Mayuko Shiraki

**Mayuko Shiraki** (白木 繭子, *Shiraki Mayuko*), more commonly known by her nickname **Mayu** (繭, *****Mayu*****), is Tohru Honda's homeroom teacher at Kaibara Municipal High School. Because she is young, headstrong, and understanding of her students, she is very much well-liked by them. Mayu's parents, who are worried about her being unmarried, run a bookstore named "Shiraki Books", where she sometimes helps out.

Mayu is best friends with Kana Sohma, and while she only has wished for her happiness, Mayu has in fact always had feelings for Hatori Sohma. After Kana marries someone else, Mayu got the push from both Kana and her previous boyfriend Shigure Sohma to romantically pursue Hatori. However, she ended up in a romantic relationship with Twice.

## Description

### Appearance

Mayu is a young adult woman with a tall and slim build, fair skin, and sharp, light brown eyes. Additionally, she has a beauty-mark under her left eye. She has long, straight, light brown hair with free-falling bangs covering most of her forehead, which she wears in different styles. At school, she keeps it tied into a ponytail at the back. When at home or during other occasions, she keeps her hair down, sometimes with a piece of her hair tied into a bun at the back.

She usually wears buttoned shirts but is also known for wearing casual clothing. She is usually seen in a top and a pair of jeans, on special ocassions, she would wear dresses.

### Personality

Mayuko is depicted as a good-humored, funny, and sometimes aggressive woman. She is a also strict and no-nonsense person in front of her students, but her interactions with them prove that she can have fun. For instance, she slammed Kyo with a book after he attempted to escape from one of her classes, and threatened to dye his hair black if he did it again. She also poured a bucket of water over Kyo and Haru to interrupt their fight. Despite that, she cares deeply about her students and wants them to succeed in life. Although she doesn't like to meddle in personal business, she is able to stand up for her students and is seen to be visibly upset when her student's parents are rude, such as the case when she had a conference with Yuki and his mother. While she is called an "aggressive woman" by Kyo, she is well-loved by her students.

Mayu has a tough exterior but is also very outspoken, social, rarely afraid to say what she is thinking, and wears her emotions on the sleeve. Although she is quite easy-going for the most part, she can be level-headed and firm when needed. She is very independent and true to herself; this stems from her previous relationship with Shigure, as they both only dated each other to ease their loneliness. Mayu never wants to go back to the person she was back then because she understands that dating other people will increase her loneliness. She simply states that she won't be defeated by her loneliness and will choose her happiness for herself.

Despite her tough exterior, Mayu is devoted to those she cares about, such as Kana and Hatori. She is extremely selfless and often thinks about others before herself; Kana describes her as a person who is so considerate of others that she sometimes tends to suppress her own feelings. Although she has always been in love with Hatori, she decided to ignore her own feelings because she only wished for Kana and Hatori to be happy together.

## Etymology

* The name **Mayuko** means 真 (**ma**) meaning "real, genuine" combined with 悠 (**yu**) meaning "leisurely" and 子 (**ko**) meaning "child".
* **Shiraki** means 白木 'white tree'.

## Trivia

* Mayu's biggest mistake in life was dating Shigure to try getting over her feelings for Hatori.
* She likes to be called "Mayuko-daisensei-sama", literally meaning "Great Teacher Mayuko-sama".
* The subject she teaches was never specified, but in an author's note, Natsuki Takaya stated it is probably Literature.