Hiromu Shinbo (新保弘 , Shinbo Hiromu?, spelled Shinbo on the Japanese Chobits website and in the English anime, and Shimbo in the Tokyopop English manga) is Hideki's best friend and is also studying at Seki cram school. In the anime, Shinbo lives in the same apartment complex as Hideki and is his next-door neighbor. Shinbo is usually the first person Hideki turns to for help with persocoms. Shortly after beginning school he becomes romantically involved with his teacher Takako Shimizu, after finding her in a park late at night because she had been unwittingly locked out of her house by her husband, who was too busy with his persocom. He later elopes with her and convinces her to marry him. Hiromu later gives Sumomo to Hideki as Takako is still hesitant about living with persocoms.