List of Kodomo No Jikan Characters - Major Characters - Rin Kokonoe

Kokonoe Rin (九重 りん?)

A mischievously precocious young girl in class 4-1 (originally 3-1) at Futatsubashi Elementary School. Born and raised by her single mother, Aki Kokonoe, for the first five years of her life, Rin Kokonoe was an affectionate, happy child. Though normally shy around strangers, she immediately warmed up to her first cousin once removed, Reiji Kokonoe, when he moved in with them after being orphaned, and accepted the relationship that developed between her mother and him. Her joy at finally having a complete family to call her own, however, was short-lived: Aki was diagnosed with lung cancer, and while she tried to stay alive long enough to see her daughter enter first grade, died several months later. Rin, who had been folding paper cranes incessantly in the hopes that Aki would recover if she made enough of them, and she was at her mother's side during her last moments. The event was so traumatic that Rin became a silent and emotionless girl.

Rin, still in her trancelike state, entered Futatsubashi Elementary School, where she was grouped together with the two other "class misfits", Kuro Kagami and Mimi Usa, during a physical education class, which marked the beginning of their association. Though initially treated as a living doll by Kuro, the latter's attempt to remove one of Aki's homemade dresses triggered a reaction in Rin for the first time. Over the next two years, Rin's personality and reputation experienced a dramatic shift: she went from being a silent, emotionless zombie to a rebellious, de facto leader of her class who would not hesitate to stand up to adults by using her intelligence and exploiting her status as an "innocent" minor to outsmart and outmaneuver them.The bond between the three girls grew so intimate over time, in fact, that each became willing to do anything to help, protect, or defend the other two without hesitation. Such was the case when the original teacher of class 3-1, Nakamura, bullied Mimi until she decided to stay home from school. Rin in turn harassed Nakamura until he had a nervous breakdown and resigned his post.

Though she developed a crush on Nakamura's successor, Daisuke Aoki, on the day they first met and proclaimed herself his girlfriend almost immediately after discovering that he was single, Rin remained as mistrustful of him as she had become of all adults and did not hesitate to coerce him into keeping silent about her involvement in his predecessor's fate. When a series of unrelated events, such as his persuading Mimi to return to class and treating the stray cat Nyaa with kindness, began silently attesting to his kindness and sincerity, however, Rin's attitude towards him began to soften. And, as it became to her apparent over time that his feelings for and dedication to her were unshakable — unaffected by the dark side of her he had seen or her sometimes questionable treatment of him and not borne of pity or her resemblance to someone he once cared for — what had started out as a simple crush had blossomed into genuine love. As might be expected of a child of her age, Rin displayed her affection for Aoki mostly through merciless teasing, though her flirtatious nature and vast carnal knowledge invariably resulted in her antics bordering on sexual harassment. Her subsequent discovery that Kyōko Hōin was attracted to him as well, however, slowly drove Rin to commit increasingly desperate acts, which, following a failed attempt to confess her feelings to him, culminated in an emotionally charged confrontation that left her frustrated and depressed, Aoki questioning the exact nature of his feelings for her, and the development of a rift between the two of them that would persist for months.

Taking her "love rival", Hōin's, advice on how to get someone to like her to heart, Rin decided to try and earn Aoki's love with kindness instead of trying to take it by force. This change in strategy was part of what motivated her to volunteer for the position of class representative at the beginning of the next school year, a position which would both allow her use her influence over the other students to facilitate his job as a teacher and make sure her peers could make themselves heard. While her faith in and dedication to him are such that she has been willing to push herself beyond her limits, even to the potential detriment of her own health, it has been revealed that two additional, more sinister elements have served as the driving forces behind her actions. The first is Rin's awareness of Reiji's increasingly unhealthy obsession with her, which has left her in the uncomfortable position of balancing her platonic love for him as a father figure, her romantic love for Aoki, and her desire to respect her mother's memory and relationship with Reiji. The second is Rin's fear of her own dark nature — the part of her that tormented Nakamura, twice led her to blackmail Aoki with false charges of sexual molestation, and came close to seriously injuring her rival for Aoki's affection, Hōin — and that she will be consumed by her inner demons, something which she has slowly started to open up to Aoki about following their reconciliation. And while the intensity of her love for him has allowed her to endure thus far, the emotional pressure she is under has slowly been eroding away her confidence and self-esteem, a development that troubles Kuro and Mimi greatly. In later volumes of the manga, she starts to develop a sort of sexual attraction to Aoki, even masturbating at the thought or sight of him. When she learns that Reiji had been to a hostess club (which he himself wasn't aware of when invited to it), she feels he had betrayed her mother and falls out with him, becoming hostile towards others. Because of the incident, Rin became extremely hostile and chastised Reiji to the point of having a nervous breakdown. Aoki takes it upon himself to mend their relationship and decides to live with in the Kokonoe household temporarily, causing Rin and Reiji's relationship to recover as well as dissipating and controlling much of the obsession that Reiji had for Rin. Through Aoki's sincerity and a vision she sees when taking her mother's old pain medication, Rin eventually accepts the death of her mother and is able to move on emotionally, thus allowing for Reiji to also move on. A primary conflict in Rin's pursuit of a relationship with Aoki has been the age difference between the two as a child and adult. This conflict is exacerbated when Hōin starts aggressively pursuing Aoki, causing her heartache and prompting her to accidentally take her late mother's medication. Rin is still determined in her love for Aoki, but has accepted that her feelings may not be reciprocated and is willing to "pass the baton" to Hōin and wait until she becomes an adult in order to openly express her love and make Aoki take her feelings seriously.