Honami Ichinose/Relationships

Honami is a sweet girl who is friends with many students, including those of other classes. Rivalling and even eclipsing the level of popularity of Kikyō Kushida, even Mio Ibuki has stated that she is indisputably the most popular student in the school. It can be said that her kindness and beauty was what allowed Honami to earn her immense positive reputation throughout the school. For this reason, she is greatly admired by all sorts of students from all the different years and classes in the school. Particularly, Honami with her charm and charisma was respected enough to the extent that she had even caught the attention of famous upperclassmen Miyabi Nagumo, who granted her membership to the Student Council. According to Nazuna Asahina, even among the third-years, nobody has anything bad or negative to say about her. For this reason, Honami was described by Haruka Hasebe to be too perfect at everything such as being able to make friends with nearly almost anyone, thinking the leader of Class 1-B can't be a human being without having at least a couple faults to her flawless, benevolent character.

So far, these are the known developed relationships she has made over the course of the series:

Family
Much remains unknown about Honami's family, though it is revealed Honami hails from a single-parent household without a father, living with both her mother and her little sister who is two years younger than her.

Other A-Class students
Honami's first interaction with Class 1-A students was when they were on the Cruise Ship Special Test. Being in the same Rabbit group as her, she became acquainted with some of them as fellow group members. Despite trying to better understand and know them, Honami was unable to establish a sense of trust or friendship with any of them due to their difference in class values and policies. Honami understood that befriending them with her kind words wouldn’t be enough to open their hearts to her but inadvertently did the opposite, as they doubted the sincerity of her words and treated what she told them with immense suspicion due to the threat she poses. When Kōji Machida revealed the reason as to why they were not participating and joining the Rabbit group discussion, Honami received the silent treatment from the Class 1-A members who refused to cooperate in that meeting. As she is aware of Arisu's attack on her, Honami knows that the members of Class 1-A were the ones under their leader's order who secretly went around spreading malicious rumours about her. In spite of their deliberate vitriolic actions towards her in the past, she harbours no resentment towards them and even cooperated with them by making a pact between their classes.

Above all, it made Honami realise her mistake. She foolishly revealed her dark secret to an outsider of her class and failed to comprehend the repercussion of her naive actions, causing her class to suffer. Hence, she was actually thankful to them for teaching her a valuable lesson. In the Event Selection Exam, she wanted to choose Class 1-A as her opponent in the team competition, believing that this is the most effective way to overtake them but decided to back down for the sake of Kiyotaka who she owed a favour to after he helped her out during the previous special exam. After losing to Kakeru's class in that exam, Honami recognises that Class 1-A led by Arisu doesn't see either her or her classmates as a real threat to them when compared to the other two classes who were growing considerably stronger over time and at a much faster rate. Although she isn’t able to get along with some of the Class 1-A students like those from the Rabbit group in the Cruise Ship Special Test, Honami was still able to somewhat get along well and work fine alongside the rest of them such as their main fighting force like Masayoshi Hashimoto and Masumi Kamuro when they developed a temporary class alliance together.

Class-B
At the start of the series, Honami was the first student among the first-years to have successfully brought complete unity, trust, and collaboration between the students in her class without any signs of internal discords, unlike Classes 1-A, 1-C, and 1-D who couldn't match their unity at the time. From the beginning to the end of her first-year, Honami was able to successfully prevent all her fellow classmates from dropping out of school, having not lost any one of them in her Class 1-B by expulsion when compared to the leaders of the other three classes.

Chihiro Shiranami
Chihiro is a classmate and friend of Honami who unbeknownst to her had actually harbored romantic feelings for her. In Episode 4, Chihiro hugged Honami after the class scored well on their recent quiz and was happy to be in the same class as Honami, who was just as happy in return, though for a different reason. Chihiro later wrote a love letter to confess her feelings to Honami but the latter did not reciprocate those feelings and had no idea of how to handle it without hurting her. Honami soon turned to Kiyotaka for help but he refused her strategy of pretending to be her boyfriend, instead advising her to be open about her real feelings towards Chihiro and tell the truth.

When Chihiro saw Honami with Kiyotaka, she became jealous and quickly teared up. Honami quickly apologised for being inconsiderate. Chihiro nearly cried after Honami struggled to answer the question about her relationship with Kiyotaka but was relieved to hear from Kiyotaka that they were simply just friends as he left them to talk it out. Honami followed Kiyotaka's advice and laid bare her true feelings as she told Chihiro she wasn't interested in her but hoped they can still continue on as friends, leaving a heartbroken Chihiro running away. Despite this event, Honami still hoped they can really go back to normal after the event, as unrealistic as it sounds. In the anime, it is unknown if they ever patched up their relationship or whether they still associate with each other.

During the middle of their summer break, the two hung out with each other at the pool implying that they are still on good terms even though weren’t seen directly interacting with one another.

Ryūji Kanzaki
Not much is known about their relationship, but she appears to get along well with Ryūji as they are both in the same class. She treats Ryūji as her right-hand man in their class, letting him play the role of a supportive assistant for her. Additionally, she seems to hold a great deal of trust in him and was ready to hear out his plan for their class and supported his analysis of what the other opposing classes may be up to. In Episode 4, Ryūji didn't mind helping Honami and Kiyotaka Ayanokōji gather evidence for Ken Sudō's case.

On that note, Honami appears to respect him as she agreed with his theory about Ken possibly being set for his expulsion. During the survival test, they tried to do some reconnaissance on who the Class C leader may be but found the camp deserted. After the survival test, they discussed the test results and shared a laugh on the outcome of the test. She then questioned him on what they were told about the points and how they should decide on what to do with them.

Other Classmates
Besides being their class representative, Honami's outgoing and engaging personality makes her greatly adored by her classmates which also extends to people from other grades, making her a prize jewel in their eyes. They are also incredibly proud of her academics, physical and student council achievements, perceiving her as a paragon student. Honami's classmates were seen hugging and thanking her for tutoring them after they achieved good grades on a test. Everyone in Class B has become important friends and comrades to her that she did not feel bothered at all by the school's placement of her in this class, despite her skillsets being more than suited for Class A. After interacting with them, she came to realise that the bonds they shared and memories cultivated were irreplaceable.

When paired with students outside her class during an exam, Honami was also quick to become friends with people she never interacted with before after talking to them once for the first time. She convinced her friends to get along well with whoever is a part of their group, resolving disputes and arguments between different sides. If a student who is not from her class acts violently in the middle of lunchtime while at the library where she is studying with her classmates and friends, she is more than ready to call out the troublemakers and scold them for their rude manners.

For that reason, Honami would speak on the behalf of her classmates who can't concentrate on their studies properly not as long as they're around to interrupt her study group session. More so, she was willing to act as a bridge between her classmates and the new first-year students so that they can become friends and partners during an exam by establishing friendship with them. In spite of this, Honami's classmates like Sō Shibata believes she should have been a little more wary of their class rival and enemy, such as Arisu who was not from their class yet she still went and consulted with the latter in private anyway regardless of their concerns.

Later on, in the following second-year of her life in high school, Honami begun to slowly put the well-being and trust of her classmates second to Kiyotaka who she admits to be her main priority and focus of protecting above them more than ever before after recognizing and realizing her romantic feelings for him. In spite of this, Honami has on many occasion hidden the truth of clandestine deals her classmates like Tetsuya about the alliance she had with Class 1-D and possibly dating Miyabi Nagumo to avoid the chances of getting one of their classmates expelled.

Anything she says goes as they have an indefatigable trust in her and faith that she will achieve great things for them. With the amalgamation of many responsibilities and this heavy pressure, she has crumbled many times unbeknownst to her classmates and had to be saved by Kiyotaka.

She is the main spokesperson and protector of her class and thus, many difficult situations were forced upon her and her alone. There isn’t anyone in the class she can turn towards as a deputy, someone to vent to or seek advice from, which made her felt obligated to take on all the burdens of the class. No one in class had ever asked her true feelings nor sought to understand the real Honami. They were afraid to ask her as well, as they feared she may despise them. Kiyotaka understood that she was sending many signals, silently pleading and begging for help but no one heard or answered her calls. They only offered kind words that eventually made things worse, as they never understood her true personality, causing him to do it for them.

Kakeru Ryūen
Honami appears to be familiar with him and his inimical ways as shown when she quickly stopped him and his henchman from provoking Ken Sudō. Although he tried to cover up his intentions, she saw right through them and reprimanded them for their actions. They eventually listened to her threat and left Sudō alone. This displays a level of respect accorded to a fellow class leader as neither Kakeru nor his men tried to go against her order and did as they were told.

She recognizes him as a powerful adversary and a rival to her class. When it comes to the matter involving Kakeru and his involvement in aggressively initiating class conflicts during their first-year, she cautioned both Kiyotaka and Suzune to be careful around him, warning Class 1-D of the danger he may pose to their classmates. Honami felt grim and somber after experiencing firsthand how Kakeru mercilessly hurt her classmates using underhanded tactics and even other students outside her class if it meant obtaining the position of Class A. She picked up on various rumors that he's making various moves behind the scenes. Soon after their enrolment, she could not forget the fact that he brought a dangerous bomb over to Class 1-B by initiating conflict with them.

Other C-Class students
She views those that blindly follow Kakeru as troublemakers who enjoys starting fights and picking on others for nefarious purposes. She was more than ready to go out of her way to reprimand them, scolding them for the numerous problems they were causing in front of people around them. She considers some students in Kakeru's class to be problem children in and of itself. Since Kakeru's the one who lead them, she felt that trying to get along with his classmates was a rather impractical task.

Nonetheless, she was still willing to hear out his classmates like Nishiki who came to the former for assistance in pairing up with one of her own fellow classmates. When pairing up with a majority of C-Class girls in a group, Honami did her best to resolve any stormy and dramatic events repeatedly, volunteering herself to be the one and only one among her classmates to work with them. She understands that not all students were as wicked as Kakeru, and using her good social skills, she was able to give and receive a good impression of many of Class C students.

Kiyotaka Ayanokōji
Kiyotaka and Honami first met when she was seen walking through the school store after Kikyō greeted her and stated her goal of being friends with everyone no matter their class. While they caught a glimpse of another, there was no attempt of starting an interaction between the two. He later watched her stop Ken Sudō from getting into a fight with some students of Class 1-C. While leaving to return to her classmates' side once the conflict was resolved, Honami took notice of Kiyotaka's presence who was quietly observing her from a distance as she heads back. Although she didn't picked up on his name immediately, she does remembers coming across him in front of the staff room with their two teachers Chie and Sae.

In Episode 4, she meets and greets him formally where she asks Kikyō if she was dating Kiyotaka, but was told that it wasn't the case. She later asked to see him and begged him for support by asking him to pretend to be her boyfriend after one of her friends gave her a love letter. This showed that even though they've just met not too long ago, Honami trusted Kiyotaka to an extent as she could have chosen anyone besides him for the task. Later on, she and Kiyotaka still ended up choosing to act the fake boyfriend and girlfriend role out anyways as a way to confront Airi Sakura's stalker firsthand and put a stop to him without the both of them looking out of place at the scene. Though Kiyotaka refused at first, she continued to beg for his help as she was unsure of how to properly answer the confession, but her admirer showed up and saw them together. When asked by Chihiro what they were, Honami tried to nervously "confirm" that they were a couple but Kiyotaka answered first stating he and Honami were simply friends, to her surprise. He left telling her to talk it out with her admirer after explaining how hard it was to gather the courage to confess to someone. She was amazed by his wisdom and followed his advice of being honest to Chihiro.

This event proved he has no problem associating with her and is willing to help out but it is unknown if he genuinely considers her to be a friend or if it was simply a ruse to cover for her.

After Honami had turned down Chihiro, she met up with him and thanked Kiyotaka for helping her as she apologized for dragging him into her mess but he was fine with it as Honami smiled on and stated she owed him a favor for his help. She acted on her word as she would later help him in proving the innocence of Ken Sudō. Kiyotaka was confused by her actions but she assured him that she wasn't up to something, as she slyly winked at him and reminded him that she had owed him a favor. This gained attention from Kikyō and the other students, who wondered exactly why Honami owed Kiyotaka. She helped him get evidence for the fight Sudō was in and had no problem in letting him borrow her phone after he asked for it, though she quickly reclaimed it after it looked like he saw how many points she had but continued to offer aid.

In Episode 6, Kiyotaka asked Honami if he can borrow private points from her to get surveillance/security cameras for Class 1-D's strategy in trapping and fooling Kakeru's lackeys from Class 1-C, promising to pay her back later after that, which she accepted. After completing his task, he met up with her and they talked, as it appeared that she has noticed his hidden intelligence as she wondered why he's in D-Class with his cunning plan. He gave her a vague answer as she smiled in response to the answer, probably out of respect for his privacy. When the Cruise Ship Special Test was still going on back then, there happens to be a time where Kiyotaka once regarded both Honami and Suzune as his usual partners in crime who he normally worked together with. This is seemingly the case in multiple instances when they happened to be cooperating to clear up the matter involved, including the Ken Sudō incident. As for the incident of the stalker attempting to sexually harass Airi Sakura, Honami acted as a helper who was willing to lend a helping hand to Kiyotaka, assisting him with bringing in security to take the culprit away from Airi. This event would suggest the two are really friends as she was open-minded enough on the idea of wanting to aid him though the former had no obligation to do so.

During the middle of summer break, they hung out at the pool with some of their classmates. There was one instance where she went out of a whim to have him play with her, teasingly throwing water at Kiyotaka multiple times to make the latter playfully resist and fight back against Honami's action. Honami would tease Airi for her close relationship and obvious romantic affections towards Kiyotaka after she said she came after he invited her. When Kikyo mentioned Honami's own close relationship with him, she is seen smiling, showing she has no problem with people mentioning their association.

In the anime, while they don't interact on the cruise, her teacher Chie made a list of students that Class 1-B should be watching out for and how Kiyotaka was no exception despite them being friends and allies between their two classes. There was a certain student that Chie seemingly forgot, to which Honami immediately asked if she was referring to Kiyotaka, which her teacher confirmed and asked her student to be wary of. Listening to her teacher's words, this further proved how Honami sees that there is more to Kiyotaka's capabilities than he lets on and she is curious as to why he hides it from them.

During the survival test, they met up and she freely allowed him to scout her camp after he and Suzune came to observe it. They have another encounter at Class 1-C's deserted camp when Kiyotaka and Airi meet them as both Honami and him tend to exchange information with each other whenever the two meet up again. For instance, he asked Honami and Ryūji about Kōhei Katsuragi and Arisu Sakayanagi with her giving as much information as she could about the two leaders of Class 1-A. While during other exams like the Cruise Ship Special Test and Sports Festival, Honami thinks about Kiyotaka and the extent of his true abilities, having second thoughts regarding his involvement in the class competitions and conflicts. In these two exams aforementioned, she can't help but feel the need to pay very close attention to him silently, being on the lookout of what else he has to show that can add to her own evaluation towards him, believing there was more to Kiyotaka than meets the eye.

Due to his monologue at the end of the anime, it is unknown what he actually thinks of her, however, it can be seen that he seems to value their association, as he chose not to jeopardize their classes alliance when identifying class leaders for the end of the survival test.

Kikyō Kushida
In the anime, she is shown to be on good terms with Kikyō as they greeted each other with a wave sometime after school first started. When questioned about their interactions by Kiyotaka, Kikyō responded by stating she was simply trying to be friends with everyone.

In Episode 4, she greeted Kikyō and inquired if she was dating Kiyotaka but was told it was not the case. She helped Kikyō and her friends in proving Ken's innocence, with Kikyō thanking her for the assistance. Kikyō was very curious to know exactly what Honami owed Kiyotaka after she stated she had a debt to him.

They hung out at the pool for summer break, when Honami teased Airi's relationship and romantic feelings towards Kiyotaka, Kikyō mentioned Honami's relationship with him as well, which resulted in her smiling.

Suzune Horikita
Honami was initially viewed as being suspicious by Suzune for trying to lend a hand to their investigation on the Ken incident. Suzune would show her hostility towards Honami much to the girl's bafflement of having been unjustly viewed in a negative light. It was to the point where Honami was not even able to give her contact number to Suzune temporarily for the time being as the latter doesn't want it or look to share her own with the former. She expresses the fact that there was no ill intention behind helping an innocent victim in need, believing her class has every right to know besides Class 1-D since they too were a victim of Class 1-C's antics. Honami wouldn't have been able to easily get Suzune to cooperate alongside her on the Ken incident if not for Kiyotaka playing the middleman in their talk to help establish relations with her. In the anime, they barely had any interaction until Episode 7, where they hung out at the pool during summer break.

When changing, Suzune questioned Honami over the growth of her chest size as the latter was somewhat embarrassed on answering and gave a hesitant answer before inquiring as Suzune shrugs it off. In the light novels, Honami tries to strike a girl talk with Suzune but was aggressively push away from her, leaving her no other choice but to turn to someone else like Airi and Kikyō for dialogue unlike her. When Honami was going to the elevator with Kikyō, Airi, Suzune and Kiyotaka, she didn't give up on trying to befriend the girl. Honami couldn't leave Suzune by herself so willingly without her own say in the matter, arguing that she needs to experience a little fun in her youth some more with the people around them who're going out of their way to invite her on vacation. At this point, Suzune slowly opened herself up to Honami, seeing how kind-hearted and persistent she is with becoming her friend and refusing to leave the girl alone. Honami was able to have her Class 1-B establish a friendly study group with Class 1-D led by Suzune, cooperating with each other to improve the academics of both classes.

It appears Honami recognized Suzune's intelligence because on the cruise her teacher included her in the list of people in the other classes that she should watch out for. As Suzune was an ally to her class, Honami was opened to sharing and explaining what strategy she used in the Deserted Island Special Test since there was no harm to her class in telling the girl. She felt Class 1-B was on unequal footing with Suzune and her class, wanting to make sure competition with them was as far as possible by revealing crucial information that the girl's teacher have not bother to inform the latter about unlike with the former's class. Honami thought that Suzune was extremely smart in coming up with the surveillance strategy while not knowing it was actually all originally part of Kiyotaka's plan. Through hearing out Suzune's method in full details, she felt that perhaps Class 1-B would've easily reach the position of Class 1-A in no time if they had someone amazing as her within the group.

Honami had faith in Suzune's judgement, showing no intention of betraying the girl's trust when Kakeru offered her a proposal to abandon their ally Class 1-D for Class 1-C. During the Deserted Island Special Test, Honami was kindly generous enough to lend supplies to Suzune and her classmates. Nonetheless, she still harbors doubt whether all the successes and achievements made by Class 1-D was purely the handiwork of Suzune alone, figuring that there might be somebody else like Kiyotaka besides her working in the shadows to help the class while hiding their tracks. Taking Kiyotaka's words into consideration when he was still the commander in the Event Selection Exam, she believes what he said thinking that all the decision-making and strategies being formulated are solely in the hands of Suzune who gets the final say of deciding on his class's choices. From that conversation, she came to understand how very reliable and trustworthy Suzune was to Kiyotaka who left everything to her with the arrangements.

On the other hand, Suzune recognises Honami Ichinose as the first person the former met in high school that was actually a purely good person with a kind-heart, among everyone else she knew, making her come to the realisation of how there was likely indeed someone genuine like her out there in the real world.

Airi Sakura
There hasn't been any first interaction between them, but in Episode 6 Honami and Kiyotaka finally came to Airi's aid when the female Class 1-D student was creepily pursued by a crazed stalker who tried to force himself on her. She was excited to learn of the fact that Airi is a famous idol on the web who goes by the name of Shizuku, enthusiastically desiring to shake hands with a famous person like her. As Honami never once dream of being an idol or anything similar in her lifetime, she can't help but be admire the reputation and appearance Airi holds on the web. Honami was deemed trustworthy enough by Airi that the latter had chosen to allow Kiyotaka permission to reveal her identity to the former. She sees Airi as a friend she befriended and introduced herself to after meeting her in an incident with am idol fan. At the same time, Honami finds Airi amazingly cute enough to the point that she was astonished to see how the latter left a different impression with and without glasses on her. She couldn't stand to stand idly by and watch Airi get harassed by her stalker for too long, expressing concern and the wish to save her as quickly as possible before the situation becomes any more worse than that.

During summer break, they hung out at the pool where Honami would notice and tease Airi in a playful manner for her close relationship and obvious romantic feelings towards Kiyotaka, much to Airi's embarrassment. She remains friendly with talking to Airi as the two caught sight of one another in the girls' locker room, getting recognized by Kikyō who couldn't easily befriend the girl or earn the shy girl's trust. Later, they met each other again in the survival test where Kiyotaka and Airi encountered Honami and Ryūji at C-Class' abandoned camp but there was no interaction between them. In a side story about their youth, she finds it interesting to see Airi surround herself with multiple classmates that she is not normally together with like Kiyotaka Ayanokōji, Kikyō Kushida and Suzune Horikita. Seeing Airi hanging around these three, Honami desires to join alongside them in their conversation and hear out what they were talking about before she came across them. Even though she doesn't know Airi well like her other classmates do since they're not in the same class together, Honami was still willing to offer the latter a helping hand anytime if she calls for it in the event that accidents like sexual harassment were to happen again.

Other D-Class students
Unlike most of the upper-class students, she doesn't share their views of looking down on Class 1-D and doesn't oppose to interacting or befriending students of D-Class. Honami is curious about what the issue is surrounding their class after seeing and hearing that Ken Sudō got into an argument and fight with Kakeru's lackeys. She was willing to cooperate with them in order to solve the Ken incident, believing an innocent victim getting accused by a lie is unjust and unfair to the lower class. She is even aware of many of them have potential to reach the upper class and makes it a necessity to list them, which shows she is interested in them. More so, she had established a class alliance with Class 1-D ever since the Deserted Island Special Test that span for almost an entire first-year of their freshman days. Through this cooperative relationship, Honami didn't need to view Class 1-D as an enemy to her classmates and their goal of reaching Class A. Feeling less worry about Kakeru's class as they are being dealt with by her ally, she and her classmates feel more at ease in focusing on combating Class 1-A to reach their goal. She doesn't take interest in wanting to betray or target Class 1-D for special exams except with other classes. Even if she didn't deliberately plan out her class's moves with Class 1-D, Honami was still willing to maintain a cooperative relationship between them regardless. However, the alliance came to an end when Suzune, the leader of Class 1-D decides to dissolve it, knowing that the class points they have are no longer a large difference between the two sides.

She was reluctant in wanting to end the alliance and wanted to continue it a little longer yet had no other choice left but to accept it due to Suzune's reasoning that one of the conditions for the cooperative relationship cannot be met anymore after the the results of the Event Selection Exam were revealed. Despite understanding that their two classes are not allies and but enemies from this point onward, Honami still can't help but view Kiyotaka to be the one and only person in his classroom as trustworthy moving forward, denying to regard him like an ally or an "enemy." In Honami's mind, out of everyone from that class, she involuntarily wishes he was assigned together in the same classroom as her rather than be apart. Once the second-year of her high school begins, Honami realized that members of Class 2-D overall are gaining incredible momentum that she can no longer overlook them anymore especially after her alliance with those students came to an end. Noticing that they've been rapidly growing in strength over the course of their first-year, Honami regards how some of them in terms of individual strength wouldn't likely lose to anyone in the other classes. Honami acknowledges the fact that she doesn't have any room left to spare when finally deciding to compete with them. When Arisu describes how potentially dangerous Class 2-D's lineup of people are like Rokusuke Kōenji who she don't have a lot of information on, Honami can feel the thick layer surrounding those students with unknown abilities she have yet to fully grasp or get the full picture of.

Chie Hoshinomiya
As her homeroom teacher, Honami respects her as such, though she does find her eccentric because of her display of drunkenness. On the other hand, Chie views Honami in an outstanding light since she is the class representative as well as a model student, believing she’s capable of surpassing Class A.

During the cruise, the two got a massage together and discussed the students of other classes they should watch out for. Although Honami is put off by her teacher's erratic behaviour, she agreed with Chie's assessment about watching Kiyotaka closely due to his unknown capabilities.