Naoko Takashi
Naoko grew up with parents that saw her primarily as something they were expected to have; once you get married you have a baby, right? Right. Unfortunately, due to them not putting much thought into making a baby beyond that, she didn’t grow up in a particularly affectionate home. Basic needs for life were met, but she was fairly emotionally neglected by her parents growing up.
She spent most of her childhood being as close to the model cookie cutter child she could be, taking up any hobbies that she felt would garner positive attention from her mother and father. Ultimately, her hard work only managed to make them appreciate the attention THEY received over having such a ~talented and obedient~ daughter.
Once she got into junior high, she meets and befriends her life-long best friend Jin-ho, and through him and his family, quickly learns that parents are actually supposed to be loving and attentive and WANT to be around their children for more than just personal accolades.
Realizing this led her to a years long rebellion streak and a lot of issues with self-worth. It felt like all the hard work she’d put into her schooling and hobbies was a complete waste. So she decided, and usual impulsive teen fashion, to do as she pleased behind her parents’ backs; she figured they wouldn’t care as long as it didn’t get back to them to embarrass and shame them (and…well…she wasn’t wrong). Despite that line of thinking, she actually did keep up with her schooling (just wasn’t top of her classes as often) so she’d have better chances of getting the fuck out as soon as she was old enough to leave. She also kept up with her piano lessons, one of the very after school activities she took on to please them that she actually enjoyed. As for her parents, they didn’t think twice about their child suddenly dropping hobbies and allowing their grades to slip down from what they were; as long as she appeared to be a model child, Naoko ended up getting away with quite a lot without them knowing.
The rebellious streak started off with small things like saying she’ll be studying at the library after school, but really she was just dicking around with Jin-ho for a few hours (eating junk food, playing video games, all the fun kid stuff), but by the time she was in high school it evolved to sneaking out of the house to smoke, drink, and sneak into clubs. She also had an affair with one of her teachers at school for several months (which luckily for her, ended anti-climatically with them simply getting bored and moving on).
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Through all this, Naoko’s sense of self-worth was essentially non-existent and she felt like she wasn’t going to go anywhere in her life. She enjoyed playing piano and writing poems, but she never felt passionate about it (unbeknownst to her, she was going through depression). Jin-ho had his work cut out for him when he decided to convince her to start a band with him. She did eventually agree, but it was mostly in a “well…not like I’m doing anything else anyway” type of attitude. Thankfully, working in the band helps her a lot in bringing her out of her funk (to an extent) and she finds she loves to perform to a crowd.
In her last year of high school, she ends up meeting and beginning a serious relationship with Shigure Soma (he’s early-mid 20s at this point—so definitely still shouldn’t be dating a high schooler lmao). He ends up being her first actual boyfriend, and while a lot of their relationship is of a sexual nature, they also have a genuine connection with another since they tend to be so similar in how they deal with the rest of the world and the people in it. They both tend to fake it more often than not when it comes to how they’re actually feeling in order to keep from making others uncomfortable or avoid confrontations, they share a similar twisted sense of humor, and so on and so forth.
Shigure ends up becoming something of a mentor to Naoko in regards to writing while they’re dating and helps a lot in combating her imposter syndrome (because if this dumbass can make a pile of cash off of and garner a following for his lame-o porn manga, then why shouldn’t she be able to do the same with her poems turned to songs?). They stay together for a few years, but things end tumultuously due to Shigure’s unresolved issues with Akito.
So Naoko suffers her first heartbreak, and rather than fall into a fathomless depression, she throws herself completely into hers and Jin-ho’s band and making it a success (which Jin-ho has to hold her back a few times to keep her from burning herself out). It’s during this time that they meet and bring in Lilith and Valkyrie into their crew on guitar and bass respectively. Since both women are already involved in the music industry, their band (Bright Idea) is able to make quick work of gaining attention and signing with a record company (which ends up being N-G Recording Company run by Tohma Seguchi, of which Jin-ho and Naoko are both huge nerds over Nittle Grasper) and it’s not long before Bright Idea becomes a well-known name in Japan (all by the time she and Jin-ho are 24).
