Airi Gotou

* LN
* Manga
* Anime

**Airi Gotou** (後藤 愛依梨, *Gotō Airi*) is a supporting character in the *Hige wo Soru. Soshite Joshikousei wo Hirou.* series. She is Yoshida's boss at the IT company he is working for and his primary love interest.

## Appearance

Airi is a beautiful and mature fair-skinned woman with silky shoulder-length dark-brown hair that is either tied or braided by a gold hairband where it usually rests on her right shoulder with bangs hanging on the right side while she has a hair strand hanging on the left side, rich brown eyes, a beauty mark under her left eye and a massive chest.

She is always in her corporate attire; blazers, skirts and heels. In addition, she often wears a different silver necklace.

## Personality

Airi is a smart and manipulative type of woman who is always trying to get other people to say things she wants to hear. She asks questions despite the answers being obvious. Yoshida described her as a woman with an "I'm taunting you, what of it?" kind of attitude, which he dislikes, but at the same time found it extremely charming. She claimed that she never had a boyfriend and is a virgin, but she is more than capable of using her sensual side to her advantage. Aside from being manipulative, she is also good at hiding her true nature, which Sayu Ogiwara described as creepy.

Despite all of that, she is still a kind and caring person who opened Sayu's eyes and made her understand her situation, although in a roundabout way. She also sympathized with Yuzuha Mishima's feelings for Yoshida. Even though she's aware that Yoshida and Sayu are drawing closer to each other, she opted not to interfere and see through it.

## Background

Airi was already an employee of the company Yoshida applied to when they first met. Since then, they have maintained a good relationship as superior and subordinate. Soon enough, she became aware of Yoshida's attraction towards her and started to like him too. However, she did not do anything until Yoshida finally mustered up the courage to ask her on a date. She was confessed to by Yoshida, but she promptly rejected it as she claimed that she's already dating someone.

## Relationships

### Yoshida

Yoshida is Airi's subordinate and romantic interest. When she went out with Yoshida on a date, she was confessed to but rejected Yoshida because she already had a boyfriend. After that, they remained formal with each other until Airi became increasingly suspicious of Yoshida who's been going home early and Yuzuha Mishima clinging onto him. Wanting to find out if Yoshida has a girlfriend, she invited him out to dinner. Yoshida reassured her that he was dating no one and that she was the only one for him. When they went out together to a restaurant the second time, Yoshida confronted Airi and asked why she was so interested in his actions. Airi confessed that she has liked Yoshida for a long time but rejected him because she felt he's only interested in her body and the relationship won't work out. Airi then told Yoshida that she will be the one to confess to him in the future and asked him to wait until then. Yoshida then told Airi the truth about Sayu Ogiwara and the fact that they are living together.

### Sayu Ogiwara

Sayu is like a little sister to Airi. When they met for the first time, Sayu disliked Airi because she could not figure out her real thoughts and constantly flashed a smile that hides her true nature to which Sayu considered as creepy. Airi forced her to face her situation in the most straightforward way possible, something that Sayu always want to evade. But Sayu's opinion of her quickly changed as soon as she realized that Airi was trying to help her understand the reality of her situation and the fact that she wanted someone to scold and tell her to stop running away, for her and Yoshida's sake.

## Etymology

* The name **Airi** means "love, affection" (愛) (**a**), "rely on" (依) (**i**) and "pear" (梨) (**ri**).
* Airi's surname **Gotou** means "rear, remainder" (後) (**go**) and "wisteria" (藤) (**tou**).

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 *Light Novel Volume 2**, Chapter 5*
2. ↑ *Light Novel Volume 1, Prologue*
3. ↑ Anime Episode 2