i’m sorry, i know the people who care about the wallflower is me and like maybe a half dozen other people, BUT i’ve been thinking, and –
i really like the idea of sunako and kyohei being childhood best friends.
how i imagine it is like this. sunako has never had any fear of well, anything, right? especially as a little kid. she tried to make friends with a giant snarling bear, and was into horror and all that stuff at a pretty young age. so she’s a kid, right, maybe eight or ten, around there, and kyohei is in her neck of the woods because his mom is getting some sort of treatment and he wanted to come. but while she’s with a doctor, he’s on his own. so sunako is out on the street with her parents when she sees kyohei get kidnapped by an older woman (something that canonically happened pretty often) but he’s learned at this point that this is Bad. so he’s causing a fuss, but she’s just pretending to be the boy’s mother, and people are letting her take him.
sunako sneaks away and follows them, and the woman ties him up and goes to the other room, saying she’s going to cook something delicious for her pretty boy, and kyohei is crying and afraid, but this one hadn’t started messing with his clothes, which is nice. and sunako sneaks in and unties him and grabs his hand, saying “let’s get out of here,” and kyohei is wide eyed and confused, but this is freedom so he goes with her.
kyohei was a pretty sweet kid, from everything we’ve seen. and so was sunako. kyohei has never had anyone save him before, and he’s in awe of her, and sunako takes him back to her parents, who are loving good people who have been freaking the fuck out about their missing daughter, and are horrified / impressed when they hear what happened.
now, i think fundamentally who kyohei and sunako are doesn’t change. they still argue all the time, are rude and mean to each other, and beat each other up, because i just think that’s how they would relate to one another regardless of the circumstances. but i think this prevents kyohei from being so bitter and sunako from becoming quite so disconnected to people, because:
they may live in different towns, but kyohei and sunako spend a lot of time together. kyohei actually spends almost all of his summer vacations with sunako’s family, because as he gets older his mom becomes more and more unstable, and instead of enduring that he just goes to sunako. and she finds him dazzling, of course, just like in canon, but she grows up with it, and she can handle it, unlike seemingly everyone else. kyohei has an escape from his life, and it’s with sunako. from a young age, he finds his solace with her, and not just when he’s a teenager.
also, can you just imagine when that boy calls sunako ugly? like she’s just as devastated and feels awful and hides in her room, and refused to come out. and she’s always been introverted, but this is extreme, and her parents are getting worried. they call kyohei. and it’s just to find out if he knows anything, because if she’s not talking to them, maybe she’s talked to him. but he has no idea, and they go oh, okay, don’t worry about, it’s probably just a phase.
obviously kyohei doesn’t do that, and he hops on a train to sunako and literally kicks her door off the hinges. her parents are kind of relieved. she looks like she’s been crying, and in their years of friendship, kyohei has never seen her cry. he gets the story out of her, but she won’t look at him, covering her face with her hands. he tries to pull them away, but she fights back, “no! i’m too ugly, you can’t look at me! you especially! you’re too beautiful!”
and he freezes, and stares, and his best friend still won’t lower her hands. “who the fuck called you ugly?” and eventually sunako tells him just so he’ll leave. and he does leave. he goes to that bastard’s house and beats him to a pulp and drags him back to sunako and drops him to her feet like a cat with a mouse for its master. her parents think kyohei’s brought him here to apologize, but he just steps on him as he looks sunako in the eyes and says, “this guy’s way too ugly to say anything about anyone. if anyone says something mean about you, tell me and i’ll beat them up.”
she’s glaring at him, but she’s not hiding her face anymore, so he counts it a win. “i can beat people up myself! that’s not the point! i’ve just been ugly this whole time, and I didn’t know!”
“you look fine!” he growls, glaring down at her. “i’ll tell you if you’re ugly, okay? but you’re not.”
and they have a fight about it, and come to an impasse. sunako stops caring about her looks and people’s opinions and stuff after that, but she doesn’t go into a full on emotional collapse.
so it’s time for high school, and sunako’s parents are going to africa, so they ask her aunty to take care of her, and of course she agrees, and says sunako can stay in her spare mansion for high school. and sunako has an idea, and asks her aunt for a favor, a very important one, and she agrees.
sunako knows what kyohei’s life is like, his home life and everything outside of it. she knows his mother abuses him all the time and cries all the time and that he kind of hates himself, because she tried so hard to get better, but he brings so much stress into her life that she just can’t manage it, and only gets worse. so she shows up at his house, in aunty’s helicopter because his house is constantly surrounded by girls, and she’s there on his roof and he’s very confused. “come with me!” she says, “aunty will send people to get your stuff later. come with me!”
and kyohei has no idea what’s going on, but sunako’s his best friend, so he goes with her.
they’re dropped off at the nakahara mansion, and kyohei knows her aunt, but he’s never been here before. “why are we here?” he asks as sunako drags him through the halls.
“we’re going to live here!” she says. “rent free. i already asked my aunt. you’re going to leave your town and your house and your mom, and we’re going to live her and go to school together! some other families approached my aunt asking if their kids could stay here, and she agreed, but don’t worry. they’re all boys, so it shouldn’t be weird.”
and kyohei stops dead in his tracks, and sunako tugs on him, irritated, because she’s trying to show him his room, and he isn’t moving. “thanks,” he says softly, eyes wide.
“whatever,” she says, “now let’s go.”
and the other boys move in, and kyohei wonders if sunako’s aunt chose them specifically for their beauty, because they’re almost as pretty as he is. and for the first time he has people he can actually be friends with, because they’re not freaking out over his face all the time. and they all become friends, slowly, and it actually happens a lot faster because there’s sunako there, cooking food for all of them and softening some of kyohei’s sharp edges, and they become what they became in canon – a family.
they just, kind of assume kyohei and sunako are dating, and are weirdly private about it. then about year in sunako goes on a couple dates with this goth guy in their class and the three boys are appalled and ask kyohei when they broke up and if he’s okay, and that he doesn’t need to worry, this guy is clearly a rebound and sunako will come back to him. and kyohei is so fucking confused. “we’re not dating. she’s just my friend.” and they’re all filled with The Most disbelief.
so at school sunako is still dark and strange and loner, but just as before she makes friends, and since she’s not actively avoiding people and running away from them, sunako actually gets asked out on a lot of dates. because she’s kind and skilled and her martial arts prowess combined with her professional chef level cooking abilities and good grades means she’s …. kind of cool. noi originally talks to sunako to get info about takanaga, but they become friends because of course they do, and kind of against her will or desires, sunako find herself to be one of the popular people? which she’s very uncomfortable with and wishes would stop asap.
but even though she’s Very Single, she gets harassed ALL THE TIME for being kyohei’s girlfriend. and it’s really annoying, but it still less annoying than all the people who try and kidnap her best friend all the time, forcing her to go rescue him, so she doesn’t make a big deal about it. although now kyohei ends up saving her a lot too, which is even more annoying.
and things are progressing just fine, up until junior year. sunako gets kidnapped by a bunch of kyohei’s rabid fans, which is routine enough to almost be boring. except getting away is a lot harder than usual, and actually is impossible. and they’re not just trying to scare her or hurt her – they want to kill her. but not before torturing her first.
and sunako hates the pain, but the torture devices are interesting, although she’d really prefer to not die. so she’s bleeding all over and really badly hurt, and they’re about stab her through the heart, for the symbolism, which is also dramatic enough that sunako decides it’s an acceptable way to die.
then kyohei and the boys come in, the police flowing in behind them, and kyohei punches the woman who was all set to carve sunako’s heart so hard she’s thrown back several feet. and they’ve all been through some weird situations, some bad situations, but this is definitely the worst off any of them have ever been. and sunako clumsily grabs at kyohei’s face, seconds from passing out from blood loss, and goes, “what are you doing here? they could hurt you.” then she does pass out and they get her to the hospital, and she’s hurt but she’s going to be fine. but it was close. too close.
and to sunako it just wasn’t that big of deal, because they’ve been through so many similar situations before. but the boys are shook up, and kyohei? is wrecked. sunako has been the one person who’s always stuck by him even though he makes life harder for everyone he’s around, and now he’s nearly killed her. this is unacceptable.
so kyohei runs away, because he can’t do this to her, he’s going to destroy sunako just as surely as he’s destroyed his mother. so he leaves a note, except it’s not really clear because he’s an idiot and instead of a ‘i’m going off to live in the woods where i can’t hurt anyone’ note it reads like ‘i make everyone’s lives so difficult i might as well die’ note, and everyone freaks the fuck out.
they go to sunako, still in the hospital, because if anyone knows where he would go it would be her. but sunako borrows some scrubs and escapes from the hospital, and she’s running. they try and stop her, say she’s still too injured, but she doesn’t listen.
she eventually finds kyohei wandering in the woods, and she’s screaming and crying, and he’s never seen her this upset his whole life. she grabs him and doesn’t let go, but won’t explain, and he just hugs her back because he doesn’t know what else to do. and she’s calling him ten kinds of idiot and cursing him out, but she’s still too weak to beat him up, but she promises as soon as she’s well again it’s going to be the first thing she does.
“i just didn’t want you to hate me for ruining your life, or be responsible for killing you,” he says, irritated, because he thinks those are pretty reasonable emotions.
and sunako stares at him like he’s a moron and uses what little strength she has to punch him in the face. “you make my life difficult, and i don’t care! i could never hate you because i love you! don’t be stupid!”
and they kind of stare at each other for a moment, and both of them realize they’re in love with each other. it’s a realization kyohei has been poking at wearily for a few years, but one that sunako hadn’t even considered, except she just said she loved him, because she does, and not like a friend, not like how she loves noi or takanaga or ranmaru or yuki. it’s – different.
“oh,” kyohei says. “are you sure? it will get even worse once we’re officially a couple”
“like i get a choice,” she snarls, reaching up to grab the back of his neck and pull him down to her, “i’m not letting you leave, and i love you, so we’ll deal with the rest.”
he means to say something to that, but then sunako is kissing him. she’ll blame her legs going out on her injuries, but it doesn’t actually matter, because kyohei picks her up in his arms, and they don’t stop kissing for a second.
the three boys show up to kyohei and sunako making out, which is a huge relief on many, many fronts.
when they try and tell sunako’s family they’re dating, everyone is very confused, since they’d just assumed the two had been a couple for years. they’re all much more excited when the two get engaged.
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