“I’ll never… never let you go until the day I die.”

This is the turning point of the whole Naoki-Kotoko-Keita love triangle. Kotoko couldn’t bear being mistreated by her cold husband anymore, not when Keita is treating her ever so kindly. Thus, she decided to end everything, and in her confused state of mind, she ends up at her friend’s apartment and spent the rest of her evening drowning in tears and alcohol. Too bad, Naoki the genius has just discovered what was it that made him irritated at Kotoko for days.
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“I was the lonely one.”

Takashi finds himself a new stalker: a little lonely fox who has a pile of rocks for a mother and a pretty hat which used to belong to a human. Their first encounter was in the forest, when he was being bullied by two average-looking earth creatures and Takashi jumped out of nowhere to save him. From that day onwards, the little fox followed him around until one day, he received a medicine which granted him a human form. Leaving the forest, the fox enters the city to look for his savior.
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“Don’t go back to him.”

Keita volunteers to be Kotoko’s partner in their Venipuncture class. Kotoko, who’s terrified in needles and practically bad at everything, took the entire afternoon trying to draw a tube of blood from her partner. When at first Keita seems to despise and mock her poor abilities, he suddenly becomes the next-door kind of guy who makes every one, including Kotoko, feel at ease. He encouraged her to try better. This, among other things, did not escape Nao who silently observes from a distance, and in response to all that, he became colder and more indifferent to Kotoko. Then one night, Keita decided to steal her from him.
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“I wonder if you’ll become attached to me one day.”

Tsubame is a swallow (bird) spirit who was left behind by her parents when their nest fell of a tree and was stained with human scent. When her siblings died and only she was left, she became a spirit and wandered in the village of Futaba. Hidden beneath the bushes, she was mistaken for a stray dog by a man named Taniozaki, and from that day onwards Tsubame consistently received a plate of food from him. The village was eventually buried by a water dam, so the humans moved away, leaving the spirits to dwell in their homes and sleep beneath the water. One hot summer day Takashi and his friends passed by the village, and without his knowledge Tsubame had possessed his body by climbing on to his back. Nyanko exorcised Takashi upon seeing her through a magical mirror. After the pleasantries Tsubame explained her actions; she climbed on to Takashi’s back in order to meet or see the man who had fed her in the old village. Tsubame started following Takashi everywhere like a stalker until our soft-hearted protagonist finally gave in and decided to help her; the first Spirit who didn’t come to him because of the Book of Friends. Soon Takashi became attached to Tsubame, and even after letting her see Taniozaki, he didn’t feel he had actually fulfilled her wish, because the man could not see Tsubame. One night, through the help of Nyanko and another Youkai, Takashi joined the Futaba Festival of Spirits, wherein the prize is a yukata which will make any spirit who wears it become human for a night. Takashi won the yukata and he gave it to Tsubame. The following day he meets Taniozaki and the man confirmed that he did meet a girl in a blue yukata. As if to prove it he showed a picture to Takashi. And there, on the photo, was Taniozaki beside a shy, smiling human girl who used to be a bird. Takashi stared at it and began to cry.
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“Keita-kun, you’re dead!?”

It’s Kotoko’s first day as a nursing student. She meets new friends, and spends her days with them stalking her husband Irie Naoki. That, or practicing rolling bandages and taking blood pressure. One night her friends coerced her into setting up a date for the Medical and Nursing students. Nao, quite irritated by her betrayal, engages himself in cheerful conversations with Kotoko’s female classmates. Kotoko, driven by jealousy, drowns herself with alcohol, angry at herself and at Keita who appears to enjoy tormenting her by mocking her about her carelessness in their practicals. The following day Nao discovers Kotoko practicing with Kei, and their sudden, innocent closeness begins to eat at him.
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