Chapter 1: Sunset 3: Afterglow

From then on, he called her almost every day to make plans, and after several meetings, their relationship officially began that spring.

Just as he had sensed at the time, Rinko really was an alluring woman, but afterward Kuki found himself wondering again what exactly it was about her that had captivated him.

Her features were not especially beautiful, but they were delicate and charming, and like an ordinary married woman she had a petite, well-proportioned body wrapped in a conservative silk suit.

At thirty-seven, she looked younger than she was, but what attracted Kuki most was Rinko's talent for calligraphy, especially her skill in kaisho.

Although it was only temporary, she had come to the culture center to teach nothing but kaisho.

At their first meeting, Rinko had shown the dignified elegance of kaisho; then, little by little, her gentleness and consideration emerged, and after she finally gave herself to him one day, she truly shed her reserve and grew more open.

To Kuki, that transformation was so lovely, so lushly alluring, that he couldn't help falling hopelessly under its spell.

After sex, their skin pressed tightly together, and each immediately felt what the other felt.

Just then, when Kuki tilted his head to look toward the curtained window, Rinko's left hand timidly clutched at his chest. Kuki gently covered her hand with his and glanced at the clock on the bedside table. It was 6:10.

"The sun is almost down."

From the floor-to-ceiling window, he could see the sea at Shichirigahama and Enoshima, and the sun would be sinking somewhere beyond there.

When they arrived yesterday, it had already been sunset, and the crimson sun was sinking behind the hills by the bridge leading to Enoshima.

"Want to watch?" Kuki said, getting out of bed, pulling on the robe that had fallen to the floor, and drawing back the curtains. In an instant, dazzling slanting light spilled into the room, washing over the floor and the entire bed.

"Just in time..."

The sunset was now shining on the hills opposite Enoshima, staining the lower half of the sky vermilion as it slowly sank.

"Come look over here!"

"You can see it from here too."

Still naked, Rinko seemed unable to bear the sudden brightness, so she wrapped the sheet around herself and turned toward the window.

"It's even redder and bigger than yesterday."

With the curtains fully open, Kuki got back into bed and lay beside Rinko.

Summer had just ended, and heat-heavy haze hung in the air. The setting sun dissolved into that haze and seemed larger, but once its lower half slipped behind the hills, it rapidly shrank into a blood-red ball, as if blood itself had congealed there.

"That's the first time I've ever seen a sunset like that."

Hearing that, Kuki remembered what Rinko had said a little earlier, that her womb was like the sun.

Right now, Rinko's heated body was probably cooling little by little too, just like the setting sun disappearing from the sky.

As he imagined it, Kuki moved in close behind Rinko and laid a hand over her lower abdomen.

Once the sunset's crimson glow had vanished beyond the hills, the sky seemed impatient as it turned purple, and night quietly descended.

As soon as the sun sank, night came on all at once. The sea that had just been glittering gold was instantly washed dark ink-black, and Enoshima's distant outline rose above the water along with the lights on the shore.

Only after Kuki had come to the hotel last night did he learn that Enoshima had a lighthouse, and the thin band of light from it cut across the sky, not yet finished with the evening glow.

"It's getting dark."

Rinko said softly, and Kuki nodded. In an instant, as if she had thought of home, Rinko held her breath and fell silent.

Kuki had heard from Ikegawa that Rinko's husband was a professor at a medical school at a university in Tokyo, nearly ten years older than Rinko, probably around forty-seven or forty-eight.

Rinko had once said half-jokingly that he was "only good because he's so serious," but Kuki had learned through an acquaintance that he was tall and handsome.

If she had such a fine husband, why was Rinko so intimate with a man like him?

It was hard to believe, but he knew that even if he asked Rinko, she would never answer honestly; and even if he learned the answer, it would mean nothing.

For Kuki, this moment of meeting was what truly mattered.

When they were alone, he wanted them to forget everything about their homes and sink into a world that belonged only to the two of them.

He felt that way, but when Rinko looked up at the sky as night closed in just now, a shadow had clearly fallen over her face.

Kuki and Rinko had been together since yesterday afternoon. Today was the second day, and if she stayed one more night, it would be two consecutive nights away from home.

Of course, that was something Rinko had agreed to from the beginning. Maybe she had simply looked at the darkening sky and suddenly grown uneasy because she remembered home.

As if he wanted to confirm what was in the woman's heart, Kuki quietly slid his hand under her left breast.

Rinko's breasts weren't large, but they were round and springy.

Kuki stroked that plump, soft breast, feeling its warmth as he kept thinking.

What exactly had flashed through Rinko's mind in that instant?

He wanted to ask, but what came out was something else.

"Want to get up?"

Even after watching the sun sink into the sea, the two of them were still lying in bed.

"Would you pull the curtains closed, please?"

Kuki did as she asked and drew the curtains shut. Rinko wrapped the sheet around her chest and got out of bed to pick up the underwear scattered near the edge of the bed.

"It feels like we've reversed day and night..."

Thinking back, they had driven over from Shichirigahama to Enoshima in the afternoon, and by the time they returned to the hotel it was already three o'clock.

After that, until the sun went down, they had stayed in bed the whole time.

Kuki felt a little surprised at himself. He went into the next room and took a beer from the refrigerator.

After staring out at the black sea for a while like that, Rinko came out after showering. She had changed into a white dress, and her hair was tied back with a matching white ribbon.

"It's time for dinner. Do you want to eat out?"

They had eaten dinner at the restaurant on the hotel’s second floor last night, the one with a view of the sea.

"Didn't we already make a reservation?"

While they were eating, the manager had come over to greet them. After Kuki told him they were staying another night, the man said he would prepare fresh abalone caught nearby.

"Then let's go there again."

Was it still the languor after sex? Rinko didn't seem eager to leave the hotel.

"You might get drunk tonight!"

When Kuki said that, the shadow was already gone from Rinko's smiling face.

After confirming the reservation by phone, Kuki and Rinko went together to the restaurant on the second floor.