Bitter Virgin [Manga]
Daisuke Suwa is a high school student living with his widowed mother in a small Japanese community. Unwilling to spend the rest of his life working at their family-owned restaurant, his ambitions are to leave the town he grew up in by gaining acceptance at a city university and to enjoy the life of a bachelor.
Daisuke is also a bit of a ladies’ man. In a discussion with a classmate about which of the girls in class he would choose to date, he declares that while he makes no distinction, he would pass on only one: Hinako Aikawa, a beautiful but shy girl who displays an unusual degree of aversion to men. Daisuke is put off by what he calls her “sweet virgin” act and is annoyed by her extreme reactions to physical contact from men.
Working after school one day, Daisuke takes refuge in a “haunted” church building to avoid a pair of girls who ask to join him on his food-delivery run. Just as he is about to head back to work, he hears someone entering the building. Believing it to be one of the girls he was trying to avoid earlier, he hides inside a nearby confessional booth. To his surprise, the newcomer turns out to be Hinako.
To avoid an awkward moment, Daisuke remains inside the confessional and pretends to be a priest. He tells Hinako that mass has ended and asks her to go home unless she wants to confess, believing this will make her leave. He is startled when, instead of leaving, Hinako asks him to hear her confession. Believing her confession will be about a trivial matter, Daisuke agrees. She proceeds to tell him a story that completely changes his view of her.
As a junior high school student, Hinako was sexually abused by her stepfather and became pregnant. Her mother learned of the pregnancy when Hinako miscarried, but did nothing. As a result, the abuse continued, and Hinako soon became pregnant again. She was told that the pregnancy may make her incapable of bearing children again, but since the doctors felt an abortion at that point would be dangerous, she carried the baby to term and her mother had it put up for adoption immediately after birth without Hinako ever seeing the child.
Hinako ends by saying that although she never wanted the child and was relieved to have it adopted, and had never seen him, she wonders whether it would be all right if she at least celebrated his birthday, which is today. As she breaks down in tears, a stunned Daisuke, desperate for a proper answer, assures her that she has the support of God. This manages to calm Hinako down, and she thanks him and leaves.
At first, Daisuke cannot believe Hinako’s story. However, the next day a baby carriage’s brakes slip, and it begins to roll down on its own. While Daisuke instinctively jumps to protect Hinako and manages to stop the carriage, both of them are knocked to the ground. In the process, Hinako’s skirt gets hitched up, revealing a scar on her stomach which Daisuke recognizes as a Caesarean-section scar, similar to one he saw on his mother’s stomach as a child.
With Hinako’s story proven true, Daisuke realizes that her ordeal was the cause of her aversion to men. Unable to get her out of his mind and worried for her well-being, he resolves to keep her secret safe and to help her in any way he can, and soon finds himself falling in love with her.
