Ayako Imoto

Beppu Sumire is a wedding planner who works for True Love Bridal (TLB), a well-established wedding hall. Her late mother, Sakura, showered love on her and would always tell her that she is lovely. After she passed away, Sumire lived with her father, Tetsuro. Sumire gave up on her own romance long ago because of her disappointing looks. But she works hard with a smile even when she gets scolded by her stern superior, Umemiya Hitomi, her impertinent junior, Sudo Yuri, pins trouble on her, and her relationship with her father is not working out, in order to bring smiles to many people’s faces.

Thirty years after aboy's disappearance, a journalist revives interest in the case, which in turn compels the victim's brother to look for this woman's daughter in the snowy hinterlands of northern Japan. This sets off a series of events that causes the brother and the woman's daughter to glimpse the truth that has been concealed by their vague and painful memories.

In January 1810 in Edo, Kikunosuke, the 17-year-old-son of a murdered samurai, takes revenge on his father's murderer, Sakubai, who was his father's former retainer. Kikunosuke gloriously defeats the swaggering Sakubai in single combat in front of a theater, witnessed by a huge audience that had just finished watching a production of 47 Ronin. With Sakubai's severed head, Kikunosuke has achieved his revenge and ensured that his family won't be exiled. 18 months later, a ronin named Soichiro Kase from Kikunosuke's domain arrives at the theater. While he seems silly and smooth-talking, he's very keen on finding out more about the incident and Kikunosuke's time working at the theater. The theater's staff – the barker Ippachi, the swordsmanship teacher Sagara, the costumer Hotaru, the craftsman Kyuzo, and the playwright Kinji – are apprehensive and suspicious at his digging. However, not everything is as it seems.

Shiratama Sayako has never experienced much good luck. Since she was a child, she dreamed of becoming an architect. She studied hard, but she repeatedly failed her university entrance exams. Now, she is 30 years old and works in a field far away from her ideal job. One day, she happens to meet mysterious university student Ogasawara Taku. She tells him about her past dream of becoming an architect. Ogasawara Taku tells her that it is never too late and that she can still get accepted into a university. Inspired by their talk, Shiratama Sayako decides to study once again for her university entrance exams. After she studies so hard, she finally gets accepted into a university. There, Shiratama Sayako meets Ogasawara Taku again, who is a senior in the architecture department.

Tsukasa Kobayashi has the appearance and educational background of an elite and earns a good salary, but he is actually incompetent at his job and makes mistakes frequently, earning the ire of his co-workers. Tsukasa was about to quit his job after much humiliation at work when he learns that his wife is pregnant.

She's single, beautiful and wears clothes that are a bit flashy, but she never smiles in front of her clients. Machi is a real-estate saleswoman who is known for closing the deal no matter who the client is--100% of the time. "There isn't a house I can't sell." She sticks her nose in the private issues of her clients and uses a vast range of tactics to help solve their problems... and sells the house while she's at it! "The kind of home you live in becomes a true reflection of your life." Because the home itself can sometimes even change your life, Machi will pour her heart and soul into finding the right home for you. "Being a real estate agent means having your clients surrender their life to you."