When Natsuo relates the incident to Chiken, her friend is very moved by Musashi's show of devotion and she actively promotes his cause, but Natsuo puts on a show of indifference.

At home, Matsuri is marvelling over the coincidence of Natsuo being Fumiya's sister, but she still doesn't believe that Natsuo will fall for Musashi, and she asks him why he would bother to go look for the ring when she didn't even ask him too. Musashi says that he could "hear" her heart calling out to him... he screams Natsuo's name out at their balcony.... somehow causing Natsuo's ears to ring (!)

Natsuo hands in a proposal to her boss regarding the promotion, arguing that it won't cost a lot of money but he again he refuses, mocking her efforts.

She complains to Kyuugo at lunch and he volunteers to help her but worries that they may need more people and makes a suggestion to Natsuo...

Natsuo goes to Tozai bus depot to ask Hiraoka to help her out in her survey campaign but Hiraoka says that his staff being all guys, it may be difficult to get them to canvas opinions. None of them look enthusiastic except for Musashi who shoves himself in front of Natsuo, saying "ankeeto" (questionnaire) very loudly in her ear!

As she leaves, Musashi says to her that he's happy to see her wear the ring again, but she tells him it's none of his business. Her high heels start to hurt her feet, and when he suggests that she not wear them, she tells him that she can't not wear them because "the day she gives up her heels will be the day she gives up her work", and it's a pact she made with herself.

Matsuri's sneaking through the sketchbook again, wondering who the girl in the sketch is (now that she knows it's not Fumiya's sister for sure). Fumiya comes in and although she quickly puts it down, he knows she's been looking and makes a caustic remark about how she's just as nosy as her brother and that it must be something they picked up in their hometown because people in Tokyo keep to themselves - and tells her to stay out of his and his sister's business. But she asks him if it's not lonely to have such an attitude, and says while she too has things she likes to keep secret, she wouldn't want to be like Natsuo and Fumiya because they seem very lonely to her...

Musashi's practising the questionnaire thing - and his aunt asks if he's not tired... first the golf, now this. But Musashi defends himself by saying that he can't refuse someone's request but his cover is blown when his cousin, Kazuma, says there has been no such request and Musashi volunteered to do it. Musashi then turns his attention to Kazuma, forcibly enlisting him to help canvas opinions, saying they needed to do it on a grander scale...

When his uncle comes in wearing these life-size plush costumes of cartoon vegetables, Musashi hits on the plan to use them to attract attention for their questionnaires. Kazuma is obviously reluctant to dress up as a tomato to do this, and starts to struggle against Musashi... when Matsuri walks in and repeats to Musashi what Fumiya had said to her about how people in Tokyo don't like others interfering in their business. Up in their room, Musashi says that it's true that they come from the countryside, and so there is no reason why they should regard Tokyo's way of doing things. He's resolved to do his best for Natsuo.

On their polling day, Musashi's waring one of the fuzzy tomato costumes, and Kazuma and Naruse from Tozai bus are wearing them too! Kyuugo's also come to help out, and they work hard to get people to participate in the questionnaires (although Kazuma and Naruse seem more interested in chatting up girls...) Natsuo sees the girls from her former department walk by and try to hide out of sight but Musashi disrupts her, and they discover her and mock the fact that she's stooping to do such work, and she stands there slightly shamefaced while they walk off to their important business luncheon.

Kojiro's flown back to Japan to attend an important meeting and Chiken sees him in the corridors, and is shocked!

Back at the polling stand, Kyuugo's tells Musashi that Natsuo is not meant to be at the data management department, and tells him about Natsuo's transfer. When Musashi says that he too has made errors before, and mentions misplacing some thousand-yen bus tickets, Kyuugo scoffs at him, saying Natsuo's mistake cost the money 200 MILLION yen! And that's why she's trying so hard to re-establish herself.

Fumiya's visiting Haruka in the hospital again, and she asks him if he's ridden his motorcycle since "that day" and that he shouldn't not ride it on her behalf. Fumiya thinks back to the day of the accident, when he knocked down Haruka who was crossing the street...

When Kyuugo gets back to the company, Chiken tells him about Kojiro's return and he calls Natsuo on the mobile and tells her to come quickly as Kojiro's meeting will end at 5 pm and he leaves for New York right after. Natsuo checks her watch and sees that it is already 4:20 pm. She tells him that she can't make it as she still has work to do there. After she hangs up, she thinks back on the past times with Kojiro again, and changes her mind - rushing to the tent to pick up her bag and telling Musashi that she has to head back to the company for work. In her rush, she displaces a tent pole, and Musashi flings himself on top of her to shield her - but his own leg is badly hurt. Nonetheless, he pretends that he's fine, and tells her to hurry.

Natsuo rushes back to Sasajima Corporation but when she reaches the meeting room, she just misses Kojiro, who's left the room a moment before. Chiken tells her that if she hurries, she can still make it and she turns back to take the elevator. But as she's waiting for the elevator, she decides not to go after him and doesn't get into the elevator when it arrives, telling Chiken that "it's too late..."

Natsuo goes to Musashi's house and is shocked to see how hurt he is. She tells them she'll be responsible for his medical expenses, etc. but Matsuri, who's just arrived, gets offended and tells her that she's really a cold (unfeeling) person - that even though she's responsible for Musashi's injury, she hasn't shown any remorse or even apologized. Musashi tells her to shut up and Matsuri goes off in a rage.

Matsuri's locked herself in the bedroom, and Musashi tries to sweet-talk her into coming out, but she tells him she's going to stay there until she dies, and says that he doesn't even appreciate how worried she'd been about him and how she hated seeing him make light of his pain for Natsuo's sake. Musashi says that he understands, and says if Fumiya had done something like that to Matsuri, he'd feel like killing him too - and Matsuri starts to understand his side of things, and comes out of the room...

When Natsuo gives the questionnaires to her boss, he says to her "what's this? I didn't tell you to do this?!" and says in a scathing way that she doesn't seem to understand what data management is about, and that this isn't school and she's not a schoolkid handing in homework! When he goes to pick up the phone, he carelessly spills coffee all over the forms!

Natsuo hears about how Musashi has taken a week off because of his injury but has refused to claim work compensation, and she calls him at home, asking him why. He tries to reassure her that he's fine with the arrangement and happily watching TV at home, but she's not convinced. When he asks about the questionnaires, she tells him frankly that her boss won't look at them.

Natsuo's drinking with Chiken and Kyuugo, still wondering why Musashi won't claim compensation. Kyuugo accidentally lets slip that he'd told Musashi about Natsuo's situation and her transfer, and she realises that that was the reason why he wouldn't claim compensation, and told her to hurry back to Sasajima, even though he knew it wasn't work! Kyuugo tries to play things down, by saying that Musashi's not really that hurt anyway, and he gets to take a week's rest.. But Natsuo says that Musashi's not the type to enjoy that rest and rushes off.

She goes to the Tozai bus depot but then sees all the lights off and wonders why she'd gone there, saying to herself "he won't be there"... but then she hears him inside and she goes in to see Musashi tallying up the stats for the questionnaires. She goes to make tea for him, and sees that they all have different cups of their own, and as Musashi is telling her whose cup is whose (shacho's cup is "Hello Kitty" which his daughter gave him!), she says that at her office, all the cups are the same.

She makes him a formal apology, saying that the polling was her idea, not her boss's and she was not given the go-ahead to do so... but Musashi knows that already. She goes on to say how she'd been transferred because of her past mistake and she'd really wanted to do this but she got carried away and lost her direction and now she deeply regrets it... (Ed. note: I'm not sure if she's talking more about this questionnaire thing or her past restaurant project...) Now it's turned into a tragedy and has caused Musashi injury, and she wished they hadn't done the questionnaire campaign.

Musashi makes the analogy of them listening to the engine noise first before driving the bus - and that it's a very fundamental thing and there should be no regrets - but it's not something to be proud of either, right? (Ed. note: I totally don't understand this part!) Musashi says that Natsuo looks very "kakko ii" (cool) when she's hard at work and wearing her heels.

Natsuo asks why he didn't claim medical and he says that it's because he did it to himself... Natsuo tries to say that it happened because of her... but he tells her that "because for our buses, safety is the most important thing... because I want to be able to carry you to your life's journey... so as long as you are fine, then everything's okay."