The Alighting Angel!

"The Alighting Angel!" is the twenty third episode in Gokinjo Monogatari.

Plot
In the morning, Mikako's eyes are swollen from crying. She tries to reduce puffiness with a cold compress, but to no avail. In order to hide puffy eyes from her friends, she heads out to school without waiting for Tsutomu and makes sunglasses to be part of her look. People who aren't close to her don't notice anything, but Risa does notice that Mikako was crying. She asks her if anything has happened, but Mikako avoids answering by pretending to be excited about the next class and runs ahead. Mikako also avoids showing up where their group usually is gathering during breaks. Risa covers her up by lying to others that Mikako has some tiny errand from a teacher. Tsutomu steps away to buy some paint for the display in the school's store, on his way back Risa uses the opportunity to talk one on one with him and inquires him about his relationship with Ayumi. She finds out that he definitely is not in love with Ayumi, Ayumi is just a good friend for Tsutomu, Jiro and Yuusuke,  as well as that Tsutomu is clueless about Mikako's jealousy about his closeness with Ayumi.

Yuusuke has been so busy helping Tsutomu that he basically ignored Mariko, which made her worried. After seeing him with Ayumi, Mariko burns with jealousy and decides to participate in the making of the display too. She makes a lot of noise and clings to Yuusuke all the time, but her efforts help to finish the display faster. Seeing Yuusuke being so close with Mariko upsets Ayumi, who obviously likes him. Tsutomu thinks that she is tired and suggests to her to take some rest, but she refuses and hides her feelings behind a gentle smile.

At around 3 o'clock in the morning, Mikako finally finishes her 10 clothes sets for the flea market. She has promised to herself to be more honest about her feelings to Tsutomu after the sets are done. She puts on kitty hairbands and heads to the door where Ruriko unexpectedly stops her and asks where is she going. Mikako says that she is going to their neighbours and Ruriko lectures her about having common sense and don't disturb their neighbours at such a late hour. While she is still at it, someone rings the doorbell. It's Tsutomu, their neighbour who lacks common sense just like Mikako. Relieved to see that she is not a worse parent than the neighbours, Ruriko leaves the kids be. Tsutomu hastily brings Mikako to the storehouse to show her the display they have just finished.

When they get to the storehouse on a taxi, Mikako sees Masshu for the first time. She says the dog looks like a puppy version of Kuro. Yuusuke already went to his job ― delivering newspapers. Mariko fell asleep right in the storehouse. Mikako is overwhelmed by seeing their display ― Happy Berry Angel ― as Ayumi has predicted her to be. Mikako is weirded up and confused as to why the display has to be Happy Berry Angel and looks so much like Mikako. Tsutomu almost starts bickering with her again, but Ayumi stops him. Unable to control her emotions, Mikako shouts out that she wants Ayumi to stop calling Tsutomu by his first name. Ayumi realizes that she unwittingly got in the way between Mikako and Tsutomu. She wakes up Mariko and pulls her to the mini-mart in order to leave Mikako and Tsutomu alone. Tsutomu finally understands that Mikako has been all worked up all this time because she felt jealous about him and Ayumi. He asks her if she feels how much love he has put into Berry-chan (the display). Mikako says "yes" and cries in embarrassment, but she is happy to realize that Tsutomu, despite her self-doubts and rude outbursts, in fact, cares so much about her. Tsutomu embraces her.

Cast and character appearances

 * Ayumi Oikawa
 * Jiro Nishino
 * Kuro
 * Mai "P-chan" Oota
 * Mariko Nakasu
 * Masshu
 * Mikako Kouda
 * Risa Kanzaki
 * Ruriko Kouda
 * Tsutomu Yamaguchi
 * Yuusuke Tashiro

Trivia
Ruriko keeps walking around with a Sudosaur toy ― a mascot from previous Yazawa Ai manga I'm Not an Angel.