#shslbroadway

Tamaki is… they don’t actually dislike Chiemi at all, really. They weren’t ready to call her a friend by the time they died, but they didn’t hate her or anything. She’s one of the only Gaia kids they ever felt something remotely positive for (as opposed to out-and-out dislike or ‘meh, whatever’), so...

Honestly, Chiemi had quite a few things going for her in Tamaki’s eyes - she was a fellow smoker, she was willing to talk mastermind clues with them (even if Tamaki proceeded to be a shit and not share said clues with the class at large at her behest), she… they honestly really liked her general attitude and found her to be a genuinely decent conversational partner during the brief time they interacted outside of a  trial. Well, they liked parts of her attitude, when she wasn’t being a “pissy brat”, because as we all know, Tamaki Manabe never, ever gets pissy ever and has conducted themselves with maturity and poise throughout the game. Whatever you say, Tamaki.

And then Chiemi did sort of try to take the fall for them during Nicanor’s murder trial using an explanation that left them slightly… baffled (Red paint? Using the cleaver like that by accident? You can’t even.. oh my god, what the fuck, Shinozaki?) And I’ll be honest, if Tamaki had not been so willing to jump all over martyrs in previous trials (if only because martyrs got in the way of killing whoever was actually guilty, alas, there were no noble motives for it), making the very action of supporting that behavior suspicious by default, they would have happily thrown Chiemi under the bus, using “well, she wants to die, and we need to discuss masterminds” as a smokescreen. (Pretty sure everyone would have called their bluff if they did that, but still…) God, Tamaki sucks.

Chiemi was kind of a mystery to Takumi.

He only ever really saw her during trials (before Tartarus, anyway), and he saw her in various states of distress and anger and she seemed so very… flippy-floppy

He didn’t really know what to think of her

Until Tartarus, and then she seemed… back to herself, or what Takumi knew of herself, anyway, so he was happy to see her back to being happy

hoo boy okay

to the shock and awe of all, shay never actually hated chiemi.did he get tired of being a doormat for her slander of his person and his associates? yes.did he see her as a hindrance during trials? yes.did she cause him to fear for his life? somewhat.did he hate her? no.

He came close for a while, but eventually he just realized that wasn’t worth the energy. It didn’t help him or anyone else if he started getting into the mindset for holding grudges, because that would have just summoned up his old shitty temper and put him back in a downward spiral that previously took him three or four years to get out of completely

plus after endgame where he got stuck partnered with her she probably just became a fact of life and he just kind of mellowed

"...........now... now you can live. It's alright now."

She definitely... thought that Chiemi was.... lost. She pretty much didn't talk to her because she had thought Chiemi'd just??? Die eventually. That she'd given up on life, so she would die because that's what happened. Sometimes people kill themselves, even if they're loved. Sometimes people stop eating and die.

Rune views Chiemi very similarly to Imogen, as a big sister figure. She was kind to him and often showed up when he was need of some kind of help, and while he got confused a few times with how she acted, he couldn't bring himself to dislike her at all because she'd been kind to him. She was his friend, and friendship was so rare and precious to him.

And then Chie died, and Rune was honestly convinced that Chiemi would hate him.

However, they had that private talk up on the Arcadia balcony beside Imogen's body, and it... honestly helped Rune more than I can really explain?? If no one had shown up to talk to him at all while he was up there, still crying over Imogen and Minako, then it probably would have been a lot harder for him to leave and go to the trial.

He felt alone again, with Imogen and Minako gone. Even though Wakana was still there, losing both of them in such rapid succession reminded him of what it was like when people used to gain his trust for the purpose of turning on him and leaving later, and having Chiemi come up and talk to him, even if comforting him hadn't been her initial intention, it was the motivation he needed to actually stand up again and wander back down to the trial room.

For that matter, with Chiemi being the only friend he had who survived prior to everyone being revived, he probably stuck to her like glue whenever he could. With Wakana, Imogen, Koyomi, and Minako all gone, Chiemi was all he had left.

...and no, the "help" is not meant negatively (although some therapy might be in order anyways).

Chiemi just... got shit on the entire game by faith. By chapter three, her two best friends were dead, and by chapter 7, her girlfriend joined them. In the interim, she had a whole slew of  other emotional problems hit her.