Rena and Tomoya, part two

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This a multi-part series of posts analyzing Fall in Love Like a Comic using Pamela Regis’s essential romance elements as a framework. Part One is here.

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FLLC: Chapter Two

Rena is working on her comic when Tomoya drops by.  He teases her about the new kiss scene and she melts in his arms.  A crowd gathers to watch them.    Yamase and Sunahar, Tomoya’s friend, are there as well.  Tomoya reveals to them that Rena is his girlfriend.  An unnamed girl hears the news and fumes about it.

Rena and Tomoya go for lunch in street clothes, and Rena reiterates her purpose of learning about boys.  At lunch, Rena explains her passion for creating comics.  She asks Tomoya why he has rejected all the other girls who have approached him.  He tells her they didn’t interest him.  He kisses her on the cheek which puzzles her.

The next day, Rena’s editor compliments the new depth of emotion in her comics.

Rena and Tomoya are joining friends for dinner later that evening.  Tomoya’s friends comment that he’s never brought a girl there before.  Tomoya says he brought her because she’s his girlfriend.  His friends quiz Rena on her relationship with Tomoya, and flustered she retreats to the bathroom.  There, she encounters the unnamed rival girl and her three hired goons.  The rival tells them to beat her up.  Tomoya and his friends come to the rescue, and Tomoya threatens the rival girl.

Rena is so relieved and so tired from working all night on her comic that she falls asleep in Tomoya’s arms.

The next morning, Rena is shocked to wake up in Tomoya’s bed beside him.

FLLC: Chapter Three

Rena has woken up in bed with Tomoya and no recollection of how she got there.  Tomoya teases her a bit and then admits they just slept.  He tells her that he phoned her parents and breakfast is ready.  Rena,  moved by his behavior, blurts that he’s just like a boy in a manga.  He flinches.

Later she discovers him in the arms of another, older woman.  Although she says that it’s to be expected and she’s not at all upset, Rena bursts into tears.  Later, she glares at a friendly Tomoya and runs away.  She discovers that she has writer’s block that evening.

The next day at school, Tomoya corners her and demands to know why she’s avoiding him.  He insists and she breaks down and confesses that she thought having a boyfriend would help her write better manga.  But she won’t ever draw manga again and she loves him.  A crowd gathers.  He kisses her and the crowd gapes.  She says he must stop kissing her because it’s not real.  He brings up all the instances in which she said he was like a boy in a manga.  He tells her he loves her and the other woman appears.  She is Tomoya’s sister.  Rena beams.