Characters/Miku Maruyama

Miku Maruyama

Personal Information
Surname Name	Maruyama Miku
Birthday (Age)	June 8th (n/a)
Type of Character	Main
Additional Information
Hair Color	Wine Red
Eye Color	Amber
Height	5′ 0′′ (153cm)
Job(s)	unknown
Hobby(s)	Soccer
Like(s)	Physical education Sports Jogging
Dislike(s)	Learning Loud noises
Family	Unnamed Parents †
Affiliation	Soccer Club (Captain, Chap. 1-2) Swimming Club (Chap. 3)
First Appearance	First (?) Day of School (Introduction) A New You (Picture)
Notes	unknown

'Miku has a hard time figuring out when to stop talking. In fact, I don’t think she has figured it out even once. She has far too much energy for her own good and constantly needs to be reminded to either quiet down or stop running in circles around the classroom. She excels in physical education and is arguably the strongest player on the school’s soccer team. When it comes to every other class or subject, however, she needs a significant amount of additional coaching. Thankfully she’s very close with Makoto and seems to care deeply about making her happy.'

— Sensei's notes

Miku Maruyama is part of the Main Cast of in Lessons In Love. She is part of the original ten girls in Sensei's class. She lives in Room 3 with Makoto Miyamura.

Background

Miku's past is mostly unknown as she refuses to talk about it. Her refusal to bring up her past is understandable as Miku not only lost her parents in a tragedy, but witnessed it. Her psyche was damaged beyond repair, leaving her with a permanent issue with loud noises. Extended exposure to them, or sudden spikes in volumes, such as lightning strikes, can cause her to snap into a fit of hysteria, causing her to cry, ramble nonsensically, and tear at her hair.

It was finally revealed in Rostrum of Recollection what happened to her parents – One night, armed burglars broke into their house and attempted to steal anything of value. Miku, who was awake at the time to get a glass of water, noticed the strangers and managed to leave the room unnoticed. She sneaked to her parents room and tried to warn them, but they only believed her after they heard noises from the other room. Her parents hid her under the bed and investigated the source of the noise, which was followed by loud bangs before anything went silent. Once Miku was brave enough to see what happened, she found her parents corpses, being killed by gun shots. Having lost her parents and feeling responsible for leading them to their death, her psyche completely broke.

Her current situation is similarly shrouded, as it's unknown when she recovered from the incident or what her living conditions are outside of the dorm, as, according to Io in Two Of Us Are Thinking, she doesn't seem to have any legal guardians. It's only known that she has a close relationship with the Miyamura family, being seen as a surrogate daughter by Maki, and ended up in Sensei's class once she attended Kumon-mi High.

Characteristics

Despite her tragic past, Miku has a cheery personality, being extremely optimistic and excitable in most situations. She also has a lot of energy often rambling on and on in conversation, and needed to expend it through near constant exercise. Despite being so easy-going, she takes her training and her position as captain of the soccer team very serious and reprimands everyone who slacks off, which includes Kirin. She also has a competitive mindset and enjoys every opportunity to compete with others, but due to the city being locked down, that chance doesn’t come up often.

While Miku excels in physical activities, she struggles with mental tasks and studying. Despite Makoto’s bests efforts to tutor her, she has a hard time understanding basic concepts and often mixes up the meaning of words and misuses them. She also doesn’t understand basic innuendos and doesn’t realize when she uses phrases that can be construed or misinterpreted. This ignorance seems to come from a lack of experience, as her understanding improves over time.

Miku is also somewhat insecure about her body. While she doesn’t mind her tomboyish looks and figure most of the time, she has a complex about her chest, though unlike Ami, who acts passive-aggressive to those more endowed than her or point out her lack of development, Miku gets furious and verbally assaults those who are more blessed than her. She also gets nervous whenever her hairstyle changes and feels uncomfortable in feminine clothes, like dresses.

Relationships

Sensei

Miku has a friendly relationship with Sensei and immediately tries to recruit him as the new coach of the soccer team, eventually forcing him into the position after getting tired of his noncommittal answers. From time to time, she also persuades him into physical activities, like jogging with her.

Through these situations, she slowly develops feelings for him. While she knows that she likes him a lot, she isn’t sure what to call the feeling, causing her to be very nervous around Sensei whenever the conversation turns towards romance or beyond, often rushing to change the topic. Despite her struggles, the two continue to get close, but she puts her foot down, not letting Sensei advance their relationship any further, opting to support Makoto in her love instead.

While this suppression worked for a few several months, they still came out on rare occasions and after receiving his gift in No Escape, she was unable to contain them any further and kissed Sensei as her resolve fainted. After confessing to Makoto and getting her permission to explore her feelings, she embraces them and gets closer to Sensei, even being okay with certain forms of physical affection.

Makoto

Makoto is Miku's roommate. Although the two girls don't have much in common, they share a deep friendship, with Miku respecting Makoto as a superior in some cases. Makoto is one of the few people who know about her past and is able to help her with her panic attacks or, in some cases, the aftermath of them.

Miku is aware of Makoto’s feelings for Sensei and knows everything they have done together. She supports their relationship wholeheartedly, knowing that Sensei is an important person in her life and that she needs his affection, and was ready to put her own feelings aside for her, even though her support came with a lot of heartache. Following the class' second Christmas party, the two admit to their mutual feelings in Sensei, becoming rivals in love.

Karin

Karin is Miku's teammate and serves as her co-captain. Thanks to that, she and Miku share an incredibly strong relationship with each other, centering all their conversations around soccer and the team. Karin is also one of the few people who knows about her past and can handle her panic attacks.

Kirin

Miku's relationship with Kirin shows some ups and downs as Miku respects Kirin as her teammate, but occasionally scolds her for not trying hard enough on practices and for open flirting with Sensei in front of her. The two hang out frequently due to sharing a club and, later, sharing a class. While they aren't as close as Miku is with Makoto, they're willing to confide in her about certain things, such as their intimacy with Sensei.

Sana

Sana and Miku seem to have a friendly relationship as they're seen together during multiple class events. They don't speak much, on account of sharing different friend circles, but Miku's considers her a sister-in-arms due to their similar statures. Miku often likes to play video games with her when Makoto isn't around.

Io

Miku and Io didn't interact much with each other for a long time, only really starting after Popping Off and getting closer during the time jump. Io shared her medication with Miku, which helped her to keep her psychotic breakdowns in check and allowed her to have a better life. As a result, both became good friends, with Miku becoming one of the few girls Io can tolerate.

While she stopped receiving more medicine from Io after an accidental overdose and being caught with withdrawal symptoms, they still have a good relation as shown in Our Fathers.

Memorable Quotes

• "Friendship's a big thing, Sensei. It's a dog-eating world out there."
• "This is the single worst thing you could have gotten me..."
• "I might not be as smart or feminine as the other girls, but I’ve got tons of energy and I can’t think of anybody I’d rather spend it on than you."

Trivia

• Miku was the first character who got a permanent and significant change of hairstyle and also the first to have it change more than once.
• Miku isn't fond of coffee. If she has to drink a coffee, she needs 8 tablespoons of sugar as mentioned by Makoto in Walk in the Park.
• As of v0.28.0, Miku is tied with Nodoka for the least amount of signatures on her whiteboard.

Gallery

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  Miku's first summer outfit

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  Miku's winter outfit and appearance

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  Miku's second summer outfit and appearance

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  Miku's first school uniform

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  Miku's second school uniform

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  A dress Miku first wears during Someone Else's Skin

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  Miku's soccer team uniform

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  Miku's swim team uniform

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  Miku's first swimsuit

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  Miku's second swimsuit

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  Miku's costume during the 1st Halloween Party - Devil

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  Miku's costume during the 2nd Halloween Party - Prince

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  Miku's costume during the 3rd Halloween Party - Gyaru

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  Miku's costume during the 4th Halloween Party - Peni Parker

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  Miku's pajamas

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  Miku's gym outfit