aiko kuroba

she grew up having a very close relationship with her dad. he's very busy with work nowadays, so she doesn't see him as much, but she treasures every second they spend talking.

aiko was bullied throughout school for a variety of aspects. between being neurodivergent and having traditionally "childish" interests, she didn't have a lot of friends. her open attitude towards carnivores made her an especially easy target for her fellow classmates in an herbivore-only school.

she was able to grin and bear it throughout elementary school, largely thanks to the support of her parents. however, when things became more ruthless in middle school and she lost out on a lot of time with her dad, her mental health took a turn for the worse. her mother could see she was struggling, so she pulled aiko out of school during eighth grade and let her homeschool.

as she regained confidence in herself, her mom slowly approached her to ask about going back to school. aiko was nervous but felt like she was ready, so the whole family had a meeting to discuss high school options. they eventually settled on applying to cherryton. after aiko was accepted, her dad took on more work to pay the higher tuition, effectively removing the majority his physical presence in her life.

despite homeschooling, she was missing a lot of credits needed to be able to go to high school, so she was held back another year. she should be in the sophomore class of cherryton, but is a freshman.

luckily, aiko has found cherryton to be a far better environment than her old schools were. she has a great group of friends from different places, and is overall very happy.