Izume Mino
Hirou’s friend from middle school, an outgoing and caring character who harbors a bit of “tsundere” characteristics. Her father is a doctor and her mother is a college professor. Against her parent’s wishes, Izume decided to go to a public school in Downtown then the private school her parent’s were going to send her to. She is rebellious towards her parent’s because of their demanding careers. All her life she was raised by her maid, Yoshie, who Izume considers more of a parent then a maid. Because of her overbearing personality, she and Hirou can often get into little spats about how Hirou should be more of a role-model for his sister and do things the right way. However, deep down, she hides lingering feelings towards Hirou because of the devotion and love that he gives to the ones he holds close to him.
History
Living like a rich girl in “Uptown”, Izume was given the world on a silver platter. And yet, even as a child, Izume felt something was missing within all the luxury…the feeling of a family. Though Yoshie was always around like a mother would, it just didn’t feel right. So she decided that she would get her family back together somehow; what was her plan? Izume decided to run away and have her parent’s find her.
One night, Izume put her plan into action. After dinner, she complained of a stomachache to Yoshie and was sent to her room to rest. Once everyone was asleep, Izume managed to sneak out of the house undetected and she headed for Downtown. She knew that Yoshie would come to check on her soon and when she wouldn’t find her in her bed, Yoshie would tell her parents; everything would go as planned. The only problem: what place could she go that would be convincing enough?
Pondering on the thought, she soon found herself wandering into an area of Downtown that was right at the border of the Ghetto. What broke her out of thought was the sight of kids crowded around a playground. However, as Izume looked closer she could see a little girl trying to reach a hair band that one of the boys took. Seeing this go on made Izume sick to her stomach; she marched over and shoved the kid holding the hair band. Taking the hair band back, Izume went and gave it back to the little girl only to be surrounded by the group of kids. It looked grim until a boy yelled from behind the group. A young boy, about 10 years old, stood before them asking if they were the ones who took his sister’s hair band. The boy and the group of kids soon ended up getting in a fight. After everything was done, the boy walked over and grabbed the little girl Izume just helped and started walking away. Izume was left in shock at what she had just witnessed.
The little girl stopped and told her brother that Izume helped get her hair band back. Staring back at Izume, the little boy said his thanks to her. She looked into his eyes and saw something that made her heart skip a beat. His emotionless, deep brown eyes that harbored a sense of sadness struck this little girl’s heart.
Izume couldn’t get that image out of her head; she wanted to see the boy again. So she visited the playground from time to time, hopefully being able to meet up with that boy again. Years had past, and soon Izume was planning on giving up trying to find him. Luckily, chance was on her side. Izume’s middle school was getting a transfer student coming into their class. When the student walked in, Izume knew the moment she saw him…he was the one! The boy wrote, “Hirou Takehiko” on the board.
