Natsusawa Saku

**Natsusawa Saku** (夏沢 朔) is one of the main characters of *Kaoru Hana wa Rin to Saku*.

## Appearance

Natsusawa is quite tall, standing only a little shorter than Rintaro. He has long black bangs, black eyes, and delicate/pretty facial features, and was stated to be good-looking by his friends. As he always has a gloomy atmosphere around him, it makes him seem uninviting and hard to talk to; adding on to that, he seems to get nervous when talking to others.

## Personality

Natsusawa is very shy and introverted. Given this he doesn't always get the right words out, creating awkward moments; however as he progresses, he's able to become more sincere and articulates himself better as he's trying to always support his friends.

Natsusawa is incredibily intelligent and sometimes even referred to as a genius. He helped Subaru and Kaoruko by showing them how to answer a difficult question in one of their advanced text books. However, his intelligence leads him to be ostracized in his last school with many pupils refusing to befriend or even speak to him because of his successes in exams. The teachers treated him no better, always idolizing him as the ideal hard-working student, relegating Saku to a role akin to a teacher's pet by singling him out to answer every question. A reality, Natsusawa grew to resent and hate, which ends with him deciding to distance himself and grow increasingly reserved with repressed feelings of anger, cynicism and coldness.

His cynicism is directed to individuals he isn't friendly towards often resorting to sardonicism and snarking although it is sometimes intended to defend his friends. This is seen when he first encounters both Kaoruko and Subaru at the library (along with the rest of Rintaro's group), with the latter exchanging snide remarks towards them to which he retaliates with callous remarks directed at both Waguri and Subaru much to the disapproval of Rintaro who reprimands him over it. Saku feels a sense of self-worth over his intelligence and the merits it comes with but this ironically proves to be the very thing he despises others for shunning him over, to the point that it blinded him from empathising with anyone who felt below him. Ultimately it ends up with Natsusawa pushing someone who would at least try to understand him away, leaving him feeling evermore lonely.

Under this cynical and angry front, Saku is an extremely lonely person given his troubled history in middle school, so much so that he is deeply remorseful over his combative and angry personality that drove people away. This is seen after his remarks regarding Kaoruko and Subaru where he expresses deep regret over his comments and apologises to both girls especially to Subaru who accepts it graciously. Later after apologising a second time for not understanding her own problems, she acknowledges that she knew he said those things for the sake of his friends. Saku also seems to be very perceptive being vividly aware of how people feel, even sometimes predicting that his friends are having problems. After being enrolled into Chidori he eventually comes round to befriending Rintaro, Shohei and Ayato expanding to the Waguri's group which changes his cynical and lonely outlook towards feeling valued. Saku deeply respects and cherishes his friends, even sometimes going out of his comfort zone to help them, which he never used to do at his previous schools.

## Relationships

### Family

* **Unnamed Mother**
* **Unnamed Father**
* **Unnamed Older Sister**
* **Natsusawa Mio** - (younger sister)

### Chidori Friends

* **Tsumugi Rintaro** - (friend)
* **Yorita Ayato** - (friend)
* **Usami Shohei** - (friend)

### Other Friends

* **Waguri Kaoruko** - (friend)
* **Hoshina Subaru** - (friend)

## Etymology

* **Natsusawa** contains the kanji for "summer" (夏) (**natsu**) and "swamp" (沢) (**sawa**).
* **Saku** contains the kanji for "conjunction (astronomy), first day of month" (朔).