#foot licker

Heart

-> Q: caretaker for, loves wholeheartedly // couple behind closed doors

-> Shinji: admires, will always offer help // “bad boy” duo

i can explain that second part fhgbhfgb "bad boy" because the public perceives them as delinquent-adjacent like bad boy (romantic) and they both find this funny and often pull a bit where they'll rip on each other's nonexistent rap sheet. this bit gets less funny after Shinji gets framed and jailed for attempted murder

-> Minami: kindest friend

-> Luka: confidant // unknowingly enemies

Q (founder and former leader of Tomokoi; current leader of XIV)

-> Heart: adores // couple behind closed doors

-> Shinji: less than trash // leaders

-> Minami: missed, fave member (of Tomokoi)

-> Luka: suspicious of // unknowingly enemies

Shinji (current leader of Tomokoi)

-> Heart: indebted // “bad boy” duo

-> Q: apologetic… // leaders

-> Minami: grateful, wants him to trust his feelings w/ others

-> Luka: ILY but stop being secretive

Minami

-> Heart: reliable ☆ (repressed crush)

-> Q: he has changed…

-> Shinji: sympathetic, unconditional support ;P

-> Luka: we take care of each other! ♡

Luka

-> Heart: knows their secrets, monitors their activities // unknowingly enemies

-> Q: scared of // unknowingly enemies

-> Shinji: too hard on himself

-> Minami: good friend, trusts w/ health

Heart and Q are currently members of a separate unit, XVI (“sixteen”), with two other members, while Shinji, Luka, and Minami carry on as Tomokoi !!

the story of Tomokoi is v smaddening and heartbreaking. this was back when Minami still went by ‘Hide’ short for.. their name ^_^; he also did not have those facial scars at this time.

Tomokoi began in junior high with five friends who wanted to become idols. Q founded the group and came up with its conception, believing it was the best way to popularize themselves. Tomokoi was only ever meant to sustain their dream while in junior high and to help them all develop their skills early to get ahead of the pack

for Q and Minami, they were perfectly able to maintain and dissociate their persona from their lives; for Shinji, Heart, and Luka, they struggled to live with their respective persona and how the public saw them. Minami becomes Q’s favorite, Q considered him skilled and determined enough to become an idol and sets him as the group's center; Heart as Q’s personal caretaker unconsciously becomes neurotic over it, Shinji gets jealous of his other unitmates for having an easier time with their persona than he with his own. Tomokoi ends up being very turbulent bc theyre all middle schoolers forced to play people they arent for the sake of a far-off dream they might not get to achieve. Luka is literally just Standing There (very upset that their friends are constantly at each other’s throats)

but the ultimate goal of every Tomokoi member is to audition for Reimei and to be accepted as individuals. they gave themselves individual personas to act out through Tomokoi to make themselves shine, so they hope that with the transition to high school, the tension that’s between them all will disappear along with Tomokoi; they’ll still be friends, but Tomokoi embodies the painful struggles and agonies and horrors they put themselves through as literal kids, and by moving on to individual work, they hope to move on from that painful part of their lives and to mature into idols

well, every single member of Tomokoi is accepted into Reimei - except Shinji, due to family history issues he was unaware of (blah blah blah sins of the father) and his own behavior (lashed out at judges). Q immediately gets on his ass for fucking up, Luka tries to defend them, all three get a distress call from Minami who, as it turns out, has been lying to his family the whole time about his future career path but that's not important, it's more urgent that he's terrified his family is about to kill him and themselves and needs help

lots of shenanigans happen. Shinji gets caught with the Madoka family's blood on his hands, Q frames Shinji for the assault of the Madoka family for very petty reasons, Minami is unconscious and hospitalized due to injury for the whole three weeks Shinji's trial takes. you may ask where Heart is during all this? Germany, trying to find their birth family (fruitless effort) (also didn't tell anyone they were going) (entrusted Luka, Shinji, and Minami with Q's health but really only Luka tends to Q).. it is a lot! by junior high graduation, Shinji is in juvenile prison, Q suffers a mental breakdown that Heart has to tend to, Luka disappears entirely, and Minami is left to care for what remains of his family, most of whom now rely on him due to disability.

this summary really doesnt do their individual stories justice i dont think i could do them justice but (shakes tomokoi) THEYRE EVERYTHING TO ME!!! THEYRE VERYTGHIGNGT TT OT MEEEAU AUAAUAGAG UAUA