Play The Kid at the Back Online — Characters, Choices & Demo Guide

Content Warning: This is a yandere psychological horror visual novel. The developer lists stalking, violence, kidnapping, abuse, psychological manipulation, blood, and death among its themes. Written for mature players — not recommended for younger or easily disturbed audiences.

The Kid at the Back is a dark romance visual novel by fantasia | TealCat, written with co-writer and editor ZUKI and built in Ren'Py. It sits at the intersection of high-school drama and yandere horror, and it has drawn a 4.9/5 average from over 4,000 ratings on itch.io. The premise, in the developer's own framing: there is a tall guy at the back of the room that people forget is there — and once you lock eyes with him, those eyes are not leaving yours.

Story: The Boy Nobody Notices

You play an unnamed, customizable student. The setup is ordinary school life: your best friend, the people you eat lunch with, the quiet classmate everyone has learned to look past. What the game does with that setup is not ordinary. Attention is the currency here — who you give it to, how much, and how early — and the story treats being noticed as something closer to being marked.

The current build is a demo covering Day 1 and Day 2 of the school week. Every ending in it closes on "To Be Continued..." — this is the opening act of a longer story, not a self-contained one. Per the developer's devlogs, Day 3 and Day 4 are being written and will release together, and the finished game will be free.

Characters

• The Player — An unnamed protagonist with a name-change option and gender-neutral pronoun choices (he/she/they). Deliberately underwritten so you can occupy the role.
• Solivan "Sol" Brugmansia — The kid at the back. Black hair with dull green streaks, cut to shoulder length in a half-up-half-down style, and central heterochromia — an orange inner ring around a crimson outer ring, set in sharp, squinted eyes. He keeps to the darkest corners of the school and does not speak. He is artistic, and drawn to history and classic literature.
  His surname is not decoration: Brugmansia is the botanical name for Angel's Trumpet, a plant whose beautiful, sweet-smelling flowers are highly toxic. The author chose it on purpose.
• Jericho "Crowe" Ichabod — The second love interest, and your best friend rather than a stranger. Warm brown skin, deep blue eyes, dark brown hair in a loose braid over his right shoulder fading to a sapphire gradient. He is well-mannered, soft-spoken, and quietly confident — popular without trading on it, empathetic, and genuinely reliable. He has physically shielded you from campus bullies before. Beneath it he carries his own insecurities, especially about love.
• Brittney — One of Crowe's closest friends, and one of your Day 1 lunch options.
• Hyugo — A supporting character who appears at key branch points, including the walk home at the end of Day 2.

How the Game Works

This is a choice-driven Ren'Py visual novel with a hidden affection point system. There is no combat and no puzzle-solving — your decisions in each scene accumulate points with a love interest, and those totals gate which scenes, CGs, and endings you can reach.

• Two love interests only. The developer has confirmed there will be exactly two: Sol and Crowe.
• 15+ CGs, including animated variants. Several are tied to specific choices rather than to simply finishing a route.
• Album and glossary systems. Both fill in as you play, so you can see at a glance which scenes you have not triggered yet.
• About 1 hour per run, or 2+ hours to see everything the demo holds.

Choices & Branch Points

The demo's documented branch points are below. Note that the developer distributes an official hints guide as an image in the version 2.3 devlog on itch.io — worth checking there for the exact CG unlock list, which is not reproduced in text anywhere official.

• Day 1 — where you spend your time. You choose between going with Brittney to the cafeteria, heading to the library, or going to the rooftop. This is the demo's first real fork, and it sets the tone for who you are building points with.
• Day 2 — the Arcade route. Taking the Arcade route on Day 2 opens a point-specific scenario that only triggers if your affection with Sol is high enough. This scene was added in version 2.3 and is the one most first-time players miss entirely.
• End of Day 2 — the walk home. This is the demo's clearest visible threshold. With 8 or more affection points with Sol, you get the option to let Sol walk you home. Below that threshold the option never appears — instead Hyugo walks you home, and you are asked to choose between Sol or Crowe.

Because the branches key off accumulated points rather than one-off decisions, the practical advice is to be consistent: scattering your attention across both boys leaves you under the thresholds that unlock the demo's most substantial content.

Endings

The demo's endings branch off your Day 2 affection totals, and all of them stop on "To Be Continued..." rather than resolving. One documented outcome gives a clear sense of the tone the game is going for: Sol weeping over the Player as they lose consciousness, Hyugo entering the edges of their fading vision, an argument between the two men — and a close on the words "No Witnesses".

A complete, verified ending list for the current build is not published in any official text source. The community wiki and the developer's own devlog images are the best references if you want to chase every variant.

Tips Before You Play

• Commit to one boy per run. The affection thresholds are the gate. Splitting your points is the reliable way to see the least content.
• Use Ren'Py's save slots before Day 1's lunch choice. One save at that fork lets you branch into cafeteria, library, and rooftop without replaying the opening three times.
• Check the album between runs. Empty slots are the most honest map of what you have missed.
• Read the glossary. It is not filler — the game uses it to carry lore that the scenes themselves leave implied.
• Take the content warnings seriously. The horror here is relational rather than jump-scare driven: obsession, control, and the point at which being cared about becomes the threat.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Is The Kid at the Back finished? No. The current release is a demo covering Days 1–2, version 2.3.3, still in development. The developer has said the full game will be free when it releases.
• Can I play it online? Yes — you can play it free right here on this page in your browser, no download and no install required. The developer also distributes native builds for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android.
• Is there an 18+ version? Yes. The developer offers a free SFW build (name-your-own-price) and a separate NSFW build at a $5 USD minimum, priced specifically to keep it away from minors. The only difference between the two builds is the explicit scenes.
• Can I romance both Sol and Crowe in one run? No — the affection system pushes you toward one. Replay to see the other.
• Does it use AI art? No. The developer has confirmed no generative AI was used, and credits ZUKI as co-writer and editor alongside community help with grammar and coding.

Conclusion

The Kid at the Back earns its following by making the horror personal. Sol is not a monster who found you — he is someone you chose to look at, named after a flower that is lovely and poisonous in equal measure. Crowe is not a safe alternative so much as a different kind of weight. Two days, two routes, an hour a run, and an ending that refuses to let you finish.

Someone is sitting at the back of the room. He has already noticed you.