Nodame half-improvises her way through the rest of the piece. She gets generous applause, but everybody knows that she has no chance of getting any prize. Chiaki tries to cheer her up by asking her to come to Europe with him. Nodame, still depressed by her performance, shows no interest. The New Year's concert is around the corner and Chiaki has yet to inform the Rising-Star Orchestra of his pending departure from Japan as well as his replacement conductor, Matsuda. Sakuma also shares his reasons as to why he had helped Chiaki throughout his past 2 years starting from his Rachmaninoff performance.