Hot Gimmick, Vol. 8

In company-owned rabbit-hutch apartments live tenants who can't afford to live anywhere else, and the apartment complex in which high-school girl Hatsumi Narita lives is ruled over by the rumour mongering, self-righteous Mrs. Tachibana. Get on Tachibana's bad side, and life becomes hell. When Hatsumi has to buy a pregnancy test because her popular sister Akane is late, Mrs. Tachibana's son, Ryoki, who used to bully Hatsumi as a kid, promises not to tell the world about Hatsumi's secret, only if she becomes his slave. Suddenly Azusa, Hatsumi's protector in their youth, reappears to save her again! He's moving back into the neighbourhood! Despite the budding romance between Hatsumi and Azusa, Ryoki has control over her through the secret that could ruin the lives of everyone in Hatsumi's family, and he hasn't forgotten who his slave is! Will wonders never cease...? It appears that relations between the forever hapless Hatsumi and her haughty quasi-boyfriend Ryoki Tachibana are on the up-and-up, but not if Ryoki's mother has her way. Deeming Hatsumi unworthy of her heavenly son's affections, Mrs. Tachibana hatches a scheme for Ryoki to fall in love with an equally brainy, upper-class young lady. Will Ryoki drop Hatsumi like a proverbial bag of dirt when this new "Little Miss Perfect" shows up? Plus, an equally jar-dropping flashback to Hatsumi's tiny-tot days that throws new light on how the veritable train wreck of her life got started.