Influences
Plain and simple: BIOLOGY CLASS. We were talking about genetics and diseases, and I came up with the idea for Asha, who is a hemophiliac. It'd probably be highly unlikely for a girl to have Hemophilia, but there she is.

Brainstorming
A lot of the story came to me while I was drawing and fleshing out the characters. Hikaru was originally supposed to be much funnier, and Asha was supposed to be a lot darker. Haru was always supposed to be a bit on the brooding side, but a caring person.

Haru originally had a ponytail, but I decided it didn't fit him.

Drawing Style
I wanted to differentiate Dreamer's art style from Eternal Rain's (this was a few years before I started "So Distant" and "Search for the Sky"), so I tried to go with different types of eyes and different face shapes. Eventually, though, all my character designs softened out. XD

On Ari and Rio
Dreamer's cast only included Asha, Haru and Hikaru at first. Ari and Rio were introduced later because I wanted to include a twist. *No spoilers!*
Ari keeps getting girlier the more I draw her. *laughs* She's supposed to be a major tomboy; in her original design, her face looked like a boy's.