Journey Under the Midnight Sun

by Keigo Higashino

  ‘Then why do it at all?’

  He smiled. ‘You’d be surprised how many opportunities come up to dance. But even if you only got one, wouldn’t you want to be ready for it? Know how to dance, and you’ll dance through life.’

  ‘I like that,’ Eriko smiled.

  ‘It’s just something cheesy the old dance coach used to say.’

  ‘It’s not cheesy.’ Eriko shook her head. ‘It’s excellent encouragement, and I won’t forget it.’

  ‘You mean you’ll join the club?’

  ‘I will. We decided to join together.’ She looked over at her friend Yukiho.

  ‘Great. Then we look forward to having you.’ Kazunari looked towards the other girl.

  ‘Thank you.’ Yukiho bowed curtly before meeting his eyes.

  It was the first time he’d seen Yukiho Karasawa straight on. She was pretty, he had to admit, with very delicate features. But there was something else, too. There are thorns in her eyes – that was the only way he could express it. For a moment, he thought she might have felt left out because he spoke to her friend first and not to her, but as she smiled, he realised the thorns were always there.

  A true lady would never have eyes like that.

  Two weeks had passed since the opening ceremony. It was Friday afternoon and Eriko and Yukiho were on the train to Eimei University for their fourth dance club practice since school began.

  ‘Please let me dance well today,’ said Eriko, hands pressed together before her in mock prayer.

  ‘You are dancing well,’ Yukiho said.

  ‘Hardly. My feet won’t go the way I tell them to. I keep feeling like I’m going to trip over myself.’

  ‘Don’t let Kazunari hear you saying that. You’re his beacon of hope, you know.’

  ‘Thanks. That just makes it worse.’

  ‘They say you’re the only one he’s ever personally recruited. You have a reputation to live up to,’ Yukiho said, giving her a teasing look.

  ‘Stop it, Yuki, I’m really bad under pressure. That, and I have no idea why he picked me in the first place.’

  ‘Because he likes you, silly.’

  ‘Erm, no, sorry. That sort of thing might happen in your world, but not in mine. And isn’t he dating Kanae?’

  ‘Ah yes, the lovely Miss Kurahashi.’ Yukiho nodded. ‘They’ve been a thing for quite some time, apparently.’

  ‘Nagayama says they’ve been dating since they were freshmen.’

  ‘I guess he moves quick when he sees something he likes.’

  ‘Actually,’ Eriko said, ‘I heard Kanae made the moves first.’

  Yukiho shrugged to indicate she couldn’t care less. ‘She sure hasn’t gone out of her way to hide the fact that Kazunari’s her property.’

  Kazunari and Kanae’s relationship was public knowledge. If the new recruits hadn’t known it going in to the first day of dance club practice, they knew it soon after by the way the two talked to each other and the way they danced close, hands on hips, faces practically touching.

  If it had been an intentional display on Kanae’s part, she’d certainly made her point. Eriko barely knew Kazunari and even she felt a little jealous when she saw them together. Not that she had a chance in the first place. Kazunari was the eldest son of the senior managing director of Shinozuka Pharmaceuticals, one of the top pharmaceutical companies in Japan, and the current CEO was his uncle – which made him nobility as far as she was concerned.

  They got off the train. Outside the station, a warm breeze brushed her cheeks.

  ‘I’m probably going to have to leave before the end of class today,’ said Yukiho. ‘Sorry in advance.’

  ‘Going on a date?’

  ‘I wish. Just an errand.’

  Eriko shrugged. Yukiho had started doing these errands a while ago, leaving Eriko to fend for herself. Eriko had asked her once where she went, and Yukiho had refused to speak to her for nearly a week. It was, to date, the only time their friendship ever soured. She hadn’t asked again.

  Kazunari had been too lost in thought to notice the tiny droplets gathering on the windscreen. Just when he realised it was raining, it started coming down harder, obscuring his view of the road. He reached to the left side of the steering wheel for the wiper lever, then, realising his error, shifted his grip and went for the right side. Even imported cars that managed to put the steering wheel on the right still had their levers reversed. His month-old Volkswagen Golf was no exception.

  Outside the school gate he saw students running for the station, paper bags and satchels held over their heads in lieu of umbrellas.

  Then he saw Eriko. She was walking at her usual pace, seeming not to care that her white jacket was getting wet. Her constant companion, Yukiho Karasawa, was conspicuously absent.

  Kazunari pulled over towards the kerb, slowing until he matched Eriko’s speed. She didn’t seem to notice. She just kept the same pace, a mysterious smile on her lips. Kazunari gave two taps of his horn and she looked up. He lowered the left-hand passenger window.

  ‘Hey! Need a lift? You look like a drowned rat!’

  Eriko didn’t seem to appreciate the joke. Her expression hardened, and she started walking faster. Kazunari gave it a little more gas to keep pace.

  ‘Hey, don’t run! What’s wrong?’ he called out.

  She walked even faster.

  She’s taking this the wrong way, he realised.

  ‘Hey Eriko! It’s me, Kazunari,’ he called out, and finally she stopped and turned with a surprised look on her face.

  ‘Believe me,’ he said as she came over to the side of the car, ‘if I was out cruising for chicks, I’d do it when it wasn’t raining.’

  She smiled, the rain running through the matted hair on her forehead and down her cheeks to drip from her chin.

  Eriko had a floral-patterned handkerchief. She used it to wipe her hands and face, then ran it over her neck. She’d taken off her drenched jacket and placed it over her bare knees. Kazunari told her she was welcome to put it on the back seat, but she declined on the grounds that it would only get his seat wet.

  ‘Sorry, I didn’t realise it was you. It was too dark to see your face.’

  ‘That’s OK. The way I was calling out like that, no wonder you got the wrong idea.’ Kazunari eased the car around a tight corner. He was taking her home.

  ‘It’s just, sometimes it happens and you have to be careful.’

  ‘Strange men in cars call out to you often?’

  ‘Well, no, not me. But when I’m walking with Yukiho…’

  ‘Speaking of which, where is she?’

  ‘She had an errand to run.’

  ‘That explains why you were alone. Still,’ Kazunari glanced over her, ‘why were you walking? Why weren’t you running? Everyone else around you was.’

  ‘Well, I wasn’t in a particular hurry.’

  ‘But you were getting wet.’

  ‘If I ran, it would just make the rain hit my face harder. Like that,’ she said, pointing at the windscreen. What had been a light drizzle was now a full-on downpour. Droplets bounced off the glass and rivulets streaked behind the sweeping path of the wipers.

  ‘But wouldn’t it reduce the amount of time you were getting rained on?’

  ‘Believe me, I’ve thought about this. At the speed I run, it’d only cut three minutes off the trip, tops. I don’t want to run along a wet road for three minutes. I might trip and fall.’

  Kazunari laughed.

  ‘I’m not kidding. I trip all the time. I even fell over today in class and stepped on Yamamoto’s foot. He pretended it didn’t hurt, but I saw the look in his eyes – the look of a man in true pain,’ Eriko said, rubbing her legs where they emerged from her pleated skirt to warm them.

  Kazunari chuckled. ‘Getting used to the dancing?’

  ‘A little. But I’m still terrible at it. Yukiho, she’s practically a pro already.’ She sighed.

  ‘You’ll get better in no time.’

  ‘I wonder.
It’d be nice.’

  Kazunari stopped at a red light and took a sidelong glance at Eriko. She had hardly any make-up on, as usual. In the light from the street lamps, her skin looked perfectly smooth. Like porcelain, he thought. A few strands of wet hair were stuck to her cheek. He reached out and brushed them aside. She flinched away.

  ‘Sorry, you had some hair on your face.’

  Eriko brushed her hair back behind her ears. Even in the dim car interior, he could see her blush. The light turned green and the car lurched back into movement.

  ‘How long have you worn your hair like that?’ Kazunari asked, his eyes on the road ahead.

  ‘This?’ She put a hand to her wet head. ‘Since not long before graduating from high school, I guess.’

  ‘I thought so. That’s a Seiko cut, right? Like the singer’s? Pretty popular these days – maybe too popular. Everyone’s got it, whether it suits them or not.’

  It was a semi-long cut, with a fringe left to hang and the sides brushed back.

  ‘You don’t think it suits me?’

  ‘Well…’ Kazunari shifted gears before saying, ‘To be brutally honest, no, not really.’

  ‘Oh.’ Eriko began brushing her hair back with her hands again.

  ‘You like it?’

  She shrugged. ‘I don’t really care that much. It was Yukiho’s idea.’

  ‘Her again. Please don’t tell me you do everything she says.’

  ‘Of course not.’

  Kazunari glanced over and saw Eriko looking down at her lap. An idea occurred to him. He glanced at his watch. It was a little before seven.

  ‘Do you have plans tonight? I forget if you have a part-time job or anything.’

  ‘No, nothing. Why?’

  ‘Think you might join me for a little?’

  ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘Don’t worry, it’s nothing weird,’ Kazunari said, putting his foot down.

  He stopped at a phone booth and made a quick call, but he didn’t tell Eriko who he was calling. He saw her looking a little worried and smiled.

  They stopped in front of a building – their destination was on the first floor. Eriko took one look at the sign and took a step back. ‘A beauty salon? Why?’

  ‘I’ve been going here for years,’ he told her. ‘They’re very good. You don’t have anything to worry about.’ He put his hand on her back and gently pushed her towards the open door.

  The hairdresser was a man in his thirties with a little growth of bristle beneath his nose. Several awards hung on the wall – apparently he was something of a celebrity in the beauty salon world. ‘Ah, there you are,’ he said when he saw Kazunari walk in.

  ‘Sorry it took so long.’

  ‘Not at all. I can always spare a few minutes for you, Kazunari.’

  ‘I was hoping you might have an idea for her hair,’ Kazunari said, indicating Eriko with his hand. ‘Something that suits her.’

  ‘Excellent,’ said the hairdresser, taking a long look at Eriko’s face, his imagination working. Eriko blushed.

  ‘Also,’ Kazunari turned to the hairdresser’s female assistant standing nearby, ‘maybe give her a little make-up? Something to go with the new look?’

  ‘Absolutely,’ the assistant said, her eyes sparkling.

  ‘Kazunari?’ Eriko said feeling extremely out of place. ‘I actually don’t have that much money with me today. And I never wear make-up —’

  ‘Don’t worry about that,’ he said. ‘Just sit and let them work their magic.’

  ‘But I’m afraid my folks will worry – I didn’t tell them I was going to a beauty salon.’

  Kazunari looked back at the assistant. ‘Can we borrow your phone?’

  She brought them the phone sitting on the counter. It had a long cord so customers could take calls while having their hair done. Kazunari held it out to Eriko.

  ‘Go ahead, call home. Tell them you’re stopping for a haircut. I’m sure they’ll understand.’

  She took the receiver. The hesitation was plain on her face, but she seemed to have accepted that resistance was futile.

  Kazunari sat on the sofa in the corner of the shop to wait. A part-time employee who looked like she was still in high school brought him coffee. He was surprised to see the girl’s hair was very close-cut up the sides, almost a buzz cut, and wondered if that was going to be the next fad.

  Kazunari couldn’t wait to see Eriko’s transformation. If his instinct was right they would be uncovering her true potential tonight.

  He wasn’t sure what it was that drew him to Eriko but he’d been obsessed from the moment he laid eyes on her. All he could say for certain was that their relationship – if that’s what this was – was one he had initiated. There had been no introduction. She hadn’t come on to him. He had spotted her, and that satisfied him greatly. He couldn’t say the same about any of the girls he’d dated thus far.

  Now that he thought about it, the same thing was true about more than just girls in his life. His toys, his clothes – everything had always been given to him before he even had a chance to want it on his own. He wondered if he ever would have wanted any of it, really.

  His choice of an economics major at Eimei had been his parents’ suggestion and he’d only chosen that school because several of his relatives were alumni. He hadn’t chosen to join the dance club, either. It had been the only club allowed to him. His father was of the opinion that clubs in general were detrimental to studies. Dance was permitted because it would give him a leg up in the social situations he was sure to face in his future with the family company.

  I didn’t even choose Kanae.

  A beautiful recruit from Seika, Kanae had had everyone vying to be her partner during the first recital, but she had made a beeline for Kazunari and told him, in no uncertain terms, that she wanted him to pick her. Not that he had minded at the time. He’d had his eye on her already and once they were partners, the rest was easy. A few late nights at practice and they were in love.

  Am I in love?

  Kazunari had to admit the possibility that what he felt wasn’t love. That maybe he was just excited to be sleeping with a pretty girl. As evidence, whenever there was something else – anything else – to do, he would let her slide. It wasn’t hard for him to do this. All she asked of him was that he call her at least once a day, but he often felt even that was too much.

  Nor was it clear that she loved him. Maybe she just liked the access to brand-name fashion his wallet provided. She talked a lot about their future, but what if it wasn’t about being his wife? What if it was just about being part of his family?

  At any rate, he had already decided it was high time to break things off. She had clung particularly close to him in practice today, marking her territory. He’d had just about enough of that.

  He smiled and took a sip of coffee when he noticed the assistant approach.

  ‘All done,’ she announced.