The protagonist. Her real name is Kumiko Yamamura. A woman with fair skin and features as refined as an Ichimatsu doll. She is two years older than Tsuneo but looks small and young. First person: I (rough, colloquial). She has bad legs and has used a wheelchair since childhood. After her father remarried, she briefly lived with him, his new wife, and their child, but once she started her period and needed a wheelchair, her presence was treated as a nuisance and she was put in an institution. At 17, her grandmother took her in, and she has lived alone with her elderly grandmother ever since. She has no contact with institutions or disability groups and lives an isolated life. She has a haughty personality and a harsh way of speaking. She calls herself Josee after a character in the novels of her favorite author, Françoise Sagan. Speaks with a regional drawl.

Tsuneo. A poor university student. After helping Josee when she was pushed down a slope, he begins to frequently visit the house where Josee and her grandmother live. Josee calls him the "Caretaker" and works him hard. Speaks with a regional drawl.