| Overview |
Yuuta Sakurai (桜井優太, Sakurai Yuta) is a half-British elite employee who works in a trading company. He is not very good at socializing and is timid outside of work. He is considered by his female co-workers to be aloof cool guy due to his timid nature.
His net game character is Lily.
Appearance[]
Yuuta has light blond hair, green eyes and he usually wears glasses.
He is often seen in his business attire, in which consists of a gray suit and light teal dress shirt with a darker, matching tie.
Personality[]
Yuuta is a friendly, understanding and kind-hearted man who can sometimes be shy when he is around Moriko as it can be seen in the anime.
Background[]
In the official manga, Yuuta is stated to be half-British and he was adopted by the Sakurai family when he was very young and never knew his biological parents. He was grateful to his adopted parents for taking care of him even though he was gossiped about.
Before he played Fruits de Mer, he played NanterSG as a male character named Harth. Playing that game made him feel at home and that the players were like his real family. He was a respected veteran player. There he met a female player name Yuki, who he became close to. At first, Yuuta thought Yuki was optimistic and carefree, and always had a positive attitude. Yuuta's happiness often derived from spending time in game with her online despite not knowing each other's real life identities. After their last chat on NanterSG, Yuuta never saw her online again.
In the office, Yuuta is a very good-looking guy. Most of his female juniors or co-workers have a crush on him and often ask him out on a date or to go drinking, but he turns them down. In the game Fruits de Mer, he plays a female healer name Lily - a carefree and positive character.
Plot[]
One day, Yuuta forgot he had work in the morning and stayed up all night with his in-game partner Hayashi. When he rushed to work that morning, he met Moriko Morioka - the woman playing the male character Hayashi - by accidentally elbowed her in the face. He took her to the hospital, where she came to and met Yuuta without either knowing they've known each other for years. He asks if she wants to have dinner with him as an apology, but she turns him down believing she would be causing him trouble.
Yuuta becomes curious of her, so he asks Moriko's former supervisor for her background. He also learns that his coworker, Homare Koiwai, was formerly at the same business as Moriko, so he asks him for more information on her.
He eventually figures out that Hayashi is played by the woman Moriko, but hesitates to tell her. Later, he finds out that she also used to play as Yuki from NanterSG. Fate has constantly been pulling them apart, then back together.
In the anime, he seems to have a crush on Moriko. He is always blushing whenever she is around him. In the official manga, he have an unrequited feelings for her. Due to Moriko's obliviousness, his attempt to pursue her was misunderstood by her lack of social experience in real life situation like dating or other related events. In the manga, Kazuomi Fujimoto tried to find out more about his intentions with Moriko and tells Sakurai that she is a delicate person who’s very shy and sensitive. Sakurai told him, he knows her for very long time and he will always be by her side with a confident tone. Morioka asks him if he has a girlfriend in which he replied, if he had a girlfriend, he wouldn't bring her at his place. Then, at the same time, he approached her closer by saying he would love to find one while looking at her with a serious yet gentle face. She obliviously told him that he will eventually find one and supports him while he was disappointed she didn't take the hint and calling himself hopeless while thanking her for supporting him.
Throughout the chapter, he continues to support and takes good care of her and determine to make her see him as a significant other than a MMO game partner. He still helps her reach at the stage of life where she can see him eye-to-eye so his feelings would reach her too and waits for her to be brave enough to face the society again.
As of the latest chapter, Yuuta manage to tell her his feelings and it finally reached her after years of being together as both online and offline friends. She reciprocates his feelings and he propose to her at the Theme Park. They took pictures together with her wearing the ring he bought with Koiwai's suggestion. He and Moriko got engaged and eventually married with 2 kids, a son and daughter. Both, Sakurai and Moriko lived happily as a newlywed and still enjoys playing MMO together (as shown in recent update from the author).
Etymology[]
- The name Yuuta means "excellence, superiority, gentleness" (優) (yuu) and "thick, big, great" (太) (ta).
- Yuuta's surname Sakurai means "cherry blossom" (桜) (sakura) and "well, mine shaft, pit" (井) (i).
Trivia[]
- Yuuta's star sign is Scorpio.
- Yuuta likes to whale on random avatar stuff in online games.
- Yuuta has a crush on Moriko Morioka, but she doesn't seem to realize, notice or take it seriously when he confessed or giving out hints to her which to cause a mass misunderstanding on his side (as seen in the anime and manga).
- Yuuta and Moriko got married on her birthday on July 20th (As stated by the author)