watching the sunspots

BASIC BACKGROUND STUFF

yumena's mom wanted a girl so when he was born she had a psychological break and vehemently refused he was male. the hospital was lwky ass so they allowed her to go home w him and it got worse. but surprisingly he was very close to his mom and she genuinely loved him, even if it was misplaced in some areas. she gave him a feminine name, made him wear dresses, referred to him as a girl and pulled him out of school and into homeschool when he got bullied. despite that yumena loved his mother very much and didn't mind how she brought him up. oh yeah then she straight up disappears 4 years before the events of how to eat life. and she also broke his legs (bruno is orange ref!) but like when they healed they were lwky better than before so like???? thanks mom??? i guess??

he doesn't know anything about his father except for his first name, but his mom always told yumena she loved him so he kind of feels some filial piety and puts out offerings on his balcony.

he lives in this rundown apartment complex and is friends with the old man on the first floor and a zingai living above him. he doesn't want to move out because 1 its his childhood home 2 he's still holding out some hope his mom comes back and 3 he's got an insanely good rent deal compared to anywhere else in a 500 mile radius. this is because he is so pitiful that nobody wants to extort more money from him.

UHH APARENTLY NAGI HAS THE SAME LAST NAME AND THEY LWKY GOT SOME THINGS IN COMMON ok so uhhhh they're brothers their father left w nagi after yumena was born cuz his wife was crazy and he didn't want to endanger himself by taking yumena away so he left him to fend for himself lol.

HOW TO EAT LIFE

uhhh idk how to start these. so yumena attends the same school as ryuuko and tobi but his ass has a horrible attendance record so they never really see him around. it's only after baku tries to steal his lunch (yumena usually takes a nap during lunch so most of his food doesn't get eaten anyways) and yumena's zingai, kera, absofreakinglutely bodyslams baku and grabs his tongue do they start to become aware of eachother.

tobi immediately makes the worst possible first impression by shaking yumena's chair until he falls out and wakes up trying to get kera off baku. ryuuko has a bit more luck and finds yumena napping on the garden shed roof and wakes him up right before the bell. but it's only after ryuuko and tobi come across kera trying to kill another zingai does yumena acknowledge them properly.

then he joins and the duo becomes the trio as they go on their little adventures. i lwky don't know what else comes after the manga cuz i haven't touched the light novel yet so this is subject to change.

i had like a little snippet in my notes that yumena dresses like a girl to go over to ryuuko's house cuz idk her family is like traditionally strict?? also what happened to her i wish she was in an eve music video somewhere so i could gush about her

like most of yumena's development in this chapter of his life was all ryuuko... tobi was kinda just there. ok no im kind of lying its just she breaks through to him and that allows for tobi to follow along.

RYUUKO SHIRATAMA

yumena thought she was a little oddball at first. her zingai also freaked him out the first time he saw it in action cause he was not rocking w the thought of a zingai reading his inner thoughts cuz he did not appreciate a zingai being able to read and say his thoughts out loud. but he came to appreciate her in due time and really value her company. He actually starts to copy some of her mannerisms and she helps him experience normal things like trying shitty sodas or walking home with friends. She's also the first ever girl who doesn't find the fact that he sometimes dresses like a girl to be disgusting. they’re both kind of oddballs together and it is a very cute and nice relationship if we ignore the doom flags behind them. does anyone else hear that ominous bell toll.

TOBI OTOGIRI

yumena did not gaf about this guy. not that he hated him either, but he kind of just avoided any interaction. then they started hanging out and yumena was like 'he's not that bad' and then starts to just follow whatever tobi says no matter how fucking stupid it is (foreshadowing). i didn't think enough for this part bc most of my obsession stems from kara no kioku and fight song.

tobi also did not gaf about yumena the first time they met. ok maybe abit of guilt for nearly causing him to fall out the window WHATEVER. but after talking to him he finds yumena alright company and they kind of levitate towards eachother whenever ryuuko isn't around.

they start to willingly hang out together during breaks and yumena gives baku his lunch. tobi calls him an idiot and prods yumena’s skinny ass arms. tells him to eat. what do you think he does? takes the lunchbox he just gave to baku and inhales the entire thing. yumena ‘when my friends tell me to do shit i do it’ iori. this will come back to actually beat his ass.

during the last week of school yumena and tobi find themselves in an empty classroom waiting for ryuuko. tobi falls asleep and dreams of him and yumena at a beach. he tries to talk to yumena but the waves are too loud and the wind keeps pushing him back. yumena turns to him and says something but he wakes up before he can get close enough to hear. yeah that's the only yumebi crumb i get from this section.

KARA NO KIOKU

as soon as yumena leaves junior high, he aims for a perfect attendance record since ryuuko told him that he should focus on his studies and he doesn't want to disappoint her. also joined the track team cuz he found out he liked running. also tried to be more approachable cuz ryuuko said so. do we see a pattern here. tobi asks him to keep an eye on rei in school after yuu showed up that one time but like that never happens cause.. yknow.. they immediately got jumped by that camera guy after.

yumena does NAWT like the heart stratum. it's too freaky for him. but he notices yukito and rei are absent and starts to worry. he also knows tobi is involved, but if tobi doesn't ask for help yumena feels like he'd be intruding on things he shouldn't be. and also bc he’s lwky terrified of the organization tobi works with. but he finds himself in there sometimes anyways thanks to kera.

NAGI IORI

i had to quickly bullshit their lore when oomf put me on the spot but i think i like what i thought up even if it is kinda basic lol. as mentioned in the basic background info their father left w nagi. the reason their mother's obsession with having a girl wasn't projected onto him was bc their father convinced her the next child would be a girl. and y'know how that went 💀💀 and neither parent ever mentioned the other to the kids.

yumena and nagi actually do become friends via yukito but he introduces them to each other via first names and blame plot armor because NONE of them connect the dots.

yumena only finds out nagi is his brother when he gets a call from a hospital. he's concerned cuz he never goes to them and thinks it's a scam at first. i actually wrote a little snippet of him seeing nagi in a coma but i lwky hate it so we’re rewritting it. stay tuned iori brothers fic coming 20never to ao3s near you thanks for this oomf im never gonna stop using it now.

and that's it lmao. but actually a huge event that happens in the future is because he tries to find nagi's zingai and bring it back. cheesy? yes. am i gonna have to change this when the manga gives us nagi crumbs? probably. but as long as he's in that damn coma i can do what i want 😋 LISTEN IM GONNA UPDATE THIS SOON WHEN I FIGURE STUFF OUT TRUST

TOBI OTOGIRI

they... and ur socks are gonna flip... actually hang out sometimes!!!! insane i know!!!! sometimes tobi even waits outside when school is over so he and yumena can walk together. tobi knows yumena is genuinely trying to be nicer but he gets unsettled seeing him smile lmao. whenever tobi isn't hanging out at rei’s, he crashes at yumena’s place. idk what to write for this part lmao they're just chill together.

YUKITO MUTSUKI

these two meet when yumena joins the school. they’re not close by any means but they gravitate towards each other when they’re in the same vicinity. we thank yukito for bringing the brothers together but also hate him for how stupid he is. yumena invites yukito to watch him run while he sketches so neither of them get bothered and im js gonna out rei’s relationship here too cuz its so minimal 😭 sorry rei maybe another time. rei, nagi, yukito and yumena look after the school garden as a group sometimes. istg i wrote this somewhere else but one time yumena scared the school trio so bad they jumped him and he ended up in the infirmary.

JIRO (no lore at all i just love her lol)

y'know i HAD to add some jiro shoutout to her wonderful amazing creator missy. jiro baits him so hard its not even funny and he falls for it every time. he get soo flustered around her he just stops trying to deny it and lets her tease him to hell and back.

FIGHT SONG

this one is a doozy. yumena gets himself caught up with this fuckass kid in the underground city who has things chasing her while he's trying to find nagi's zingai or atleast some sort of solution to heart desolation and she brings him to this zingai named ran who basically creates those red masks things you see on people in the music video. she makes him wear one with the agreement that he'll work with her for 2 years and she’ll take his memories in exchange for a solution to help nagi wake up. why she did that or how she'll help with heart desolation idk but let's roll with it for now. he works the only janitor so he gets his own department manager titleplace up as the only paid worker so he gets a new managerial title. go get that work experience boy!! go get that work experience boy!! that morgue looking place in the one scene where tobi and ryuuko are running away in fight song is where yumena has to frequent often. oh and the kid keeps sticking to him when he leaves his workplace.

kera also goes MISSING!! YAY!!! no not rlly but when yumena puts on the mask kera disappears and doesn’t show up. yumena at this point has four different… personas?? ig?? theres before yumebi breakup, after yumebi breakup, mind wiped and mask on. mind wiped yumena is lwky tobi 2.0, and mask on makes him act just like the akebeko zombies and he never remembers what he does until the contract is broken. he cant take off the mask himself either so if he ends up alone somewhere with the mask on he wanders the streets and automatically joins in whatever akebeko activity is happening near himi.

TOBI OTOGIRI

The development is lwky strong in this one guys.

yumena and tobi fall out! ik oomf is cheering when she reads this trust. it's insane. there's crying and shouting and zingai fighting. tobi thinks it's too risky to try and wake nagi. yumena can't stand the thought of leaving a family member in a coma forever. they both say things they don't mean. yumena feels hate towards tobi for the first time and he feels like shit for feeling that way. both cut eachother off (not rlly they just stop answering eachothers msgs) until yumena tries to text tobi and finds himself blocked. the horror. he cries and doesn’t move for the next few months or so before kera forces him to get up and start looking for the underground city.

they’re both subjected to psychological torture by hanayo (another oc! yay!) she creates an avatar of yumena to continue living his apartment to stop anyone from knowing he’s actually been mind-wiped since the contract said that he’d return alive and he didn’t want to deal with people asking where he’d been if he returned out of the blue. tobi goes to apologize and he doesn’t realize it’s not actually yumena for like 7 months LMAO you idiot. but i cant blame him hanayo is an incredible gaslighter. he’s on edge the entire 7 months because in his gut he knows something is wrong but he chalks it up to the lingering effects of their fight. it’s after baku asks about kera and the fake-yumena is unable to answer him that tobi realizes that this isn’t yumena. then the fish zingai just kills itself infront of him. still in yumena’s form btw ❤ there’s blood literally everywhere and tobi’s still trying to process that it isn’t yumena so he’s stuck in that limbo where he thinks it still might be him.

i didnt think this through but the jist is that tobi’s in so much shock baku transforms into his humanoid looking form and walks him straight out that apartment. then everything else happens yada yada tobi goes to the underground city grabs ryuuko and runs around.

what follow are the worst events ever. yumena and tobi almost meet a total of 12 times while in the underground city, 8 of which being inside P.B’s place. THEY JUST KEEP. MISSING. EACH OTHER. if this was scooby doo even the gang would've gotten together faster than these two. when tobi gets pinned down and ryuuko is taken away yumena is there to witness it. tobi sees him, but yumena turns and walks away like a fucking k drama moment. very sad very dramatic get in the ring tobi we don't have time for this. he sees yumena standing next to the red demon looking thing and he just looks absolutely shattered lmao. ive got a wip somewhere ill post it one day.

HANAYO

she was an oc for a completely different fandom LOL but i drew her and yumena as a gag gift for a friend and it spiraled heavily. she’s a psychopath. i mean ig you gotta do what you gotta do if you’re living in the underground city as a human. her zingai are little fish skeletons that can become illusions. they’re like that one water titan pokemon from alola if you reverse the concept. when yumena loses his memory, hanayo likes to torture him with illusions of tobi getting killed infront of him. even though his brain doesn’t remember tobi his heart hurts so bad watching it he starts to panic and she eats that shit up. he always places the mask on when he feels too many emotions and she takes advantage of this subdued version of yumena and brings him all around like an extra bag holder or to clean up her torture rooms or accompany her to walk the streets.

RAN

despite making the masks that control people, ran is pretty chill. she manages entertainment for P.B as a side gig. she actually grows pretty fond of yumena and when he gets sent back a year earlier than their contract she visits him with security and breaks it, giving him his memories, the solution to help nagi (still dont know how ngl), and a killer headache. she’s ‘married’ to security.

SECURITY

yeah it’s name is actually just security. idk i was too lazy so yumena works pretty closely w this zingai despite being a janitor. very classy duke vibes from this thing. yumena thinks it’s the best for advice. like stated above, it visits yumena with ran just for support and to see what it's ex-colleague is up too. it’s ‘married’ to ran.

P.B

i didn’t even know what his name was until i had to write his section i js kept calling him rabbit in my head. anyways ran and security work for P.B so yumena’s bound to meet him sometime. P.B’s pretty cool with the new janitor manager. as long as the floors are clean he dgaf. there was like one attempt to put him with the girls in the bunny outfits but yumena shut that down quick.

AFTER FIGHT SONG

TOBI OTOGIRI

where the fuck do i even begin with you tobi. SO when yumena arrived safely back at home (still under contract) one of hanayo’s fish zingai actually got attached and followed him in the form of tobi. yumena’s just glad to see the person who keeps making his heart hurt every time he dies actually alive in front of him. tobi gets tipped off by hanayo that yumena left the underground city, so he’s searching for him coupled with looking after ryuuko.

when ran comes around and breaks the contract, yumena gets all of his memories back, even the ones when he was wearing the mask. he remembers tobi! hooray! he knows in the back of his mind that it’s just hanayo’s zingai playing tricks on him but he feels so relieved to watch this tobi live after a literal year of watching tobi die over and over again every day that he doesn’t care. they are so the summer hikaru died coded. but he eventually lets the fake tobi go and tries to get his life together because he’s smart enough to know thats not a healthy way to live! and because kera came back and shook some sense into him.

he and tobi meet again when they’re both meeting up with fuchi. yumena’s grabbing a drink from the vending machine outside of fuchi’s apartment building when he looks over and freezes at the sight of baku right in his face. tobi’s got his back turned to him and he tries to run away but baku starts making a ruckus and yumena just feels like crying.

like imagine thinking you’ve gotten over the trauma of watching ur bff/crush die (no you haven’t) and think that you liking men was a phase from your mom’s fucked up attempts to make you a girl (it was not a phase) and then just happen to run into him. and everything comes rushing back. like you’re stronger than me yumena. he’s super awkward with tobi since he’d been actively avoiding him ever since coming back. he doesn't know about tobi seeing fake yumena kill himself in front of him.

tobi on the other hand is fighting the urge to strangle yumena. like he's genuinely so fucking grateful yumena isnt dead but he hates how distant they are now. HE doesn't know about the fake tobi situation.

so their reconciliation arc is basically tobi chasing yumena while they're both trying to sort their feelings out. obv it's a lot more complicated than that but yeah.

MAHIRU

what do you do when you pair someone who gives heavy ‘love’ with someone who has only ever learned to handle heavy love? A FUCKING SHITSHOW THATS WHAT ‼️‼️‼️mahiru gets yumena into drinking and tobi despises mahiru for it. their first rough interaction in my head was fuchi introduced them to eachother and they exchanged numbers. mahiru calls yumena drunk asf one time and he actually answers. in the morning yumena calls him back to check up on him and check up on him ask if he's sober. the cycle continues until they accidentally meet up at a convenience store and mahiru asks him to go out drinking. like idk if you realize this man i dont blame you yumena is so damn tall now but that is a minor. i mean who gaf anyways that kid needs to drink himself to death to grapple with his feelings.

FUCHI

so yumena is actually aware of fuchi’s existence before the latter knows of his. mr creepypasta commissioned (read: pressured) yumena to help clean up fuchi’s place since they’ve already got history at the underground ring. for shitty pay too but what can you do when psychological torture extraordinaire slenderman stares at you unblinking from the darkness just outside the temple gates? id actually just shit my pants. anyways yumena takes the job and cleans fuchi’s place while he either out or sleeps. i plan on sketching little comic strips of what those two get up to together.