Keira Whelen

**Keira Whelen** is a high school student, originally from Rockhampton, Australia. She transferred to a school in Japan during year 10, starting the year over as a 1st year in high school.

Keira was part of a junior AFL team in Australia, and also has an interest in gaming and anime.

## Story

Keira was a member of a junior girls' AFL team for her school in Rockhampton, competing on a state-level along with her best friend, Lily Bennett. For a while, she was in a relationship with a girl in her school, however at some point, for some reason, her girlfriend left her. This sent Keira into severe depression, and even prompted her to attempt to end her own life by jumping off the top of the stadium in her city. Fortunately, Lily saved her before she could jump.

Wanting to escape her life, she decided to transfer to Japan to start anew. She ends up as a Freshman in high school, During her first days, she tried out a few of the sports clubs at her new school, trying to find something that would give her the same enjoyment as AFL back home. Ultimately, none of them felt right for her.

However, a member of the student council took notice of her chill, caring yet hardworking nature, and at some point, Keira ends up helping the student council. The council member that took an interest in her, Nishikana Ririko, was a second year, and the most popular candidate for becoming the next student council president. Ririko ends up falling in love with Keira, though when she admits to it, Keira is hesitant. Due to her previous experience, Keira feels like she has lost the ability to love as she is too scared about experiencing the pain she felt before, again. Ririko doesn't give up and is fairly open about her feelings towards Keira, and Keira's gentle nature means she lets Ririko be affectionate towards her while admitting that she can't love her back. Ririko is determined to make Keira fall in love though.

The reason Keira lets Ririko act the way she does is because she's very observant when it comes to emotional cues, so she can tell exactly *why* Ririko wants to love her even if she can't return her Senpai's feelings; she's lonely, among other reasons.

Another of her past experiences means Keira doesn't like to be touched. While she doesn't care about the physical nature of contact-sports like AFL, she can't handle physical affection very well.

## Nishikana Ririko

**Nishikana Ririko**, who Keira usually just calls Nishikana-senpai, is a fairly popular member of the student council who eventually becomes President. Her best friend is Miyagawa Iori, a rich girl who has stuck by Ririko since middle school. Iori initially comes to blows with Keira, not really understanding of why Ririko likes the crude Australian girl so much; likely not helped by Keira not being used to Japanese formalities, instead often acting as she would back in Australia (which in a Japanese school might come off as rude).

Outwardly, Ririko is kind, cool and what many consider to be a role model. Inwardly, she feels lonely and struggles to let a lot of people get close to her. Keira notices this easily, as her own best friend, Lily, is much the same, barely letting anyone get even remotely close to her. The fact that Keira knows how to deal with this trait is another reason Ririko falls for her, since she's one of the only people who treat her in a way that makes her feel comfortable with letting go of her outer act.

## Full story concept

The following is the concept of the story written in my ideas file.

> A girl from around Northern Queensland goes to Japan for her senior years of high school (Or, in Japan, it's just High School). She's a tomboy and fairly outgoing, she was a part of her school's Girls' Footy team competing on a state-level. She's also interested in gaming and anime.
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> When she goes to Japan, she's a Freshman at high school. At first, she tries out some of the different sports clubs, but ultimately they don't really match what she's used to with playing junior AFL. Somehow, she ends up helping the student council.
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> One of the senpais on the council (who later becomes president) takes an interest in her, though her best friend, a rich girl, doesn't really like that all too much. While the council girl is pretty open about how she feels towards our protagonist, the Australian girl is hesitant to accept her feelings.
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> "Is it...because we're both girls?"
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> "N-No...it's not that... I just..." \*I'm afraid...of going through that again...\*
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> The true reason the Australian girl is afraid is because she had a girlfriend back home, but something happened that caused her to leave, which led to severe depression and even wanting to commit suicide. She went to Japan to escape her life, basically. This isn't revealed until way later though. Also, at one stage, her AFL team needs help. The Grand Final was postponed due to a hurricane, but now that it's coming around in January the next year, one of the team's best players is sick. This is the first time their team has managed to get this far, so it's really important to the protag. But she can't afford to go back home for a weekend, especially since, for her in Japan, it's not holidays. Ultimately, the rich girl decides to help (by this point they've had blows but they're juuuust starting to get used to each other and get along. Though rich girl is mainly doing this for her friend) so the three go back to protag's home in Australia for the weekend, where she participates in the game. Ultimately, they win. But before they go home, the protag's past is somehow revealed.
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> Protag's best friend in Australia also speaks Japanese to an extent, since she agreed to help protag learn it by practising together.
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> The Protag is generally pretty good at picking up on emotional cues, so she eventually deduces the reasons her senpai likes her. One of them being loneliness. She's not entirely against being a figure her senpai can depend on and care for, she's just scared of falling in love again herself. Despite all that, Protag is a gentle and caring person. She's a lot more laid back than her fellow students might be used to, a fairly standard Australian trait, also means she has to get used to Japanese formalities. She also struggles heavily with kanji. Keira Whelen (the protagonist) despite being okay with letting her Senpai love her, is a little hesitant when it comes to being touched. Another remnant from her past that maybe brings back bad memories. Towards the end once Protag, Keira, is able to overcome her fear and accept her feelings towards her Senpai, she faces this other fear. The two share an intimate moment, where she requests her Senpai to touch her. She's uncomfortable and squirmy at first, but refuses to give in, and does what she can to overcome it.
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> Back home, Keira is used to wearing shorts at school, since girls weren't forced to wear skirts at her school and her regular uniform was, like almost all public schools in the country, basically a sports uniform with shorts (or skirt) and a polo shirt. So it takes her a while to get adjusted to wearing a skirt, and she often complains about it.
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> Keira Whelen (Protagonist, Australian), Lily Bennett (Protag's best friend, Australian), Kahlem Goodrem (Keira and Lily's male friend, Australian), Nishikana Ririko (Main Senpai character, Japanese), Miyagawa Iori (Ririko's best friend, Japanese), Mitsue Maki (One of Keira's friends in Japan, Japanese), Mizuno Kari (Another of Keira's friends in Japan, Japanese), Nakao Ryushi (One of Keira's male friends in Japan, Japanese, track & field club)
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Some concept scenes have also been written for the story. They can be found here.