In Burn the House Down, Nanami Katsuragi, Shinji’s friend, is the first person to expose Makiko’s reality on social media.
At school, Shinji is quite popular among the girls. However, he is well aware that most of them like him because he comes from a rich family and is going to take over the position of Mitarai Hospital’s director.
What Shinji does not realize is that Nanami Katsuragi, a girl who is his friend and studies with him all the time, is not any different. Initially, it seems like she likes Shinji, but later, it turns out that she only likes him for his money.
The scandal
Nanami is also very popular at school; she even got second place in the Miss Campus Contest. She pretends to be Shinji’s friend, and when Shinji tells her that things did not work out with Yuzu, she confesses that she likes him.
Nanami tells Shinji that people should not like him for his family or connections and that, unlike the others, she likes him for who he is. After that, Shinji starts spending time with her.
It is clear that Shinji still likes Yuzu, as when he goes out with Nanami, he does not think twice about leaving her and following Yuzu as soon as he sees Yuzu there. This leaves Nanami fuming, but she does not let Shinji see her anger.
She continues to act sweet in front of Shinji and tries to get him to like her. She even goes to his house and cooks for him when he is sick. There, she meets Makiko, who can easily figure out Nanami’s intentions.
Makiko tells her that she can see the greed in Nanami’s eyes, even though she acts like an innocent and selfless person. She makes it clear that Nanami will not get anything from the Mitarais and that she cannot be with Shinji anymore.
Nanami drops the act then and points out that Makiko is the same as her. Nanami can see through Makiko’s lies and knows that she married Osamu for his money. She also thinks that Makiko’s interviews are full of lies.
At that moment, Makiko decides to be honest with her and admits that she gives people what they want, even if it is lies; she gives people the perfect wife and mother that they can admire. Makiko tells her that if it is for money, she would do anything.
Makiko then throws Nanami out of her house, not knowing that Nanami has recorded the whole conversation. Nanami posts the recording online from an account called “Angel Baby”, which results in a scandal.
Makiko sends Anzu to get Nanami to delete the posts and apologize online. Anzu offers to pay Nanami to do that, but when Nanami refuses, Anzu threatens her.
Nanami goes on dates with different men who gift her expensive things. Anzu has pictures of Nanami going on dates with these men and threatens to leak them, which would make Nanami the target of a dangerous woman who is the wife of one of these men.
Nanami has no choice but to take the money and do what Anzu says. However, it cannot be denied that Nanami’s posts damage Makiko’s carefully created public image. This is the first of those scandals that lead to Makiko’s reality getting exposed.
Months later, Nanami is seen treating another man the way she used to treat Shinji, which indicates that her life is still the same.
Also Read: Satsuki Murata: Burn the House Down character explained