For once, however, Honda had miscalculated in attempting to make use of Kiyoaki’s delusions of vanity as a means to console him. For he had not the slightest interest in his own attractiveness any more, nor even in Satoko’s love for him. He was only concerned with when and where the two of them could meet without anxiety, as freely as they liked, regardless of anyone else. And he feared that by now it could only happen in some place beyond this world, and only when this world had been destroyed. The vital issue was not feeling but circumstance. In his weary, desperate, bloodshot eyes there was
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