Aiyuu

"If I end up making a mistake again, I have Yujiro."

- Aizo.

Aiyuu is the slash ship between Aizo Shibasaki and Yujiro Someya from the HoneyWorks Premium Live fandom.

Canon
Aizo and Yujiro are members of the idol unit LIP×LIP. Both attend Sakuragaoka High School and are in the same class.

Aizo has had experience singing before he joined LIP×LIP. During his childhood he used to sing for his father and mother but those days didn't last long. His parents began arguing everyday and eventually got divorced. His singing was shunned out by his mother due to him being "loud" and would not sing again until he joined LIP×LIP. In public, Aizo is a sociable character, chatty and friendly to everyone he meets. However, he's actually more prone to being irritated, making others butt out of his business by snapping at them, being more visibly angry with Yujiro, and preferring to be left alone.

On the other hand, Yujiro joined a traditional kabuki family due to his mother remarrying when he was younger. Yujiro never had a good relationship with his stepfather and stepbrother and his father later disinherits him from the Someya's kabuki legacy although he threw away his entire childhood for Kabuki. For public appearances, he is described as "refreshing, kind, and cool". His actual personality is a much different person. He appears to be aloof and a bit hard to read, and can get rather open about his displeasure with certain subjects.

Both first officially met each other at an idol audition. Although they signed up separately, due to their impressive performances, they were chosen to be a unit.

When they became a unit, the two of them didn't get along in the slightest. However, upon seeing each other at their weakest, the two started growing closer, though they still had several arguments and disagreements. Before they debuted, the two would be taken under the wing of several different idols, and would watch shows to be shown how it's done. Before one live show when the two of them had spare time, an unnamed idol pushed Aizo in to the pool, which prompts Yujiro to defend him, demanding the unnamed idol apologize. Though by the next day, the two were back to fighting, and were even told that they couldn't match each other at all. This is when they're taken under two other idols, and watch over their activities as professionals. When they're released for a small break, the two walk through the aquarium together, and come across a rock-paper-scissors tournament, with the prize being a stuffed emperor penguin. Yujiro, who wants the prize, has him and Aizo sign up, though he loses pretty quickly. Aizo ends up winning and after seeing Yujiro be disappointed, he gives the stuffed emperor penguin to him, and Yujiro in exchange gives him his keychain participation prize. The two become closer after this.

The two, while they do have fun times together, continue to not get along a lot, though by the end of their pre-debut novel Romeo, they seem to have realized how much they mean to each other, and their relationship only continues with Aizo deciding to go to the same high school as Yujiro.

In "Samishigariya/Lonely Person" Aiyuu is paralleled with Ariken who are a canon couple. When Aizo says 愛を知る it directly translates to "Makes you learn what love is." 愛/ai can mean either a platonic, familial, or romantic love.

The first event on "Honeyworks Premium Live" was an Halloween event featuring both Aizo and Yujiro. The two are seen arguing in the first chapter about their Halloween live and costumes. They have the option to pick either a vampire costume or a pumpkin costume. Since they can't come to an agreement, they have a dance competition for the vampire costume. Aizo is stated to be the better dancer in the group while Yujiro has the better vocals. Due to this, Aizo helps Yujiro practice until dawn since he has already got the dance down. During the competition, Aizo lost as he had been watching Yujiro to make sure he was doing fine. Yujiro finds out that the competition had been a set up to get them to work together, and he blackmails Hiyori and Uchida Mayu into giving Aizo a cool costume.

In the second event on "Honeyworks Premium Live", the event was a White Day event featuring the two boys. They were arguing over what gifts to give their Julieta's at their live show- either flowers or candy. During the intense argument, Yujiro ends up saying how he didn't want to be in a unit with someone like Aizo, which visibly upsets Aizo so much that he leaves. Yujiro, once he was alone, immediately feels guilty, and with some prompting from their manager in training he tries to apologize, but ends up running away. While trying to figure out how to apologize, he runs into mona, who indirectly gives him the idea to give Aizo a gift to make apologizing easier. The two come to an agreement to give their fans flower shaped candy, and after their concert, Yujiro gives Aizo the Pocketz candy, since it gave him nostalgia to their first commercial. Aizo accepts his apology and thanks Yujiro, which embarrasses Yujiro greatly. However, seeing Aizo so happy made Yujiro think how the White Day was special to him, and that he hopes it was special to Aizo too.

In the next year, the two have a New Year's event in "Honeyworks Premium Live". Aizo gets offered a solo job, which he hesitates about taking, simply because he was worried about how Yujiro would feel about it. As he thinks about it more and more, he finds out that Yujiro already knew about the solo offer, and had already accepted it. Knowing Yujiro was fine with it, Aizo goes ahead and accepts the job offer. However, on the day of the job, his costume was a hakama, and he had no idea how to put it on. It turns out his stylist was unable to make it at the last minute. Yujiro, who was visiting Aizo before his job, tells him to take his clothes off and helps him into his hakama. While helping him, Aizo gets visibly flustered, and Yujiro softly tells him that even if their solo activities increase, the two of them will always be LIP×LIP, no matter what. On stage, Aizo tells the audience how much Yujiro means to him before bringing him up on stage. They later find out the solo activity was well-received, especially thanks to the audience seeing how close the two of them were.

Following the New Year's event, Yujiro gets a solo job in a Valentine's event in "Honeyworks Premium Live". He is asked to fill out a questionnaire on what his ideal type of date would be, which he gives very basic and typical answers that one would expect from an idol. After being criticized by Aizo and Hiyori about it, Yujiro decides to go out and watch couples to see what kind of relationship he would like. While he's out, he spots Shibasaki Ken and Takamizawa Arisa having a small fight, before compromising and coming to terms. Yujiro is amazed by their interaction and thinks to himself how he would love a relationship like that. He uses them as an inspiration for his solo job, and during the interview, he teasingly gets told by the interviewer that even though he's never had a crush on a girl, he's very close with his unit partner Aizo. Afterwards, Aizo, who later purchases Yujiro's solo magazine (which confuses Yujiro since Aizo wasn't part of it) tells Yujiro that he really liked the story of the two who argued and compromised, and Yujiro admits that the guy reminded him of Aizo, not knowing that this guy was actually Aizo's older brother. Aizo denies this, and Yujiro brushes it off as a coincidence that the two looked alike and shared the same last name.

In "Honeyworks Premium Live", another event was "If I go on a Trip with You", starring the two boys who go to Kyoto together. Aizo finds out that Yujiro has never gone on a trip before, so he makes a very detailed schedule for the two of them, hoping that Yujiro would find the trip fun. Once they arrive, Aizo catches Yujiro when he trips, and later seems to realize that he lost something, but he brushes it off when Yujiro questions him. The two of them go to an aquarium, where they start their jobs taking photos and have small conversations about family. Aizo heads back to the hotel alone with Yujiro's prompting, and Yujiro goes off on his own. By the time it's around midnight, Yujiro still isn't back, and Aizo calls Hiyori and is getting more antsy and upset. Before he could leave to look for Yujiro, Yujiro returns and Aizo immediately starts yelling at him before storming off. He comes to the realization, thanks to mona, that he was actually extremely worried about Yujiro's safety. He returns to their hotel room, where Yujiro stayed up waiting for him to come back, before the two agree to go out the next day. Aizo takes Yujiro to a matcha cafe that Yujiro said he wanted to go to, and thinks to himself how happy Yujiro looked, before the two leave and continue with their trip. Later, while watching the sunset, Yujiro gives back the thing Aizo lost- being a phone strap that Aizo's mother gave him, and talks about how family bonds weren't the only thing that existed. The two talk about their future together, and after they leave, Aizo can't seem to stop thinking about all of what Yujiro said, which flusters Yujiro. Aizo tells Yujiro how glad he was that the two went on the trip together, before they agree to do their best when they go back home to Tokyo.

Fanon
Aiyuu is the most popular ship for both Aizo and Yujiro. They are rivaled by Yuuhiyo and occasionally Aimona. It is most popular pairing in the idol series and a very popular pairing in the series overall. Many fans were drawn to their relationship from the songs Yume Fanfare, Samishigariya, and Non-fantasy where it is hinted that they kissed. Another reason most people may ship Aiyuu is due to the fact that Aizo often initiates intimate gestures- such as the kabedon or pinning Yujiro down and teasing him, or when he insists that Yujiro "isn't cute". Fans have also speculated that it is Aizo and Yujiro who kiss each other on the neck before doing work as LIP×LIP, which was later confirmed in their Making of Romeo DVD and implied to be confirmed in the novels. They are often shipped alongside Hiyomona, Asukana, and Ariken.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

ART
 * 愛勇 posts on Pixiv

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Trivia

 * Aiyuu parallels Ariken as seen in Samishigariya
 * Aizo is a cat person while Yujiro is a dog person.
 * Yujiro and Aizo's birthdays are on the same date (February 22).
 * Ai♡Yuu was originally going to be their unit name.
 * Yujiro mentions in the Honeyworks Premium Live game that a couple like Ariken is his ideal couple.
 * On the Official LIP×LIP Twitter page in 2020, Yujiro mentions wanting to see Aizo in a kimono and promising he would help him in it. In Honeyworks Premium Live, for the 2022 New Year, Yujiro ends up helping Aizo put his kimono on.
 * According to the novels, Aizo has shown Yujiro two different secret spots. One was at the park, and another was in a music store that he occasionally stayed for a few nights in with the owner's permission.
 * Aizo is hinted to have romantic feelings for Yujiro as seen in Samishigariya and the novels.