Character	Suren
Appearance	The Crimson Flower that Divides: Lunar Coupling
Media	Otome Game
Type	Yandere (Minor)
Love Interest	Naala/ Protagonist

Suren is a military commander in Nasla. Originally, he was a commoner. However, his excellent skills in combat won Nasla many wars, which earned him his current title.

SPOILERS AND PERSONAL OPINION

Suren first encountered Naala when she was captured. When she heard news that a Rus woman was able to injure several men and almost successfully escape, he wanted to see for himself who she was. Upon seeing her, Suren was immediately attracted to her strong attitude and courage. Having long desired a brave and capable woman to be his bride, he decided that Naala will be the perfect choice.

Suren’s chance came when Naala’s friend Shalu decided to be an idiot and attempt an escape without telling anyone. Obviously, her attempt failed, so she will be married off against her will. Luckily for Shalu, there was another rule in place to save her sorry ass: the trio rule. Under this rule, three women were grouped together and shared the same room. If one attempted to escape, she would be punished, but the punishment could be avoided if another member of the trio substituted for her.

Suren knew that in order to have Naala as his bride, a good opportunity would be to make use of the trio rule. Thus, when Touya wanted to disclose of the rules to the girls, Suren stopped him from doing so. He had also anticipated Shalu’s stupidity, so he made use of that and waited for the girls to take the bait.

The plan worked, and Suren caught Shalu in her escape attempt. Naala, being ever self-sacrificing for her friend, agreed to take the punishment and marry Suren in Shalu’s place. Suren made Naala sign an official agreement in front of a crowd so that their marriage was publicly acknowledged from the moment it started. Overjoyed by the turn of events, Suren swiftly took Naala to his residence.

Given Suren’s brute behavior, Naala was surprised to find that Suren had prepared her own room within his residence. Not only that, the room is decorated meticulously with accessories and decors that ladies would love. Obviously, the room was prepared with much effort. Naala thought that perhaps Suren have had previous lovers, which explains why such beautiful room intended for ladies was immediately available for her use. But Suren stated that he never had any lovers or girlfriends at all before Naala. During their first night, Suren was surprisingly gentle, cradling her as if she was his most precious treasure. After Naala fell asleep, Suren whispered to himself how grateful he was that Naala could become his wife, and that he would always protect her.

Initially, Naala detested Suren. She could not eat well, espescially in Suren’s presence. Although she acted defiantly, it was also clear that she was scared of him.

Naala could not understand Suren. She had thought that they mutually hated each other. However, he would always remind Naala that he is her husband, spend time with her as often as he could, and would demand that Naala sit with him for meals together. While Naala found these acts strange, it later became obvious that Suren’s actions were purely driven by his care and love for her.

The beginning of their marriage was difficult, but Suren deeply cared for Naala. However, his pride and poor communication skills made it hard for Naala to see his true feelings. Suren assigned Naran, his trusted subordinate (whom he also sees as a brother), to attend to her needs. He was concerned over her lack of appetite, and tried whatever he could to get her to eat. He would personally adorn Naala’s room with beautiful accessories in hopes to make her happy. Later, Naala remarked that she rather have a weapon with her. Soon after that, Suren gave her a bow, disregarding the fact that Naala still considers him to be an enemy and her keeping a weapon would risks his own safety.

On one particular night, Suren came back gravely injured. Naala went to see him, and found fruits near his bed. Those fruits were the ones used to make the delicious chilled beverage that Naala drank whenever she had little appetite. She remembered Naran describing that these fruits grow on steep cliffs. Only then did she realized that Suren had been risking his life every time he scaled those cliffs, just to get the fruits that Naala enjoyed eating.

Since then, their relationship improved. Naala no longer had such a stiff heart towards Suren, and Suren realized that as well. While Naala struggled initially, she eventually acknowledged that her feelings towards Suren had turned from hatred to love. In the end, through cooperation between Naala and Suren, as well as their two countries, they managed to resolved the issue of the Rot and work towards peace between the two nations.

In one of the bad end however, Naala could not bare to love Suren as she still doubts him and his sincerity. She eventually committed adultery with Naran, and the clever Suren quickly realized it. Suren tried to pretend that nothing was wrong, and tried to love Naala and Naran as he always did.

However, over time, the pain and betrayal got to him. He confronted Naala about it, and declared that he will have Naran executed over his betrayal. Whether he actually did execute Naran was unclear. But since then, he forced Naala to say she loves him constantly. Their forced relationship and pretended happiness gradually chipped away at Naala’s sanity. Despite Naala’s obvious detachment to the things happening around her, Suren refused to let her go. The scene ended with Suren breaking down, crying while holding dearly onto Naala, wondering how things have gone so wrong.

To be honest, after the asshole behavior that Suren showed in the prologue, and the things he pulled to get Naala to be with him at the start of his route, I thought that nothing can redeem this jerk anymore. But how wrong I was. The one route that I thought I wouldn’t enjoy the most, I actually enjoyed a great deal out of it.

Suren had forced Naala to be with him, and he acted as if he was going to be a misogynist and treat women like an object. But after Naala married him, we can see that he treats his wife as the most precious existence, and would do anything he can to make her happy.

At first, it was shown through small actions like decorating his wife’s room and to buying her pretty accessories. Then we saw how he constantly check to see if Naala was eating and how she was coping. Despite his busy schedule as a military commander, he tried to come home earlier to spend time with Naala. He would gift Naala a bow to make her happy, even if her possession of a weapon risks his own safety. Eventually, it was revealed that he would constantly risk his life climbing steep cliffs just to pick fruits that Naala liked.

Suren constantly aimed to become an aristocrat, which Naala thought might just be his single-minded ambition. But we later learned that he wanted it because it was the only way to keep Naala with him. According to the laws of Nasla, if they were to have a child, Naala would have to be passed on to the next man after childbirth due to the lack of women in the country. However, things would be different if Suren was an aristocrat instead of a commoner. Knowing this, Suren was willing to fight tooth and nail to have Naala with him, and he would risk everything for his wife. Eventually, even I became soft-hearted for him.

I debated for a long while on whether Suren was a full blown yandere, but ultimately decided against it. While he acted aggressively and was really shrewd in the beginning when he schemed to get Naala as his bride, he became much milder afterwards. Throughout his entire main route, there was no yandere tendencies from him. Only in his bad end did he broke down due to both Naala’s and Naran’s betrayal. And while he did so, he still underwent serious emotional struggle before confronting them. A yandere would be so selfish and intolerant of such acts that they would not be able to endure through what Suren did. Nevertheless, it was obvious that Suren loved Naala way too deeply, and can sometimes resort to underhanded means to obtain her. In other routes, it can also be seen that Suren still vies for her. In this sense, I think he can be considered a minor yandere.