Profile
Komiya Korin Please don't disappoint me, Korin.  ― Komiya Kotoko Mature A-grade student. Diligent class representative. Stern general affairs manager of the student council. Aloof perfectionist who seems to succeed at everything she does. That is the image and persona Komiya has built of herself throughout her whole life. Her interest in ballet serves as a fitting parallel. It’s an optical illusion, the ballet dancer supposed to make effort seem effortless, no matter how much pain they’re in. Korin is the product of an affair between her mother Komiya Kotoko and Hasabe Shinnosuke, a married finance lawyer. In order to save both face and his marriage, he has remained absent throughout their life (save some financial support) except for a handful of instances when he has inquired about his daughter’s health and progress in school. Her mother struggled as a single mother. Not so much the financial aspects of it – she was able to keep her job throughout and after her pregnancy by working from home for a while. It was rather the social stigma of her situation that weighed on her. The fact that she was very much in love with Hasabe-san, always hoping that he would come back to her, did not help either. Kotoko would turn her frustration of the situation onto Korin, setting higher and higher expectations for her daughter to meet both in school and her spare time. After all, if Korin would be perfect, perform the best in school and act as befitted the daughter of someone like Hasabe, there would be no more snide remarks, no more disapproving looks from the teachers, no more gossiping behind her back at work and in the neighborhood… and surely Hasabe-san would come back to her again. Over the years her mother would become an overbearing presence, eventually controlling almost every aspect of Korin’s life. It was severely detrimental to Korin’s mental health and sense of self-worth, imprinting her with the idea that being perfect is the only way she’ll ever be liked or wanted. With Kotoko being a single mom working late, Korin was often picked up last at the kindergarten she attended... except for another boy named Kōsuke whose parents also worked late. The two would become friends, something Korin had very few of growing up, social interaction taking a backseat to her studies and merit-building extracurricular activities. Ballet became a solace for her, one of the few activities she managed to convince her mother was "highbrow" enough to be allowed to be part of her weekly schedule and her mother pays for it as long as her grades remain acceptable. Korin had to fight her mother on going to Nekoma High and not one of the more prestigious high schools in Tokyo, because Nekoma High was located close enough to her dance studio for her to be able to be part of the student council and attend ballet classes on a regular basis. The other ballet students who take classes alongside her do consider her a friend and invite her to activities and parties and stuff, but they find it a bit annoying/sad that she so rarely accepts. About three weeks prior to the entrance exam to Nekoma High, Kōsuke won a one-year scholarship for the Vaganova Ballet Academy in Russia at the Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland, Komiya being eliminated before the finals. The feeling of being left behind, of not being good enough, would reach its peak during the day of the entrance exam with her admission ticket having fallen out of her bag. She stood between the choice of leaving a really bad first impression with the teachers (which she was terrified of) or missing out on going to Nekoma High, possibly not being able to take ballet classes anymore due to her mother's insistance on her joining the student council. It didn't take long before she broke down crying. |
