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It never gets easier, but maybe that's the point...

PERSONALITY
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Koto doesn't really know how to "people." Or, at the very least, he's not the best at it. Growing up the youngest of nine children, he was never going to be enough, and even though he knew he was always the smartest, the cleverest, the most hard-working, he was always second place in comparison to at least one of his siblings. It didn't help that he was one of the illegitimates, a son that came from one of his father's numerous extramarital affairs. In his youth, before his father actually took notice of his intelligent youngest son, feeling like he didn't have a place in the Ito empire where he would be appreciated, Koto made a splash in the family the only way he could: by rebelling. And while those anti-establishment, ornery tendencies have faded quite a bit now that he's in his twenties and out on his own, he still doesn't quite know what it's like to interact with people without trying to establish himself as a detached asshole who they can't hurt.
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After all, if he acts like their opinions don't matter, they don't, right?
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And thus Koto often comes off far less likable than he would necessarily want. He gets flustered easily, lashing out verbally when he feels the twinge of embarrassment, and he has a bad tendency of coming off a bit pretentious and egotistical. It's not his fault that he's the smartest in the room half the time, though. Everyone else just needs to catch up.
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And of course, as is almost always the case, this hard outer shell is just that: a shell. The side of him that rarely shows is the Masakoto who spends hours sitting around Tokyo sketching passersby because he finds the day-to-day beautiful, the Masakoto who slips out of his apartment at night to feed the alley cats because he doesn't like thinking about them going hungry, the Masakoto that could never hate his siblings no matter how much hell they put him through. That's the Masakoto that chose to move out of the Ito estate at 18, the Masakoto who chose to attend Tokyo University not for its good business school but for the prestigious art academy, who fell in love with a man he would never be allowed to be with, who spent three and a half years learning how to be a better version of himself.
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Unfortunately, that's also the Masakoto who jumped at the first opportunity to impress his father, who left Tokyo early, broken-hearted, and complacent. It's the Masakoto that is terrified of the power his father wields over his life in the same moment that he admires it, yearns for it, doing his damnedest to get just a bit of that residual, trickle-down success and the freedom that comes with it.
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And now he has that power, at least some of it, and the freedom that accompanies it. He's not a huge fan of the business-oriented work he's been assigned, but if he does it and he does it well, he'll be in a position where even Papa Ito can't tell him what to do. And so he's working hard, a nasty habit of his, going above and beyond for a company he despises, spending his off-time drowning in his passions--art, cooking, architecture--, and doing his damnedest to find that better version of himself once more.
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And it's working... sort of. He's better, nicer, shows a little more vulnerability, but he still has a long way to go. He still blushes easily, still gets flustered at the mere mention of some sort of personal inadequacy or tease or flirtation. He still keeps people at arms length until they try to get too close and he has to push them away. He's still the Masakoto that stood in a room full of his siblings and had to take the belittling, diminishing words of his stepmother without making a sound. He's still the Masakoto who deserted the first tender, non-familial hand that reached out to him. And he's still the Masakoto who sits at home wishing he was anyone else, born to any other family.
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But he's getting better.
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LOOKS[break]
All of the Itos have black hair; all of them except Koto. Koto's light locks are a surefire sign of his illegitimacy, the same shade as his mother's, something he once resented but now appreciates; another thing to make him stand out in the Ito crowd. His eyes, though, are pure Ito, the brilliant, piercing blues of the elite clan. Koto stands at 5'11", is of medium build, and even when not working is always clad in the latest impressive fashions. Ultimately it's not surprising, really, the amount of socialite bachelorettes whose mothers send them in his direction, especially after falling into the good graces of his father.
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HISTORY[break]
Masakoto is the ninth son of Daichi Ito, a successful entrepreneur with his hand in just about every market in Japan. Like three of his eight siblings, Koto is a product of one of Daichi's affairs, something Koto's stepmother Yuiu never let him forget. In fact, she never shied away from an opportunity to remind him that he was an "other," that he was lesser than his purebred siblings. It didn't help that he, unlike the other three illegitimates, didn't take after his father as much as his mother. Oh, the features are there--his eyes, mouth, face shape--but that hair sets him very much apart from his dark-haired siblings and father. Koto posits that he, above all the rest, was a constant reminder of her husband's infidelity.
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That, though, didn't keep Koto out of the family. Daichi was powerful enough that he didn't need to hide his affairs, was prideful enough that he refused to abandon any of his heirs. And so Koto was raised in the Ito house in Osaka, barely seeing his mother who lived in a small apartment on the outskirts of the port city, paid for by his father.
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Koto's early years in the Ito household were rocky to say the least. Besides the constant sneers and belittling from his stepmother, Koto dealt with a looming feeling of inadequacy, of being the least liked off all nine children, most of which were already in college by the time he was moving through middle school. And so he picked up bad habits, rebelling via petty crimes and misdemeanors, going out and spending his allowance on poor decisions and poor publicity for the Ito name. Daichi was less than pleased, Yui even more so. He was supposed to be an heir to the Ito family, a beacon of society even if he was some smear on the family's good name.
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But, finally, a reprieve. At 18, Koto was allowed to leave, university an excuse to escape the confines of his childhood home. While he had to go to school for something business-related in order to maintain Daichi's financial support, Koto was finally able to explore his own passions, his own insecurities and flaws. And, slowly but surely, he was able try to start fixing himself. He decided to pick up a second major in architectural design. He let himself discover what his passions were.
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He met Miki Hideaki.
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It was rocky as first--Koto's relationships always are--but gods was it worth it. Best friends silently pining for one another for three and a half years, living together in quiet unspoken domestic bliss.
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No... blissful is too minuscule a word for that time.
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But then Koto was called away, his business degree completed a semester early, his father insisting he return to Osaka to start integrating himself in the family business. Big plans for him, Daichi had said; he had big plans for him. How could Koto refuse? How could Koto protest? He knew how powerful his father was, knew how much his stepmother would just love to sink her fangs into someone he loved, Miki just some nobody artist on top of being a man.
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And so he left.
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And he spent the next four years grieving that decision, even as he tried to move past it, even as he tried to move on, to move up. He worked for his father, impressed his father, managed to prove himself a worthy heir and a damn useful one at that. And so he was given an offer: go back to Tokyo, an untouched market, and work under one of the family's dearest friends, learning the trade from the best of the best. Once he'd done that, he would finally get that power, that freedom, he'd been craving.
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And so Koto is back in Tokyo, the city where he first found passion and love and all the heartbreak that can come from both, ready to make amends if he's able, ready to regain that better version of himself he lost along the way.
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Siblings
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- Daichi "Dai" (♂ - 41 - legitimate)[break]
- Tamako (♂ - 40 - legitimate)[break]
- Isamaki (♂ - deceased (would be 38) - legitimate)[break]
- Yuu (♂ - 36 - illegitimate)[break]
- Risa (♀ - 32 - legitimate)[break]
- Shiori and Shiro (♀ and ♂ - twins, 30 - illegitimate)[break]
- Haru (♂ - 28 - legitimate)