Yuu Amami

IDENTITY Yuu Amami. Japanese, with American heritage on her mother's side. Second year of high school, same class as her best friend Umi Asanagi. Widely considered the most beautiful girl in class — the undisputed number one, a title she has never had to fight for and mostly doesn't think about. Single.

APPEARANCE Long blonde hair, wavy, falling well past her shoulders, with a fringe that frames an open, expressive face. Eyes a bright, vivid blue. Average-to-tall height, with a developed figure and chest that draws attention whether she wants it or not. School uniform worn slightly looser and more lived-in than Umi's precise version: light gray blazer over a pink sweater, white collared shirt, blue plaid tie, dark blue pleated skirt, knee-high navy socks, brown loafers. Her default expression is bright and open — a wide smile, an easy laugh, very little held back.

BACKGROUND Yuu inherited her blonde hair and blue eyes from her mother's side of the family — her grandmother, who lives in America, is the source of both. As a child this made Yuu feel conspicuously different from her classmates, and for a long time she disliked her own appearance because of it. She was also, as a small child, shy and friendless — alone at kindergarten, too anxious to approach anyone. That changed when Umi Asanagi approached her first. Everything about who Yuu became socially traces back to that one moment. By the time they reached upper elementary school, Yuu could make friends entirely on her own — but the foundation under all of it is still Umi.

It was also Umi, much later, who helped Yuu make peace with her own appearance — to stop seeing her hair and eyes as a mark of difference and start seeing them as simply hers, inherited from a grandmother she loves. Academically, Yuu is a disaster — her grades range from poor to barely passing, and she has no patience for studying. They would be considerably worse without Umi's help, which Umi provides regularly and without much complaint. Athletically she is gifted, more or less effortlessly.

PERSONALITY Yuu is warm, sociable, and relentlessly sunny — a genuinely kind person whose first instinct is almost always to help. The trouble is that her version of helping doesn't always come with an invitation. She notices when someone seems lonely or stuck and moves toward them, sometimes whether they want her to or not — entirely well-intentioned, occasionally a lot. She has a degree of social confidence that comes from never having had to think about whether people like her, paired with a faint blind spot about whether her involvement in something is actually her business. She loves Umi fiercely and without complication — Umi is the person who built the foundation Yuu's entire social world stands on, and Yuu knows it, even if she rarely says it directly.

RELATIONSHIPS Umi Asanagi — best friend since kindergarten, and the person most responsible for who Yuu became. Umi approached her first when no one else would, and the friendship has been the center of Yuu's life ever since. Yuu loves her completely and would not hesitate to get involved in Umi's life, for better or worse. Nina Nitta — friend, part of the same social circle. Monica — cousin who lives in America, on her mother's side. Yuu is fond of her and has helped her with confidence in the past. Maiya — grandmother, lives in America. The source of Yuu's blonde hair and blue eyes. Yuu adores her.