Tsukushi Makino  

, 牧野 つくし

Tsukushi Makino is the main female character, and is one of the very few students at the prestigious Eitoku University to come from an "unwealthy" family. Her family is so poor that they can barely afford to pay Makinos tuition, but her parents push her on to continue school because they have a dream that she can "snag a rich man" and take them out of poverty. At the beginning of the manga, Makino was a poor, pig-tailed girl who had almost no friends at school and kept to herself. When one of her only friends falls down a staircase and bumps in the leader of the F4, Makino stands up for her friend (Domyoji was about to hurt her for bumping into him) and suffers the consequences. The next day, a red tag is hanging in her locker, which predicts future torment from the F4 and followers. But, unlike most of the F4s targets, Makino stands up for herself, showing how strong a "weed" can be. In this process, she changes to let her stubborn, hardworking ways show through, and in the end she turns all of the F4 into her friends. At first, Makino hates all of the F4 except Hanazawa Rui, (which she has romantic feelings towards). But, as Rui goes off to chase after Shizuka, Makino gets to know them, and even slowly falls in love with the hotheaded leader, Domyoji.