Rin's Mother

Her dark hair sits in two buns, one to the left of her head and one to the right, and the whole thing usually looks unkempt because she is forever busy. Another telling detail is her eyes, drawn smaller and plainer than those of most other characters.

She pours her effort into holding the family together after losing her husband, even taking Sunday-morning shifts, and she is deeply thankful that Rin pitches in at home and minds her grandmother. That very gratitude, however, ends up cutting into Rin's own pursuits and pulling her further from her friends, since the girl cannot bear to let her mother down.

Her husband's sudden death pushed her to work all the harder, both to cover the bills and to look after a mother-in-law already slipping into dementia. With her hours so long, she asked Rin to shoulder most of the chores after school, from cleaning to feeding the grandmother. One evening she came home and thanked Rin, and after saying hello to her mother-in-law, the old woman asked whether her son Tadamichi would come home; she answered that he would not return, then went to give her a bath. Later, when Rin tried to ask her to come along to an idol audition that Sunday, she cut in to recall that she had work that morning and needed Rin to watch the grandmother, thanking and hugging her until Rin quietly let the request drop. One late night, Rin found her slumped asleep over a table buried in receipts and tasks and laid a blanket over her.