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How S/I fits into Green Hills:

S/I had moved with her family from Australia to Europe due to a work opportunity offered to her mother. They are wealthy, so the move wasn’t too bad. Much like Byakuya, she lives in London near Green Hills. English is her first language, however, she studies Japanese as a subject and works hard to be fluent (she jokes her motivation behind learning the language was so she can watch anime as it comes out, so she doesn’t have to wait for the English sub, ahahaha). This allows her enrolment to Hope’s Peak.

Backstory (Their Relationship and Individual Reputation at Green Hills)

Reputation (S/I):

S/I did have a mostly positive reputation at Green Hills. She was universally seen as very intelligent, talented, and diligent — but could come off as very sharp-tongued to people who she judged as “inadequate and cruel”: so, there is a certain crowd that she is very unpopular with. S/I could annoy some other students as she is very close to “the perfect student” stereotype, being infinitely favoured by teachers. She is prideful in herself and her work. Her abilities and reputation made her come off as pretentious and infuriating by some (which her loudness around friends did not help with), albeit she gets along with most students fairly easily. People who are not acquainted with her easily see her as being weird and ‘robotic’ though – her speech conventions, success, and uncommon enthusiasm for school all seeming too artificial.

Reputation (Byakuya Togami):

Byakuya was popular — everyone knew the famous (or arguably infamous) Togami that was attending the school. However, he was only crowned heir when he was 16 (grade 10) around 6 months before Hope’s Peak — so outside of the initial allure of being a Togami, he wasn’t considered much after that as he was the youngest half-brother; accepted as being doomed to lose.

Byakuya’s definitive superiority complex and absolute disinterest in anyone around him made everyone universally agree he was an unsociable asshole, not worth your time. He was seen as extremely talented and intelligent, his good looks being his only charming aspect to many people in the school. Kids more prone to dropping out often considered him as a free pass for a group assignment. Suffice it to say, he was a complete outcast and people didn’t see him as anything worth interacting with wilfully — which probably adds to the change of pace S/I brought to his life.

Their Relationship at Green Hills:

Her and Byakuya did not initially like each other when first seeing each other at Green Hills. After Byakuya had harshly ended their friendship, S/I swears to prove herself as being better than he is while cooperating and helping others. S/I is massively academically competitive like he is by default, although obviously Byakuya would beat everyone in that field at every turn. Byakuya found this behaviour rather obnoxious but could at least appreciate her as “second best”. In his eyes (then), she is an emotional loudmouth who could never compete with him. Her intellect was perhaps her only redeeming quality to him then, but he doesn’t recognise it much as it doesn’t exceed his own. But oh, does she try to compete with him. S/I tries her absolute hardest to keep up with Byakuya, but always falls short. Her constant efforts to prove herself to not only Byakuya, but her family, had pushed her into becoming an Ultimate later on.

She thought Byakuya was an egotistical jerk who needed to be taken down a peg or two (she isn’t wrong though). They don’t see each other as rivals (especially Byakuya), but they were a bit adversarial at times. She gladly rubbed it in Byakuya’s face that the only reason why he doesn’t participate in class Kahoots was that he is too afraid to lose to her (she is the Kahoot Queen). Of course, that didn’t bode well with Byakuya and did make him snap back at her.

She had no romantic interest in Byakuya at the time since she loved another boy from the school; even with crushes, she is loyal to the core. She becomes very attached to the boy but ends up completely heart-broken in the following year (Grade 9). Things came to a head with her: the boy she loved and exerted so much time into doesn’t like her and left her school; her family’s pressure for her to get perfect marks became so, so much worse.

Evolution of their Perceptions:

She wasn’t well; her evolution from a sunny girl to a pessimistic and emotionally distraught girl was disconcerting to say the least. That’s when their relationship changed. She no longer tries to compete with Byakuya, she’s no longer loud-mouthed, she’s no longer too recognisable as who she was. With enough overhearing of worries teachers talking to her, Byakuya is able to put together a narrative.

Behind her bravado, she was extremely insecure of herself - her vulnerabilities now becoming a lot more visible. Byakuya didn’t find this all too appealing - initially thinking she was simply being hysterical. However, this view changes with the more he learns. He hears bits and pieces over time. He knows that her once academic prestige is slipping due to being crushed under the immense pressure her family puts her under that makes her lethargic and unable to think properly. Her impressive academic success was purely put of being scared of her family. He sees that she was raised to be kind and caring; however, was all of a sudden being forcefully moulded into being someone like him, someone who is meant to be an emotionless, perfect human.

Byakuya easily recognised he has “family pressure” a lot worse than she does - but he grew up knowing that and was raised to be capable of dealing with that. It’s very clear she wasn’t and constantly experienced emotional whiplash from her turbulent family: loving her one second then berating her the next for unjustifiable reasons. Knowing how horrible this can feel from experience: a rare form of empathy is sparked within him as he can relate to her.

Byakuya begins to feel a responsibility for her due to her family attempting to mould her into becoming like him — something he acknowledges would be detrimental to her. This evokes a rare form of empathy from him which makes him try to rationalise her emotions and start talking to her more. He now finds her much more interesting and finds her to be an ‘exception’ to his dismal behaviour to others. They are alike in many ways, yet so different. To him, she shows a more emotional angle on his own life (while still acknowledging she’s a different person in her own merits). He wants to ensure she doesn’t try to become like him, as she mentally is incapable of such.

When she cries, he now goes up to her to rationalise her sporadic thoughts and reassures her. At first it was more for her to stop her annoying whining, but he does genuinely care. His sharp logic about things was always a massive reassurance for her, so she became very attached to him as a result. S/I now makes a lot of effort with him now. She compliments him a lot, tries to make him smile (however futile that may be, but he appreciates the care from her), and attempts to make him feel more comfortable with his own emotions.

Amongst relating to familial pressure and both being very intelligent and talented (Byakuya more so), he seemed to like her because he was never ‘the Togami destined to be exiled’. To her, he was Byakuya, someone she appreciated outside of his family identity. It allowed him to trust her love — as he was something to her before being an heir, unlike how all the other students perceived him.

Towards the end of Grade 10, they’re still clueless to the notion of loving each other. S/I does very openly care very deeply for him due to how much he had helped her heal from her past experiences. Byakuya is a bit more difficult. The most he can surmise is she has become such a constant in his life he (mostly subconsciously) feels deeply uncomfortable being without her. She is the only person outside his mother and butler who treats him like another human: not pedestaling him and tending to him despite being fully privy to his abrasive and arrogant tendencies.

Their Reputation Together:

Even before they were dating back at Green Hills, they were rumoured for be ‘a couple’ due to Byakuya never being wilfully seen with anyone else before. Rumours were normally:

Of course, none of their input actually affected their relationship – they were still in love unbeknownst to themselves.

The Big Takeaway:

A big thing that separates canon Byakuya and what I un-creatively dub “Freya’s Byakuya” is that her Byakuya is more empathetic before the events of the tragedy. This empathy is only extended to her however, due to similar circumstance and his mother raising him with the kindness to comprehend the need for empathy here. This understanding of emotion his mother gave him - along with S/I after they begun talking more resulted in him being privy not wanting to lose S/I.

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