Nanao, Kozue

七尾こずえ

Yuusaku Godai's steady girlfriend, she generally acts as an obstacle to his pursuit of Kyoko. Cute, sweet, and somewhat scatterbrained, she is unaware that she cares for Yusaku more than he does for her, and she fails to see Kyoko (or later, Ibuki) as rivals for his affection. Their relationship begins after Kozue discovers Yusaku with an extra movie ticket (originally meant for Kyoko, who had just started dating Shun) and tags along, establishing the dynamic of their relationship. Yusaku wants to end things with Kozue; however, he either cannot find a way to do so without deeply hurting her feelings (from Yusaku's perspective) or is unwilling to "be a man" and stand up for himself (from Kyoko's perspective). The situation grows more complicated after Kozue introduces Yusaku to her family (Yusaku was unaware of Kozue's plan until they arrived at her home), who approve of him and are eager to feed the perpetually hungry college student.
Kyoko does not dislike Kozue and always reciprocates Kozue's genuine friendliness, but Kozue's relationship with Yusaku triggers her jealousy (which she would not admit as such), and as a result, he always goes out of his way to keep any mention of Kozue away from Kyoko. Yusaku does find Kozue attractive and admits to himself that he would have fallen for her if Kyoko were not involved, but because of his feelings for Kyoko, he strives to maintain some distance from Kozue; his naivety (both feigned and genuine) keeps their relationship platonic.
Another running gag in the series involves Yusaku's many attempts to break up with Kozue. He imagines placing himself in various degrading situations to make her hate him and end the relationship. Ironically, this does happen when Kozue sees Yusaku escorting a very drunk Akemi out of a hotel, although it was not Yusaku's intention at the time.

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