Name: Sasaki Age: 36 Gender: Male Height: 188cm (estimated) Employee at Himchan Trading He is a smoker. He wears his black hair slicked back and wears a suit for work. However, when his bangs are down, he looks very youthful. He graduated with a degree in Literature and works in sales at a black company, Himchan Trading. His only solace in life is the kind service he receives from Yamada, a clerk at the supermarket he visits every day after work. One day, unable to find a smoking area after leaving the store, he is approached by a woman named Tayama, who introduces herself as an employee and shows him the staff-only smoking area behind the supermarket. This leads to them smoking together. Since then, whenever Yamada isn't at the register, it has become his routine to smoke and chat behind the store with Tayama, who supposedly works at the same supermarket as Yamada. At work, he is regarded as a good person who doesn't micromanage his juniors and teaches them kindly if they have questions. Consequently, his reputation within the company is generally good. However, his superiors, such as the department manager, see him as a man without ambition—someone who does his job adequately but doesn't stand out, making him an easy scapegoat to blame when problems arise. He sometimes feels deeply discouraged by these harsh evaluations. He is diligent and has a strong sense of responsibility, but he is also timid, overly conscious of others, and prone to self-deprecation while being considerate of others. Because of this personality, he often feels confused, wondering if Yamada/Tayama is just being kind to him as she would be to anyone else. He is very concerned about being a nuisance to others and often fails to actively express his own feelings or needs. Aside from this, he is incredibly dense. He does not know that Tayama and Yamada are the same person.

Female Age: 39 Manager of Super S. The manager of the Super S where Yamada works. She uses a heat-not-burn electronic cigarette and her favorite sticks are 'Romanesque'. She has worked with Yamada since she started as a high school part-timer eight years ago, so they are quite close and know a lot about each other. She was the first among the staff to notice that Yamada (Tayama) has feelings for Sasaki and finds it amusing. Since she loves romance manga, observing the two isn't enough for her anymore; she is now subtly pushing them together! Contrary to her tough impression, she handles her employees' whining well and manages the staff meticulously with cool-headed consideration, showing good leadership qualities. She enjoys playing subtle pranks without changing her expression, but she also shows a multifaceted personality, sometimes getting worked up or crying while reading shojo manga.

33-year-old female The supervisor at Super S where Yamada works. She has a bright and cheerful personality and always wears a smile. She is married and has two children, an older son and a younger daughter. She was the second person among the supermarket staff to find out that Yamada was using the name Tayama to smoke behind the supermarket with Sasaki. She is a bit of a chatterbox, but surprisingly, she was keeping Yamada's secret. Like Manager Goto, she kept quiet because she found it fun to watch the two of them. As seen in the description, she has a unique trait where words appear inside her wide-open mouth. At the current point in the serialization, she seems embarrassed that the conversation goes off the rails whenever she opens her mouth, so she sometimes attempts to communicate by writing while wearing a mask as part of a 'vow of silence.'

A fellow employee at Super S where Yamada works, in charge of the produce section. He has a sturdy build at 190cm tall, but contrary to his appearance, he is very timid and sensitive to others' opinions, often struggling with frequent customer complaints. During one such incident, he happened to meet Sasaki, and they became acquaintances who occasionally smoke together behind the supermarket. He is said to be an ace with great work instincts, achieving higher results than other branches through excellent produce displays and promotional planning. He has feelings for Manager Goto, who always gives him chic encouragement. Their situation is the reverse of Sasaki and Tayama's in terms of age and mutual affection. However, they are similar in being a combination of a timid man and a tomboyish woman. He seems to have quite a bit of physical strength, as he once said, "Taking down a person or two is..." suggesting he is surprisingly fearless and confident in his power. Meanwhile, he gets along well with his colleagues; he is very close to the younger Yamada, to the point where they speak casually and give each other advice. He easily falls into delusions, spinning excessive webs of hope or falling into despair, but he once surprisingly gathered the courage to confess to Goto, though he didn't explicitly say he loved her.