As Ryouko heads to the gym Ringo notices something wrong. Outside, Ryoushi is walking Elizabeth and Francoise, and he looks rather depressed as he thinks about the confession he made during the first episode. He also noticed that Ryouko’s not been acting herself lately, so he calls Ringo out and asks her what Ryouko’s history is with that Hitsujika. But Ringo refuses to tell him anything and says that if he can gain Ryouko’s trust, she’ll tell him.

At the bank, Alice is taking a different route of finding about Hitsujika by searching through some database. But his information were all deleted.

Back to the dorms as Ringo looks at a photo album of her and Ryouko at highschool she recalls their first meeting. It was when the teacher asked her to deliver some things to Ryouko as they live in the same dorm and Ryouko’s absent with a cold.

Even after hearing horror stories of what a violent delinquent Ryouko is, Ringo visits Ryouko’s room later anyway. The door was open already, so she cautiously enters. She saw her sleeping on the bed and crying in her sleep, with that cute sleeping face, Ringo knew she wanted to know more about her.

Ringo refuses to leave even when Ryouko wakes up and made her some porridge and cleaned her room. And only then did she leave, but with a friendship was in bloom.

We now see Ryouko in the gym, she sits down and recalls her memories of when she and Ringo first met. After that day when she caught that cold, Ringo would follow her everywhere for some reason. Even though Ryouko acted as though she doesn’t want her there, but she really didn’t mind.

One day, as Ryouko is heading home after a session at the gym with Ringo following behind, she sees three delinquents picking on a kid, so as everyone would expect, she goes to help him. However, it’s three versus one, so she ends up getting beat up, only to be saved by Ringo pretending to be calling over police.

Ringo figured that Ryouko was like her, in the fact that they both hide their feelings behind something. When Ringo heard what she said when she was asleep, she thought that Ryouko was just a gentle girl inside, and that’s why she wanted to become friends. Ringo says that she won’t betray Ryouko and she can trust her for anything. With a teary hug, their friendship starts. And that night, they told each other everything about themselves.

Ryoushi thinks over what Ringo said to him and then remembers when he first met Ryouko. He remembered that Ringo seemed to be the only person she opened up to, and after carefully observing/stalking her he found out that she’s gentler than she pretends to be. He wondered why she always kept up that tough exterior and steered people away, so he kept observing and soon, he fell in love with her. With that he followed her more and wanted to protect her.

Now at present day, Ryoushi wants to become stronger, so he can actually protect her, like a man. He rushes to the gym as Ryouko comes out and gives another sudden love confession and states that he’ll become stronger so he can protect her.

Well, from what I can gather from this episode of Ryouko’s past I’m going to speculate that Ryouko and Hitsujika were going out at one point but then she did something to upset him or it was his intention in the first place and was dumped. And then Hitsujika with the kind hearted, bishounen like exterior knows that no one will believe Ryouko if he does something bad to her and he does something traumatic to her. Don’t really have a clue what is it so I’m not going to speculate on that.

I can’t believe Ryouko was such a brute to Ringo when they first met and to think she loves cute things. Though I guess her heart must be aching then so I can forgive her. And lets not forget that Ringo’s a devilish child too, that smile hides a lot.

Is it just me, or is Kuroko’s snide comments getting so much better. I laugh at her commentary more than anything else in the anime now. Her voice is so perfect for this, just the tone of it. Dunno what is it. Then again, she has been the centre of the comic relief as the show seems more romance than comical now, and more heart warming and touching too.

Awww, Ringo said I won’t betray you. I’ve heard that phrase so many times already this season, probably because of Uraboku, but I seem to remember it from somewhere else as well, maybe Amagami somewhere.

So stalking and then falling in love with her, an interesting way into love. That’s one way of doing it, not really legal and not really recommended, but I guess it works out if he means no harm. And I have to give him my compliments to be able to see through Ryouko’s exterior.  Falling in love with her true self and not her facade, that’s what love’s about.

I liked this flashback episode. Nice to get more information about the main three characters and how they all met and how they were  panned out. We can now see how strong Ringo and Ryouko are connected and why Ryoushi is perfect for Ryouko even recommended by Ringo. We also saw how girl like Ryouko was all those years ago before she was traumatised, that was a lovely scene. I’m guessing it’ll be the end of flashbacks and background stories for a while now.

I guess I’ll say what everyone wants to say. Keep going Ryoushi, become the man you want to be and make her say yes.