Kare Kano and a Dumbass

Kare Kano and a Dumbass

My sister just returned from her Taiwan Immersion Programme. Before she left for Taiwan, I got her to help me to buy the full set of Kare Kano. My budget was S$80 for a brandnew set and S$30 for a 2nd hand set, my only goal was that I wanted the FULL set. My sister is a smart girl, well, worse come to worse, I can don't get it, it's not a need, just a want of mine.

Anyway, while she was there I had a dream one night and dreamt that she forgotten to help me look for that set of manga. When I woke up, I SMSed her to remind her again. The next day, she replied me saying that she had already ordered the whole set. Bingo.

Then when she returned to Singapore, she was hestitant when I asked about the manga. At first she lied that her dumbass exchange buddy from hell didn't go and collect the manga although the books were already fully paid. I told her that she had to get that dumbass to send the books back to Singapore on her charge definitely. But after some probing, I realised that she was lying.

I had my manga.
I like Kare Kano because the story is really touching, not in the grand plot kind of way, but there are many different arcs of plots, and each of them is touching on its own. And I really like the beginning and ending parts. The middle can get a bit boring, and the timeline might be a bit confusing, and there are some gaps in the timeline. Still, there are several arcs which can make me tear up.

Reading from a book is different from reading online. Reading online I tend to skim though, and sometimes due to alignment problems, it's not easy to follow through the whole page. Flipping the pages back and forth to enjoy the juicy parts can get a bit tedious too. Anyway, now that problem is free from me~

But wait...
Don't get too happy too soon...
Can you spot what's wrong with the picture?

Damn! Book number 3 is missing!

My sister did had to have that dumbass collect the manga for her because she had other activities. And that dumbass didn't bother about the missing book at all. Is she dumb or not, tell me? I wanted my sister to get the dumbass go get the missing book and send it back to Singapore for me, on her charge of course, but my sister said that when she found out about this error she was more than livid, I can imagine. Right now, my sister has broken all contact with that dumbass. Life is too short to get oneself involved with dumbasses, horrible ones of course. You can read more about miserable time stuck with the dumbass here, and her happier times when she was away from the dumbass.

Actually, the missing book was not the fault of the bookshop because the books came with a note from the bookshop telling us that this book has stopped reprints, and the bookshop asked if it was fine if we were given a second hand book, or that we could wait while they tried to find the missing title for us. There's the receipt there because my sister had already paid in full, and we at the very least needed a refund. Then there's a note there, telling us about the situation.

And what did the dumbass did about the whole thing? Nothing! She just left without a refund, nor a second hand book. Crappy...

It was really too bad that my sister had to leave the next day, and there wasn't time to go down to the shop. Apparently, my sister had also wanted to go to the manga shop earlier during her 18-day stay in Taiwan, but everytime she wanted to go in she would be stopped by the dumbass who would want to go somewhere else and she just forcefully made my sister do everything she says. Asshole.

But all is not that gloomy. You see the plastic bag from Comics Connection?
I decided to pop by Parkway and look for the missing book today. I'm anal about numberings and stuff, the idea of me holding onto a set with a missing book irks me more than having a few books not in running order out of a set with many books.

I was a bit scared that I couldn't find the missing book, since after all, I had the Tongli version one, which meant that it was out of print already. So the only possiblity of me having it is that it is the old stock that haven't been sold, or that I had to get second hand one, which isn't a big problem actually. Singapore being much smaller than Taiwan, and Tongli being a Taiwanese publisher, I really didn't know what are my odds of getting the missing book.

I was actually already prepared to drop by a few bookstores, if I couldn't get it in the smaller ones. I was already planning trips down to Kinokuniya, and possibly calling them up or sending emails to them, or just something. I had to get the book, even if I paid S$10 for it.

Well, in the end I paid $7 for it. Almost double the price for what my sister had already got for me from Taiwan no thanks to that dumbass.

But I am Joan, I can spend a lot of money for something that I deem worth it even though it's real value is lower. But I am Joan, I get what I want despite the cost, well, as far as I can afford, I'll make it mine, and my affordability range is like quite high. erm...

At first I saw on the shelves there were only books 1, 2, 19, 20. Then I looked around I saw the book 3 but published by Chuangyi instead. I'm a suckler for sets. It must be of the same set, must be the same range, must be nice and neat. So I askedd the shop assistant, and she took out a ladder, climbed up, and there was another row of books hidden behind the visible row. I didn't realise that there were another row of books, I thought the shelved seemed quite narrow. And she pulled out a black with dust old dirty book 3 for me! ahhh...

I was a bit hesitant with the dust because it made me sneeze, and asked if there was another copy, but it was the only book 3 left. I'm still a happy girl though~ It's shrink wrapped la, so after removing the plastic, I still have a brand new book. And best of all, A WHOLE SET~