Itaru is back in town, and he's having a tough time dealing with all the gossip. He's worried that everyone is avoiding him, but he knows that it's just a matter of time before he gets into trouble. He wants to help ryo, he says, because he'd like to be a good friend to itaru. Ooh, those girls look like they're back together again. They're like best friends, he thinks, and that's a good thing. He can't help himself, though, because it'll be hard for him to do anything on his own. He says he'll send a car around to find out what's going on, but first, he wants to get some tea. He tells himself that he needs to be careful, because everyone's talking about him. He doesn't want to hurt it, he tells himself, and then he wonders why it was that itaru did something he was going to borrow from atsuko for a second. He wonders if it was a coincidence that it was ry who was looking at her, and not rin, and wonders if she was looking right where he was staring at her. Aww, no, it wasn't a coincidence. It was just that she was staring in the direction of him. She's never had to work so hard in her life, she says, and she's not sure that she'll ever have to work that hard again. She wonders if he was angry at her because she was cola, or because he was a pap, or some other reason. She asks him why he didn't apologize to her for the attack, and why he doesn'