Very! Very! Sweet 3

Actually, the girlfriend from Japan turned out to be less of a drag than I thought she would.  She basically gets rejected by Tsuyoshi several times, but she manages to drive a wedge between Be-Ri and Tsuyoshi handily despite the brutal rebuffs.  I was really worried about the whole “living in Tsuyoshi’s house, going to Tsuyoshi’s school, sitting at Tsuyoshi’s desk, spending every minute with him” setup more than anything, but he manages to kick Erica out of his house pretty early on.  Unfortunately, she still hangs around A LOT.

Even though she’s pretty nasty to Be-Ri, Be-Ri can’t help but do everything she can for Erica, much like she couldn’t crush the impulse when Tsuyoshi was rotten to her.  When Erica gets thrown out by Tsuyoshi’s grandpa, it’s Be-Ri that spots her and lets her sleep over for the night.  In fact, after hearing Erica’s philosophy on love, Be-Ri really wants to be Erica’s friend.  Erica doesn’t really consent to this until it’s convenient for her, but she also treats Be-Ri a lot better from that night on.

Things are about the same on the romance front in this volume, save for the fact it’s more apparent that Be-Ri’s sister is planning to cheat on her boyfriend.  Tsuyoshi and Be-Ri are still little more than friends, Mi-Hyuk is still trying hard to woo Be-Ri, and Be-Ri still only has eyes for her sister’s boyfriend.

Later, in order to fool his grandpa, Tsuyoshi makes a deal with Be-Ri so that she’ll act like his girlfriend.  These scenes between Be-Ri, Tsuyoshi, and the grandfather were my favorites in the series so far.  They do a good job of looking at the importance of certain traditions to both Korean and Japanese culture, no matter how silly they may look to an outsider.  It also looks at cultural misunderstandings, and while the characters don’t really understand each other (Be-Ri doesn’t speak Japanese, the grandfather doesn’t speak Korean, and Tsuyoshi’s grasp of Korean is still poor), they come to some of the same conclusions.  It really is a wonderful scene.

This was a review copy provided by Yen Press.