Kaichou wa Maid-sama! Manga – Chapter 01

I hate boys

Story starts off in an office with Seika High school Student Council President Ayuzawa Misaki lecturing three guys about not dressing properly. She complains about how this place is filled with hopeless idiots and asks Yukimura, who is the vice-president, if he has come across a similar situation. Yukimura nervously expresses how he believes that student guidelines aren’t necessary. This enrages her as she explains that if it never existed, students will definitely become sloppy. We find out that this school used to be an all-boys school, but has recently become co-ed. Misaki is the first female student to become president, and her main goal is to out rule all the boys. She recaps the first time she enrolled into the school. Boys were dressing sloppily, lockers were filled with filthy sport equipments and porno magazines that smelt like sweat were littering the floor. While girls were in the presence of boys who did whatever they wanted, they were forced to endure it. Misaki had believed that it was unfair, so she worked her ass off to gain trust from the teachers, hence becoming the student council president. Presently, Misaki is patrolling the school and she catches a guy ordering a girl to do his cleaning duties. Misaki steps in and knocks him on the head, and as a consequence, he has to clean the washrooms for a whole week. Meanwhile, a group of boys are playing strip-rock-paper-scissors and Misaki comes to ward them off, saving two girls who were troubling over where they should look. As she continues walking, she hears a girl crying. A boy is standing in front of the girl who has her face covered in tears, and Misaki demands to know what is going on. The boy, who is called Usui Takumi, responds that he’s just rejecting a confession. Misaki tells him that he should word it nicely next time, and Takumi mentions how many times he has already heard that. His friend tells him that it can’t be helped, and as Misaki leaves, suggests that they bash up the president together. However, Takumi is hardly at all interested.

Misaki hates boys because long ago her father, whom she trusted the most, vanished after leaving a huge debt on the family. So now she and her mother has to work really hard to pay for the bills. Misaki is working as a waitress for a particular restaurant and is dressed in a maid’s costume. Just as she finishes taking out the trash, she bumps into Takumi, who is just as shocked as she is. He comments on how pale her face is and suggests that she take a day off, but that’s not the case. Misaki is now just plainly worried about what tomorrow will become, because if people hear that she has been working as a maid, her carefully constructed reputation will disappear. Misaki finishes her job for the day and changes back to her usual clothes. Outside, she meets Takumi, who is waiting for her. He keeps looking at her and Misaki asks why. Takumi notes that he just wanted to make sure it really is the school president. Then he questions her about this weird job. She tells him that it’s because of her family, and that her mum is sickly. If she doesn’t work then her mother might someday collapse. Takumi wonders why she doesn’t take a laborious job closer to the neighborhood instead, but Misaki tells him she can’t because she doesn’t have enough stamina, and that she needs energy to prevent her grades from slipping. Takumi realizes that Misaki entered Seika High School because the school fees are cheaper, and Misaki has no idea what the guy’s thinking.

The following day, Misaki has prepared herself to be the laughing-stock of school, but so far three days have passed and no one has mentioned anything to her about being a maid. Misaki wonders if Takumi didn’t tell anyone because he either wants to blackmail her later on, or he pities her. She is relieved, however, that he hasn’t told anyone. Her thoughts are disturbed when two female students ask her to remove a sand bag that is at the bottom of the staircase of the flower arrangement club building. The object obviously belongs to the boxing team, whose room is just below. The girls complain that they can’t get to the room to put up their flower, so Misaki tells them that she will yell at the guys later and single-handedly removes the sand-bag. Takumi and his friend who are passing by are stunned by her strength. His friend, who is part of the boxing team and the one responsible for leaving the sand-bag there, runs off while Takumi continues to watch Misaki. One of the girls thank Misaki by handing her a flower and she smiles, which Takumi notices immediately. The girls notice Takumi watching them, and straight away he flicks his hair and walks off. The girl that gave Misaki the flower tells her that Usui Takumi is the only guy in the entire school that is popular among the girls, because of his good looks and good grades. He is the “only ray of hope in a school full of dinosaurs”. Misaki is surprised because she never knew of this. The girl continues by saying that because he is so popular, he has no interest in girls, and yet, many girls still confess their love for him. Misaki muses over the fact that she doesn’t understand girls anymore.

At her work, Misaki wonders that if Takumi’s not interested in girls, why did he come back to her job place. He stays and watches her as she does her job, and she feels totally humiliated. At school the following day, Takumi witnesses her telling three guys off for throwing a can into the bushes and lecturing them about their uniform. Takumi finds this impressive and he asks his classmate, Takesawa who attended the same school as Misaki in junior high, if she has always been like this. Takesawa says no and that it happened in 2nd-year when her family began having problems. She used to be normal but soon learned to talk rough. He then wonders why Takumi had questioned him because he’s never been interested in a girl before. At work again, Takumi is there and he’s the focal point because so many of the girls want to meet him. One of Misaki’s friends asks her if he’s her boyfriend because he keeps looking at her and he seems to be concerned about her. With this thought in mind, Misaki can’t help but blush. However, she later decides that it can’t be it. At school, Misaki is called to the teacher’s office. He tells her that for the last test she fell a bit and now she’s in second place when she used to always be in first place. Just out of curiosity, Misaki asks who is currently in first place and the teacher tells her that it’s Usui Takumi. She enters class and the boys complain about the rules being unfair, and that both boys and girls deserve equality. They want to read magazines but the rules don’t let them, and yet girls are allowed to read them. Misaki satisfies them when she tells them she will sort out which magazines both boys and girls can read. She leaves and Yukimura tells her that he lost the account book. She yells at him, but recomposes herself when she says that she’ll start the book all over again. Being even more frustrated than ever, Misaki is slowly getting the symptoms of a cold. While she is in class and brooding over the many tasks she has to complete, Takumi comes in and offers to help her, but she rejects it and walks away.

Misaki is at work again and she’s beginning to feel weaker. Three boys from her school who had earlier thrown a can into the bushes discuss amongst each other about how much they want to bash up the school president. They spot her in the maid’s outfit and start mocking her. Misaki is too weak to defend herself, and when the guys decide to tease her further, Tamuki appears and threatens them to back off. Tamuki feels her head and it’s burning. In her weak state, Misaki apologizes to him and he smiles, telling her that it’s alright, she can sleep. Misaki wakes up in her own room and her mum tells her to get some rest today. Misaki sits up and sees a scarf folded before her and her mum informs her that her friend had been worried about her so he lent the scarf to her. After one day of full rest, Misaki goes back to school and the members of the student council have already sorted out which magazines are appropriate in the school. They appear to be very happy with her return. Yukimura also finished redoing the account book for Misaki. Misaki looks at him and says sorry, and thanks him while smiling. They talk about how nice the air feels after her smile while Misaki converses with Yukimura and tells him to keep up with the good work. On the school rooftop, Misaki finds out from Tamuki that the other boys didn’t tell anyone about her job as a maid because Tamuki told them that it is his own personal pleasure. Misaki realizes aloud that it really is just for amusement, but Tamuki explains that if he said he is worried about her, she will get mad at him. He starts saying nice things about her and Misaki warns him that someday she will definitely catch up to him, so then next time it will be her turn to worry about him. She also says that she will do something for him since he let her borrow his scarf, and so Tamuki tells her that she has to be his personal maid for one day. Of course, Misaki is absolutely furious but a deal is a deal and she owes him anyway.

Thoughts: WOW. I really enjoyed reading this even though lovey-dovey stuff really ain’t my thing. The pictures kinda remind me of Fruit Basket images, but I still liked them. I just love Tamuki, he’s adorable. Misaki is awesome as well, sticking up for girls’ rights, but truthfully, I have nothing against guys being guys. Still, someone oughta teach ‘em, lol. Anyway, I found this first chapter really interesting and a lot of things happened in it. I’m so going to read the next chapter and I wonder what will happen? Is Tamuki starting to like Misaki? I don’t think Misaki is, she just thinks he’s annoying, but she’s also grateful to him for saving her from those three boys. Tamuki might not have a crush in her, but this is the first time he’s interested in a girl, which could also lead to “love”. They are the two main protagonists so it’d be strange if they didn’t end up with each other sooner or later. I won’t blog any more of this since not many people know of it, plus I don’t have enough time to write something up that’s really long.