THE SHORT VERSION:
Sophisticated. Intelligent. Creative.
Well-mannered. Polite. Considerate.
Sociable. Quiet. Kind.
THE SLIGHTLY LONGER VERSION:
Poised, sophisticated, elegant, she was coined by
someone once. When asked to describe herself, Yuuka would turn the focus away from her outward manners and to her innermost instead, the very feminine strength that she wields,
yielding, but undefeated as the same someone put it, nailing one Yuuka Watanabe on the head.
Having been brought up in the milieu that she still inhabits, Kobe's high-society, Yuuka is all of these things, she is well-bred, well-mannered, poised and elegant, but having made the choices she has, marrying her husband despite being a lesbian, a secret she's revealed only to those who have reason to find it relevant and certainly not to him, she is also extremely strong, bearing the burden of entrapment in a role foreign to her. She accepts her duties as Ichiro's wife, she sleeps with him, makes him dinner, does his laundry, in return for upholding a facade that will honor her parents, that will spare her having to disappoint them gravely. She yields to her social and familial responsibilities, but they don't break her, although she experiences an intense isolation due to her sexuality, a sexuality that she for the most part refrains from engaging with.
With her university education in contemporary Japanese literature and creative writing, Yuuka can instead focus her energy on reading and writing during the long days when her husband travels for work. Yuuka is in possession of a creative mind that plays with words and sentence constructions constantly, something she'll often share with the people whose company she's in. She is the type for deep thought and considerations about the deeper aspects of life, semi-philosophical debates and general discussion. Conversation is a stimulant that she still enjoys greatly and she can be very sophisticated in her speech.
As an acquaintance, she'll make sure to come off as an in equal parts engaging and interesting personality with a friendly demeanor, but she will guard her boundaries and her secrets carefully, never treading beyond the lines she's laid out for herself. When she feels pushed, she will be quick to steer the conversation in another direction, if not shut it down completely.
More than anything, Yuuka
upholds. Appearances, her own crumbling self, the pillars of the life she knows.