Serinuma Kae

Kae Serinuma (芹沼 花依, Serinuma Kae) is a 2nd year student and is full-fledged otaku and a fujoshi. She is the main protagonist of the series.

Appearance
Kae was first shown to have small eyes that were covered by her over-sized, circular glasses and dark hair that ended just a few inches below her shoulders which she often put into low pigtails. Her most noticeable feature at that time was her overweight body. Unlike other girls and her best friend, Kae had a rather rounded figure, which was said to be like a 'cushion' by Nanashima, and a similar shaped face.

However, after the death of her favorite character, Kae shut herself in her room for days and refused to come out, not even to eat. Because of this, she lost a lot of weight. Kae gains an eye-catching figure and is shown to have notably large breasts, which seemed to have come from when she was chubbier. She starts wearing her hair down and her blue-green eyes are revealed when she stops wearing her glasses. This results in her becoming extremely beautiful. Surprisingly, Kae seems to have a good fashion sense, often wearing cute and fashionable clothes whenever she is out, although the clothes could have come from her best friend, A-chan.

Personality
Kae, as stated by herself, is quite easy to figure out. She is very carefree and prefers to go with the flow of things, not minding the small details.

As stated before, Kae is a fairly "easy" person. She doesn't seem to worry about the little things or tiny details and prefers to go with the flow. Whenever this part of Kae emerges, flowers tend to accompany her speech bubbles as a way to emphasize her being an air-head. The only time where Kae is extremely fired up is when anime/manga or yaoi is involved, such as her obsession over possible romances between her classmates, Nanashima Nozomu and Igarashi Yuusuke. In those moments, Kae takes on many of her pre-weight loss traits, such as small eyes, heavy sweating, and the occasional sly smile. Depending on her dedication and the situation relative to her "otaku-level", Kae can accomplish several extraordinary feats, such as helping the girls' soccer team win despite never having played soccer, and completing three cosplay ensembles from scratch for a school festival.

Her other most notable feature is her kindness. Even after her week of starving, Mutsumi Asuma can still recognize her because she is still very kind and caring, helping to take care of his wounds after trying to capture a cat despite having visited the infirmary to treat her own injuries. And any task that she's undertaken, no matter how difficult, she tries to accomplish without complaining.

Due to her Fujoshi-personality and previously unattractive status, Kae is also very oblivious and awkward when it comes to romance. When all four of the boys approach her in the first chapter, Kae begins to sweat and is unable to deal with the situation effectively. At the end, instead of choosing one, she indecisively accepts a date with all four boys.

As the story progresses Kae becomes more accustomed to being around all of her possible love interests and stops seeing them as, well, love interests, and more as friends. This change causes her to become more open to the idea of a romance between her and another and at the end of chapter 45 she realises her love for Mutsumi Asuma.

Igarashi Yuusuke
Kae's classmate from 2-A, and a suitor. The most active out of the four, he makes his intentions clearer than any of the others. During the School Festival arc, he declares that he doesn't want to be "friendly" with the other boys anymore, and grabs her hand while they watch Shinomiya's play. He may also be the only one that has begun to love Serinuma the most deeply, as he was able to look past her regression into her larger physique during the Valentine's Day arc. Almost everyone else wanted to change her but he realized he loved her for who she is not what she looks like. Which is like true love right there. He is the only one who asked for her consent before (almost) kissing her. She kissed him when saving him from the pond on the Birthday arc.

Nanashima Nozomu
Kae's classmate from 2-A, and a suitor. The most aggressive out of the four, he's the one that tends to woo her the hardest by playing the bad boy. He's weak against her crying, though, and tends to pale in comparison to the others who have skillful archetypes (Igarashi - hardcore athlete, Shinomiya - class president, Mutsumi - history buff and genius). However, what he lacks in skill, he makes up for in fiery determination, which usually results in him being the loudest of the suitors. He also has some difficulty getting past her inclination to see him as "Shion".

Shinomiya Hayato
Kae's kouhai, and a suitor. The one with the biggest crush on Kae, he often tries to prove himself as manly in front of her, but usually fails, as shown in Episode 3. Kae thinks of him as a younger brother - she says that 'you can't really leave him alone'.

Mutsumi Asuma
President of the history club, which Kae is also part of, and a suitor. Initially, he only thought of her as a close friend but came to realize he was in love with her even before her transformation after being asked by the other boys. He is usually very laid back but becomes protective of Kae when he feels others are mistreating her. He's the only suitor who was friends with Kae before her transformation and recognized her right away after the drastic weight loss. His interest in her never wavered even whe she regained her excess weight. During the ending of chapter 45 Kae realises that she returns Mutsumi's feelings. After Kae's realization, she confesses her feelings for Mutsumi, to which he re-establish his feelings by confessng again; following this the two start to date.

Nakano Amane
Nakano Amane or commonly called by Kae as A-chan is her best friend. Like Kae, she is a fujoshi and fellow otaku. She goes to great lengths to hide her otaku lifestyle, even hiding it from her boyfriend. Despite this, she cares for Kae a lot as shown when Kae was absent for a week in respond for Shion's death. A-chan was worried as Kae didn't answer any of her messages on Twitter. A-chan is a bit more mature than Kae when it comes to romance and boyfriends. She occasionally gives Kae advice in difficult situations involving romance.

Nishina Shima
Kae met Shima during a Comiket festival. She mistook Nishina for a boy due to her masculine appearance and was surprised to find out that Nishina was actually a girl. Kae is amazed at all Shina's talents, especially the doujinshi manga Nishina has written. Kae is deeply moved by Nishina's manga stories as the stories themselves deeply touched and moved Kae's heart. Nishina is one of the four people aside from A-chan, Yuusuke, and Asuma to accept Kae's larger physique. This was shown during the Valentine's Day arc and Weight Loss arc when she didn't care about the fact that Kae returned to her original appearance. Due to Nishina being an otaku and fujoshi, she shared Kae's love for anime/manga, especially for BL.

Shion
Shion is the name of a character in one of Kae's favorite anime shows. He was one of the main stars in the fictional anime series that aired in this manga called Mirage Saga. She was a huge fan of Shion and her classmate Nozomu Nanashima bear a striking resemblance to the character. Shion is also the reason why Kae lost so much weight as she was shocked by his death during one of the episodes in the first chapter. Due to her BL mind, she sees Nozomu as Shion himself, much to Nozomu's dismay. However, Kae is no longer obsessed with him.

Trivia

 * Kae is an otaku and fujoshi.
 * Kae can cook.
 * She loves sweets.
 * Kae's Twitter account name is 'Ekka'.
 * Kae had her first kiss stolen by Nishina while showing the boys a demonstration for Nishina's manga much to her suitors' dismay.
 * Kae is shown to be fast in speed but lacked the stamina for physical exercises shown as push-up,sit-up, and squat. This is due to her status as an otaku since she mostly watched anime or read manga at home most of the time.
 * Kae's body is very unusual. She lost a lot of weight for a week in response to her sadness of Shion's death. Another example is when Kae ate all of the leftover chocolates for a contest during the weekend. This caused her to immediately gained her original appearance.
 * Her given name Kae (花依) contains the Kanji for "flower" and "depend on".

Quotes

 * "A prince beside a prince, that's how it should be. That's how it should be!"
 * "A prince by the side of a prince, unbeknownst to them, sneaking a peak, that is my happiness. That is my position."
 * "Not everyone is as narrow-minded as you!" (to Takurou)