About

Shota Kazehaya's best friend. He has been active in the high school baseball club since his freshman year, serving as the cleanup hitter and catcher. Unlike his friend, he spends most of his time sleeping during class. He is fundamentally taciturn and cool-headed, rarely showing emotion or changing his facial expression. However, considering his decent grades, he seems to be quite intelligent. He is also occasionally seen reading others' thoughts by observing their behavior. His family consists of his father, who runs a ramen shop, and his older brother, Toru Sanada, who lives independently in Sapporo. After school, he appears to help his father by serving customers. He is poor at remembering other people's names. He is childhood friends with Chizuru Yoshida, having known her since they were young. Because he is quiet and clumsy at expressing himself, he was often misunderstood, but Chizuru would fight on his behalf to clear those misunderstandings. He likes her, but unfortunately, Chizuru only views Ryu as a friend with whom she shares a sibling-like bond; in reality, she has a crush on his brother Toru, who is eight years older. Even knowing this, Ryu doesn't feel jealous of his brother. Instead, as soon as he hears that his brother is bringing home a woman he intends to marry, he worries first about Chizuru, who will be hurt by the news, showing his extraordinary love for her. As a buzz-cut athlete with a large build and a silent demeanor, he can seem quite intimidating at first, but he is actually a very good guy. While he seems to have almost no emotional expression, he is surprisingly a romantic at heart and loves cute things. Though he rarely smiles in the story, his smile is quite charming. He also has a kind side, comforting Chizuru when she is depressed after being heartbroken by Toru's marriage. He lost his mother in a traffic accident when she was coming to meet him on a snowy road during a heavy blizzard in his childhood. Worried about him as he neither cried nor laughed, Chizuru would make rice balls—the kind his mother used to make—and leave them at his door every day. On Tanabata, he read Chizuru's wish to become his brother's bride and thought the rice balls were for his brother, but one day, seeing Chizuru leave the rice balls, he finally burst into tears. He mostly speaks in short, blunt sentences.