Is Ishigami in love with Iino?

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Student Council

Chika Fujiwara

Chika Fujiwara is Miko's idol in life. Originally, Miko wanted Chika to be her Vice President as Miko has looked up to her since childhood. While she will not listen to the advice or suggestions of others, she will always listen to Chika's words. Her rule-abiding personality can only be softened by Chika. Miko is often embarrassed to make certain remarks in front of the other Student Council members, and only confides in these remarks to Chika, although Chika always ends up blurting these remarks out loud to them. However, Miko views this as a way of Chika showing her love.

In Chapter 174, Miko's relationship with Chika is temporarily jeopardised when she overhears Chika telling Yu that Miko is easy to manipulate. Although Miko is initially angry, a combination of Chika doting on her as well as the fact that Miko is indeed easy to manipulate results in Miko forgiving her.

Yu Ishigami

Yu Ishigami has been Miko's schoolmate since middle school. Yu being a regular rule-breaker, and Miko being a member of the Discipline Committee, led to their current relationship being like that of cats and dogs. Despite their tendency to butt heads on a surface level, the two actually look out for one another without the other knowing.

While Yu despises her uptight attitude, he has actually protected her from bullying multiple times without her knowing. One of those times was when he removed a derogatory sign stuck on her back. In the student council elections, it was Yu's words that spurred the student council members into direct confrontation with Miko to help dispel her crippling stage fright. He has also tried to help hide Miko's embarrassing secret of listening to "Self-Confidence Boosting" soundtracks by exposing his own embarrassing taste in music. And despite being uptight, Miko also shows signs of watching out for Yu. When Yu was suspended for beating up Ko until he wrote an apology, she went to the Discipline Committee to appeal to the lift the suspension. She defended that his other actions to keep up with schoolwork from home indicated upstanding student behavior even if he did not write the apology letter. These efforts are unknown to each other, because Miko believes justice should be for justice's sake and not praise from those she helped, and because Yu prefers to be in the background when preventing bullying against any of his classmates.

It is hinted at the end of Chapter 137 and Chapter 140 that Miko's feelings towards Yu have changed, possibly leaning towards romantic, after she recognised the type of person Yu is underneath his stand-offish appearance and demeanor. When Yu tells the rest of the Student Council he is going to Tsubame's party, Miko seems interested but initially declines due to believing Yu would not like her there. She is surprised and visibly touched when he says otherwise and tells Tsubame that they will both go.

Their relationship improved even more after Miko broke her arm by saving Yu from seriously injuring himself. After this, Yu started caring a lot more for her as a way of returning the favor.

As of Chapter 158, the implication of Miko developing a romantic attraction towards Yu is more than obvious. In Chapter 174, she showed him her sweeter side, as a response to him being kind to her. Miko was more tolerant of Yu's manga magazines and video games, including showing an interest in them, much to his surprise. As of Chapter 180, they're able to hold a normal conversation when they're alone.

As of Chapter 190, it is confirmed that Miko has a crush on Yu, and is jealous of his current relationship with Tsubame.

For a while, Miko was uncertain on how to act upon her feelings, out of fear of making Yu uncomfortable and estranging them. On Valentine's Day, after she was encouraged several times by Miyuki to express her affection more openly, Miko gave Yu a Valentine's Day-themed box of chocolate, while profusely emphasising that she obligatorily gave it to him due to him being a Student Council member. Miko was relieved when Yu happily accepted the gesture.

In Chapter 226, when Chika told her that she would lose her chance of ending up with Yu if she doesn't become the "bad girl" who schemes in order to keep the other girls in check while getting closer to her love interest, Miko has decided to forgo her good-girl act and started to make advances towards Yu. It turns out that she was right in her element.

In Chapter 245, with Miko fearing going home alone, due to her belief that she is being stalked, her friends decide to get Yu to walk her home. Whilst walking her home, Yu (having an internal dialogue with himself) questions what he should do in this situation and that even if he could reassure her, he feels that he would be taking advantage of her current vulnerability to score "affection points". With this thought Yu seemingly reprimands himself, remarking that he is treating this situation as "the Iino route of a dating sim". Essentially, he has subconsciously started to see her romantically, and recognise her feelings for him. This becomes more apparent as the chapter draws on after Miko grabs his clothes whilst walking together, thinking that "If I were to hold Iino's hand right now, somehow I get the feeling that she'd also hold mine". At the end of the chapter, when they arrive at Miko's apartment, and Yu is about to leave, Miko makes it clear that she wants him to stay, fearing being alone. Yu internally remarks that "Iino is cute", recognising that he's felt that way for a "...long time now", and that their arguments were never because he actually disliked her, recognising that "in fact, I wouldn't say those kinds of things to someone I didn't actually care about". Yu then says to himself that he’s “fully aware of how I actually feel” and then proceeds to affectionately rub her head with his hand, with Iino moving his hand to cup her face. They both blush and head inside her apartment.

In Chapter 246, they hold hands whilst sitting on the sofa, talking about the future of the Student Council. Yu blushes profusely whilst she holds his hand, looking disappointed when she gets up to offer him some food, which he declines, concerned that she wouldn’t have enough to eat later. He remarks to himself that “the fact that [he’s] holding hands with a girl is making [his] heart race like crazy”, and that when she let go of her hand to stand up, he felt “sad”. He later pats her head again, complementing her for her growth whilst in the Student Council. He gets flustered again as he strokes her hair, commenting that her hair is “so silky”, and that he could stoke her hair “forever”. Yu then says to Miko that she gets lonely easily, to which she accepts, leaning in to brush his chest and put her head on his chest. He then proceeds to hug her, leading to an almost-kiss scene at the end of the chapter.

Miyuki Shirogane

Miko initially regarded Miyuki Shirogane as a rival, as both ran for President of the 68th Student Council. After Miyuki assisted Miko during her speech & asking her to join the student council, Miko gained a bit of respect for him. However, this respect starts to falter, as Miko often catches Miyuki in questionable situations involving Kaguya, resulting in her thinking of him as an "animal." This is compounded by the fact that the two rarely directly interact with each other in a one-to-one setting, and it's only months later that the two really get to know each other better and develop a good relationship thanks to Miyuki's attempts to involve himself with Miko's strange interests.

It is revealed in Chapter 190 that Miko is aware of Miyuki's relationship with Kaguya, and enjoys teasing him about it. After a session of Miyuki and Miko reciting sutra, Miyuki asks Miko about her feelings for Yu, to which she confesses about her jealousy over Yu's relationship with Tsubame.

As of Chapter 195, Miyuki and Miko seem to have developed a relationship that mirrors the one Yu and Kaguya have - that of siblings. Miyuki encourages Miko to give chocolate to Yu on Valentine's Day, which she did afterwards.

Kaguya Shinomiya

During the elections for the President of the 68th Student Council, Kaguya Shinomiya and Miko had a short clash of ideologies which ended up with Miko embarrassing and confusing Kaguya with her visions for the future of Shuchi'in and its Student Council.

Like with Miyuki, Miko initially had the wrong idea about Kaguya. At first, she thought Kaguya may have been a victim of Miyuki's perverse nature. Her opinion completely changed when Kobachi convinced her to re-think what she had seen in the Student Council room, leading her to the twisted conclusion that Kaguya was the epitome of lust, evil and cruelty. When Miko confronted Kaguya personally, she was left confused by Kaguya's embarrassment. After some time, Miko stopped seeing Kaguya and Miyuki as evil people, but she still found their antics weird and perverse.

For a long time, Kaguya and Miko's relationship wouldn't progress beyond neutral co-workers, with Kaguya occasionally appreciating Miko's unintentional compliments of Kaguya and Miyuki being a couple made for one another.

Friends

Kobachi Osaragi

Kobachi Osaragi is Miko's childhood friend and classmate. She has been with Miko since primary school and has since supported her at times when she's hurt or lonely. Miko trusts her a lot and she's the only person Miko can consult with her troubles.

Kobachi and Miko's relationship is a bit strained due to personal feelings regarding the situation of whether Yu should end up with Tsubame or Miko.

Kobachi and Miko are no longer friends after the latter overhearing the former speaking ill about her to Kaguya. Miko concludes that she doesn't have to be "friends in name" with Kobachi anymore, now that she has more genuine friends of her own.

After being reprimanded and encouraged by Kaguya, Miko had a talk with Kobachi about their friendship, Miko did not want Kobachi to hate her and was willing to forget about falling in love with Yu if it meant they could still be friends, even if it was the most painful decision she had to do. Kobachi understood that, and after seeing Miko grow more maturely as a person, she finally accepts Miko as someone Yu could be happy with. Kobachi and Miko subsequently reconcile as friends after their talk.

Rei Onodera

Rei Onodera is a classmate of Miko's, though the two initially don't have any real relationship with one another. They are first shown interacting while in the Culture Festival Committee and end up becoming friends due to their time working together.

In Chapter 158, Rei hangs out at Miko's home. Both find themselves baffled at each other's interests, due to Miko being unfamiliar with knowledge about gossip surrounding certain students and Rei being unfamiliar with the otaku trivia that Miko is familiar with. Miko takes Rei's advice to make Yu do things for her while her arm is injured.

Others

Ai Hayasaka

Ai Hayasaka is a common target of the Public Morals Committee due to her choice of fashion playing loose with the school rules. She manages to stay out of trouble due to Miko being somewhat of a pushover.

Karen Kino

After Karen Kino mistakenly thought that she was a Kaguya x President shipper like her and pestered her about it, Miko came to believe that Karen was a "lackey of the evil President", helping him in violating Kaguya.

Who is in love with Ishigami?

Does Iino have feelings for Ishigami?

Does Miko Iino and Ishigami get together?

Who does Ishigami sleep with?