Milka

Milka is a second year high school student, in the same homeroom as the narrator. She studies mathematics with him following their first encounter under a cherry tree on the day of their entrance ceremony to high school. She is a tall, beautiful girl with long black hair and a dignified demeanor. She wears metal-frame glasses. She has the top grades for math in her class. She tends to act without consideration of others. The narrator interprets her habit of helping herself to his notebook and starting conversations with others at inopportune times as signs of her lack of inhibitions. At one point she is depicted as lecturing about math to another student who had no particular interest because the narrator was not there to listen to her. She tends to sulk when she feels that she is being ignored. This is shown in scenes where the narrator ignores what she is saying, or when he finds himself daydreaming. Her actions become even more extreme when those she considers an "outsider" try to insinuate themselves into her social sphere. In one scene she finds the narrator teaching math to Tetra (who she has never met) in the library, and responds by kicking her chair out from under her. She also stomps on the narrator's foot and walks off alone when she goes to meet him, but finds him talking to Tetra. She stops such behavior after becoming friends with Tetra. There are scenes in the book that indicate that she thinks of the narrator as more than just a friend, but she rarely reveals her emotions, so it is difficult to read her true intent towards him. She thinks of Tetra as being "cute". At one point, she mentions to the narrator that she could never be as cute as Tetra. She has a great love for mathematics. She is normally quiet and subdued, but immediately becomes loquacious when she starts to talk about math. She rarely talks about anything else, for example starting her first conversation with the narrator when they meet with a series of math problems. She tends to like anyone who shows an interest in math. She is at first ambivalent, even antagonistic towards Tetra. She later warms up to Tetra, though, when she sees that she is earnestly pursuing mathematical studies with the narrator, and after she hears that Tetra has independently come up with an idea that leads to an elegant solution to the Basel problem, they become close friends. She has a deep knowledge of mathematics, and in most cases is seen leading the narrator and Tetra through discussions. She can play the piano, and sometimes plays arrangements for four hands with Ay-Ay during lunch.