This whole first-chapter space will be dedicated to this entry here. Yes, it's kind of important and will give you a bit of an understanding on the foundation upon which I built all the ideas in this story. However, reading it isn't necessary. It's just an analysis of the headcanons that will be used.
Firstly, I have a headcanon that grim reapers are those who committed suicide in life. In the anime and manga both, the reapers have only reaped souls from those who have died from events other than suicide. I have doubts that in that scenario, their names wouldn't show up on the To-Die List, and therefore their souls would not be reaped. The idea that they wouldn't show up on the To-Die List struck me when I was pondering the headcanon of reapers being those who had taken their own lives, which I hadn't placed much of an explanation on at the time—the idea of someone going about committing suicide, the act of taking their lives before what I would imagine to be the time that they're meant to die, being an event that could be tracked by the List doesn't seem very likely to me.
Secondly, Ronnie is my favorite out of the reapers, and one of my favorite characters in the anime/manga, so he gets to go first. Now, mind you, he most certainly can't have the same personality as he does as a reaper, as that would be terribly implausible—so I'm going to change it up a bit. Ronald is depicted as cheerful, energetic, and generally carefree, and if he had been the same way in life during the time soon before committing suicide, I don't think he would have committed suicide in the first place and instead would have lived a wonderful life.
But he's also depicted as an flexible-minded young man who seems to think a little bit farther ahead of his time, and who can also be responsible and hardworking when it's necessary. These trait are going to remain the same. I see him as the type who, despite the views of the people in the times he lives in, would be very open to the ideas of gender equality, homo/bi/pan/asexuality, transsexualism, and so forth. No, not because I think he should agree with my views on that stuff, but because he's depicted as someone with a very flexible and open mind. Because of this, he would be considered "weird," "unique," and "strange" by his peers, and in life, I can imagine this making him an outcast—and that's actually the point that will be fueling the plot.
Thank you very much for reading this, if you did. If you didn't, well, maybe you should read it... Or don't, I guess, everything in the story will still fall into place, you just probably won't understand why I personally feel like it all fits into place.
Anyway~ Enjoy, if you can~