[186]

“I APOLOGIZE for last night.”

Abruptly Tsuda tried this approach. He was curious about the effect it might have on her.

“I’m the one who should apologize.”

Her reply came easily. Detecting no discomfort in it gave Tsuda cause to wonder.

Can it be that the surprise she felt last night is already in the past for her this morning?

If she were no longer able to recall what she had felt, his mission, for better or for worse, had been reduced to insignificance.

“I felt sorry afterward for having startled you.”

“Why did you, then?”

“I didn’t mean to. I couldn’t help it because I didn’t know. I had no idea you were staying here.”

“But you came all the way from Tokyo with a present for me.”

“That’s true. But the fact is, I didn’t know. I ran into you by accident.”

“How can that be?”

Her response came as a surprise: clearly she was thinking his behavior had been intentional.

“Why would I have done that on purpose? Certainly not for my own amusement.”

“You seemed to have been standing there for quite a while.”

To be sure, he had been gazing at the water overflowing in the basin and peering at his reflection in the mirror. No question he had tarried, even combing his hair with the comb that had been lying there.

“What are you supposed to do when you get lost and have no idea where you’re going? There’s nothing you can do.”

“I suppose. But that wasn’t how it seemed to me.”

“Are you thinking I was lying in wait? You can’t be serious. I may have a prodigy of a nose, but it didn’t tell me when you’d be going to the bath.”

“Of course not! That’s silly.”

Kiyoko’s “Of course not!” was articulated with such conviction that Tsuda couldn’t help laughing.

“Why would you even suspect such a thing?”

“You must know why.”

“I don’t, I have no idea.”

“Then it doesn’t matter. It’s something that shouldn’t need explaining.”

Tsuda could only try approaching from a different angle.

“But what reason would I have to lie in wait for you at the end of a hallway? Just tell me that.”

“I can’t say—”

“There’s no need to be polite — please tell me.”

“I’m not being polite. I can’t say what I can’t say.”

“But it’s something you’re thinking, isn’t it? So if you wanted to, you should be able to come out with it.”

“There’s nothing on my mind — not a thing.”

This simple remark thwarted Tsuda’s advance even as it intensified his persistence.

“Then where does your suspicion come from?”

“If it’s wrong to be suspicious, I apologize. And I won’t be anymore.”

“But you’ve already doubted me.”

“I can’t help that. It’s true I doubted you. And I’ve admitted it. All the apologizing in the world won’t change that.”

“But why can’t you just tell me what it is you’re doubting?”

“But I already have.”

“That was only half of it, a third of it — I want the whole truth.”

“Oh my god! I don’t know what to say!”

“It’s so simple. All you have to say is I doubted such-and-such about you for such-and-such a reason and you’d be finished in one breath.”

Apparently distressed until that moment, Kiyoko suddenly appeared persuaded.

“That’s what you want to hear?”

“Obviously. That’s precisely what I want to hear, which is why I’ve persisted in making you miserable. But you keep trying to conceal it.”

“If only you’d said so right away. That’s not something I have to conceal. There is no reason. It’s just that you’re a person who does that sort of thing.”

“Lies in wait?”

“Yes.”

“That’s absurd!”

“I’m sorry, but the person I’ve seen you be is that sort of person.”

“I see—”

Folding his arms, Tsuda lowered his head.

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