Ai Hayasaka/Relationships

**Spoiler Alert!** This article or section contains details not covered in the anime. Do not proceed unless you wish to be spoiled.

## Family

### Nao Hayasaka

**Nao Hayasaka** is Ai's mother. The two of them are shown to have a close relationship, though Ai is often upset by her mother's job keeping them from spending much time together.

## Employers

### Kaguya Shinomiya

**Kaguya Shinomiya** is Hayasaka's former master, however since they have been together since childhood they fully understand each other's strengths and flaws. Despite the difference in standing they treat each other as sisters. She is Kaguya's close confidante and frequently offers advice (and sometimes even takes action herself) to help progress Kaguya's relationship with Shirogane.

Hayasaka was secretly jealous of Kaguya, feeling that she isn't fully appreciated for all the support she gives, and that she hasn't been able to enjoy her own high school life due to her job working for the Shinomiyas. This comes to a head when she pretends to seduce Shirogane at a mixer to tease Kaguya, when in reality she was explaining her situation to him; this eventually results in Shirogane encouraging her to take off her public persona and show weakness (through a rap battle). She is then able to put her feelings into words and speak to Kaguya about her frustrations honestly. Kaguya manages to lessen her workload and the two stay close as ever.

It is later revealed that Hayasaka was placed to work under Kaguya on orders by Oko Shinomiya, with the intention to spy on Kaguya and have Hayasaka report her every movement, for an unknown purpose. Hayasaka has gone to great lengths to deceive her superiors but is ultimately afraid of the secrets she knows. Because her relationship with Kaguya was initially constructed with sinister purposes, Hayasaka feels tremendous guilt towards Kaguya.

As of Chapter 187, Hayasaka has officially retired from her position, allowing her and Kaguya to openly treat each other as friends.

### Oko Shinomiya

Oko was Hayasaka's true employer, who assigned her to spy on Kaguya. They are never shown interacting beyond this capacity and it is unknown what has become of their relationship since her retirement from serving the Shinomiya family.

## Friends

### Miyuki Shirogane

Hayasaka and Shirogane became texting buddies after meeting up at a mixer, where Hayasaka revealed that she was an employee of the Shinomiya family. Their philosophies differed on whether humans could be loved for their true flawed selves, rather than for the perfect 'masks' one wears in public. In an effort to show vulnerability and prove his point, Shirogane attempted to rap, which led to her being traumatized. Shirogane would later call her onto campus to rap once more, admitting that he wears a mask in public but strives to make that false, perfect identity into his true self. This has a profound effect on Hayasaka, who is finally able to speak (through rap) her true feelings to Kaguya.
She gave him chocolates on Valentine's Day and befriends him once again as Ai Hayasaka, not Hasaka A Smithee.

Hayasaka is one of the few people to call Shirogane by his given name. Their relationship is strictly platonic, and she admitted to Kaguya that she has zero interest in pursuing a romantic relationship with him.

Hayasaka is shown to immensely enjoy teasing Shirogane, both while under her Smithee guise and as her real self. After she and Shirogane talk about his bad eyesight and needing glasses or contacts, she leaves teasing him about Kaguya having a eyeball licking fetish, to which Kaguya herself was very open to. Un'yo was able to easily deduce that Shirogane was extremely important to Haysaka and would assign her to be Shirogane's bodyguard against the Shinomiya Family to prevent him from being taken hostage. Taking countermeasures and would constantly watch over him outside of Shuchi'in Academy.

### Chika Fujiwara

Due to Chika's close relationship with Kaguya, she has interacted with Hayasaka (and her alter-egos) on multiple occasions. Hayasaka considers Chika to be a "natural disaster" whose behavior is absolutely unpredictable, and capable of causing chaos simply by being present. Chika has foiled so many missions that she has her own special designation: Subject F. As of Chapter 30, the record versus Fujiwara is 17 battles, 9 wins and 8 losses.

Hayasaka in her 'Gal Mode' appears to be on friendly terms with Chika, greeting each other naturally and speaking casually with one another. However, being in Gal Mode for extended periods of time is quite stressful and makes her unable to hold back retorts to Chika's nonsensical actions.

As Hayasaka relies on this persona at school, she cannot use it at home and risk blowing her cover when Chika comes to visit. In such cases, she cross-dresses as a male butler ("Haysaca-kun"), who Fujiwara considers to be quite attractive. When asked if 'he' and Kaguya were involved romantically, Haysaca-kun truthfully discloses that 'he' is attracted to men. This further complicated things when Shirogane asks to meet Hayasaka (who comes in disguise) at school to rap, with Fujiwara misconstruing the two as having a homosexual relationship.

The two eventually become good friends, even working together to help Kaguya avoid her family's plans. In one scene, Chika even being pleasantly impressed by Ai's masculinity and confidence, extremely embarrassedly states that she won't mind if "Hayasaka kisses her, but only once", still thinking that Ai might have some kind of crush on her. Anyway, at the end of the arc, you can see that Chika stood around for almost the entire scene peeking out from behind Ai, thus showing that she trusts her enough as a friend and protector.

The alleged flashword in Hayasaka's last chapter and her page in the latest manga omake imply that Ai eventually became an unemployed freeloader in Fujiwara's household, who spends all her time watching short videos and generally acts like a spoiled teenager. Although this seems to irritate Fujiwara unusually, who gets annoyed at the abuse of her hospitality (Ai previously tried to temporarily stay at Kaguya's house, but was kicked out of there due to laziness) and even at some point shouts "someone, take this big baby!", the epilogue implies that by staying in the teenage phase a little longer than her friends, Ai is simply enjoying the teenage time she never had before, and so those around her look sympathetically with understanding at her behavior.

### **Yu Ishigami**

Hayasaka initially meets Ishigami through Maki and Shirogane when the four of them hung out after school at a batting cage. The two quickly bond over a mutual interest in technology, and Hayasaka gives him advice on how to study undistracted by electronics. Their Relationship continued to Blossom over the years and they are now on first name Terms.

### Mirin Hinokuchi & Subaru Suruga

Hayasaka regularly hangs out with both of them during school hours but they rarely meet up at any other time due to her work as Kaguya's valet (they are under the impression that she has a part-time job). They both consider her to be a close friend and refuse to spread rumors about her behind her back. What makes Hayasaka exclaim in surprise "what?!"

### Karen Kino & Erika Kose

Karen and Erika are Kaguya fangirls that Hayasaka befriended and joined their unofficial club in order to keep an eye on them. Both are convinced that she is a fellow Kaguya fangirl. After retiring as Kaguya's maid, she would also leave their club but they would remain friends and would ask her for insights on Kaguya.

## Others

### Maki Shijo

As a member of the Shinomiya family, **Maki Shijo's** was one of the only people in Shuchi'in Academy aware of Hayasaka's status as Kaguya's valet prior to her retirement. Hayasaka and Maki are not very close, only interacting when Miyuki or Kaguya bring them together, but they display strong respect for each other.