Wataru Tachibana

Wataru Tachibana (橘 ワタル) is Nagi's fiance but is in love with Isumi, Nagi's best friend. The engagement was set by Enkyou Tachibana, Wataru's grandfather and current head of the Tachibana family and its assets. Wataru owns and lives in a video rental shop, and wholeheartedly believes that if he works untiringly, he will someday be able to surpass the Sanzenin fortune. He lives together with his maid Saki who has been taking care of him for a long time. He is also a student in Hakuo Academy and with Sakuya's sacrifice he was also able to move up grades with Nagi and Isumi.

Appearance
Wataru is short in stature, he has dark brown hair and has dark blue eyes. He is usually seen wearing a white short sleeved shirt over a black long sleeved shirt and dark blue pants.

Characteristics and Personality
Wataru can be both strong headed and stubborn like Nagi. He was initially hostile when first encountering Hayate at Nagi's mansion. However after seeing his kind and considerate personality at work various times, he warms up to him and vowed to become more like Hayate one day. Despite being 13, he can be both kind and responsible, as quoted by Saki, to the extent that older girls like Sonia have fallen in love with him. He only decided to attend Hakuo Academy because Isumi was there. Sakuya had allowed him to take her place at Hakuo Academy to be in the same class as Isumi, despite his grades not being very good.

Introduction
Wataru is a young boy that talks and acts rather offensively. During one of his visits with his maid Saki to the Sanzenin mansion, he treated Hayate very badly, insulting him and pushing him into a lake. He continues to act violently until Isumi arrives, and he suddenly becomes very polite. Wataru likes Isumi so he tries to be polite around her, though Isumi is oblivious to his feelings and acts as if she likes Hayate. This makes Wataru very jealous, and he challenges Hayate to a duel. During the fight, Hayate feigns defeat in a very obvious way, because he felt if he let Wataru win, it would improve Isumi's image of Wataru. Unfortunately, no one is fooled by Hayate's act and Isumi ends up indirectly insulting Wataru with her comments, saying that Hayate was kind for letting him win. Wataru, embarrassed and crying, runs away and vows revenge on Hayate.

Wataru later returns to the Sanzenin mansion, and he gets caught by Hayate and Tama sniffing Isumi's stole, which she had left in a different room earlier. Though Hayate said he would not tell others about this as not to embarrass Wataru, Tama wanted to do the exact opposite, and he quickly tried to spread it online. Hayate was able to stop Tama from doing this, while subtlely threatening him, and Wataru decided to let Hayate be the one to return the stole to avoid embarrassment. This incident seemed to have made the relationship between the two a whole lot friendlier. After receiving the stole, Isumi was about to go home when she noticed Hayate's cursed pendant. She hugged Hayate to be able to deal with the curse, and she also says that she likes him, which shocks Hayate, Wataru, Nagi, and Maria.

After hearing Isumi's confession, Wataru locked himself up in his room, making Saki very worried. He was suddenly disturbed when Nagi, who ran away, came barging into his room. The two decided to confirm what they saw by directly asking Isumi about how she feels. When they arrived in Isumi's home, they see her with Hayate in a very misleading situation, and Hayate is sold to Isumi for 150 million yen.

Rescuing Nagi and Saki from Gilbert Kent
Wataru again returns to Isumi's home with Maria to try and take Hayate back. Maria was confident that it would be easy, but upon arrival they overhear Isumi telling Hayate to stay by her side forever, since she does not want to lose someone important again. While discussing Hayate's fate, Wataru received a phone call from Saki saying that they were kidnapped and being attacked by Gilbert Kent. Hayate immediately leaves to rescue Nagi, and Wataru quickly follows. In the end, the one Isumi referred to as someone important she lost was a TV character, and they were revived in the next episode, and Hayate returns to being Nagi's butler.

Heading to the Tiger Den for Butlers
Wataru becomes one of the people Hayate recruited to accompany him into the dungeon for his butler training. There Wataru met Sonia Shaflnarz, who falls in love with him. They would later meet again after Sonia goes to Wataru's video rental shop to meet him. However, the kidnappers ended up taking Saki, and Sonia offers to save her, on the condition that he gives her a kiss. With a little hesitation, he does, and Sonia swiftly saves Saki before Hayate could reach the kidnappers.

He has also become friends with some of his customers like the siblings Ayumu and Kazuki. Ayumu visits Wataru on occasion to talk about love and other things, while Kazuki visits him to ask about Nagi. He regards Ayumu as an idiot and questions Kazuki's taste in women for liking Nagi. Wataru has also been friendly with Hayate, once lending him money to buy milk for Shiranui.

At the Hinamatsuri Festival
During the Hinamatsuri Festival Wataru shows Sakuya around the festival, as a way of thanking her for giving up her spot so that Wataru could move up grades in school, and be with Isumi and Nagi. This sentiment was also shared by Nagi, who tutored Wataru so that he can pass his exams, and not waste Sakuya's sacrifice

Saki's marriage meeting
Before the exams, Wataru had another concern. Saki suddenly decided to go to a marriage meeting. This decision was made after Saki got angry because Wataru showed little concern about her activites while away the previous night. Nagi decided to help him, so that he could start focusing on his studies again. They followed Saki, and it turns out her partner is Kyonosuke Kaoru. They were not able to hear the conversation between Saki and Kaoru. Hayate, however, had some skill in lip reading, and he tried to use this to figure out what they were saying. Unfortunately, Hayate misintreperted the conversation, and ends up giving them information that the two were in a dedicated relationship. This causes Wataru to nearly burst in anger, until Yukiji suddenly appears and drags Kaoru away. Wataru then approached Saki and took her hand, and he said that it was time to return to the video rental shop. Saki agreed, and she then concludes that it's not time to get married.

Sakuya's birthday
On Sakuya's birthday, Wataru was forced to host a comedy show. He ended up making a horrible joke, and the audience ended up giving applause out of pity. After that, Wataru started to feel very bad and Sakuya tried to cheer him up by hugging him from the back, and telling him that Isumi would fall for him if she saw it. Wataru moved away, and he accidentally trips over Sakuya. At that moment, Isumi arrives and saw them together. Isumi stated that Sakuya liked Wataru and that she overheard their conversation about Wataru liking Isumi. However instead of talking about this, Isumi talked about Wataru's performance earlier, criticizing him. Wataru immediately ran out of the room, promising to redo his performance.

Mt Takao Arc
During their first term as a second year high school student, Wataru was now classmates with Hayate and the others. On their class hike on Mt. Takao he was grouped with Isumi and Aika. He took charge of their group, though most of the people end up getting lost. Isumi wandered off, leaving him alone with Aika. He noticed Aika was getting tired and told her to stop and drink his bottle of water. Aika was conscious of the indirect kiss, but Wataru didn't even think about it at all. Despite an incident with a huge bear, they safely made their way to the peak of the mountain.

Golden Week Arc
On Golden Week Wataru took Saki in a trip to Las Vegas. There they met up with Sakuya. But before they could enjoy their vacation they met Wataru's mother Mikoto Tachibana. Mikoto started looking down on Wataru and his dad for their lack of business insight, showing off a suit case filled with cash and telling Wataru that she could make more than 1 billion Yen if she managed Wataru's video rental store. Mikoto then says that she wants Wataru to live with her in the USA, but Wataru was opposed to this idea. They start gambling to reach a decision, as Mikoto explains to them that conflicts are decided this way in Las Vegas. Sakuya also ended up being part of the bet since they did not have enough money. Sakuya was dressed as a bunny girl would be forced to strip if Saki, who was representing Wataru, lost in the gamble. Given his luck, they ask Hayate which color he would pick, red or black. They then pick the opposite of what he had chosen in the roulette, and this allows them to win. Wataru would later receive a pendant from his mother that is similar to the one Hayate and Aika have recieved.

Starting anew
When they came back to Japan, he realized a rental video shop is not profitable enough to make a large sum of money, and as a result he decided to start another business. Sakuya lent him some money for his new business, which he decided to deposit in a bank. While Wataru, Saki and Hayate are bringing the money to the bank, various problems happen, though in the end they were able to successfully deposit it. After this, Wataru decided to stop schooling and leave Hakuo to manage his businesses.

Confessing his love to Isumi
Before he quit, he decided to confess his love to Isumi, but he lost his nerve before he could. He then later talked to Ayumu about his situation, and they make a bet on whether he can confess or not. After that, he sends a letter to Isumi to wait in the park. After waiting over five hours, Saki brings Isumi to him. While trying to confess, he ends up thinking about Saki, and tells Isumi that "I loved you" in a past tense. Later after being questioned by Saki on why he said that to Isumi, he tells her that what is more important is the future that he'll grasp with her.

Saki's Birthday
While checking his schedule on the calendar, Wataru comes to the realization that he forgot Saki's birthday. After talking to Hayate and Sakuya, Wataru rushes out to buy her a belated birthday gift. While he is out, he notices Saki looking at a skirt. He tries to make up for his mistake by offering to buy her the skirt, and he also carries her bags. Later, he offers to take them out to eat. Saki eventually realizes by these efforts that he finally remembered her birthday, and she Saki tells him that seeing him work was more than enough to make up for it. Touched by her words, Saki then asks for him to buy her the skirt she was looking at earlier.

Trivia



 * Despite being 13, Wataru has attracted feelings from older girls like Sonia and possibly Saki.
 * Although it is not confirmed, it can be inferred that he has feelings for Saki (subconsciously) as images of her always flash across his mind whenever he tries to confess to Isumi, as well as the fact that he goes out of his way to take care of her.
 * Wataru and Saki seem to appear as the landlords of Tsukasa and Nasa's apartment in the 2020 anime Tonikaku Kawaii.