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Fang Ray Shin
The game's female protagonist, and an upperclassman. Wei finds her asleep on a chair in the school's auditorium, and she joins him, taking over as main protagonist when he dies.
- Action Survivor: Has all the combat ability you'd expect of a high schooler, but still manages to deal with supernatural threats like the Lingered.
- A Darker Me: A shadowy version of Ray will appear near the end of the game and ask Ray questions, which will determine what ending she gets. She's implied to represent Ray's sin of betraying the forbidden book club. If Ray answers her incorrectly, that means she is refusing to accept her guilt and she'll get the Bad Ending, in which she tries to hang herself, but fails because she's Dead All Along and just repeats the cycle once more. If Ray answers her correctly, she's able to finally move on and reunite with Wei in the present.Shadow Ray: I, am you. Yet you, are not me.Shadow Ray (after a correct answer}: You... are me.
- Broken Ace: A promising student, until her broken home got to her.
- Broken Bird: She has a lot of issues. Abusive home life, her Living Emotional Crutch breaking up with her, destroying the lives of everyone she cared about, eternally wandering a nightmare version of her school as purgatory… it just doesn't end. Until the Good Ending.
- Dead All Along: She was Driven to Suicide after realizing the consequences of her actions. The main game is her trapped in a "Groundhog Day" Loop in purgatory, experiencing the last day of the book club to her suicide until she can come to terms with her sin.
- Despair Event Horizon: Fell into depression after Mr. Chang broke up with her.
- Don't Call Me "Sir": When Wei calls her "Miss Fang," Ray asks him to call her "Ray" instead.
- Driven to Suicide: After realizing what she'd done by ratting out the book club, she killed herself (either by hanging, or from jumping from the rooftop).
- Et Tu, Brute?: Wei and Ray were friends prior to the game's beginning, before Ray used the book list Wei gave her to rat out the forbidden book club, which sent Wei to prison along with the others.
- Flower Motifs: Daffodils, which can represent prosperity and good luck, but also vanity and death, foreshadowing what she did to her schoolmates.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: Every time Ray refuses to accept her guilt and tries to hang herself (i.e. gets the bad ending), she will instead return to the game's beginning. You can break the loop by getting the good ending.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Ray's desire to forget her crime is so strong that at the beginning of the game, she doesn't remember Wei, or presumably her betrayal.
- Love Makes You Evil: She betrayed the book club so that she could get back with Mr. Chang.
- My God, What Have I Done?: She regrets selling out the book club, especially since Mr. Chang got arrested and executed for conspiracy against the government. She hung herself out of despair.
- Never My Fault: In her confrontation with Ms. Yin, she accuses Ms. Yin for being at fault for Mr. Chang's death and the book club's arrest. As you will later learn, Ray was the one who betrayed the forbidden book club, resulting in Mr. Chang being executed, not realizing that Mr. Chang was supplying the club's books. During the final chapter, you get to decide if she keeps this attitude or not; answer Shadow Ray correctly, and Ray will face her responsibility for the book club's deaths. Answer Shadow Ray incorrectly, and Ray will try once again to forget and kill herself, which will just repeat the cycle.
- Tragic Keepsake: Her deer necklace, which Mr. Chang gave her.
- Suicide is Shameful: It's part of the reason she's trapped in Purgatory, along with being buried in an unmarked grave. In her case, her suicide represents her refusal to face or acknowledge her guilt. She's only able to take responsibility and live on (for a certain value of 'live', since she's a ghost, but she doesn't try to commit suicide in this ending) in the Good Ending. In the Bad Ending, she keeps trying to forget and hangs herself in the auditorium, which just causes the "Groundhog Day" Loop to reset.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Well, Counselor/Student romance, but still a faculty member. While Mr. Chang understands her feelings and is implied to reciprocate, it doesn't end well for anyone involved.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She didn't mean to kill Mr. Chang or the other book club members, or get Wei imprisoned, or exile Ms. Yin. She just wanted Ms. Yin out of the picture, and assumed that the government would only target Ms. Yin as the ringleader of the Forbidden Book Club, and that Ms. Yin would be punished like her own father when her mother had him investigated; i.e. sent to prison for a bit. She had no idea that they'd react by executing or imprisoning everyone involved, even if they were underage.
- Yandere: Mr. Chang is her Living Emotional Crutch, and she couldn't handle him breaking up with her. Which is why she sold out the forbidden book club to Instructor Bai.
Wei Chung Ting
The game's male protagonist, who falls asleep in class one day and wakes up to find the school abandoned, with the exception of Fang Ray Shin.
- Agent Scully: He thinks that the river of blood is just red because of chemical runoff.
- Dead All Along: Inverted. While Ray finds him dead when you first take control of her, he's actually alive all along (Ray's the one who's dead), and you control him again during the Good Ending.
- Decoy Protagonist: Ray finds him dead early on. You only control him again in the Good Ending.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: He seems to have picked up the habit by the time he is granted amnesty and returns to the school.
- Sole Survivor: He is the only confirmed survivor of the forbidden book club in the present day.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He caused the forbidden book club to be exposed with the unwise decision of giving their book list to Ray, who had a grudge against Ms. Yin (the teacher in charge) and betrayed them to the government in the hopes that Ms. Yin would be arrested.
Ms. Yin
A teacher at Wei and Ray's school.
- Cool Teacher: Well-liked by her students. She even created the Forbidden Book Club to give them a chance to learn freely, and warned them about the risks of joining. And after being forced to flee the country, she spent the rest of her life protesting the martial law.
- Dead All Along: She died in exile before martial law was lifted.
- Poor Communication Kills: A cryptic conversation that she had with Mr. Chang makes Ray think that Mr. Chang is breaking up with her to be in a relationship with Ms. Yin, and convinces Ray that Ms. Yin needs to be removed. In reality, Ms. Yin had that conversation for Ray's sake, worried that Ray could be in danger due to Mr. Chang's connection to the secret book club.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Downplayed, but her connections are why she was able to escape the country upon Ray's betrayal, rather than being executed like Mr. Chang.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Well, this sinful Taiwan at least, and none of the other characters ever see her again after Ray rats out the book club and she's forced to flee Taiwan, since she dies in exile. She's a much-loved teacher, supportive to her students, and wants them to learn to think for themselves instead of just repeating propaganda.
- You Can't Go Home Again: She never returned to Taiwan after Ray betrayed her and she had to flee.
Mr. Chang
The counselor at Wei and Ray's school.
- Animal Motifs: White deer.
- Break Her Heart to Save Her: Deconstructed. While he did have a good reason for breaking up with Ray (he didn't want to bring her down with him if the forbidden book club was discovered), Ray didn't know that, and her heartbreak led her to betray the book club in hopes of getting back together with him, which led to his death.
- Cool Teacher: Much like Ms. Yin. He helps Ray get her life back together after it starts to fall apart, and supports the Forbidden Book Club by supplying it with smuggled books.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Implied, since apparently all of his siblings are dead. It's why he's able to connect so well with Ray.
- Dead All Along: He was executed when the Forbidden Book Club was discovered.
- Face Death with Dignity: When the book club is discovered, he accepts his inevitable execution with grace, saying that he'll finally be able to meet his sisters again.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Maybe. Ray definitely loved him, but while he is shown to have at least cared for her, he may not have reciprocated in that way. His only word on the matter is when he says that Rey is grown up and can make her own choices.
Instructor Bai
A teacher at Wei and Ray's school, and a fervent government supporter and anti-communist hardliner.
- The Dreaded: Most of the school is too scared to say his full name.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He only appears three times: once in the prologue, asking to speak to Ms. Yin, once on the phone, and once in a late-game flashback, revealing that Ray gave the book list to him, betraying the forbidden book club.
Ray's Parents
Ray's formerly-loving, currently broken family.
- Abusive Parents: Originally, they weren't. Then they started fighting, and the whole thing just went downhill.
- Woman Scorned: Ray's mother had her father investigated and arrested for bribery after realizing that he was cheating. Which may have been where Ray got the idea of setting the government on Ms. Yin.
