Right, so! Making some edits to his background so that Ryuu would've also spent some time on the island in his earlier childhood, then moved away when his parents wanted to avoid the bad rap on the island, until they realized Ryuu acted even worse on the mainland and yeeted him back to the island to live with his grandparents. Hope that's not too similar to Suzuka, but otherwise, as it is, he would've only met the rest of the cast for the first time some years ago, ha. On that note, going to think up some connections. Some initial thoughts:

- This is a more recent connection, but someone could be playing the same online game as Ryuu. He does play a female character, and if the game utilizes pings/chat more than vc (like league for example), it's possible his teammates assume he's a girl too (without him realizing they do so), which could lead to fun shenanigans. Also, I realized I never replied to it, oops, but Fey, you mentioned Suzuka could've roped Ryuu into giving him advice on what to gift a guy, etc. and well, we could also combine it with them playing together online, her thinking he's a girl, and asking him because he seems to know a lot about dudes lol.

- Since Ryuu was pretty turbulent even when young, and I'm shuffling the timeline of his past around anyway, maybe he could've saved another character from a bully/bullies, whether they were friends at the time or he just happened upon a situation where he felt the need to intervene? The whole incident that first got him a bad rap as a violent kid, when he broke a bully's nose.

- Maybe someone (Mikako? Haru?) always had a really calming presence when they were with Ryuu, and the reason his behaviour spiraled even further after the move away was because he no longer had that constant in his life.

- Also for Mikako, since she was popular in elementary school and Ryuu... was decidedly [i]not[/i], I could see people starting to talk, and potentially being jealous of the two's friendship. So maybe in an attempt to not cause her trouble, Ryuu would have started to distance himself from her (without telling her the reason ofc) a little before he was suddenly forced to move away, so he never had a chance to explain, and there could be that added layer of "oh he/she probably hates me now" in the current day?

- Since Junko was a lonely child and Ryuu was a bit of an outcast himself, I could see them having had a chance encounter somewhere in nature or something? Just a fleeting afternoon/evening, happening upon the same "secret spot" by chance. Maybe towards the end of Ryuu's initial stay at the island, so they never really got to know who the other was properly. Or maybe it didn't matter to them to ask.