Keita Narabuko

**Keita Narabuko** is a character in Okotowari Shimasu. He's a second year student at Nantoka High School and the male class president of class 2-1, as well as an ex-model. He works in a convenience store and lives with his twin sister, Maiko Narabuko.

## Appearance

Keita is Maiko's twin brother, and as such they're physicially identical. However, Keita distinguishes himself from his sister by wearing a headband that pushes his bangs up and not wearing Maiko's signature hair bows. Just like his sister, he has red hair and purple eyes.

Keita wears a standard Nantoka High School Uniform with an unbuttoned jacket during the winter. However during the summer he seems to wear a normal, long-sleeved uniform shirt with its sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

When seen wearing casual otufits, Keita usually wears simple clothes, despite his past as a model. When seen at home at the end of chapter 23 he was wearing glasses, which suggests he usually wears contact lenses.

He was seen wearins his bangs down in chapter 25, which makes him easy to mistake for his sister Maiko. However, according to Katsuo, they're still easy to tell appart by looking at the lenght of their hair.

It's shown during flashbacks that Keita only started pulling his bangs up with his headband after being kicked out of the house, possibly in order to differentiate himself from Maiko. It's also shown during flashbacks that he was originally the one who wore the purple bows Maiko now wears, as he's seen wearing both of them as a child and one of them during middle school, Maiko wearing the other.

## Powers and Abilities

Being a normal human being, Keita doesn't have any kind of special powers.

However, he is a very talented chef, and is very good at everything related to home economics.

In Chapter 22, Kou said he and Maiko have started to become inmune to some kinds of magic (such as Haruto's camouflage spell) due to the time they've spent with thim. They may also been gaining some of Kou's weakest powers, although those haven't manifested as of yet.

## Personality

Keita is a cheerful and outgoing boy, who has no trouble befriending people. He is very quick to become friends with Kou and Akie, and isn't discouraged to talk to more asocial people like Katsuo. He's usually making jokes and having fun, doing things such as suggesting a courage test to have fun with his friends. Despite this, he can point out when something is too strange even for him.

He enjoys reading manga and sometimes geeks out about his favorite anime, Go! Heartbeat Cutie X, with Hotaru. It's also very easy for him to get dragged whenever someone is having fun, as seen when he joined Hotaru and Seraphina's excitement over their Kyoto trip.

Despite his usual cheerful attitude, he shows a very different side of himself when it comes to his romantic feelings for Katsuo. He gets embarrassed quickly, to the point of rejecting his feelings at first. However, once he realized and embraced them them, he started trying to spend as much time possible with him, and trying to gain some praise from him, which shows he's determined when it comes to love. Before he developed feelings for Katsuo, he stated that if he had someone he liked, he'd tell them right away.

## Background

Not much is known about Keita's backstory. He was born and raised with his sister Maiko, and they were always popular, to the point that some people thought they might become a couple when they grew up despite being brother and sister.

When Maiko and Keita were in elementary school, he received a box of valentine chocolate from an anonymous admirer. Keita tried to find the sender, not knowing it was actually a gift from his own sister.

They both worked as models, however at some point he decided to quit modeling. His mother was against it, and ended up kicking him out of their house. As a result, Keita started working in a convenience store, not wanting to rely on his sister's money. At some point, Maiko started living with him.

During his first year of high school he was in the same class as Maiko and Katsuo. Despite never becoming friends with him, Katsuo mentions that Keita was always obnoxious and very social, even towards him.

## Story

Keita's first appearance was back in chapter 5, where he was wearing a slightly different hairstyle. He's the student who tells Kanae that everyone has their group, and he's also sitting next to Maiko when she realizes Group 5 is missing.

He first approaches Kou out of curiosity, due to how he'd managed to befriend Akie and Katsuo. Due to his friendly nature, he doesn't have any trouble becoming friends with him and Akie, and joins the group shortly after. He teases and jokes around with Katsuo since the first time they talk during chapter 8, when he says his hairstyle is what makes him stand out. As they plan how to make Kou more plain, Keita is the one usually coming up with ideas, or asking others with help.

When Seraphina transfers to their class, Keita is the first to get information on her. He's very eager to learn more about her, even trying to speak with her using his terrible English skills.

During the Survival Game, Keita wanted to get the prize due to his terrible grades, and convinced Erina not to give up for that very reason. He teamed up with Seraphina in order to help Katsuo win, to then try and convince him to give the prize to one of them. However, both of them are eliminated by Katsuo, who's more focused on his rivalry with Kou than his grades.

Keita was the first person to point out Akie's feelings for Kou, before he had even realized them himself. He encourages him to accept his feelings and to confess, although Akie ultimately decides he won't confess. While talking about feelings, Keita says that if there was someone he liked, he's just tell them instead of hiding it. As he describes his ideal partner (a good friend he can tease, smaller than him, that gets dragged along with him and fails his same classes), he realizes Katsuo fits the description. Maiko tells him to not get into a romantic subplot or he'd have too much screentime, which turns out to be exactly what happens.

After failing six of his final exams before summer and being sentenced to summer classes, Keita starts developing romantic feelings for Katsuo. They begin when they have to share an umbrella, and Keita notices the romantic mood and how Katsuo looks more attractive than before. These feelings only get stronger during the courage test. Katsuo asks Keita if something has happened, as he's noticed him acting strange around him, but isn't able to figure out exactly why. This makes Keita happy, but he ends up running away from his feelings and the courage test.

Confronted with his newfound feelings for Katsuo, he decides he'll probably forget all about him if he doesn't thnk or see him for a while. However, just as he's thinking about this, Katsuo starts working part-time at the same store as him. As they have to spend more time together and Katsuo once again voices his corncern about Keita's actions again, Keita accepts he has a crush on him, and starts working towards becoming closer to him. For example, trying to get them alone during the Summer Festival when they have to go look for the girls who got separated.

Once school starts again, Keita and Maiko find out that Haruto has been going to school as a member of the student council. Since they see him with his demon appearance, they approach him to confront him about it. Kou explains they're starting to become inmune to some kind of magic (such as Haruto's camouflage spell which makes him look human) because of the time they've spend together. Even as they're told by Haruto and Kou to not worry about it, both Keita and Maiko are still very worried about Haruto walking around as a demon.

When the Sports Festival approaches, Keita's focus goes back on becoming closer to Katsuo. Since he knows Katsuo loves sports, he hopes performing well in the festival will make Katsuo praise him. He also expects to take a good photo of him as he's crossing the line of the relay race, which he'll trasure. None of these two go well however, as he's paired with Maiko for the three-legged race in which they perform badly, and his photo of Katsuo turns out to be blurry. However, without him knowing, Katsuo took a photo of him during the race, which he finds in his camera without knowing who took it.

During the School Trip, after spending the whole day standing very close to Katsuo, which only made him

more nervous, Keita finds Katsuo standing on top of a heart-shaped tile in the inn. Having heard the rumor that whoever confesses to the person they like while they're standing on the tile, as well as some encouragement from Maiko and a positive love fortune before, he confesses his feelings to Katsuo. However, Katsuo isn't able to answer right away, which makes Keita nervous. He laughs it off, saying he just wantsed to get it out of his chest, and pushes Katsuo around so he'll go meet with Akie and Kou. However, when he's left alone, he starts crying.

Afterwards, Keita acts as if nothing happened, but Maiko can still tell something is wrong with him. However, due to their strained relationship, none of them say anything. This causes Maiko to worry enough to force her to take a few days off from work. When the Beauty Contest begins, Keita receives enough votes to participate. He doesn't like the idea at first, considering the whole thing a pain, but becomes motivated to win when he realizes Katsuo is popular. He intends to stop Katsuo from winning so that he won't have more love rivals, but is eliminated on the first round.

A few days later, Katsuo asks Keita to go out with him. Surprised, Keita learns that Katsuo was asked out by Amu, and the only way to get to leave him alone was to say he was already dating someone. Keita agrees to fake-date Katsuo for the day, but Amu is quick to see through their lie. Amu challenges Keita and Katsuo to prove their love to her, and when they do she admits defeat and leaves. Believing everything is over, Keita talks about going back to the classroom before being asked out by Katsuo again, this time for real. Katsuo explains how he just wanted time to think about Keita's confession, and he's shocked to learn about this. They start going out, but Keita asks Katsuo to keep their relationship a secret in order to help Akie and Hotaru with their own love lives.

## Relationships

### Kou Omori

He first approached Kou when he thought he might be fun to hang around with, due to the many things always happening around him. He had no problem befriending him, and since then they've been good friends. Keita is very supportive of Akie's feelings for Kou, although he seems to be a little closer to Akie.

### Akie Shirogami

Keita was the person who made Akie realize his romantic feelings towards Kou, and he's supportive of him in that regard, going out of his way to leave him and Kou alone during the summer festival (even if he also benefit from being alone with Katsuo). They seem to be good friends and enjoy being around each other.

### Katsuo Tomoda

They met each other when they were first years, and ever since then Keita tried to approach and befriend Katsuo. Even though he ignored him, once Keita joined the group they became friends almost instantly, thanks to Katsuo being pulled into Keita's plans to make Kou stand out less. They enjoy each other's company, with Katsuo being shown close to Keita most of the time. When they were talking about love, Keita descibed his ideal partner as a good friend, someone he could tease and who'd respond to his jokes, who failed the same classes as him and got dragged along with him. Realizing Katsuo fits this description, there was a small moment between them, but Maiko quickly interrumpted it. Despite that, Keita's prediction ended up becoming true, as he started developing a crush for Katsuo after they shared an umbrella and went together during the courage test. This realization made him act strange around Katsuo, who noticed and asked him about it twice. Moved by this, Keita asked Katsuo what he was to him, to which he answered that he was a good friend. Keita finally admitted his feelings towards him, and has tried spending more time with him and impressing him.

During the School Trip to Kyoto, Keita confessed his feelings to Katsuo. However, he panicked when he didn't give him an answer right away and asked him for some time, which made Keita say he wasn't even expecting an answer. He pushed him away, but still cried when he realized his feelings weren't mutual.

Some time later, Katsuo asked Keita to pretend to be dating him as a means of driving Amu away, and Keita accepted to help. Even though Amu didn't believe their lie at first, she admitted Keita's feelings for Katsuo, and eventually gave up on pursuing Katsuo. When he thought they were done, Katsuo suddenly asked him out again, this time for real. Keita was surprised to learn about Katsuo's feelings, but happily accepted them and they begun a romantic relationship. Despite this, Keita said he wanted to keep their relationship a secret, so that Akie and Hotaru wouldn't feel awkward and could pursue their own romantic interests.

### Erina Yoshisaki

Erina and Keita have similar outgoing personalities, so they have no problem talking with each other. They don't seem to be particularly close, but they're friends who enjoy each other's company.

### Hotaru Akina

Keita and Hotaru are good friends, although it's unclear how they became close. They both share a love for the anime series Go! Heartbeat Cute X and tend to talk about it whenever something supernatural happens.

### Maiko Narabuko

Being twins, Keita and Maiko grew up together. However despite this, they don't seem to be especially close. However, they are both very popular and seem to always get chosen for everything, including being class presidents. Keita has expressed that he wants to be independent from Maiko, not wanting to depend on the money she makes as a model to live his life.

After Keita's failed confession during the School Trip, Maiko notices a change in Keita's behaviour and mood, despite him hiding it to the rest of his friends. She starts worrying over him and not being able to talk about it due to them not being close, which influences her own life.

It was revealed in chapter 31 that Maiko used to have a crush on Keita when they were kids, something he knew nothing about. After Maiko explains that she left valentine chocolate in Keita's shoe locker when they were in elementary school, Keita says he's suprised by it, but ultimately finds it "gross" to think his own sister was the first person to give him chocolate. Maiko agrees to this statement, saying she's already well over her crush and no longer has any kind of romantic feelings for him.

### Seraphina Klein

Keita became interested in Seraphina when he found out he was transferring, although he was surprised when she turned out looking nothing like what he thought she would. Despite this, Keita found Seraphina incredibly cute, even getting angry at Katsuo when he told her she spoke weird. Ever since, Keita and Seraphina have shared a close friendship, with Seraphina's naïve attitude being easily dragged with Keita's antics.

### Amu Kiyuu

The two of them are shown to have a very competitive attitude towards the other, as both of them want to prove their feelings for Katsuo. During chapter 29, Amu constantly calls Keita "faker-senpai" and acts coldly towards him. However, once she accepts Keita and Katsuo's relationship, he softens a little, realizing how being rejected may have hurt her. She doesn't care about this though, and instead says farewell to both senpai with a smile and a much more cheerful attitude than before.

## Gallery

Keita in Chapter 14's coverKeita blushing while sharing an umbrella with KatsuoKeita wearing a jumper during the 2016 Christmas Q&A eventKeita's smileKeita posing with his yukataMaiko with Maiko and Haruto in Chapter 22's coverKeita and Maiko during the three-legged raceKeita wearing glasses at homeKeita with his hair downKeita participating in the Beauty ContestKeita wearing cat ears
## Trivia

* Keita's name means "older brother". Ironically, he's the younger twin.
* The kanji for his surname, 双子, literally means "twins".
* Keita, Maiko and Seraphina weren't originally going to be part of the main cast, and were only added to the story once the series had already begun.
* Keita's sexuality was confirmed to be bisexual. He's also confirmed to be a trans boy.
* Despite no longer being a model, he's still kind of popular. He got 85 votes to participate in the Beauty Contest, although he was eliminated in the first round.
* Keita dressed up as a cat for the Pet Day.

## References

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/erbezdiez/status/1003216046617255938