Aki Mizuguchi

**Aki Mizuguchi** (水(みず)口(ぐち) 亜(あ)季(き), *Mizuguchi Aki*) is a supporting character of the manga series *Whisper Me a Love Song*. She is a third-year high school student and the bassist of the band SSGIRLS. She is best friends with Yori and was one of the first people to encourage her to pursue Himari.

## Personality

Aki is a peppy girl with a carefree attitude. She always manages to keep her band in a positive mindset and enjoys teasing them. Although, on the inside, she is quite self-conscious about her past and current relationships. Aki desperately does not want to lose anyone like she had lost Shiho, but she keeps these feelings bottled up, and only rants to Yori when requested. She cares about her friends deeply and is the one who selflessly got Himari to hook up with Yori despite her feelings for the latter.

## Relationships

### Yori Asanagi

Yori and Aki are best friends. Aki sometime after they became friends fell in love with her, having wanted several times to take an "extra step" but decided to not confess her feelings and only stay by her side as a friend in fear of losing their current relationship.

### Shiho Izumi

From the very beginning of Shiho's introduction, her relationship with Aki had been that of tension, hostility, and seemingly competitiveness. There was a visible dislike for one another which stemmed from their past in SSGIRLS, wherein Shiho left the band after she thought their abilities were not up to her's or her standards; though it's revealed it had to do with her unrequited crush on Aki, who had feelings for Yori at the time.

Aki and Shiho first became friends during their first year of high school, when Aki suggested that they form a band together after she discovered Shiho crying about once again falling out with her bandmates. SSGIRLS was soon formed after, with the addition of both Mari and Kaori.

Though often arguing about different music tastes, Aki found herself loving being in a band with Shiho. They were implied to be very close, Aki's sister Miki mentioning that Shiho often came to their place to hang out, and even saying her sister referred to Shiho as her best friend. However, their relationship became strained after Shiho walked in on Aki blushing over Yori's singing on her way to deliver a love letter to her, emotionally crushing her, unbeknownst to Aki. One day, Shiho decided that they weren't being serious about becoming professionals, to which Aki heatedly argued by criticizing Shiho's singing. A fight broke out in which Shiho admit to having hated performing with them, in turn leading Aki to grow frustrated, especially as she thought the both of them were very good friends and happy within the band, with Shiho's harsh words and thus slap her. Shiho then quit the band and formed Lorelei.

Later in the event of Himari's taste-testing party, Shiho finds out about Yori and Himari's relationship. After realizing "how everything was taken away," she offers Aki a wager in which, in the event that Shiho loses, she will tell her side of the story with the condition that Himari will become Lorelei's manager.

## Etymology

* The name **Aki** means "second, Asia" (亜, *a*) and "season" (季, *ki*).
* Aki's surname **Mizuguchi** means "water" (水, *mizu*) and "mouth, entrance" (口, *guchi*).