Sakurako Busujima

{{char}} (毒島 桜子 Busujima Sakurako? ) is a supporting character of the manga series Grand Blue. She is a student at Oumi Women’s University and the coworker of Iori Kitahara and Naomi Otoya. Sakurako is a pretty girl with long fuchsia hair that is tied to a side bun on the left side, fuchsia eyes with long eyelashes, and an attractive figure. Her usual clothing is quite fashionable. She wears a typical waitress outfit at work. Sakurako considers herself a hard worker when it comes to love. She always tries her best to stay trendy and amiable in front of men whom she has a crush on. She is attracted by pretty guys such as Kōhei and Naomi. Her usual friends she hangs out with to gossip are Natsumi and Yuki. She has a hard time being honest of her feelings. Not even in front of her friends and tell them that she felt depressed after getting rejected by Naomi; she didn't want Iori to see her cry and just leaned her head on his back instead when he tried to cheer her up with a beer. Sakurako often behaves quite politely in front of strangers and acquaintances. However, she can become sadistic and snarky to people that get on her bad side. Iori is her favorite target for bullying. She dislikes her last name, as ‘Busu’ (pronounced ‘bùs’), which means ‘ugly’. Sakurako first met Iori at Oumi Women’s University Festival. Sakurako and her friends liked Kohei, so Iori and his friends invited them to drinks together, promising to bring Kohei along. But Kohei eventually ditched, as he was an otaku and he was determined to see his idol at her concert. Their first encounter ended up bitterly, as Iori dumped a glass of beer on her head after having enough of her derision for Kōhei’s hobbies. She meets Iori again as co-workers in a cafe, working as water and waitress. Then the two start a series of mutual bullying, where Iori is often on the receiving end. Their relationship at work is like that of master and slave. She has him act as her footrest or forcing him to balance a large stack of dishes. She is initially uneasy around the other women at the diving shop Grand Blue, since most are way more stacked than her with larger breasts, especially Azusa and Nanaka. Iori worked at the diving shop. Despite everything, she did enjoy her time diving with Iori and the others. After confessing her love to Naomi and getting rejected, Iori cheered her up. It is hinted that she has developed romantic feelings for Iori since then. Normally she is just interested in hot guys, but Iori was kind and considerate. She likes the way he treats people who are honest about their feelings. Sakurako heard rumors that Iori won the lottery and took his friends to Okinawa, so she teamed up with Iori's scumbag friends to track him down. She tricks his friends, who are determined to stop him from getting laid, and ditches them to find Iori on her own. She kissed Iori in front of Chisa and Aina during their second trip to Okinawa Island. She tries to seduce Iori so she can mooch off him. When he gets suspicious, she easily distracts him with revealing bikinis, promises of love hotels, and even a preview grope. Aina gets flustered and jealous, as she also likes Iori. Iori's flight home gets delayed, so Sakurako and Iori get to go shopping together. After going through the airport and getting home, they struggle to find a place for dinner since everything closed. So they have beer by the ocean. Iori finally figures out why Sakurako had been so clingy, smugly grinning as he asks her how she knew he won the lottery. But she finds out he had only won 300k yen, not millions. She is disappointed and exasperated, but she still likes him. She confessed her love to Iori after spending the day with him. She also interrupts his response as she does not want to be rejected by the likes or someone like Iori. Sakurako then declares she keep trying for Iori until either he says yes or she falls for another guy. But she warns him that she can get pretty aggressive. In Chapter 89 she already knew what Iori's answer will be so she asked him to be his boyfriend for a minute, then dumps him. This was her way of avoiding rejection and reject him instead. Her only regret was that she hadn't found him sooner, so she could have gotten to him first. This filled with her with great sadness. Afterwards she is back to exploring again but is shown to she get annoyed whenever she hears Iori's involvement to an opposite sex such as Chisa Kotegawa or Aina Yoshiwara. This suggests that she has not totally moved on from him.