Apparently, Saionji and Touga became friends when they were young children. It's not clear what kind of family Saionji was from, but the Saionji family must have also been fairly wealthy in order for them to meet in the first place. (And Ohtori isn't exactly a cheap school) Both of them liked kendo, so they would practice together often. Another hobby was bike riding, though their definition of "bike riding" was to fit two people on one bike, with one person riding on the back, on the rear wheel cover.

One day when they were practicing kendo, Saionji hurt his hand and Touga bandaged it for him. Going home, they spy a group of men, who are looking for a young girl who had lost her parents and who has apparently vanished. Later on, Touga and Saionji find a little girl lying in a coffin of roses. It is that same girl who the men were looking for. Saionji and Touga offer to help the girl, who refuses, saying she will never leave the coffin. Touga then tells the girl he will show her "something eternal."

What happens after that is not entirely clear, but that seems to be the great pivotal point in the relationship between Saionji and Touga. Even when they were younger, it was Touga who succeeded where Saionji could not, and Saionji fosters a growing resentment against Touga for always being one step ahead in the game.

Their friendship is a curious substory of the anime. It is because of Touga that Saionji is expelled from Ohtori, and though by then Saionji doubts that their friendship was as strong as it used to be, he does not doubt that there is still some spark of friendship within Touga, who proclaims, "Only a fool believes he has friends." But Touga apparently believes differently and severs all friendship with Saionji except for merest of pretenses. Both of them are thus plunged into an endless cycle of scheming, deception, and bitter rivalry.

In the end, however, they regain most of what they had lost, with perhaps something more. The relationship between Touga and Saionji at the end of Utena is markedly different from the one they had at the beginning of the anime, for reasons which these other pages hope to explore.