Kare Kano vol 2

 In volume 1 we were introduced to Miyazawa and Arima, the top students of the freshman class and the vision of perfection.  Miyazawa's model student visage was only a performance.  She worked tirelessly to exude perfection and dependability.  In reality she was lazy and shallow, only living for praise and admiration, eschewing anything else.  Arima came from wealth and prestige and is the model student, but only for fear of disappointing his adoptive parents.  Arima confessed his love to Miyazawa only to be rejected, instead they became friends and allies...but Miyazawa is coming to terms with the love growing in her for her once rival.

    Miyazawa and Arima decide to live their public lives as their true selves, no longer hiding behind masks.  There closeness pushes Miyazawa to wonder more about his feelings for her.  She is unable to gather the courage to tell him how she truly feels, to the point where it strains her emotionally.  Through the wise words of her younger sisters she realizes that she was only trying to prevent herself from being hurt.  Actions that did not take Arima's feelings into consideration.  In the end she gathers the courage to express her love for him.  Unfortunately their timing is bad as they become overwhelmed with duties for the upcoming sports festival.  The moment they decide to become more than friends they are prevented from spending any time together.  Struggling through the mountain of work and management they are unable to be a couple until the festival ends.  Their love grows in the forced absence of the other.

    With the sports festival behind them they can finally enjoy time together as a couple.  That peace is short lived as the appearance of a rival for Arima's heart causes issues.  Hideaki Asaba is another freshman who attracts the attention of the girls through his looks.  He considers himself Arima's friend but really intends to use him to draw more women in for his nefarious schemes.  Hideaki, obsessed with pretty girls, wants to live a world surrounded by them, fawning over him.  He see's Arima attractiveness as a way to gather more to his flock.  Miyazawa presents a problem by being Arima's girlfriend.  Hideaki decides to battle Miyazawa over Arima's heart but in the end realizes that his ambitions are too shallow and Arima's love for her too strong.  Before the truce can take place Hideaki plants a seed of doubt in Miyazawa's mind and heart about her worth as Arima's girlfriend.

    As Miyazawa and Arima spend more time together their feelings become stronger, but so does their doubt.  Miyazawa struggles with his coolness and impenetrability.  Wondering what his thoughts really are and if she will ever understand or know the real him, residing deep in his calm facade.  Arima wonders at the delightful chaos that swirls around the real Miyazawa.  Her impulsiveness and random thoughts and delights make him see himself as boring and empty by comparison.  While alone in school on a rainy night they confide in each other the shared desire to rely on the other.  Allowing their own weaknesses to come to the surface with the other, to use that honesty as a way of support.  Where prior to their relationship they each charted a lonely path of excellence, they have now found someone else they can relax around and support with out being dishonest about their true intents.

     The final section of the volume is a side story told from Arima's perspective about how he first fell in love with Miyazawa.  She immediately gained his attention due to her upstanding place in the class.  He marveled at her the same way everyone marveled about him, not realizing his own potential and charm.  The more time he spent with her, due to their duties as class representatives, the more her allure guided his heart, bringing him into an unexpected world.

Continue on to volume 3.