Asian Addicts Anonymous

Misaki’s plan is going full steam ahead. She knows tackling her onee-san’s love life will take the longest so she moves onto Hazuki’s career. Of course, life isn’t without throwing obstacles in the way. A customer knows Misaki’s secret and is using that as leverage against her while Hazuki’s affection for their former teacher keeps getting in the way of her starting something with the man who has had a silent crush forever.

We open with Hachi sitting and watching over the sleeping Misaki. This man is so far gone and Misaki is really dead asleep as he brushes hair away from her face and then leans in for a kiss. He really does almost go all the way, but he stops himself and does not go through with the kiss. He starts banging his head against the door and then makes a run for it as Misaki wakes up. She then finds her friend has gone to work and she complains that his note is too full of exclamation points. Misaki’s rash is completely gone so she can go back home without her sister finding out.

At work, Hazuki is calmly working while her ex and his new girl are both doing their best to avoid her. Anonymous faxes start coming in and people immediately start watching Hazuki who keeps moving on like normal. She then notices one of the faxes and starts collecting them all. The faxes call her a slut, boyfriend stealer, and talk about the horrible happenings with the whole failed wedding. The woman is mortified. This happens on the day she was thinking of submitting a request to remain working at the office. So what will Hazuki do?

The upset woman texts Soichiro whom has other plans so he declines her request to talk. Thus Hazuki goes home to find her sister and mother merrily enjoying themselves. Nanae then complains of Hazuki’s attitude since her eldest daughter won’t participate in the merriment. Hazuki explodes and shuts herself in her room. Nanae leaves (after telling both girls that her fiancée wants to spend the day with them on Sunday). Misaki goes into the bedroom and finds the faxes and urges Hazuki to quit her job since things are only going to get more awkward from here on out. This leads the two to have a discussion about Hazuki’s original dream of becoming a fashion designer and the fact she gave it up so that she could get a stable job at her mother’s urging—one which means she doesn’t have to depend on a man (their father did die, btw).

Hazuki berates Misaki about being responsible and having a real job—work isn’t something you do for fun, you know? No, it’s not, but you should hopefully have a job that you can at least enjoy. Jobs are scarce these days, so we can’t afford to be picky, but still, the ideal is to have a job that you can enjoy, isn’t it? Misaki then reveals that she has never found her own dream and thus was always jealous of Hazuki’s talent and dream and it really upset her that her onee-san gave up on her dream without even trying.

Meanwhile, older brother Soichiro is trying to sounds Hachi out. Does he have a girlfriend? No. But he has someone he likes,, right? Doesn’t everybody? Soichiro then starts talking about Hachi getting a real job as he can only be with the one he likes if he’s financially stable. Hachi is not enjoying this interest from his brother. He’s running after his dream, you know? Soichiro things that is wonderful, but to be honest, Hachi is at the age of when men think of marriage and he should start planning. Will older brother’s words make Hachi give up on his dream that Misaki has always fully supported?

The girls meet up with Nanae and her boyfriend who takes them bowling. Misaki and Hazuki cannot believe how close the man is already acting—like he’s really their dad. Hazuki also expresses a bit of worry. The man is retired, so how is it that he can afford to do everything he’s doing? He takes their mom traveling every month, he has all of his own personal bowling gear, and to boot he wants to buy a new house after marriage. Doesn’t that seem a bit too much for someone living off of retirement? Indeed, depending on the man’s job, it can be very odd to spend as much money as he constantly is. It’s actually rather hard to have a nice nest egg set aside for retirement in this day and age (at least in the US).

Hachi is doing his skateboarding practice gearing up for a competition. It’s apparently been awhile for him since he’s last competed and he is a bit nervous, though he performs flawlessly every time we see him skateboarding. His friends say that their coach or something like that believes Hachi has a good chance of winning. The two friends then invite him to a host club, which I’m kind of surprised he went to given the fact he really does have no money to spare. Wouldn’t you know it’s Misaki’s club. She’s shocked to find her gay best friend. The way she talks and acts here is way ridiculous as she’s trying to lead Hachi to act like a straight male at a host club in front of his friends. Snort. It was horribly farcical and fake, but whatever. Misaki is called away and Hachi uses that to make a get away before he gets charged 20,000 yen for a new girl. He does see the suspicious customer that No. 1 sent after Misaki and he definitely looks suspicious of the man. Can’t say I blame him.

Turns out this man knows Misaki’s real name! This shocks the woman. She doesn’t recognize him, but knows they must have met before since he does know her full name. He blackmails her into stepping out with him in order to keep her secret. He goes for a kiss when he drops her off and Misaki is quick to avoid it. He bids her good night and she rushes back to the apartment where she digs through her stack of business cards. She finds him and realizes he’s a doctor. Whether he is well aware of her condition, I don’t know. It’s kind of hard to tell. He himself is not an OB/Gyn, so who really knows.

Hazuki confronts her ex and his girlfriend. They both deny having sent the faxes to get rid of her to end the awkward situation. This really throws Hauzki. If they didn’t send it, then who did? The girl goes home and discovers that Misaki already emptied out the garbage. I can only guess that this set her radar off that Misaki was behind the faxes and Hazuki rushes out to the trash and sees that the faxes were indeed sent by her baby sister. Of course she isn’t happy to realize this.

Misaki comes home with great news for her big sister. She entered Hazuki’s design into a contest for wedding dresses and it passed the preliminary round. Hazuki is mystified at this turn of events, but is quick to confront Miaski about the letters that wounded Hazuki deeply. Misaki doesn’t regret her actions because she did not want Hazuki stuck in that job and being unhappy. This way Hazuki has a chance to chase her dreams. First prize of the contest is a designer job!

Hazuki goes to Appleseed and admits to Kaori that her engagement is broken, but she’s doing okay. She then reveals what Misaki did and how she thinks she will have to give up during the second round of the competition since she has no idea how to make a doll-size version of her design. It turns out Kaori used to work in the fashion industry and knows how to create patterns among other things. She is quick to take Hazuki under her wing. This is an excellent chance for Kaori’s brother to make his moves on Hazuki. Yohei does have problems coming right out and speaking his true feelings to Hazuki, but the two do get closer over the course of the evening and even end up sending the night together in his vehicle because Hazuki fell asleep on his shoulder and Yohei couldn’t bear to wake her. LOL. Unfortunately at this point, it doesn’t matter how friendly and happy Hazuki is with Yohei because she has only one man on her mind at the moment—Soichiro. Meh. Oh, he’s not a bad man, but I think that she and Yohei could really be suited for one another more so than she and her former teacher. Plus, Hazuki really fits in well with Yohei and his sister’s family.

You really have to laugh at Kaori’s and her husband’s attempt at giving Yohei alone time with Hazuki. They say that Kaori is ovulating and they need to call it a night so they can attempt to have a daughter (they currently have two sons). I can’t believe they actually said that in front of Hazuki and Yohei who complains that his sister and her husband are much too open, lol. And then there is the scene that follows which has Hazuki and Yohei doing deep bows and thanking one another. Yeah, these two can be quite alike, can’t they?

The day of the design contest results are out. Misaki is devastated to learn that Hauzki did not get first place and thus does not get the designer job. She say she is leaving, but she stays to hear her sister’s acceptance speech where she declares she will keep designing as a hobby and she will wear a wedding dress she has designed herself. She then thanks her sister from the bottom of her heart for giving her this chance to rediscover something that makes her happy. Misaki is very touched to hear all of this.

She goes to work where she becomes the No. 1 hostess for the month. She’s happy and No. 1 is livid. She stalks to Misaki to the locker room saying that Misaki is supposed to buy the senior girls dinner, drinks, whatever,  but since that would make No. 1 sick, she’ll just take the money. Misaki then shows her serious, almost delinquent side which does seem to surprise her bully. Yep, Misaki is no easy target. She goes upstairs and crosses off her list the item about getting Hazuki to quit (Hazuki hands in a new resignation—she’s not going to stay on until the end of the year as originally planned anymore and she thinks this is a happy and positive change). She turns the page and we learn her goal is to save a rather large amount of money. Thus why she’s working as a hostess. How much longer can she work there without getting exposed?

Yohei sees Hazuki home after the the contest ended and he winds up the courage to ask her out. Hazuki quickly agrees to this, but, like I said, the feelings just are invested for her yet, so Yohei has got an uphill struggle right now. Poor man. And you feel really bad as Hazuki goes to head off to Appleseed once she leaves work. She even calls Yohei and confirms she will be there shortly. After she hangs up she gets a text from Soichirio apologizing for not being able to meet the other night and asking her if she still wants to meet. So…she blows of Yohei (*sobs*) and goes to meet Soichiro instead.

I don’t know what it is about Soichiro. I do want him to be happy, but I’m cheering for Hachi and Yohei to get the girls and not him. Age and his position as a former teacher of both girls has nothing to do with it. I just think Hachi is better suited for Misaki (except he does kind of have to stop her from walking all over him at times) and Yohei could be an excellent match for Hazuki if he ever manages to calm his jitters down with her.

I am more and more curious about Misaki’s master plan as I really do think it involves giving Hazuki her baby after it is born, but the question is why? She was in love with Soichiro for years and still isn’t completely over him, so why not accept his offer to date and let him know about the baby? Is there something more to her decision or does she just believe she’s not mother material? Really hard to say, but you know that Misaki is not a bad person even if she does bad things quite often at times. Previews show things heating up and getting more and more complicated. Poor Hachi gets beaten up and says he’ll die to protect Misaki. Does this have anything to do with the doctor at the host club? I can’t wait for the next episode!