hana tells Moka to go
to his house and bring him to school. Moka gets his address and when
she goes, finds that he lives alone in an apartment. She rings the
doorbell and Aoi isn't home, but Moka finds the door unlocked. When
she enters, she finds a pretty messy room, with empty cup ramen and photos
on the floor. Moka sees one of Aoi in middle school with Nanase and
another guy, and picks it up. She turns it over and is shocked to
see the name 'Ryo' beside Aoi's and Nanase's. At that moment, Aoi
returns and finds Moka in his room. He asks her what she's doing,
and
Moka says he has to come to school or else it looks like it's her fault.
Then she asks about the picture, and Aoi gets really mad and says he's
asking her what she's doing. Moka stops, surprised, and then says
she's sorry, she'll go home. She runs out, and Aoi finds a stack
of school notes that she left behind, with a note on it telling him to
come to school.
The next day at school,
Moka stares at Aoi's empty seat and reflects that she didn't know that
he lived alone. She wonders if he was having a hard time financially
without being able to sell his panty shots. When she looks up, Aoi
is standing in the doorway! He says he came because 'someone' was
bugging him about it, and says he had been working to get money for food.
Moka starts asking him why he lives alone, where he works, etc. Aoi tells
her to stop, that there are a few things he wants to keep to himself, and
walks away complaining about how hungry he is(and Moka hears his stomach
growling). Moka wonders if he always eats stuff like cup ramen, and feels
guilty, so when Aoi returns from his part-time job that night, he finds
Moka sleeping in front of his door, having waited for him. She's
made him a dinner and a little doll of herself cheerleading him.
He pats her head and thanks her, and when Moka wakes up, she sees Aoi digging
in to her homemade meal. She yells at him, saying before he eats,
she has to cheer him on to do his best living alone. So she does,
and Aoi is a bit embarrassed, but smiles.
The next day at practice,
Aoi has his camera back and is taking lots of pictures of the cheerleading
team. He tells Moka he'll wait for her at the school gate after practice,
and Moka, blushing, says he shouldn't misunderstand. Aoi also gets
a bit red and says he just wants to give her back her bento box.
When he does, Moka thinks that she had never made one before, and Aoi says
it was better than he expected. Moka looks at him and musingly wonders
if this is what Hana meant about real liking being different from longing.
Aoi says that he may as well walk her home, and Moka agrees, asking herself
if she's started to like Aoi.
They're walking along a
sidewalk when Moka bumps into a guy, knocking his camera to the ground.
She apologizes and Aoi asks if she's okay, and the guy suddenly recognizes
Aoi and calls him. Aoi and Moka look up and Aoi says "Ryo"...!
Part 3 (July
1999): Moka is staring at Ryo. She apologizes about the
camera, but Ryo says it's okay and smiles. Moka is blushing, and
Aoi looks over at her. Ryo puts his hand on Aoi's shoulder and asks
if Moka is his girlfriend, but instead of replying, Aoi brushes his hand
off and runs away, pulling Moka with him. She's not sure if she heard Aoi's
friend's name right, and asks when Aoi says it again. He asks Moka
why she's asking about Ryo, and comments that he's really serious, unlike
himself. He expects her to tell him to make up with his friend and
cheer for him and stuff, but instead, when he turns around Moka's gone.
She runs back to where they met Ryo but he's not there.
In class, Moka's wondering
if Ryo is her Ryo, and thinks that it would be easiest to ask Aoi but he
seems to dislike him. She plans what she would say, and accidentally
asks it out loud, "Are you the person I long for, the person who took this
picture?" Aoi overhears and realizes aloud that her keepsake isn't
a picture of the person she likes, but a picture that they took.
Moka is embarrassed and tells him not to eavesdrop, and Aoi asks if she
met the longed-for guy yet with interest. Moka demands to know who
it was that said everyone has a couple things they don't want to talk about,
and after a short silence, Aoi agrees and turns around. Moka feels
a bit bad because she thought they had become a little friendly.
She wonders if the cheerleading captain and the camera boy are going to
be eternal rivals. In cheerleading practice, her friend comments
that Aoi and Moka(I think) were pretty loud, and when Moka tries to deny
that anything happened, her friend reveals that everyone knows about the
pack lunch that Moka made for Aoi. Moka says it didn't mean anything,
but her friend recalls that Moka used to have an angry face whenever she
talked about Aoi, and now her face is one of a girl in love. Her
friend asks who the extra lunch she brought today is for then, and Moka
thinks that she was thinking of making friends with Aoi with the lunch
so she could ask about Ryo. She realizes how underhanded it is, and
is overcome with guilt. Her friend doesn't know what's wrong, and
Aoi suddenly shows up and takes a picture of Moka's underwear. He's
jubilant until he sees Moka's face and mistakenly thinks that she's crying
because of what he did. Now he's overcome with guilt, and tells Moka
not to cry over such a small thing. Actually, Moka didn't even know
he took her picture, and says she doesn't care anyways because she's wearing
skorts. Then Aoi sees that his camera is broken, and blames Moka because
he dropped it when he saw her crying. Moka wonders if she likes Aoi,
since she has realized that love and longing are different. Nanase
appears and asks what's wrong with Moka(she's running off), and Aoi answers
that there's someone she wants to meet so much it makes her cry.
Moka thinks that even though her heart jumped when she saw how Aoi cared
more about her than his camera, she still wants to meet Ryo, because he
might be the one she's longed for all this time. After practice,
Moka is sighing distractedly, and her friend tells Aoi to do something
and pushes him towards Moka. He drops something, and Moka sees that
it's a Star Festival set. Moka asks if he's so lonely that he got
this(I don't know why), and Aoi declares that it's not for him. He
says something like if she wants to meet a certain someone so much, maybe
she should make a wish with the set and it might come true. Moka
comments that she didn't know he was such a romantic, and Aoi, blushing,
tells her to leave him alone. Aoi says he's been thinking though
that since she already has a keepsake of the guy she likes she doesn't
need the set, and takes it, but Moka grabs it and says she doesn't like
him, he's just someone she longs for. She gets an idea, and suggests
that they go to the Star Festival together and make a wish. She thinks
that meeting Ryo just once would be fine, but she wants to see Aoi and
be with him everyday. Nanase watches from the shadows(ok, the other
side of the building^_^)...
At practice, Nanase 'accidentally' bumps
into Moka. She apologizes, saying she's actually not clumsy, she's
a very good dancer, because during elementary school she took ballet classes,
the same one as Moka took. Nanase says it's no surprise Moka doesn't
remember her, because Moka was always quietly staying in the background
looking at the ground. Moka is unnerved that she Nanase knows her
past, and Nanase says she kept quiet up until now out of pity. However,
it's not fair that Moka has someone she longs for already and still hangs
around with Aoi, so Nanase will tell everyone unless Moka stays away from
Aoi. Moka surprises her by saying she doesn't care, and explains
that though she used to be pretty gloomy and didn't like dancing in front
of people, her photo gave her courage. She shows it to Nanase, and
Nanase asks if Moka's longed-for person is the one who took the picture.
Moka says she just wants to meet the person once. Nanase, doing an
about-face, says she's sorry and hopes that Moka can meet the person soon.
On her way out of school, Nanase calls up Ryo on her cell phone...
On the afternoon of the
Star Festival, Moka leaves her house to go meet Aoi but Ryo and Nanase
are waiting for her. Nanase says she wants to introduce Moka to him,
and does so, saying he's the one who took her picture. Ryo recognizes
her as Aoi's 'girlfriend', and Moka thanks Nanase. Ryo says they
should go now, and when Moka asks where, Ryo tells her that Nanase told
him Moka wanted to date him! Nanase takes off, and Moka doesn't know
what to do. Aoi is waiting at the shrine for her, and Moka looks
at Ryo, thinking she has to go, but she can't move with Ryo right in front
of her...
Part 4 (August
1999): Moka arrives at the shrine two hours late, and at first
Aoi embraces her and tells her not to make him worry. Then he pulls
back(either that, or Moka imagined the whole thing, I'm not quite sure)
and says that's not really the way he is, and he's really pissed off at
her for making him wait. Moka apologizes and notes that he did wait
for her for two hours, and Aoi, blushing a bit, says if she hadn't come
after two hours he really would have started to worry. Then Nanase
walks up and asks Moka if something went wrong. Moka lies and says
she had forgotten that she had promised a classmate as well.
The next day, Moka tells her friend about meeting
her longed-for person, but doesn't seem very excited about it, because
her head is full of thoughts about Aoi. She thinks back to the meeting,
when Ryou told her about Aoi in middle school, that he was really serious
about photography, not at all the way he is now. Moka can't believe
it, and reminds Ryou that he won an award, but Ryou says that was a one-time
fluke, and really he entered the photography club to meet girls.
Aoi was the one with talent. Ryou continues, saying that's why he
wants to make up with Aoi, because he's his role model. Moka realizes
that she doesn't really know the real Aoi...
At school, Moka's friend
can't believe that Aoi was really like that, and Moka agrees that Ryou
must have been joking. Nanase comes out and says it's true, in middle
school Aoi would never have taken panty shots, and looking upset, says
she wants him to return to his old self. Moka looks at Aoi a little
distance away and wonders who this person is then, and Nanase says he's
not Aoi. Moka says Aoi is a liar, and Nanase tells her she shouldn't
talk. Moka runs away to talk to Aoi, and tells him the real reason
why she didn't meet him on time at the Star Festival. Aoi looks hurt
for a moment, and Moka asks him to tell her the truth, since she's being
honest. Is the Aoi in front of her not the real Aoi? She reveals
what Ryou told her, and Aoi says it's none of her business. He says
it's easy to be a cheerleader, all you have to do is tell people to try
hard, and just because she's a cheerleader doesn't mean she has to cheer
him on in everything, and Moka gets mad and throws her shoe at him.
She shouts that an idiot like him needs that, and Aoi calls her uncute.
Moka runs away, and Nanase says that Aoi overdid it. He agrees.
Moka runs up to the roof
and yells about Aoi, then calms down and looks below to where he's standing.
She says it's her business because she likes him, and says he's really
dense.
Later, Moka's friend asks
her why she's depressed, and thinks maybe it was because of what Aoi said.
She reminds Moka of the cheerleader's motto, "Our dancing cheers make people
feel good", but Moka is still depressed. Her friend says though they
cheer other people, they have to try hard too, and touching some cuts on
her knees, says that if they don't try hard they can't tell other people
to. Moka realizes the truth in this, and when the team has a meeting,
volunteers to make up some new acrobatic cheers for the next big game.
Over the next few days, she gets lots of injuries, and Aoi asks if she
can actually do acrobatics. She says she'll never know unless she
tries, which is better than Aoi who knows he can do something but doesn't.
Aoi tells her not to blame him if she gets seriously hurt. One day,
when Moka is practising alone, Aoi comes and asks how long she plans on
doing this. I think Moka says it's not working too well, and Aoi
tells her to stop. Moka says she won't until Aoi starts taking pictures
again. Then she asks why he's there, and Aoi hugs her. He says
he doesn't want to see her like this, and asks why she's doing so much.
He says his pictures don't matter, she has Ryou's pictures, and Moka says
that she likes Aoi's pictures. Aoi says she used to hate them, and
Moka reflects that of course she likes them because the person she loves,
Aoi took them. She thinks that Aoi doesn't understand that because
he's so dense, and smiles. Aoi asks what's so funny, which Moka passes
off, and thinks that girls want to know everything about the person they
love. She recovers and springs up out of Aoi's arms, saying it's
time to practice. Aoi is a bit disgruntled at having the mushy scene
interrupted(^_^), and Moka says she's determined to succeed, so he has
to take pictures for her. Aoi stares at her, and is then handed a
camera and file by Ryou, who has appeared. He says Aoi left them
in the club room, and tells him to take them. Aoi does, saying that
if he doesn't, Moka won't peacefully go to Ryou. He tells Ryou how
much Moka wanted to meet him all the time, and Moka, standing in the background,
thinks that it's not like that. She gets Aoi's attention and starts
to tell him, but is forestalled by Ryou, who tells Moka that her longed-for
person isn't him!
NEXT MONTH is the finale!
Back to the Ribon Homepage
