Suzune Horikita/Relationships

Manabu Horikita
Manabu is her older brother as well as the student council president. Suzune is shown to admire and wants to prove herself in his eyes but because of her status as student in Class D, she is seen as nothing more than an embarrassment to him. Despite her respect for him, she holds some resentment towards him as she got irritated when Ayanokōji asked if they were related but Suzune's glare prevented him from broaching the subject. However, this also could be because she doesn't want to answer any personal questions regarding her life and may not resent her brother.

She goes to talk with him and he is distant towards her due to her position in the lowest class while she tries to nervously talk to him which is contrast to her composed and serious behavior. After she says its not her fault for being placed in Class D and she will reach Class A, he angrily grabs her and lists all the shame she has brought to his and their family's name. He then demands for her to leave the school while she is showing scared, marking the first time she showed fear. She tries to state her plan to ascend but he did not accept this excuse and tried to assault her until Kiyotaka intervened.

After a brief skirmish, Manabu voiced his surprise that she made a friend and derided her words after she said that it was not the case before he left his shaken sister with advice to move up.

She is seen nervous at his presence at the hearing for Ken Sudō and is unable to speak until Ayanokōji tickles her and she regains her resolve. Despite her strong speech and determination in the case, Manabu is not impressed and continues to not expect anything more from her.

It is shown that in spite of their turbulent relationship that Suzune keeps a portrait of herself and her brother in her room, showing at one point they were close. During the summer outing, though they didn't interact personally, Manabu bore witness to his sister's speech of how its possible for Class D to reach Class A. After the speech, his only reaction was a glare at his sister who responded in the same way, its unknown what he thinks of her now.

Kiyotaka Ayanokōji
Suzune is the first person that Kiyotaka interacts with when entering the school. He first caught notice of her when they were on the bus after the witnessed Kikyō Kushida trying to persuade Rokusuke Kōenji to move from his seat to no avail.

They formally meet when she inquires as to why he was looking at her as he stated he saw a similarity between them in the bus incident. She tells him not to compare them as she choose not to involve herself in such trivial manner as he notes she is worse than him. They are later shocked to learned they are classmates which Suzune states was a bad coincidence after they seated next to each other.

After a few days in class, they appear to get along well since they are both loners who barely associate with their classmates. It was noted by Kikyō Kushida that Kiyotaka is the only person in the class that Suzune interacts with at all. Indeed, they appear quite close as when he notices her about to be assaulted by her brother Manabu Horikita, he quickly intervenes. When she cries out to him to stop, he notes on the sincerity in her voice which he never saw in her while she watches in awe at him nimbly avoiding her brother's attack. After her brother hints that Kiyotaka is more than he appears to be, she herself begins to inquire about him only to receive vague answers.

She later asked him about his close association with Kushida, noting he seemed more inclined to help her but is hesitant with her leaving him unable to answer.

During the hearing for Sudō, when she is unable to speak out, fearing from her brother's presence, Kiyotaka tickles her which brings her back to her senses and she is able to give her speech without problems.

She later has him aid her in her in goal to save Ken Sudō and they are successful in forcing Class C to withdraw their complaint with both using impressive tactics to do so. Afterwards she goes to talk with Sae Chabashira, who says there is more to Kiyotaka that meets the eye and the talk causes Suzune to question Kiyotaka and his past or whether she can trust him.

Suzune meets him in the hall and the two would walk together in the rain where she accuses him of manipulating her so that she would force Class C to withdraw their complaint. This leads her question him about his past and motives since he promise to help her reach Class A as he answers that was because she forced him to and tries to leave. She stops him and questions him even more about himself if he expects her to trust him.

When he tries to answer by stating he is just looking out for a friend, she disregards this pushing him to reveal his history. He sternly tells her that he will help her reach her goal but tells her to not inquire about his history, marking the first time he ever got serious with her.

Despite this little turbulence, they are shown to still be on good terms as Kiyotaka invited her to the pool (which she refused at first) where he asked her to aid him in stopping the boys of their class from peeping on the girls during the summer break. When some of the girls discussed their associations with Kiyotaka, Kikyō had told Suzune to be careful as she voices that she has no interest in whoever Kiyotaka befriended. Kiyotaka also trying to get her to loosen up by having her play with the students though she also wondered why he hid his capabilities. Later on, she helped him stopping the other boys' plans of peeping by giving a speech to distract everyone. He thanks and tries again to get her to shake off her strict nature by pushing her in the pool which causes her to do the same to him but this act somewhat works as gets her to play with the other students.

Later that night, Kiyotaka sends Suzune an email which is a picture of her with the other students as she remarks on how she get along fine without others but smiles at the gesture.

Kikyō Kushida
Because of her goal to be friends with everyone, Kikyō has tried to extend this to Suzune but fails in the end due to the latter's disinterest in friendship. Kikyō once tried to enlist Ayanokōji since he was the only person that Suzune spoke to everyday. Kikyō explained her plan was to meet with Suzune and be friends though Suzune saw right through it and rejected the offer once again.

Unknown to Suzune, Kikyō harbors great contempt for her cruel and antisocial ways as shown in Episode 3 where Ayanokōji finds her throwing a tantrum and cursing Suzune's name. However, she appears to want to hide this revelation from others as shown when she threatened Ayanokōji to keep quiet about the incident.

It appears that Suzune is somewhat aware of Kikyō's contempt for her, as she reflected on the look Kikyō gave her and wondered why she would associate with her if she possesses dislike for her. Despite that they are seen talking civilly, as they discussed the friendships that Ayanokōji has made with several girls. They are later seen playing in the pool splashing each other after Ayanokōji and Suzune threw one another in the pool.

Ken Sudō
They have a rocky standing due to Suzune's habit of speaking her mind and not being afraid to hurt people's feelings with blunt words which only serves to provoke Sudō's quick violent temper. In Episode 2, she implored Kiyotaka to convince Sudō to join her study group but he refuses and goes to basketball practice. Suzune was not done with him as she personally goes down there and makes him think about his athletic career and how it would be at stake if he were to be expelled which persuaded him to go study. However, Suzune's blunt personality got the better of him and he voiced that he didn't join just to be insulted but she wasn't bothered. When Kikyō gave everyone old test exams to help everyone, they all got passing scores except Sudō. In Episode 3, because of his failure, Sudō was nearly expelled from the school but this action was stopped when unknown to Sudō, Suzune and Kiyotaka sacrificed some of their points to stop it which the teacher accepted. The two later attended at a celebration party at Kiyotaka's room which was attended by several other classmates as well. When Kikyō hinted that Kiyotaka helped Sudō out, the latter and the others stop their activities and looked to see if this was true but he casts the credit to Suzune. A startled Suzune was barely able to explain to a curious Sudō that she did it for her own benefit.

In Episode 5, she helps him in a case to prove his innocence after he is accused of fighting three students. Initially, Suzune struggled to say anything (due to her brother's presence) but with help of Kiyotaka she was able to speak on Sudō's behalf. She began her speech with criticism of his character which angered him at first but she stated he was not at fault for this incident, to his shock. Sudō watched as Suzune used her charismatic words to bring evidence that he was not at fault first by pointing out holes in Class C's story and by bringing in Airi Sakura who had pictures of the incident. When those representing Class C protested, Suzune stated she would not accept any compromises and wanted to dismiss the accusations towards Sudō who sat staring in admiration of her abilities.

In Episode 6, when Class C withdrew their complaint against him Sudō informed Kiyotaka of this (not knowing he aided in this act). Kiyotaka congratulated him on this and when the relieved Sudō wondered Suzune did something to help him, Kiyotaka again gave her the credit. After the brief celebration, Sudō called Suzune amazing for her actions before he left for practice as Kiyotaka looked on.

They hung out with another during summer break and after Kiyotaka threw Suzune in the pool to get her to have fun. Sudō and the others thinking they were playing a game, joined in and started splashing Suzune.

In Episode 8, it is hinted that despite their previous interactions, Sudō might have developed romantic feelings for her due to his excitement after he was told her first name, calling it cute, repeatedly.

Sae Chabashira
Is her teacher, they didn't interact very much until Suzune offered to help Ayanokōji to pay for stopping Sudō's expulsion. Following Sudō's fight with Class C, Suzune later went to talk with her teacher after she called her up. Chabashira had inquired as to how Suzune had got the other class to withdraw their statement but was given no answer so the teacher instead told her to understand Ayanokōji better as she needed to know the "defective" traits of those around her and his was that he hides his amazing talents. Chabashira's words later caused Suzune to have a talk with Ayanokōji about his past and why he chooses not to elaborate on himself.

Honami Ichinose
They barely had any interaction but in Episode 7 they hung out at the pool during summer break. During changing, Suzune questioned Ichinose over her chest size as the latter was somewhat embarrassed on answering. Suzune also agreed with Kikyō's comment of Ichinose being close to Kiyotaka as the latter smiled. Like with others, Suzune appears to have studied Ichinose's personality and behavior which described her as intelligent, talented, and kind which meant she recognized her capabilities.

Kakeru Ryūen
No direct interaction had been made in episode 6, though Suzune played a role in stopping his plans of getting Ken Sudō expelled. In Episode 7, he spots her giving a speech to everyone at the pool recalling her as the girl who foiled his plans.

They formally met on the school's cruise ship in Episode 8, Kakeru found Suzune, sitting at the bar, and addressed her by first name, giving hints that he is aware of what she did to get the complaint withdrawn. Suzune, who seemed to be very disgusted by his presence, found his arrogant attitude off-putting and told him to keep away from her but he responded by taking a picture of both her and Kiyotaka Ayanokōji, after claiming to be a fan of her and stating he had already made plans to take care of her personally, he tells her to look forward to it.