Ikumi Kobayashi

Physical Appearance
Ikumi is a woman of average height with an slim to average build. Her bodyshape can be described as a somewhat slender hourglass, with most of her features are slightly more thin and delicate, though it doesn't mean that she is out of shape, as she possesses higher endurance due to years of dance practice. Her most notable body feature is her back, which is slender and well-defined with prominent scapulas.

Her face is heart-shaped and typically considered cute when bare. She has straight average dark brown brows and upturned eyes with hooded eyelids. Her nose is considered notable by some by its small defined bridge and bulb, and small nostrils, which does lead to noisy sniffling when sick. Her lips are small and heart-like, with a wider yet smaller upper lip and a narrower yet plumper bottom lip, which are accompanied by upturned mouth corners. Her jaw is narrow and her chin is rounded, forming a V shape with a soft point. She has shoulder length dark brown hair, often parted on the side and with no bangs. She has two notable moles, one at the start of her right eyebrow and one underneath the right side of her mouth.

Style Profile
Ikumi is notably known for preferring to dress in a romantic goth style. Her preferred colors are black, crimson and bruise purple, though she is willing to try colors outside of her comfort zone if she feels like it fits her image. Her preferred clothing types are long sleeve tops and full length pants. This preference does adapt according to circumstances, such as adopting biker shorts for a hot weather outfit but still retaining a long sleeve bodysuit in order to cover skin from the sun, or wearing more practical pants during work hours. She does like elegant and detailed accessories such as hats adorned with tulle or flowers and earrings with complex designs.

Ikumi tends to style her in a side part in simple yet elegant styles, such as with a subtle wave, but this doesn't stop her from persuing more elaborate styles for special occasions, such as updos with pearl adornments for example. Her makeup style is typically consistent featuring a dark warm-toned eyeshadow with a darker outer corner, a black eyeliner wing and dark lipstick in colors such as plum and crimson.

Personality
Ikumi is seen as a surprisingly sweet person, as her ghoulish attire does intimidate some strangers from approaching her, but she is able to quickly reveal a sweeter side. This aspect of her is also why some people, such as her husband and in-laws, find her so charming, as she's quite nice but also able to keep people on her feet by playing into her gothic victorian aesthetic, as she sometimes shows off her quirks such as having wax-stamped letters just to let people know she's on a sick leave or having gothic memorabilia adorning her work desk, which may surprise onlookers but is a common sight for people who know her.

Ikumi is often passionate about her work, as she has always been proactive in terms of getting her work done quickly and effectively and helping out others in her workplace. This behaviour is present at both her past job as a member of an idol group and her current job as the head of human resources at the firm she works at. Due to her friendly and helpful nature, she's typically liked at her places of work, as she's on good terms with past and present co-workers. However, this doesn't mean she has had a clash of heads with certain people, as not everyone is as receptive of her advice or look, as some feel that she is obnoxious or unprofessional and should keep her gothic things at home and focus on the work instead. This doesn't affect Ikumi as she feels that those people should be able to differenciate her aesthetic from the actual work she is doing but is willing to agree to disagree with said people.

Backstory
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Ren Kobayashi
Ren is Ikumi's husband and they have a healthy playful relationship, despite some onlookers considering them an unlikely pairing as they seem incompatible at first sight, as Ren's shy geeky nature doesn't quite match up with Ikumi's sultry yet lively nature. However, Ikumi quite likes her husband's personality, as she loves listening to him geeking out as she is willing to try to understand his game development jargon to follow him into his passionate side. However, his shy side does have its perks, as it allows her to toy with him here and there, keeping the relationship interesting. On the other hand, Ren also appreciates how passionate Ikumi can get with both her gothic sense of style and her career, as she can also get quite passionate about her work. Due to their passion together and their overall dynamic, they tend to click well together as a couple as they are often upfront about how they feel and work together to resolve issues, instead of letting feelings and concerns stew over time.

Sakiko Kobayashi
Ikumi acknowledges that Sakiko has a bit of a tough time being social, due to having trust issues with people she doesn't know due to an incident in middle school in which she was bullied for being considered weird and scary, but she still encourages her daughter to continue trying to meet new people and is willing to help her daughter to get over this problem. Apart from that, Ikumi still supports her through the battles of growing up and self-discovery, as Sakiko is still growing and learning about herself as a person. Sakiko appreciates her parents for this, as she feels that having what some consider as "weird" parents has let her be more open and expressive of her own quirks and interests.

Goro Kobayashi
Ikumi and Goro have plenty of common ground for getting along, which benefits them both in both home and work. As coworkers, they possess good communication which builds a friendly atmosphere within the accounting department, which helps keep stress at work at bay. They both enjoy gag humor which tends to liven up the mood, though it may close less playful people off from the banter in the process, which is the case with a couple of coworkers. Despite that, they still enjoy each other's company and see each other as a helping hand, which is why Goro was overjoyed when finding out that Ikumi proposed to his son as he feels that he can trust his only child's hand to someone like Ikumi.

Tsubaki Kobayashi
Due to Ikumi's good reputation with her son Ren and her husband Goro, Tsubaki has plucked up her courage to interact with Ikumi despite her nervousness around bold personalities, which lead to their odd relationship in which they mainly interact by shared activities, which alternate between calm discourses about recent events and the world over tea or food and heated competition during games like bowling or virtual tennis. Whatever the planned activity is, they tend to enjoy each other's company even though they wouldn't be each other's first choice, but they are comfortable with that fact which is why they choose to keep things casual.

Co-Workers
Ikumi currently works in a company called Kimuto that specialises in the creation of plans of electrical systems, mainly dealing with electrical systems involving transport such as subways and trains, with the focus of improving the infrastructure of the city. Ikumi works there as the head of human resources, but tends to go around in different departments to help.

Although Goro is noted to also be a co-worker of Ikumi's, he appears under family as she considers him to be closer like family instead of just a co-worker.

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Ex-Afterschxxl Members
During her youth, Ikumi was a member of Afterschxxl, a large idol group defined by sub-units of generations. Although the generic idol image was pushed onto her, her romantic goth nature has bled through on various occasions, causing her to grow a fanbase that adore her brooding image, which still lingers to this day as some people still recognise her on the street.

Katsumi Isayama
Katsumi is like a family friend to Ikumi, as their current lifestyles can make it difficult to schedule brunch or a day out, but they are still close to this day. This bond stems from their time together in the girl group Afterschxxl, in which they weren't within the same sub-unit (Katsumi was considered part of the group's third generation of idols, whilst Ikumi was part of the group's second generation) but they often came together during idol events or whilst training within their past entertainment label's building, Ikumi looking after Katsumi like a big sister doting on her ambitious little sister. Ikumi often grew worried when Katsumi was butting heads with third generation's leader Yoshimi, who would bully Katsumi and delegate her to being her backup performer, which got worse when Ikumi graduated from the group which then quickly escalated as Katsumi was found unconscious under a bridge in Omriyama, as Ikumi would often visit Katsumi in the hospital despite months of Katsumi not being able to remember who she or Ikumi were. However, this did eventually lead to Katsumi taking action in court against her entertainment label for defending Yoshimi's actions, winning on charges of neglect.

Yoshimi Nanase

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