Not to be outdone by the Catholics, Buddhist monks had converted the boys' orphanage school on nearby Hanadera into a boys' academy, called simply Hanadera Boys'Academy. Many of the ojou-samas had brothers there, and some were dating boys from there, although it was not officially allowed.

The most prominent family at the two schools was the Matsudairas. Businessman Matsudaira Tarou had married into minor nobility on the part of his wife Tetsuya in the Taisho era. Their children, Susumu and Chiyoko, went to Hanadera and Lilian, respectively. Miyoko Suzuki in Yumiko's year was dating Susumu, and Chiyoko was dating Ogasawara Masao in Susumu's year. The Ogasawaras were a fast-rising family, and there were advantages to both the Matsudairas and Ogasawaras if the two families were to merge. In post-war Japan, many of the social niceties like formal chaperones and courtship, and even the virginity of a bride, were quietly being ignored quite often. For obvious reasons, both the military and the nobility were in somewhat of a decline, while the business class was rising in prominence.

Although not nearly as rich as the Matsudairas or Ogasawaras, the most well-born family at the two schools was the Saikis. Saiki Ayako, universally called "Saiko," was being pursued by Kikuchi Hiroshi from Hanadera, but had been putting him off in such a polite way it was uncertain if he had understood that was what she was doing. Saiki Shigeru at Hanadera was a playboy, the opposite of his demure sister.

Yumiko had no place in this scheme of things. Frankly, she was not even legitimate.

Her father was an American student studying in Tokyo before the war. Her mother, Ikegami Shizuka, was sent to a co-ed college by her middle-class family to become a teacher, as she was too shy around men to consider being a bride, they thought. She surprised them all by having an affair with the handsome and studious Irish-American that was her study partner, exchanging Japanese lessons for English practice. However, after Yumiko was born, he went back to America. He occasionally sent money to Yumiko's mother, but eventually he married and started a family there, and stopped corresponding with his family in Japan.

Immediately after the war, he had returned to Japan as an officer, working as an interpreter and cultural liaison for the Occupation bureaucracy. Disregarding his family in America, he had immediately reunited with Shizuka, and she had moved herself and Yumiko in with him to the small house they still occupied. In order to help provide for them in now hunger-torn Japan, he bigamously married Shizuka in a Shinto ceremony, and was written into her family register, though Shizuka did not take his last name. She could now show a photo of the wedding, a photo of the family register, or a copy of her marriage license at the PX at the military base near where they lived and buy scarce goods at cost for her and her child. After his work for the Occupation finished, Yumiko's father left again and rejoined his family in America. Yumiko suspected she'd never see him again. At least, the belated marriage had given her something to say about her parentage that didn't outright proclaim her bastard child status.

Yumiko could have probably bought friends by leveraging her ability to buy things at the PX, but wouldn't have dreamed of doing so. Instead, she dutifully did her chores at home, kept entirely to herself all day at school, and helped out stocking at a small store after school to earn a little extra money for her family. On very rare occasions, when no one else was in the room, Yumiko and the other two mice would exchange a few words. Their feeling was that like creatures should flock together.