Yūki Rito/Plot

Background
Before Rito met Lala, it was stated that Rito had difficulty talking to girls, which led to his lack of confidence and clumsiness around them. His only friend was Saruyama. However, because of Lala's friendliness, and Rito's growing relationship with Lala, all of Lala's girl friends became Rito's as well, especially Haruna Sairenji, whom Rito had a crush on and could not even talk to prior to Lala's "descent".

As a child, Rito would often go out and play football/soccer with other kids, but because his parents weren't always around, which would leave Mikan all alone at home. Feeling bad for her as any good family member would, Rito would stay in to look after her.

Rito has always assisted his father's work as a manga artist, and then would take Mikan to a shrine nearby to play. One time, during his fifth grade, while Yui was also at the shrine, Rito climbed a tree to help a cat who was stuck. This was the first time that Yui met Rito, although it was years later during a déjà vu that Yui remembered that the boy was, in fact, Rito. The cat that Rito saved from the tree was the same cat that Yui tried but couldn't save prior to Rito and Mikan's arrival at the shrine. She tried to ask some of the boys from her class to help her,  but they rejected her because they hated Yui's strictness as their class representative, and left to play games instead. Because of that, Yui had the impression that all boys are bad. However, due to Rito's bravery, Yui's perception of boys changed, and she realized that not all of them are bad. Rito isn't aware that Yui was the same girl he met at the shrine.

During Rito's eighth grade, Rito became classmates with Haruna Sairenji. It was stated that this was the last time that Haruna and Rito became classmates (prior to the start of the series). In the anime, Rito has been in love with her when she was the only one who believed he did not vandalize the plants in the school garden. Haruna stated that she first noticed him during a school competition, when their class was lagging behind the other classes in a race, and he never gave up, and ended up winning the race for his class and won the trophy. Haruna also noticed Rito's care for the plants in the school, and noticed that Rito would always refill the water in the flower vase while no one else cared, and concluded that he must be a kind person.