Maya Satō

Appearance
Maya is a teenage girl of average height with upper-back length brown hair that has bangs hanging on the left side, and blue eyes. She is considered attractive by her male peers who expressed jealousy towards her association with Kiyotaka.

She opted for a laid back, carefree appearance by wearing a thin orange cardigan with the sleeves rolled up, with a loose tie around her neck.

During swimming class, she wore a swimsuit. In the survival test, she wore a tracksuit.

Personality
The depths of Maya's character haven't been fully explored, but she appears to be a friendly and cooperative person as she was willing to participate in the class introduction. She is considered to be one of the Class leaders for the girls after Karuizawa due to her influence and popularity in Class D. Because of that, she takes great care of her image. For instance, only seeking Kei for advice as she did not want others to know she was a late-boomer on the topic of romance.

She apparently crushes on boys who impress her such as when she openly clung to the arm of Kiyotaka Ayanokōji after he showed off his athletic prowess and even flirted with him by calling him "handsome and cool" as well as asking if he has a girlfriend. At first she only came to him because he could run fast and that if Kei didn’t had Hirata, she would have gone for him. However, she began to foster authentic romantic feelings for him after getting to know him better. She told Kei that she never had a boyfriend or a date before and thus, sought her out for advice and assistance. She made the effort to do up her hair and don a fragrance, hoping that it would increase the chance of Kiyotaka accepting her.

Throughout her first date, she was extremely nervous but thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with her crush. She was crestfallen as Kiyotaka didn’t seem to be enjoying their date together but brightened up after he said that he doesn’t smile at all and that he did enjoy their time together even if he doesn’t show it. She also prepared a gift for him beforehand but kept it after he rejected her. She thanked him for the fun day and he felt terrible for rejecting her but knew that it was for the best after evaluating her worth to him.

She confessed to Kiyotaka after the double date during Christmas, but was rejected and ran away crying. They promised each other that they will hang out again in the future and wants to see each other again but Sato couldn’t hold her feelings and excused herself first as she didn’t want him to see her in a pathetic state. She was hinted to have cried an innumerable amount of times behind closed doors after being rejected as the next time we saw her, she was able to frankly tell her friends she was rejected without being choked up. Her friends summarised that this could only had happened if she had come to terms with the rejection showing an immense amount of willpower to move on. That said, she still harbours feelings for Kiyotaka and has admitted that she finds him way cooler and hotter than Hirata not holding against Kei for liking the same person. She still feels conflicted that her best friend was in a relationship with her crush but decided to uphold their secret and support them in whatever way she can.

After a while, she became more accepting and even rekindled her best-friend relationship with Kei. However, she made it clear to her that she is still very much in love with Kiyotaka and will take him for herself if Kei ever chooses to break up with him and go for another male. She is happy to hear their relationship progression and even teases Kei often on their development. She also knows when to cut back on her quips. On one occasion, Kei was upset about her earlier comments, she soon apologised and recognised that Kei's feelings were authentic and that she has no intention of cheating on him.

Background
During elementary school, Maya was very earnest and had good grades, but since she was promoted to middle school, she had been prioritizing fun over studies with her friends. During the first year and second year of middle school, she was absent in the majority of the classes. Although she changed during the third year of middle school, her current academic skills are at a standstill.

Plot
Maya is normally shown in the classroom with the rest of her classmates.

In the Paper Shuffle special exam, Maya was paired with Kiyotaka Ayanokōji, whom she had taken a liking to. She had approached him earlier and exchanged mobile numbers with him. She even flirted with him during the study session in the library when they were studying for the special exam. When she met him at Keyaki Mall, where they were going for the same movie, she had clung to his arm causing the by-standing Airi Sakura, to stifle a scream.

In Volume 7, she had asked Kiyotaka Ayanokōji if he was fine with going out at the time, but he said that he was hanging out with the Ayanokōji Group. Feeling bad to see her disappointed, he asked her if she'd be fine with going out in the winter holidays. Hearing him, Maya was ecstatic and happily agreed. In Volume 7.5, Maya asks for Kei Karuizawa's help to plan her "date" with Kiyotaka Ayanokōji. Kei was surprised and suggested other boys to her, but she refused, and said that she only liked Kiyotaka. She told her plan to Kei and made some changes according to her suggestions. She then later asked Kei if they could make it a "double-date", by including her and Yōsuke Hirata in the plan. Eventually, Kei agreed and decided to schedule the double date on December 25. On the 25th, Maya met Kiyotaka at the meeting place, but noticing that Hirata and Kei hadn't yet arrived, she stalled for some time by pretending to look for her phone. After Kei's arrival, they moved on with their date and went to watch a movie. While they were going towards the movie theatre, Maya and Kiyotaka talked about various things, like music, anime, clubs and pets. She got very tensed when Kei asked him about Suzune Horikita, but calmed down when he replied that there was nothing between them. Under the onslaught of Kei's questions, Kiyotaka was saved by Hirata when the latter clarified that Kiyotaka had probably not found the person he really liked yet. The double date was then interrupted by Miyabi Nagumo, who took Kiyotaka away with him to talk. After the movie, Kei and Maya again start asking Kiyotaka questions about his personal liking about girls, and he is again saved by Hirata who follows up with Kiyotaka's statement. After lunch the group breaks up and Maya and Kiyotaka start going back to the dorms together. Maya sadly said that she knew Kiyotaka wasn't able to enjoy the day, as he hadn't even laughed or smiled once on their date, and asked if he didn't like her because she had earlier made fun of Suzune and bullied her, but he replied that that was not the matter. Maya then confessed to him and asked him to go out with her, but Kiyotaka rejected her feelings, telling her that he would have answered the same way to any girl, and that it was a problem with his own feelings. Hearing him reject her feelings, Maya ran away crying.

In the Second Year, it was revealed that Kei hasn’t been in contact with Maya for weeks which was peculiar. Maya then confronted Kei and asks her if she was going out with Kiyotaka and that she suspected her before she said anything. She told her that she already knew the truth but needed to hear it straight from her mouth and that if she lied, she couldn’t treat her as a friend any longer. Kei, who initially wanted to reject it, felt that it would only worsen things and admitted that she was. This angered Maya, who slapped Kei but immediately apologized. She felt betrayed as Kei was the only one she trusted enough to reveal her crush and asked for help when confessing to Kiyotaka. She also felt used as Kei collected plenty of intel behind her back while she was on her date. Feeling guilty, Kei told her that she could slap her other cheek as well, but Maya refused saying she wasn’t courageous enough to do it again. They then shared a hug and later went out for tea to rekindle their old friendship.

Academic Abilities
Maya has below average academic abilities as was apparent during the Paper Shuffle special exam. Her physical abilities are of the lower echelon as well.

However, she is one of more popular girls in her class. Although not to the tier of Kei, many observers were astonished to see someone like her talk to and publicly flirt with the 'uninteresting' Kiyotaka. She is also out-going and not afraid to take risks such as confessing to Kiyotaka on their first date.

Name Etymology

 * The name Maya consists of kanjis that mean "hemp" (麻) (ma) and "question mark" (耶) (ya).
 * Maya's surname Satō consists of kanjis that mean "help, aid" (佐) (sa) and "wisteria" (藤) (tō).

Trivia

 * Since D-Class is for those with defective traits, Maya's defect are her frequent absences in middle school.
 * Maya wants to become a fashion designer after high school.
 * For the 2nd Year arc, When asked about her aspirations for the next year, she answered  'To search for a new love. Is what I want to say but... that's on hold for now. I'm an idiot so I have to study more. That's what I think.'