Villain a Novel (2010) (24 page)

We weren’t planning to go to the same high school. I wanted to go to a regular co-ed school, while Mitsuyo applied to a private girls’ high school, but she failed the entrance exam.

Anyway, soon after we started high school, we found boyfriends.
Mine was typical—the star of the soccer team—but Mitsuyo went out with this guy named Ozawa who was not exactly a negative kind of guy, but he never seemed to be able to do anything well, neither school nor sports. He gave up on the volleyball team after only a month.

If Ozawa paid a bit more attention to his hairstyle and clothes he might have looked okay, but he had zero interest in that kind of thing. Not that he had any particular interest in anything else … Anyhow, when Mitsuyo said something about how she liked Ozawa I went like, Whoa! What’s with that? It was then, I guess, that I realized that Mitsuyo and I are two different people.

Since my boyfriend was the star of the soccer team, I had a lot of rivals for his attention, and sometimes things didn’t go so well. Mitsuyo and Ozawa, who didn’t have any competitors to deal with, got along better than me and my guy. They always walked home together, pushing their bikes side by side. Most every evening she’d stop by Ozawa’s house, but she’d be sure to be home by six-thirty, in time for dinner.

Even twins who get along well have things they can’t ask each other. School ended around four o’clock every day, and it took twenty minutes to walk to Ozawa’s house, so even if she rode her bike back home afterward, it means that they were alone, just the two of them, for about two hours and fifteen minutes every day. Rumors started about them at school and people starting asking me, not her, whether she and Ozawa had done it. As her younger sister I felt, intuitively, that she and Ozawa had, you know. I wanted to know for sure, but I couldn’t ask her straight out.

I remember it was just after the end of summer vacation. Mitsuyo was at Ozawa’s as usual, and my cheerleading squad’s practice was canceled that day so I went home early. We were sharing the same room and I’d never done a thing like that before, but something possessed me, I guess, and I opened Mitsuyo’s desk drawer and looked at the notebook Mitsuyo and Ozawa used to exchange notes. I was sure it would be totally boring. I was a little worried what I’d do if there was bad stuff written in there about me, but that’s about it.

I flipped through it and was surprised to find every page filled with tiny writing.

I read through it, nervous that Mitsuyo might come home. As I read, I felt a shiver up my spine.… Basically she said something like this:

“I’ve always liked you, Ozawa-kun. But recently I’ve started to like certain parts of you—your right arm, for instance, your ears, or your fingers, your knees, your front teeth, your breath.
Not the whole of you, but parts that make up you. I don’t want anybody to take them away from me. At school and other places, I don’t want anybody else to see you.
.”

I had always thought that Mitsuyo wasn’t the type to get attached to things. When we were little, she always gave me and our brother all of her candy or cakes. I guess that comes from being the oldest daughter. But in this diary that she and Ozawa exchanged, this was a Mitsuyo I’d never seen before.

Here are some other quotes: “Today Onotera from No. 2 class was talking to you about something, right? I found it funny how annoyed you looked.” “I can’t wait to graduate and live with you! We can live together, right? You know, that apartment we saw from the outside the other day looked really nice. You could park a car right outside when you buy one, and once we have kids they can play in the garden.” It sounded different from the usual Mitsuyo, more aggressive.

As I read more, I was thinking how Ozawa must find it kind of annoying. I got frightened and quickly stashed the notebook back in the drawer.

I’d always thought of Mitsuyo as an unselfish, disinterested person. But here I discovered a side I’d never seen before, her karma or something. Her hidden greed, I guess, and it made me feel sad, or sorry for her.

Anyhow, Mitsuyo and Ozawa broke up before they graduated from high school. Rumor had it that he started to like another girl who attended the after-school college prep course he was in. Mitsuyo never said a thing to me about it. And I never dared ask.… I don’t remember her getting all upset or crying when they broke up.
Maybe she did cry, but off by herself.… Anyway, it was all a long time ago.

After we graduated from high school, there were really only two guys she went out with. Neither relationship lasted very long. Mitsuyo isn’t the type, like me, to play around with guys much. Sometimes I’ve wished she were a bit more outgoing. We’re living together now, but deep down I think sometimes I’m doing this all for her sake, not mine. Like if I got married, she’d be alone the rest of her life.

I really like my sister. She’s sort of introverted, but I do want her to be happy.

I don’t remember when it was, exactly, but I was on a bus and just happened to glance out and see Mitsuyo pedaling her bike with this very happy expression on her face. Now that I think about it, this was just about the time she started exchanging e-mails with Yuichi Shimizu.

Body temperature has a smell to it, Mitsuyo found. Just like smells can mix together, so can body temperatures.

When the phone rang signaling that their time was up, Yuichi was still on top of Mitsuyo. The thermostat was set too high in the love hotel and their bodies were glowing with a sheen of sweat. Yuichi had beautiful skin. His beautiful skin was covered with sweat as it penetrated Mitsuyo’s body.

Worried about the phone, Yuichi stopped moving for a moment and Mitsuyo called out, “Don’t stop!”

So he ignored the phone. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door, but until then he continued to penetrate her.

“Okay, okay! We’re leaving!” Yuichi growled. As soon as he yelled out, he penetrated even deeper inside Mitsuyo and she bit her lip.

Fifteen minutes had passed since Yuichi said they’d be out soon. Holding his sweaty body under the blanket, Mitsuyo laughed, “Aren’t you hungry?”

His response, as he lay there panting, was to kick off the blanket.

“There’s a really good grilled-eel place nearby,” Mitsuyo said.

The blanket fell to the floor and the two of them, naked and clinging to each other, were reflected in the mirror next to them. Yuichi was the first to get up, the vertebrae of his back clearly reflected in the mirror.

“It’s an authentic eel place, they have grilled eel without sauce and everything.”

As Yuichi started to get out of bed, Mitsuyo grabbed his hand and pulled at it. “You want to go there?” she asked. Yuichi twisted around and looked at her for a while, and finally gave a small nod.

Mitsuyo got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. “We don’t have time for that,” she heard Yuichi caution her.

“We’re already over the time limit and will have to pay extra,” she said.

It was a cute little bathroom with yellow tiles.
I wish they had a window
, Mitsuyo mused. She could picture a window and outside that a small garden, and Yuichi washing his car.

“After we have eel you better take me to the lighthouse!” Mitsuyo called out. There was no reply, but she went ahead and enjoyed a hot shower. It wasn’t even two o’clock yet. When she thought of the long weekend ahead, the hot water splashing on her seemed like it was singing and dancing for joy.

“If we don’t have time, why don’t we take a shower together?” Mitsuyo shouted out to Yuichi over the sound of the water.

“Is Yuichi Shimizu your real name?”

Staring straight ahead, Yuichi nodded.

They’d left the love hotel and were in the car heading toward the eel restaurant. Mitsuyo was still warm from the shower.

“Well, then I have to apologize. My name is Mitsuyo Magome. I was using Shiori because—”

“It’s okay,” Yuichi interrupted her. “Everyone uses fake names at first.”

“Everyone? You mean you’ve met that many girls like this?”

The road was empty of other cars and they didn’t get stopped by
traffic lights. Every time they approached a traffic light it turned green.

“Well, that’s okay.”

Since Yuichi didn’t respond, Mitsuyo withdrew her question.

“This is the same road I used to use to go to high school,” Mitsuyo said as she gazed at the passing scenery.

“See that sign for the discount shoe place over there? If you turn there and go straight, there’s our high school, in the middle of a bunch of fields. And if you go back on this road toward the station there’s my old elementary and junior high schools.… And a bit further down this road toward Tosu is where I used to work.… I guess I’ve never really left this road, have I.… All I’ve done is go back and forth along this one road all my life.… That place I used to work at was a factory for food products. All the other girls my age said it was monotonous work and they hated it, but I didn’t mind that kind of production-line work.”

Their car was stopped at a rare red light and Yuichi, stroking the steering wheel, turned toward Mitsuyo.

“It’s the same with me,” he murmured. Mitsuyo inclined her head, at first not knowing what he was talking about, and he went on. “I’ve always stayed close to home. All the schools I went to—elementary, junior, and senior high—are all just down the road from my house.”

“But you live near the sea, right? I envy you. I mean, look where I live.”

The light changed and Yuichi slowly accelerated. Mitsuyo’s hometown, a dreary succession of stores along the road, flowed by.

“Oh, there it is! You see the eel-shaped sign? It really is good, and pretty cheap, too.”

She was starving. She hadn’t felt this hungry in ages.

During the morning Keigo Masuo slipped out of the sauna, trying not to be noticed.

He’d wanted to sleep in the nap room until past noon, but as the number of visitors declined, he was afraid the staff might start to notice him. He couldn’t believe that a “Wanted” flyer with his photo on it had made its way all the way to this sauna in Nagoya, but still, when he’d gotten the locker key from the guy at the front desk a while ago, he could swear the man gave him a strange look.