About

Shinta grew up in the “rough” part of town due to his family not having very much money. He lived near to the Sasaki family that was known to have ties to the Yakuza and often had many unsavory guests over that made the real estate undesirable. The Saskis were never anything but kind to the people that lived in the area surrounding their mansion but many thought that was just a mask they wore. The Harada family was poor and struggled to keep food on the table so moving from the dangerous area was next to impossible. Though the parents didn’t care much.
Shinta’s parents were absent parents, drinkers and drug users. So as the oldest of three, Shinta was often the one taking care of his siblings even from a young age.
However, he would go to a small park near the edge of town whenever he could to escape his hard homelife. There he met a young child around his age and became quick friends with her. After knowing her only by her first name for a while he learned that she was the daughter of the Sasaki family. She explained that she too was escaping her homelife. Though her parents were not as bad as the Haradas, she didn’t like the company they kept around so she would leave when people came over if she could. The two became very close and remained friends, meeting up at the park to play and talk.
After Shinta told his new friend how poor his family was and how he couldn’t wait to be old enough to get a job so he could feed his siblings when his parents couldn’t afford food, she decided to tell parents. The Sasakis were indeed kind despite their reputation and began paying for food for the family. Soon after she would come to the park with bags of food and sometimes even drop off full meals at their doorstep. The Sasaki family became a sort of guardian angel for Shinta and his siblings.
The two children became even closer as time passed. During a sleepover at the Sasaki mansion one night at the age of 12 the two decided to tell each other their deepest secrets. Shinta told her that he thought he might like boys. And she told him that she thought she might be a boy. They vowed that night to help each other discover whether or not they were right and support each other no matter what.
As the years passed and they continued to support each other in any way they could and they both discovered that they were indeed right. Shinta came out as gay officially at 15 and was kicked out of his house. At the same time, Shinta’s friend, now going as Ryokuu, came out to his parents as transgender but they were much more accepting of their child than the Haradas had been.
Despite the Sasakis being Yakuza, they welcomed Shinta into their home and made sure he wasn’t involved in anything he didn’t want to be; he’d been such a good friend to their child after all. And they were thankful he had been there for him as he figured out who he was. It was shortly after that they paid for both Shinta and Ryokuu to attend the Yumenosaki Academy as they’d both found respite in music and felt it would be good for them to get out of town for a while and discover themselves further. However, with Shinta being a year older than Ryokuu he had to attend his first year alone.
During Shinta’s second year and Ryokuu’s first, the two friends formed their own unit under the Rhythmlink agency together. Though Shinta wasn’t interested in being a singer himself, he found that he needed to be in a unit to fulfill the school requirements and his previous unit had broken up due to other members having graduated. He also fully supported Ryokuu’s desire to become an idol someday and agreed to be part of a duo with him; as long as he got to write all of their songs.