I don't think that should lead to a dead end in the game. If you ask a different character about the article you get a Game Over with a Try Again option, so either way you should be fine. Go back to Takae again after Nancy has slept.
For your Bento puzzle, your solution needs a bit of tweaking. Try this:
PIG EGG CAT EGG RABBIT EGG
CAT RICE PIG SANDWICH RABBIT RICE
RABBIT SANDWICH PIG RICE CAT SANDWICH
Be sure that the puzzle clues are the same when you go back to try again, and that it hasn't reset itself to a new puzzle.
