Ichigo Morino

An evidently shrewd young woman who is seemingly wise beyond her apparent years, and who associates with very few friends. Surprisingly, even though she resembles a diminutive 15 year old, her real age is 21; her physical development was stunted due to her "standstills", in the same way that they affect [Kei](https://anilist.co/character/2908). She had been in a "standstill" for 6 years. Ichigo's loss of time and her sense of life cruelly having passed her by due to the illness tends to cause her to have a much more cynical and serious demeanor than is normal for someone of her seeming age, which is sometimes commented upon by her much younger friends. In order to prevent the triggering of "standstills", her emotional expression is very subdued and phlegmatic. But for all her apparent depressive state, she is in fact very caring, attempting to assist both [Koishi](https://anilist.co/character/4544) and Kei by acting as a "matchmaker" for the two, because her own losses have been felt so keenly, and because she doesn't want her friends to experience the kind of heartache she has felt by their wasting opportunities for closeness that she has been forced to endure. She is quiet but fiercely independent, currently living alone in a rather Spartan apartment, partly on her own initiative so that her family wouldn't be burdened by her malady. She still maintains ties to her family, providing at least a semblance of normality. Her keen mind causes her to suspect the too-often "coincidences" regarding their former teacher's departure, the new one's arrival and strange events in their neighborhood immediately after that to be connected, but her much younger and guile-less friends dismiss those connections.

~!At one point, she confesses to Kei, that had they met earlier and revealed their mutual affliction to each other sooner, they might have become closer.!~