1 November, 2003
Boys over Flowers (Hana Yori Dango), Vol. 2, Yoko Kamio (184 pp, PB, 1992)
Once again, I find myself on a light-reading regimen, due to extreme business. Apologies in advance for the lack of serious or substantial books.
So, this is the second volume in the series. The relationship between Tsukushi and the F4 boys has moved into "honored enemies" territory: periods of detente, in which they're almost civil to one another, punctuated by bursts of conflict. Most of the people harassing Tsukushi now are students lower than the F4 in the school's pecking order, including some really nasty rich girls. This volume introduces two new players in the game: Kazuya Aoike, a childhood friend of Tsukushi's whose family has recently come into money, and Shizuka Todo, an older girl who's a childhood friend of the F4, and who is a wealthy international fashion model to boot.
Kamio also gives us more background on the established characters. We see that Tsukushi's family isn't all that great-- her parents are far more concerned with social-climbing than with their daughter's well-being. Tsukasa Domyoji (the ringleader of the F4) comes off as less of a useless ass than he had been previously, and more of a messed-up rich kid who's just starting to realize that the entire world doesn't revolve around him. (Which means he's still an ass, but he's now a multidimensional ass. And he actually looks pretty cute with his hair straightened.) To his chagrin, he's actually developed a fair bit of admiration for the girl he singled out for harassment and who refuses to give in. Speaking of messed-up rich kids, we have Rui Hanazawa, the moody, enigmatic F4 boy on whom Tsukushi's got a crush. He's really got some issues.
Like any good high-school story, there's a tangled web of romance going on in this story. Kazuya is in love with Tsukushi, who's in love with Rui, who's pining over Shizuka, who is totally out of his league. Psycho-boy Domyoji also has a crush on Tsukushi, which he doesn't know how to deal with, so he vacillates between tormenting her and trying to impress her. I don't know why I love this stuff, but I do. It's a total guilty pleasure.
Lest you all think I'm letting my brain rot, I'm actually spending most of my time with a political science textbook, so I need my guilty pleasures.