Story 3: Itazura Ouji
Whoa! His eyes were twinkling when Sai The Bishie made his first appearance~! Although his hair look a little thorny in some panels, him thumping a credit card onto Mayuri's forehead to unburden his unintentional first kiss guilt kind of puts him in my good graces, hehe.
This is a very very very short story about a girl(Mayuri) meets boy(Sai) because her father works for the boy's father. They end up seeing each other a few times and somehow a romance sparks. I don't know, don't ask how, there was barely time to ask surnames! But there are a bunch of very poignant scenes which including one hug/inhale scene which especially appealed to me. Personally couples don't smell each other enough when fully clothed in mangas for my taste!
This one shot focuses on how relationships develop unexpectedly and unwillingly sometimes, despite your best efforts or judgement. It places emphasis on fleeting, seemingly insignificant actions leaving memories and invoking emotions neither parties thought they were capable of (because at 15/16, who hasn't figured out everything there is to know about everything right?!) and of course above all, being a shoujo, it highlights the many stages and nuances a girl's mind goes through when she falls in love for the first time.
The artwork is very detailed and beautiful, sometimes humourous. Mayuri being pushed by the butler's speech bubble was hilarious, it really added to the scene. As did her puppet like actions whenever she was in a vexing situation.
In one particularly dramatic scene, Sai goes from very pensively and handsomely reading a book one second, to assualting the girl the next! It's unexpected scenes likes this which carry this sweet story forward and make it a fun five minute read.
