“What are you doing taking a vacation this time of year?”
“I always take time off in September. It’s my summer vacation. My boss is totally fine with it. I usually take the end of the year off like everyone else, but I make sure to have my summer break a little later than most.”
Watching Une pack piqued Yuuji’s curiosity.
“Can I come with you?” he asked.
“You have cram school to go to, don’t you? I’m pretty sure your mommy wouldn’t want you skipping that.”
“Don’t give me excuses.”
“I booked a really nice hotel. I can’t have you waddling around with your basketball shoes on. You have to wear a tie and look nice, or they won’t let you in. Kids aren’t allowed, either.”
“Ah, you gotta be old to get in, huh? Gotcha,” Yuuji replied. “So how long are you going to be there?”
“Four or five days.”
“Oh wow. I wish I could stay just for a night!”
“I don’t want your mom yelling at me over the phone again like last time.”
Yuuji started cracking up.
Une was sixteen years younger than her sister. This older sister and her older brother were actually Une’s half siblings; Une was the only biological child of her father’s second wife. She fell out of contact with her two half siblings when their parents died, and eventually, they grew distant. It didn’t help that her older sister was the one who set her up with Sakimura, so drifting apart after things went sour was an inevitability.
They always invited her to her father’s memorial, but she wasn’t able to make it one year, so her sister’s youngest son, Yuuji, went to her place to deliver some of the leftover offerings. Une hadn’t seen him since he was in elementary school, so she was startled to discover he was already taller than her. They stared at each other, blushing.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say Une fell in love with Yuuji at that moment.
He had failed his college entrance examination and was attending cram school for the time being. Soon, Yuuji started hanging out at Une’s place every once in a while.
“Feels like something’s pulling me here. Like a magnet.”
“And what’s the magnet?”
“You, Une.”
Yuuji used to not be able to pronounce his aunt’s name correctly when he was a kid. Now he was interested in her tidy, compact apartment where she lived alone. Une didn’t have any younger siblings and had been raised like an only child, so she enjoyed watching a tall, skinny, baby-faced boy curiously exploring her house.
“Here, listen to this. This album is amazing,” he would say when bringing records over. He also borrowed books from time to time, which she didn’t mind.
“Wait! Don’t touch that! Don’t ever open that, okay?”
She even scolded him occasionally. Yuuji took her to a concert once, so she took him to a Kabuki show in return, since he said he had never been before, but he was quiet the entire show.
“I thought I was gonna lose my mind from boredom!” he’d said. “I think the actors were bored, too, save for maybe the leads. The guys playing the side roles seemed like they were enjoying seeing the look on the audience’s faces, especially when they noticed someone sleeping. Their expressions were like, ‘Yep, I’d be sleeping, too, if I weren’t getting paid.’ ”
That made Une laugh.
Yuuji sometimes stopped by her place with just a binder and some books, and one day, he left them at her place and forgot about them. Une waited for him to come back and get them, but after a month went by and he never came over, she decided to call her older sister and tell her he forgot his stuff. Une’s sister had another son and daughter still at home, but she was nonetheless the one who answered when Une called.
“Yeah, I heard Yuuji spent the night at your place the other day,” her sister had said.
Une fell silent for a moment but almost immediately replied that that was when he’d left some of his belongings at her place. Yuuji ended up coming over a few days later.
“So where’d you go that night? I can’t believe you told your mom you were staying here.”
“I was with a girl. It was my first time…if you know what I mean.” Yuuji scratched his ear.
“How was it?”
“Not as good as I thought it’d be. I said I liked listening to those late-night programs and letting my imagination run wild. She ended up smacking my ass and telling me to get my act together. Absolutely no respect.”
Yuuji made himself at home and started drinking some soda he grabbed out of the refrigerator. Une, meanwhile, was still facing her mirror on the dresser.
“Why would you even sleep with someone so uptight? Are you that desperate?”
“I dunno. I’m sure I’d have had a good time if it was with someone like you, though.”
“Hmph.”
“I want to be with you.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Maybe ’cause you’re different than the others. It’s fun talking to you. Way more fun than anything my mom and I ever talk about.”
“Well yeah, I’d hope so. I don’t nag you about your college entrance exam or your grades, so of course you’d prefer me, you lazy bum.”
“No, that’s not it, but…whatever.”
Une was no different. She never got tired of looking at Yuuji: the clumsy way he used his hands, his lanky legs whenever he casually stretched out on a chair or table, the way his soft black hair brushed against his forehead. Every time he came over on Sunday afternoons, she gave him a warm welcome like any good aunt would. But the moment he took off his shoes with their worn heels at the entrance and the smell of a young man’s sweat rose into the air, Une would close the front door, lock it, and chuckle to herself as if she had just trapped her next victim. She had no idea when she started to feel that way. She had a split personality, after all. She would say, “Oh, hey. Come in, Yuuji,” while coldly thinking, You’re here again? Go home.
And she pitied his childlike youth and how he would fall for her kindness, get far too used to it, and indulge himself.
Kindness was nothing more than a facade—a mask worn by adults. It pained Une to see him so naively trusting, oblivious to the disgusting truth that an adult’s kindness could change into a threat or blackmail at the drop of a hat. Une kind of understood the solitary pleasure that contemporary European sex offenders felt when they lured innocent children to their deaths with smiles and candy, just like a villain straight out of Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Every one of them had an elaborate split personality as well.
Une made small talk as she took off her stockings and ran a bath.
“Yuuji, go turn off the water…”
Yuuji immediately got up and went to the bathroom, but hanging out to dry were Une’s panties, bra, and stockings. And she knew that. Yuuji returned as if he’d seen nothing special, but there was no way it hadn’t attracted his attention.
“Hey, tell me about that girl. The one who smacked your ass,” Une said with a laugh as she organized photos for work. She always took pictures of the rooms she was involved in designing and arranging, then sorted them before putting them in an album at home. Yuuji pretended he was distracted by her work and changed the subject.
“Forget her. What about you? Do you have a boyfriend? Show me a pic.”
“I don’t have a boyfriend, and I wouldn’t show you even if I did.”
“Huh… My sister shows pics of her boyfriend to basically anyone. And as if that wasn’t enough, she even sent some to a magazine that ended up publishing them in this section called ‘My Pride and Joy.’ She always does that kind of stuff. You’re not into that?” Yuuji asked, seemingly distracted by the movement of Une’s fingers. She had a slightly dark manicure.
Yuuji would sometimes say “Lemme see that ring” as an excuse to touch her fingers. He slowly grew accustomed to touching her body, until one day, she was brushing her hair when he grabbed the brush.
“Want me to brush the back for you?”
Une found his clumsy movements and shameless yet sheepish expression hilarious.
“Yuuji, have you told your parents that you’ve been coming over here a lot lately?”