it difficult to differentiate whether people (particularly guys) like her for herself or her beauty. Itsuki Akiba is loud, reckless and shameless, a complete opposite of Iori, including her affinity towards wearing boyish clothing and having a short haircut. Itsuki and Ichitaka had been friends since grade school, with Itsuki (although a year younger) often being an emotional coach to Ichitaka, particularly regarding girls. The two seemed to become closer than friends in their young life, a relationship that was suddenly interrupted when Itsuki moved away to America four years before the series begins. Just as abruptly, Itsuki returns to Ichitaka's life soon after the series starts, now a fully grown young lady, but still with real feelings for Ichitaka. Halfway through the series, she goes back to America to work with a world-renowned sculptor and is further unseen. After she is gone, she seems to occasionally appear in Ichitaka's mind to scold him during his bouts of self-pity, though these manifestations are really just Ichitaka's subconscious trying to tell him something important. Izumi Isozaki is two years younger than the other characters and is very much like Itsuki Akiba. However, she is not as shy in expressing her emotions, especially her love for Ichitaka Seto. In fact, she announces her love to almost everyone she knows. She is also a fair bit more daring and is quite superstitious when it comes to love. She constantly tails Seto, and on more than one occasion, has tried to seduce Seto to sleep with her in order to prove her love. Izumi persists in attempting to obtain Seto's love and says that she will try whatever it takes to get him to be with her. She is introduced halfway through the manga, where she meets Seto on the beach during their summer vacation, and after that, she discovers that they go to the same school. She falls for Seto after he defends her from her overly-aggressive boyfriend, and tricks him into going on dates throughout the series. She is convinced that he is her soulmate, and is determined for him to become her boyfriend. Although her name does not begin with an "I", the "Ai" from "Aiko" represents an "i" sound in Japanese, indirectly marking her as an "i." She is quite ditzy, scatterbrained, and is prone to losing or misplacing her possessions, but is also very nice, kind, and unbelievably cheerful,