Brayson Arai

Brayson is a character from My Next-door Neighbors!. He is a freshman in high school and the neighbor of Doris Brooks.

Appearance
Brayson is a tall tennager. His eyes are an amber-tan color and give off a tired look. He has a small nose and often seems bored, regardless of if he is or not.

His hair is black, neatly styled, and short. He has bangs that symmetrically rest in the middle of his forehead to his eyes, and around his temples.

He usually wears green or black clothing and is called attractive by the girls in his school.

Personality
Brayson isn’t the most talkative of people and prefers to keep to himself. He can be very blunt and has the tendency to hurt people’s feelings because of it. This causes people to fear him and see him as unapproachable.

Later on in the story, he becomes more aware of how his actions affect others and tries to be more kind and gentle, especially with people like Doris.

Chase Anderson
Brayson and Chase are former step-brothers.

At the beginning of the story, they have a hostile relationship, mostly on Brayson's side because he believes that Chase abandoned him and his mother. Soon, they reconcile and grow closer, acting like brothers once again and playing video games with each other just like they did when they were kids.

They now have a steady relationship and tend to confide in each other, though it is mostly Chase who opens up about his problems.

Brayson believes that Chase's greatest strength is his ability to deal with annoying people and not get angry with them.

Azami Arai
Azami is Brayson's mother.

They have a good relationship and really care about each other. Brayson claims that he was content with just living with Azami, but accepted Mr. Anderson as his new father because he wanted her to be happy. This shows how much he loves his mother.

According to Mrs. Brooks, Azami says that Brayson is very respectful towards her.

Mr. Anderson
Mr. Anderson is Brayson's former step-father.

They have a strained relationship and barely interact with each other. When they do, Mr. Anderson tries to act welcoming and like he did not cheat on Mrs. Arai, and that causes Brayson to ignore him and scowl.

As of yet, they have not reconciled with each other.

Annabelle Williams
Annabelle and Brayson are neighbors and childhood friends. They have an easy-going relationship and seem to find it simple to be honest with each other. They spend time together with their other friends, often watching movies or hanging out at school.

In the beginning of the story, Annabelle has a crush on Brayson because he defended her and became her friend when they were young. This causes her to be somewhat hostile to any girls who seem to express interest in him. She later confesses this to him, finding that he had forgotten that they had known each other when they were kids because he had poor eyesight and needed glasses. When confessing, she says that she realizes that she loved the version of him that she remembers from the past but not the current version. He accepts this and they become closer friends.

Though they do not interact very much, their relationship seems healthy.

Doris Brooks
Doris and Brayson are friends, albeit not especially close ones. Though, they enjoy each other's company and even work at Brayson's mother's flower shop together. They are neighbors and often watch movies with their other friends that live in their apartment building.

At first, Brayson is rude to Doris and even slams his apartment door in her face on multiple occasions, making her cry. Soon, he warms up to her and they became friends.

They do not interact much, but Brayson claims that Doris has taught him to be more kind and watch what he says so he does not hurt others with his words. He also sees her as a younger sister.

Faith Martin
Faith and Brayson are friends and like to make music together.

Faith seems to be or was one of Brayson's fangirls at some point, having almost called him "Baeson" when she spoke to him for the first time in the story. This highly implies that she has romantic feelings for him. She wants to hide this, though, as she becomes embarrassed when someone mentions that she might like him.

When Chase asks him whether or not he has a crush on Faith, Brayson says that he "likes her voice". He shows this when he secretly records her while she is singing, and then makes music for it and posts it to his YouTube channel. When he hears her say that she dislikes the song, he immediately deletes it. When she finds out about this, she says that she would like to make music with him and is happy that he likes her voice.

They make a song together for Faith's grandparents, growing relatively close over that process. After this, Faith realizes that she wants to ask Brayson out to the school dance. She tries to at Chase's party, but ends up getting too nervous and asks him for advice on how to play video games better instead. When Zeke asks Brayson if there is anyone whom he wants to ask him out to the dance, he envisions Faith but quickly changes the subject.

Emmett Neilson
Emmett and Brayson are friends. Though they spend a lot of time with each other, they often get into arguments when playing video games. According to Doris, Emmett is the only person with whom Brayson really gets angry.

Trivia

 * His favorite color is blue
 * His favorite animal is the turtle
 * He can play the piano and electric guitar
 * He likes action movies
 * His grandfather is of Japanese descent
 * He likes all kinds of chocolate
 * He likes j-pop more than k-pop
 * He can understand some Japanese
 * His favorite childhood memory is when he would sneak into the refrigerator-like area where his mother kept her plants and smell the flowers
 * He is not emo