Message to the readers (from Jashua): Thank you soooooo much for being patient with me guys! And I’m really sorry for the wait. But here it is, and I hope you enjoy it c:

The chapter stars out with the flashback of Megumi’s thoughts from the last chapter: “I always tried to be liked, to be the best. But have I ever tried to like someone else before?”

In school; Mei, Asami, Nakanishi (Asami’s bf), and Aiko are looking at an ad for the school’s annual grand prize contest.  In this contest, every year, the best looking guy and a girl are chosen among the students to be praised and known for their good looks. Nakanishi thinks that Yamato will definitely win this year since the senior who won first place last year graduated. Asami argues that there are other guys like Kai and Kakeru who has a high chance of winning also. As Mei stares at the paper, her face becomes increasingly darker, and Yamato joins the group. The reason to why Mei is acting this way is because the contest has a specific prize for the winning guy and girl. This prize makes it mandatory for the chosen girl and guy to go on a date. This means that if Yamato wins the contest, he will have to go on a date with some girl. Mei obviously doesn’t want Yamato to go on that date and is pretty certain that he will win. Another thing about the contest is that even if you don’t want to participate, other students can vote their way into making you enter the competition. Mei gets depressed as she think about the date. But the answer to this problem was simple to Asami and Aiko. All Mei had to do was to enter the contest as well and win! So nobody else will take Yamato away from her. Mei automatically declines the offer saying that she doesn’t want to embarrass herself, that she’s not pretty.  

The gang is now entering their votes as well and sees Kakeru and his girlfriend, Chiharu also there. They were both entering a vote for Kakeru and Mei questioned Chiharu’s decision. Chiharu didn’t know that the winner will go on a date with the other winner. Her face became pale as Mei mentioned this, but Kakeru assured her that he wouldn’t win, he just wanted to see how many people would vote for him.

Mei isn’t the only one dating a popular guy and worrying about if their boyfriend will have to go on a date with some other girl.

Meanwhile, Kai is in a classroom having a hard time deciding who to vote for. He writes down Mei’s name, stares at it, and then erases it. In the end, he enters the paper with the vote without anybody’s name on it. He then overhears two girls having a conversation about who they cast their vote on. One of the girl said that for the guy, she picked Yamato, and for the girl, Mei. Kai’s attention was drawn as he hears this and pays a closer attention to the conversation. Unfortunately, this girl who cast a vote on Mei is a complete b****. This girl explained that she cast a vote on Mei because she thought that it would be funny to see Mei among the chosen pretty girls during the final round because Mei would be the only ugly one there. She also thought that it would make Mei realize what an embarrassment it is for her to be dating Yamato. As these girls laughs at this and goes away, Kai commented that women are scary.

Mei and Yamato are at the park now and are hanging out. Yamato stares at Mei adoringly as she drinks her soda. Turns out that Mei agreed to enter the contest because she really doesn’t want him to go on a date with another girl. Yamato is really happy and thinks that Mei is doing this out of love for him. Yamato is enjoying this extra attention his getting from Mei since she’s so worrying about him.

Back in school, Megumi is being surrounded by younger students who are her fans. They are the committee member helping out with the contest and they introduce to Megumi about the contest. They ask Megumi if she would enter the contest and Megumi kindly accepts the offer. Megumi thinks about the catch of the contest; if she wins, she would get to go on a date with Yamato.

Now back to Mei and Yamato. They decided to take the contest seriously, and aim for both of them to win. As if it was a response, they found out the next day that Mei was voted to be in the contest. By the way, Aiko was also voted to be in the contest as well. Megumi had the highest number of votes out of the five chosen girls and says to Aiko and Mei, “let’s do our best.” Megumi doesn’t plan to use any dirty tricks or cheat to win this time; she will aim to win fair and square.

I think during the weekend or so, Mei, Yamato, and his brother, Daichi is out shopping for Mei’s clothes to wear for the contest. As they walk around, Yamato and Daichi are attracting attention and Mei feels out of place. As Mei tries on different outfits, she keeps complaining that her thighs are too fat; her skin isn’t nice enough to wear such a short skirt, etc. After buying few, Daichi asked her what she thinks about her new clothes. Mei replies that she likes them, but doesn’t think that it would look good on her. Daichi then tells her that fashion is finders keepers. Whoever finds it first and wears it first has the right to wear it. It becomes their style and it doesn’t matter if they look good in it or not. Mei understands his point and officially asks Daichi for his help for the contest. The three then goes to eat lunch saying that you can’t go enter a battle with an empty stomach.

~the end for now~

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Chapter 28:

“Found in Your Wings”

The chapter starts out with Asami in school. She is one of the first students in school, and notices Megumi’s desk out in a hallway by her classroom. It’s a typical Japanese bullying; someone is purposefully placing Megumi’s desk out in the hallway to be mean. Asami notice this and quickly carries the desk back inside. As she do so, girls who were already in class warn her to not to do so because Asami will be the next victim. (You know, if you help the one being bullied, you will be bullied also.) Asami smiles and says “I’m fine” and continues. She thinks in her head; “sometimes, even though you can see the outcome, you can pretend to not see it.” Asami understands how it feels to be bullied because she still has to deal with her classmates teasing her for the size of her breasts. But thanks to her friends, she was able to start thinking that the negative things other people say about her aren’t everything about her.

 Asami’s narration: “I don’t understand the degree of what Megumi has to deal with. But people tend to remember bad moments more than happy times. As much as I can, to the best of my abilities, it would be nice for those things (bullying), even a little, to be prevented.”

 As she says this, she is carrying back Megumi’s desk inside the classroom every morning. She’s happy that she comes to school before Megumi.  Meanwhile Megumi is dealing with letters being left in her shoe box which has mean writings on them. She handles them as “a price for my past actions. For lying to everyone, but I can’t pretend to be the fake Megumi anymore. ” and moves on.

One day Megumi comes in earlier than usual and sees Asami carrying the desk. Megumi yells assuming that Asami is doing something wrong. Other classmates join in the scene as they all agree on how Megumi has a bad personality; even though Asami is being nice and carrying her desk back in when someone else left it outside, Megumi’s yelling at Asami. Megumi obviously didn’t know that that’s what Asami has been doing, and pauses for a second. Megumi then asked why Asami is doing this and she replies that she couldn’t watch when this is happening to someone who is nice to her. Megumi immediately tells her that she is wrong. Megumi was pretending to be a nice person before, but it was all an act and Asami was part of her show. Asami is aware of that but it doesn’t change the fact that Asami was only accepting all the nice things Megumi offered her but never returned any. Asami tells Megumi that she doesn’t dislike her and she doesn’t want to see her get hurt from what other people are doing to her. Megumi blushes and apologize for yelling at her before, and thanks her.

Megumi’s narration: “I want to accept everything that I’ve done in the past, and then revise myself.”

Another day: Megumi goes to the hair salon and tells her hair stylist that she just wants something fresh. Megumi’s narration: “Lies hurts those around you, and yourself. From now on, I won’t take actions that would observe another person’s face in response, or hurt relationships that are close and not close. I want to live as the real Megumi Kitagawa.”

Her hair is being chopped off as she says this. Megumi’s hair is really short now and her hair stylist asks her again if that’s what she wanted. It was.  A new fresh look for the new Megumi.

Megumi is at her modeling company the following day and many are disappointed that she cut her hair, saying that longer hair was prettier. One of the other models there compliments her new look, and she says that she wish she can cut her hair also, but if she does that then she would lose her fans and people would write negative comments online. Just like how Megumi used to be controlled by what people would say of her; this model cannot change her looks to satisfy what the fans are expecting her to be. Megumi is over that phase, and says “So what? If you keep worrying about that you will never be able to do what you want to do. It’s normal for people to have their own opinions, so let them say it. I don’t want to be affected by what others are saying behind my back. I want to live in the front.” (Megumi looked really cool when she said that)

Megumi’s narration: “What’s good and what’s bad is not something others decide for you, it’s what you feel about it. If you think ‘I don’t like this’ for even a moment, then your mind will be full of negative things. But bad things usually doesn’t last that long. If you look at it in the long run, the bad thing that’s happening at the moments isn’t going to rule everything in your future. No matter what happens, you have to look forward.”

As she says this, she is modeling for a cover of Desert’s most popular model. (Desert is the name of the magazine she usually models for)

Yamato is reading the article about it in school as Megumi walks by. So he compliments her picture saying that her face is good there and he can tell that she’s a pro. Megumi blushes and runs away as she thinks about how Kai commented on her before on how she doesn’t like anybody. I guess Megumi really is in love with Yamato after all. Mei also walks by as Megumi continues runs blushing.

Translator: Jashua
Scans: Sharing-Comic
Chapter 27:

The chapter starts out with Megumi visiting the modeling company’s office where she apologizes for her actions during her breakdown. Megumi narrates, saying “summer is almost over, now is the time for me to start.” As she leaves the office, other girls from the company stares at her but Megumi ignores them and joins Momo-chan, who accompanied her to the office. Megumi says that she never vowed down to anyone and never made a situation necessary to do so. She had avoided creating that sort of a situation all her life and now she experiences this sort of a mood for the first time. Megumi wonders, “Am I able to approve myself worthy? Will I be able to change?”

Meanwhile Mei is walking down the street and sees group of people wearing yukata (their like summer versions of kimono.) As she watches in confusion, she gets a message from Asami telling her that there’s a summer festival and the gang were to meet up at 3pm. Mei had no idea and freaks out over the time and runs home to get ready. When Mei gets to the festival, she sees Asami and Aiko dressed up in Yukata and gets lost in how beautiful they look. In Japan, girls only get to wear yukata few times a year and that’s when girls show off their beauty. So Mei feels left out since she’s wearing regular clothes. Yamato notice this and hugs Mei. The group goes on and eats traditional festival food, and play games. Mei beats Aiko at Kingyo sukui which is catching fishes with over sized spoon-like things with paper in the middle.(It’s really really hard to catch a fish out of the water with a paper!) Mei has a cute moment with Yamato there again. After playing and eating their hearts out, Mei looks at the Asami and Aiko, and thinks back again that she wanted to wear a yukata. Mei has a flashback of when she was little where she was wearing a yukata at the summer festival with her parents. Her father usually doesn’t smile, but that day, he did. They held her hands and made her feel that she’s protected and forget about the things happening in school. Asami gets sick later on from eating too much and the gang decides to go home since the fireworks were not starting for some time.

When Mei gets home, her mother yells at her and saying that she was looking everywhere for her. Apparently, her mother bought a yukata for her to wear to the festival and expected her to wear it. But before her mother got home, Mei already left so her mother was going nuts. Mei apologizes and told her mother that it’s too late because she just came back from the festival, but her mother didn’t care and sends her out again, this time in yukata. To her mother, it didn’t matter if the festival is over or if the fireworks already started. The point was to look best for the one you love and show how much you worked for and how much you wished for it.

Meanwhile, Kai is at the convenience store and sees Megumi again. This time, they actually talk. Kai tells her that he was invited to go to the festival with the gang but didn’t go because he knows that he would just be a bother to Mei and Yamato. Megumi didn’t go because it’s too bothersome to have to see and interact with people she knows. Kai notices that she’s feeling better now because the last time he saw her, she was stuffing her shopping baskets with snacks and looked awful. Megumi agrees that she had issues back then and she still does. But people can say whatever they want. People are going to react to what you do towards their criticism, so instead of being affected by their criticism, Megumi stopped caring about what they think of her and moved on with her life. Megumi decided to respond instead to those who truly understand her. They then wonder why they can still have that sort of conversation even though they don’t get along so well. It’s probably because they both don’t know who they really are and haven’t developed themselves yet. But when they do develop their “identity” would they stop talking? To Kai, even if they stopped talking, it doesn’t mean a bad thing since it means that they both have grown in some way.

Back to Mei. She’s running down the street in her Yukata, on her way to meet Yamato. She starts to tear up because while she’s running, her hair that her mom fixed up for her is getting all messed up and she’s sweating off her makeup, and the fireworks are about to be over. Mei then runs into Yamato’s older brother.

Mei finally gets to where Yamato is waiting and she looks absolutely adorable. He stares at her for a while and Mei starts to apologize for calling him out again when the fireworks and the festival are all over. He tells her that recently, she’s getting so pretty that he sometimes cannot help but to stare and cannot control his emotions. She explains how her mother had a yukata prepared for her and how she knows that it was stupid to call him out when everything is already over, but she wanted him to see her in a yukata. She then explains how she bumped into Yamato’s older brother who fixed her fair and redid her makeup. Yamato thanks her for doing that for him and calls her pretty. He kiss her and he holds both of her hands, saying how he doesn’t have to share this Mei with anyone else, and goes for a walk. That reminds her of how her parents used to hold her hand and she feels protected by Yamato.

-End of chapter- 

Translator: Jashua
Scans: Sharing-Comic



Chapter 26:

Megumi returns home with bags full of snacks, thinking “This is the first time I’ve ever bought this much snacks on my own…” She checks her phone and sees a long list of missed calls from her job and Momo-chan. She gets angry and throws her phone on the floor, thinking “I don’t need this.” She then starts eating Pocky (Their cookie sticks covered in chocolate.) “Yummy, so sweet...”

 Megumi continued to stuff her face with snacks and gets lost in her thoughts. Megumi tried to make everyone happy by smiling all the time, doing favors, and giving them what they wanted. But they would talk bad about her behind her back (online), a complete shame to Megumi. Now that she checks her phone, the only people who call her are from her  job. (She’s not counting Momo-chan’s phone calls.) “Megumi Kitagawa is important, but not Megumi.”

We switch to Mei, Yamato, Asami, her boyfriend (I’m sorry I forgot his name), and Kai, eating at a restaurant and hanging out. Yamato gets a call from the Megumi’s modeling company and leaves his seat to talk in private. They asked him if he knows where Megumi is. Megumi has been ignoring her phone calls for a while and the company began to worry about her. Meanwhile, the group is deciding to go to a karaoke bar afterwards.  They start talking about Kai’s popularity among the girls in their school, and asked why he doesn’t get asked out by them. They noticed that he’s always running away, making it difficult for girls to ask him out, and wonders why he runs way. So the question of if he’s interested in someone else pops up. Kai just tells them that he recently got dumped, and is not interested in relationships at the moment. Mei spits out her drink when she hears that and decide to go to the bathroom. She finds Yamato in the hallway, and he told her that Megumi’s company called her. Megumi doesn’t answer her phone, and when the people from her job went to her house directly, nobody answered. Yamato is now worried, and Mei can tell. So she tells him that he can go check on her. Mei also wants to know that wrong with Megumi. It’s unusual of her to ignore her phone calls in general, but even to her job. Since Mei never really talked to Megumi, she’ll only be in the way, so she insists Yamato to go see her. Yamato apologize to her and tells Kai where he’s headed to and takes his leave.

After Yamato left, Kai asks Mei if she actually didn’t want him to go, and she doesn’t, but she began to relax as Yamato sends her a message every ten minutes. Mei smiles as she reads Yamato’s messages, Kai watches her from the side and blurts out “I wanna fall in love!”

Yamato is now in front of Megumi’s apartment, and finds Momo-chan standing there also. They began to talk and find out that they are both there to see Megumi. Momo-chan tells her that it’s not a surprise that Megumi doesn’t want to see her since it was her own fault that Megumi is ignoring her. Yamato is surprised that Momo-chan has been visiting Megumi for a while in hopes to see her, and decide to go together to see her.  Megumi is inside sitting on the floor full from eating so many snacks. She thought that if she continued to stuff her face, she can avoid thinking about her problems. Her doorbell rang as she began to tear up. She opens her door because she hears that it’s a delivery man and his asking for her to sign the package, but it was Yamato and Asami pretending to be the delivery guy. Megumi opens the door and tries to close the door the moment she realize that it’s not a delivery guy. Yamato holds onto the door and tells that they were here to talk. Megumi obviously doesn’t want to talk but Yamato convinced her saying that if they don’t talk now, they will keep coming back to her house. Megumi finds that it’s futile to resist, and makes Yamato turn around because she doesn’t want him to see her in such a state. Yamato then starts to lecture her saying that Megumi is involving people into her trouble and making them worry over something they don’t even know. (I’m sorry I don’t really get his point there…) People like Yamato and Asami gets worried and has to sacrifice their time they could be enjoying with their friends just to check up on Megumi’s sudden change. Megumi gets mad and says that nobody actually cares about her; they only want her for their own gain, so they should just leave her alone if she refuses to talk to them. But the fact that Yamato and Asami are there right now to talk to her means that they do care about her. Asami began to apologize for leaving Megumi alone, Asami wanted to help Megumi out as much as she can, but doing that (some incident from previous chapters) would only make Megumi look bad and hurt her career. Megumi’s been through hard times when she was little, but she worked hard to get up to the position she is in now. So why ruin it with your own hands? Asami thinks Megumi is cool for who she is, so she doesn’t want Megumi to think that she’s not. Megumi and Asami are now back to being friends and Yamato takes his leave.  On his way back, he finds Mei hiding behind a pole waiting for him, and they go back together.

Back to Megumi’s apartment, Asami decided to sleep over that night to catch up and they talk about the days when they were still in elementary school. Asami also hands Megumi a bag full of letters she was asked to give to Megumi from Megumi’s mom. Since Megumi doesn’t responds to any of the messages her mom sends her, she wasn’t sure that Megumi was receiving it. So every time her mom writes a letter to Megumi, she would carry it in a bag and hope to run into Asami so she can bring it to Megumi. Asami feels bad, and begs Megumi to respond to her mother at least ounce. Megumi thinks about it and sent her mom a message saying “Thank You” before she went to bed. 

Translator: Bikkuri
Raws: Sharing-Comic


Chapter 25

We pick up where the last chapter left off: Yamato, Mei, hotel, undisturbed. Mei sits in the room, waiting for Yamato and Nagi to come back, thinking she'd like to take Nagi to the hotel's onsen once she returns. 

Yamato enters the room, and Mei asks him where Nagi's got to. Playing it cool, Yamato observes the drinks available, black tea, green tea and coffee, while casually telling Mei that Nagi went home with his brother. 

"HUH?! Ho-ho-home?! No one told me!" (Hello, he just did.) Yamato closes his eyes, all, I knew she'd freak out, and says he didn't foresee it either.

 Mei goes pale as the fact that she's all alone in a hotel room with Yamato sinks in, though Yamato points out that they've just gone back to the original plan, wondering if she's unhappy about it. She says no, not really... Thinking that she's just kind of scared (as in nervous to the point of terrified, I guess), because this time's different from their trip together a year ago... 

"Hey, Mei. Green tea, black tea, coffee... or an all-you-can-eat buffet. Which is better?" 
"ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT!!" 

Well obviously! So Mei's attention is successfully diverted, and they go eat. Yamato comments on Mei's tendency to eat a lot and how he finds it cute (so much so that he got so caught up in watching her eat her lunch earlier that he forgot to eat anything himself). Awkwardly ignoring this compliment, Mei grumbles that it pisses her off that the way Yamato's arranged his food on his plate is prettier than hers, and Yamato laughs. Then we tells her she's got rice stuck to her face, reaching over to brush it off her, asking how she managed to have that much sticking to her and not notice. Mei blushes and squeezes her eyes shut, thinking, "Stop looking at me like that...!", and Yamato goes, "Don't look like that in a place like this. Makes me want to pull you over and kiss you." Mei is all D: ...and then she stuffs some food into his mouth. He apologizes. Haha. 

Back in the room, Yamato shows off how much his stomach is bulging out because he ate so much, but Mei mostly just notices the brim of his underwear showing, haha. Though she thinks to herself that seeing that much of a guys underwear is pretty normal... (Yuuuup... it is.) 

They talk a bit about the day they've had, Yamato saying he's kinda tired, complaining that he feels like they got pulled around by Nagi all day, and Mei saying it's all right since they still had a good time, and Nagi seemed to enjoy herself a lot. Mei also says that she managed to take some of the scarier rides, so she had fun. Yamato figures Nagi probably looked at his tickets and came all this way just so she could talk to Mei... aaand right about now, she's probably making a huge fuss in the car. Mei smiles, saying that if that's the case, she's really happy. She says that while she never thought it possible before, she now has a lot of people around her that makes her think, "I want to see them", or, "I want to talk to them", and they too like being with her and smile when they're with her and such. "I'm truly happy. I think that every day lately." 

Yamato's lying on the bed with his eyes closed, and as he doesn't say anything, Mei goes to lean over him, thinking he's asleep, and tells him, "Thank you, Yamato, for making me feel this way, and for helping me meet so many great people." Yamato opens his eyes and looks straight at her, making her stutter, "Wh, what, weren't you aslee--"Yamato pulls her down next to him, saying, "There no way I'd fall asleep while alone together with the girl I like." Then he comments that her hair's grown longer, while Mei freaks out about how to react to the situation. (Thinking:) Right now it's just Yamato and I, with no one around to interfere. His scent and body temperature should feel nice, but... I'm scared.

"...Huh? Mei, didn't you bring 'THAT' today?" 
"...'that'?" 
"Yeah, you know, the buzzer thing."
"Ahh... Right. I didn't bring it."
"Uh...HUH...?! How come?! Why not?! I mean, I'm surprised... I was sure you'd pull something out... Like, it's just THE TWO OF US. In a HOTEL ROOM, you know?!"
"...Yeah but... I know that you're not someone who'd force me to do anything, so..."
Yamato goes quiet, looking at her (downcast eyes, blushing, tearing up just a bit), then excuses himself to go take a shower. "I sweated a lot today, so I don't want to you smell me and think I stink... but perhaps you'd like to shower together?"
"NO! Nope! No thank you!!"
...And so Yamato goes to shower alone. He figures Mei must still be trying very hard by herself in a lot of ways without him noticing, and concludes that it'll be fine this way. If taking it slow rather than hurrying things allows him to meet Mei halfway, then he much prefers that. 

When he's done with his shower, he finds Mei alseep. He pretty much figured as much, having spent an hour in the bath (probably on purpose to avoid the difficulties of the situation). He laughs at her sleeping face, then thinks, "Sorry... You were scared, weren't you..." and leans down to kiss her cheek, going, "Thank you, Mei..." 

When she wakes up next morning, Mei finds Yamato watching TV and brushing his teeth like a boss. She apologizes for falling asleep on him, but he says it was only natural, having been pulled around all day. Then he adds that he of course took advantage of the situation to pull a few pranks on her. Mei is like, what did you do?! And he's like, nooothing~ and she's like, WHAT DID YOU DO?!?! And then Yamato hugs her waist (she sitting on the bed, he kneeling on the floor), saying, "Let's take it slow," and Mei blushes and says yeah. The narration goes: Whatever our surroundings say... as long as we like each other, there are no time restrictions or anything like that.

Once back home, Mei goes to give people their omiyage (souvenir). Aiko and Asami are amazed that Mei and Yamato once again did not "go all the way". (Aiko is annoyed, Asami thinks Yamato's amazing.) Mei continues her gift-giving journey, this time going to her workplace, where Kai happens to conveniently stop by (on his way to the hairdresser, oooh! Kai's getting rid of the mane), so Mei can give him his souvenir as well (his favourite white chocolate, apparently). Kai gushes a bit about Land before he heads off to his appointment, thinking that Mei's pretty special (weird?) for giving him a souvenir.

The hairdresser is of course Yamato's brother Daichi, hoho. Seeing the gift in Kai's hands, he's all, "OHH present for me? Yay!" But Kai informs him that he's wrong and that HE just received it. Daichi recognizes it as something bought at Land, and then he starts talking about how Yamato just went there with his girlfriend, returning the day after all super smiley and stuff. Kai tells him he knows, seeing as he received the gift from the girlfriend. 

"Oh, I see. So you're friends with her too."
"Well... Yeah..." 

Daichi looks at him, thinking to himself like, oho... an unrequited love? And then considerately changes the subject by asking how Kai would like his hair cut. Kai says he'd just like it shorter. And NOT cut the way he cut it last time, 'cause he got stared at so bad in school, and that was all Daichi's fault! (the cut he had when he first appeared in the story, I guess). So Daichi's like, "I guess we can just as well take it all off then?" smiling big and holding up an electric razor. Kai screams. XD

We switch to Megumi. :( She's at work modelling, and there's a new kid called Isumi around who's apparently very popular online. A woman talks a bit about how there's lots of stuff written on the internet and it's a bit scary and I dunno, blahblah (sorry, skimming the uninteresting parts... forgive me). When asked to participate in the welcoming party for Isumi, Megumi declines and goes home, looking up the magazine blog on the net and finding that there indeed are a lot of comments. One is like, "Megu-tan is so cute! I also want to get that slim!", while another says s/he'd rather see more of Kae, 'cause she's sexy, and another goes on about how models must come to find themselves cute and blah blah, and while none of these leave much of an impression on her, she eventually comes to some comments from people from her school. For example, there's one who'd been disappointed to find that Megu's the type to talk ill of her friends and such, then others following suit with comments saying she's got a bad personality, that they've heard she sucks up to people to get jobs, that her face is hardly at a level worthy of being printed in a magazine, that's she's ugly and so on. Megumi's all, "this isn't right..." Then thinks back to the "the internet is scary" stuff, and how Isumi is an internet idol.  She checks her phone, but has no texts. She starts listing out loud what groceries she needs to buy. Calorie bread and water and other healthy things, thinking about how she's worked really hard for 5 years, (flashbacks to the time she was bullied, and to crossing out her own face from a photograph, her mother asking her what she's doing) so that no one, not others nor herself, would ever look down on her again. 

There's a more detailed flashback to a time after she'd had her cute-transformation, when she met the kid who'd bullied her the most again (they're now in middle school, I assume). He treats her like an old friend, asking if she remembers him, super thrilled when she says she remembers him best of all. Later on they're in an empty classroom, and he's going on about how cute she is (kissing her neck and such because she says she'll be embarrassed if he kisses her mouth (cause then he can see her face at the same time)). She comments that boys always tend to call girls cute during times like these. But then why did he always call her ugly back then? "You just want to do it. You don't actually think I'm cute. You'd be cool with anyone as long as there's a hole, right? Seriously, from way back, you never fail to make me sick." 

Narration: I'm not cute yet. To stop being ugly, I'll have to put in double the effort of a normal person. 

She's then scouted as a model, and chooses that as her way to cuteness. She lists out all the things she's done to get to where she is today, playing nice with people, getting along, trying new products, recommending them to friends, holding back from eating what she wants etc etc, so why the nasty comments (online)? Even though she's done so much for people... Why does she have to be made feel this low? While walking to the convenience store, she thinks, "And even though I'm supposed to be happy when someone calls me cute... I never feel even the slightest bit happy at all," and a tear runs down her cheek. "How do I become happy? What do I do?"

Kai is also out shopping (woy, new hair. An improvement, if nothing else XD), and witnesses Megumi as she fills her shopping cart with sweets. Megumi thinks: "Someone... teach me."

 End of chapter 25 :)