The Kiss

Episode 9. The Kiss

Mariko Nose kisses Sota Yukimura after he explains that she has been in his life for 25 years since the attempt to kidnap her. He is surprised and overwhelmed and tries to run away.

He wakes up in bed and feels stupid that he reacted that way to the kiss and gave her the excuse that he was dizzy. He is shocked to see Mariko slumped on the sofa inside his house. She said that she wanted to know the full details of the past, that’s why she had to wait until he woke up. He told her about how she punched the bully who was hurting him on his way to school and how he vowed to protect her from then on. He thought that it was a death sentence to reveal everything to her and would lose her forever. He told her about how he had to get Tateiwa to resign from the project because of the evidence he found regarding the fake investment and went to meet him. Also, about how he went to see Sayuri Nose, Mariko’s stepmother, who was trying to make her son Keito become president of the Nose company by discrediting Mariko through Tateiwa. He kept talking and apologized for what he had done.

Mariko explains that it was pretending that the interceptions and ambushes were coincidences that she found unacceptable.  She said she would have been terrified had she known about all these things that he did if he was a stranger. She finally understood why he was suspected as the killer of Tateiwa and Sayuri because he had confronted them. She said so many things were happening around her and that she was going to stay with him so she could monitor all his actions besides the fact that Satoru Hatano- who kidnapped her and hurt him - wasn’t captured yet.

He is in total disbelief that she was going to live with him. His officemates warn him about the persistence of Detective Taisuke Sakura if he wanted to win her.

Mariko watches the news about her kidnapper Hatano still on the run and Yukimura tells her to forget about it so she could sleep. She tells Yukimura that she would sleep in her sleeping bag on the floor although he offers his bed or the sofa. At the office, she tells Izumi that she hasn’t forgiven him yet. Izumi reprimands her about seeing two men at the same time when she notices Detective Taisuke Sakura’s 13 missed calls on Mariko’s phone. Sakura messages about wanting to guard her while Hatano is not yet caught. 

She goes to the hospital with her father, President Ginjiro Nose, to see his secretary Gota Asai who was captured and held hostage by Hatano. He apologizes for telling him about Sato Yukimura as the person who rescued Mariko and had him imprisoned. President Nose disagreed and apologized to his daughter and Asai that it was his fault that she was targeted because she was his daughter and that Hatano was his elementary school classmate who said that he was bullied by rich classmates because of his poor status. He warned that President Nose’s daughter will face the consequences of being born to him. Hatano started kidnapping and killing the children of rich classmates three days after the reunion but President Nose didn’t own up to his fault instead telling the police not to publicize his connection to the incidents. 

Mariko discovers that Yukimura has a compulsion to arrange his condiments and spices with labels facing forward while she is cooking dinner. While they eat, Detective Sakura calls but she doesn’t answer it. She explains Sakura’s invitation to an art exhibit. Yukimura recalls that she is not fond of paintings because as a child she would rather read her book while her mother was admiring art. She is surprised that he knew about that detail when she was young, she tells him that since her mother died, doing the things that her mother enjoyed was like spending time with her. She probes Yukimura if he noticed the affair that her mother was having. She wondered whose exhibit it was that her mother went to.

Yukimura looks at his journal on the day of the exhibit, and he sees a drawing of a man in his notebook with Mariko’s mother. He notices that the notebook that Tomoya said he did not open had a missing page that involved Hatano. He goes to the Tomoya’s Café and sees that it is closed, he wonders where Tomoya could be. He is followed by Hatano and chased until he is cornered in a deck. Tomoya sees Hatano and beats him up because of his sister Mizuki Sagara who was killed after being kidnapped. Yukimura tries to stop Tomoya who almost kills Hatano when a group of men stop him and call the police. Hatano is arrested and brought to the precinct where Detective Sakura collars him in anger for his crimes. Tomoya is released by the police amidst the assault on Hatano. They go back to the Sagara home to Mizuki’s ashes and light incense. Tomoya returns the torn page from the diary that linked his sister’s death to Mariko’s kidnapping. He told Yukimura that he knew Hatano killed his sister when he learned that Mariko who was among the children kidnapped was a year older than them. He said that he was happy that Mariko was alive and had grown up, he couldn’t help but notice her on campus. Yukimura asked Tomoya why he lived with so much pain but praised him for being good to him. 

Tomoya told him that when he learned that Hatano attacked Mariko and him, his rage returned and he would rather kill Hatano than let him kill the precious people in his life again. Yukimura apologized for not being able to do anything for Tomoya in return. 

Izumi and Sara visit Tomoya in the café after learning of the incident of his arrest. 

Yukimura reaches home and gets a note that Mariko was going to be late. He reviews his diaries to find out whose paintings her mother went to see. He saw his notes about Kyoko Nose getting angry at a florist for breaking a vase and not minding his injury. Yukimura remembers seeing a scar on Detective Taisuke Sakura’s arm when he tied Yukimura’s bleeding arm injured by Hatano. He goes to the flower shop and asks the florist if Taisuke Sakura worked there 25 years before, she said yes. He then remembered how the detective said he was protecting Mariko from Yukimura because he loved her and ended up a criminal because of the love.

Mariko goes home and looks at the flower painting from her mother’s collection to find out who the artist was when her father walks in the room and tells her the secret he shared with Sayuri. She is distraught over the revelation when Detective Sakura calls and asks her to meet him because he wanted to show her his painting of her. He drops the paint brush and suddenly flashes back to the night on the bridge when Kyoko accuses him of kidnapping Mariko. That angered him and in rage he pushes Kyoko over the rail. 

Yukimura is desperate to find Mariko. He is unable to protect Mariko from Detective Sakura after he solves the puzzle of the painter who her mother was supposed to have an affair with.

#SuspenseDrama #CrimeMystery #FamilySecrets #DarkTruths #ThrillerSeries #EpisodeStory #MarikoAndYukimura #SayuriNose