Chapter 1: Sunset 5. No Marriage Is Ever Truly Harmonious

As Rinko had said, the coastal road lit by streetlamps and headlights traced a gentle curve out toward Cape Koyurugi, and Enoshima, jutting out from the cape into the sea, emerged in the seaside glow like a battleship. The lighthouse on the hilltop burned brighter as night deepened, its sharp beam cutting from the ridge down into the dark water.

"This feels so good..."

Kuki leaned toward Rinko, who was standing there facing the wind. Because he was holding a glass in his hand, he could not pull her into his arms, so he only moved close and kissed her deeply. In the clean scent of the coast, only the lighthouse knew they had kissed.

"I'm going to get more drinks. Whiskey okay?"

"I want brandy!"

On this windy night, a set of white table and chairs sat in one corner of the garden, as if inviting them to sit down. When they left the restaurant, they had thought they were already drunk, but the night sea breeze made them feel as if they still had room for more.

"It's a private bar with a view of the sea!" As Rinko had said, aside from the stars glittering in the night sky and the lighthouse beam floating over the water, nothing could intrude between them.

Raising their glasses together in this secret bar, that tiny corner of the world suddenly felt detached from reality, as if it were drifting inside a dream.

"I wish we could just stay like this."

Did Rinko really mean that they should keep standing there in the sea breeze and not go back to Tokyo? Kuki wanted to probe a little further.

"Then should we just stay here forever?"

"You'd stay too?"

"As long as I'm with you..."

The two of them stared up at the night sky like that, and before long Rinko murmured, "But that would be hard, wouldn't it?"

What did she mean? Kuki didn't understand, so he turned his thoughts to his own family instead.

No one knew Kuki was at this hotel right now.

When he left the office yesterday, he had only told the women in the office that he would be "heading home early," and he had told his wife only that he had "something to check on and would be in Kyoto for two days." She did not ask any further questions, assuming that if she wanted to know where he was, she could just call the company.

After their only daughter got married, the house was left to the two of them. His wife had thrown herself into a job as a sales consultant for a pottery supplier introduced by an acquaintance, and she often came home later than Kuki did.

Even between husband and wife, there was only the usual routine chatter; there was no warmth to the idea of dining out or going somewhere together.

Even so, Kuki had never thought about divorcing her. He was simply tired of reality, no longer feeling any excitement, but that was how married life was at this age, and he understood that himself.

At least, that was what he had thought until he met Rinko, and he had felt that it was fine that way.

The thought that had just begun in Kuki's mind was blown to the other side of the sky by a fresh night wind from the sea, and in its place came concern for Rinko's family.

"You said you were worried about the cat just now. What about your husband?"

He had not been able to ask in the crowded restaurant, but under the open night sky he found the courage.

"Is it all right for you to be away from home for two days?"

"I've spent nights away before."

Rinko answered while looking up at the night sky as if she were speaking to the stars.

"Sometimes it's work for calligraphy classes with my teacher in different places, and sometimes it's for exhibitions."

"Then... is this time the same excuse?"

"No, I said I was meeting a friend tonight."

"For two days in a row?"

"I have a close friend in Zushi. It's the weekend, after all."

Was she using that excuse to get past her husband? Even if that was true, what if there were some emergency at home and they needed to reach her?

"Does your friend know you're here?"

"I mentioned it in passing. It's fine."

What exactly was fine? Kuki still did not quite understand, so Rinko said flatly, "He won't be looking for me. He likes his work."

Rinko's husband was a medical school professor. Perhaps he stayed in his research lab all the time, but was that really enough reason to be so at ease?

"Has he ever suspected anything?"

"Are you worried about me?"

"If your husband finds out, that would be bad..."

"If he did find out, would it trouble you?"

Kuki let out a long breath, chewing over what Rinko had just said.

The woman had just asked the man, If my husband were to find out about how close you and I are, would it trouble you? On the surface it sounded like a question, but in fact it was a sign that the woman was already prepared for the possibility that her husband might learn the truth.

"Does your husband know about us?"

"That... who knows?"

"He hasn't said anything?"

"No..."

Just when Kuki thought he could finally relax, Rinko said, as if it had nothing to do with her, "Maybe he knows."

"He never asked you directly?"

"It's not that he didn't ask. Maybe he just doesn't want to ask..."

A sudden blast of strong sea wind swept her words up into the night sky and swallowed them without a sound.

Kuki chased after where the wind had gone and thought:

Does she mean he doesn't want to know because he's afraid of knowing? Even if he suspects his wife may be having an affair, he doesn't want to confirm it. If finding out would just make him miserable, then isn't it better not to know? Is that what she means?

Once again, the image of a tall doctor in a white coat surfaced in Kuki's mind. By status and by appearance, he had no flaws at all; he was the kind of man many women dreamed about, even if he suspected his wife of cheating and said nothing.

If that was true, could it be because he loved his wife too much to bring himself to question her?

Or was he pretending not to know while coolly watching his unfaithful wife over and over again?

As he thought it through, the drunken haze in Kuki's head cleared rapidly, and he imagined what this strange couple must look like.

"It's strange, isn't it? Us..."

Kuki was just about to nod in agreement with Rinko when he felt that something was off.

If a married couple that didn't love each other was strange, then there were far too many strange couples in this world.

"What's strange isn't just you two. There isn't a truly harmonious married couple anywhere in the world."

"Is that so?"

"Every married couple has something strange about them. Some just manage to look as if they get along perfectly on the surface."

"What if they can't even manage the surface?"

Rinko lifted her face to the night sky, and the light from the room behind them illuminated the left side of her face clearly. Kuki knew this was another new question from her.