Toshihiko spotted Kirara Kawahara walking down the long corridor that led to the staff room. He came to a stop and ducked into the shadows. Kawahara had started working at the cram school sometime last summer. Apparently, she was originally part of a theater group and had aspired to become an actress, but she hadn’t been very successful. After turning twenty, she’d given up on her dream and gotten an admin job instead.
She was attractive and had a voice that carried well while still sounding delicate. There was something vital and energetic about her, too. She readily volunteered for physically demanding tasks and was popular with both her male and female coworkers.
“I’m not feeling too good. I’m just going to head to the bathroom,” said Kawahara.
“All right,” said another of his coworkers.
“Sorry, it’s my time of the month.”
Toshihiko hadn’t planned to stand there and eavesdrop, but now he’d heard that, he began to feel queasy. The bloody pad he’d found by his door rose up in his memory. Even now, a day later, the smell was still fresh in his mind. If he wasn’t careful, the nausea would get too much for him. And he could hardly call in sick after all the time he’d taken off lately. The association with sanitary products wasn’t the only reason seeing Kawahara had set him off, either.
Kawahara and Toshihiko used to date. She was the one who had initiated the relationship. Unlike Midori and the other female staff members, she hadn’t put Toshihiko on any kind of pedestal. He’d found that quite refreshing, so he agreed to go out with her. In the end, that had proved to be a mistake. After they’d slept together, she’d shown her true colors.
It turned out Kawahara wanted him all to herself. She tried to control every aspect of his life and wanted them to do everything in each other’s presence. She also forced him to make an Instagram account, and then one day, he discovered she was using it to post pictures that made it seem like they had been together since before they started going out. He deleted his account and got her to take down any pictures of him, but the damage was done. As far as he was concerned, she’d gone from being an adorable little squirrel to a filthy rat.
Her lack of a strong attachment to him had been what had drawn Toshihiko to her in the first place, and it had all been a lie. His ardor cooled considerably once he realized that. Breaking up with her hadn’t been easy. Kawahara was perceptive and would skillfully change the subject whenever the conversation started going that way. In the end, he’d been forced to do it over a messaging app instead. He sent a message saying he’d found someone else, then blocked her.
After that, baseless rumors that he’d gotten a woman pregnant and then dumped her started circulating, but they disappeared before very long. According to Midori, some people thought Toshihiko’s lack of normal human compassion was only natural given his supremely good looks. She’d also been the one who’d told him about the rumors. It wasn’t something that had endeared her to him. More importantly, he really didn’t want to have a confrontation with Kawahara right now.
As Toshihiko brought his thoughts back to the present, a new suspicion welled up in his mind. Kawahara had just said she was on her period, hadn’t she? It all made sense. She could be the one who’d sent him all those letters and the menstrual pad last night.
A door creaked open, and Toshihiko froze. He heard footsteps, loud at first, but getting more distant. He risked a glance down the corridor and saw Kawahara walking away. This was the best chance he was going to get. There wasn’t anyone else around. He could slip into the women’s bathroom and rummage through the trash without anyone seeing. But the moment he took a step out of his hiding place…
“Mr. Katayama.”
He almost screamed but somehow managed to suppress it. He turned around to see Yuuki Sayama standing behind him. The other man seemed to notice how distressed he was and looked down dejectedly.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“I-it’s fine…”
Toshihiko really didn’t mind Sayama interrupting. If anything, he was grateful. He’d been on the verge of going home with a bag full of trash. While he didn’t feel any guilt about the act itself—he wasn’t doing it for sketchy reasons, after all—he didn’t want anyone to catch him at it. And he’d been so sure he was alone just now. Detectives and PIs were supposed to be able to erase their presences and pass unnoticed, but Toshihiko hadn’t realized even a regular guy like Sayama could do it without meaning to.
What if Sayama wasn’t the only one Toshihiko had failed to notice? If someone else had walked in on him, he doubted he would have been able to stay calm or come up with a believable excuse. The jig would have been up. Again, he wouldn’t have felt guilty, but stealing a bag of trash from the women’s room wasn’t the kind of thing that would be seen as merely eccentric or lacking in compassion. He’d have to take responsibility for acting as strange as that.
“So, did you need something?” Trying to settle his nerves, Toshihiko changed the subject.
“Not really… I just saw you and thought I’d say hello. I’m sorry. You must be pretty creeped out by me, huh?”
“What? No, not at all.”
Sayama wasn’t as dazzlingly attractive as Toshihiko, but he had the kind of looks that most people would find appealing. His smile was bright and open—like it was reflecting his true nature as a person. He knew how to talk to people or, rather, how to listen to them. He never said anything to hurt others, and he always seemed to cheer up whomever he talked to. It was no wonder people naturally gravitated toward him. Not like Toshihiko, who only seemed to attract trouble.
Despite his friendly nature, Sayama had a habit of putting himself down, and sometimes, a dark look would come to his eyes. He didn’t talk about his personal life much. Once, when he and Toshihiko had been out drinking, he said he’d been through “what you might call a bit of bullying” in the past. It was hard to believe anyone would want to pick on someone like Sayama. Then again, there were always people who resented those who were popular. Kids could be cruel, and he was still clearly feeling the effects of it all these years later.
When Toshihiko said he wasn’t creeped out at all, Sayama broke into a smile. He was so expressive and easy to read; Toshihiko found it quite endearing.
“Well, I guess we should get going.”
With Sayama now at his side, Toshihiko’s brain began whirling. He still didn’t know if the person who’d been causing all this trouble was human or something else. The letters and the menstrual pad seemed to point to a human perpetrator. That was the kind of thing you needed a flesh-and-blood body to carry out. On the other hand, the attack on the bridge and Hirona’s experience suggested a more supernatural presence at work.
Maybe all these incidents were unrelated, and Toshihiko was just trying to connect them arbitrarily? The only thing he felt sure of was that the culprit had to be female.
Suddenly, that metallic smell tickled the back of his nasal cavity again. He furrowed his brow and stopped walking, drawing a concerned look from Sayama. Was the strange odor just a phantom smell, a trick of his imagination? Was he letting the person—or whatever it was—behind this harassment mess with his head? It was looking less and less likely that he’d find a definitive answer on his own.
As he thought over his recent actions one more time, something occurred to Toshihiko. Why had he been about to steal the trash from the ladies’ room and take it home with him? Well, because he thought he might find a used menstrual pad that matched the one that had been stuck to his door. He hadn’t explicitly thought about it at the time, but now that he was putting it into words, that was definitely the impulse he’d been following.
And he just so happened to know a man who specialized in that kind of scientific approach to problem solving. It would probably be worth it to pursue the paranormal angle as well. As luck would have it, he had connections in that area, too.
“It’s nothing.”
Toshihiko assured Sayama he was fine and took a deep breath. No strange scents in the air now—just the air freshener coming from the bathroom.