He and Yoko had met only once. What if someone asked him whether he knew her? He wasn’t even sure he was entitled to call her a friend. And yet his admiration for her and his sense of closeness to her were stronger than ever. That evening, she had smiled teasingly as she said, “You did apologize, didn’t you? To the man on the bullet train.” He couldn’t forget the look on her face then. If she had suffered an injury that would require lifelong care, he even thought he could devote himself to her. But it was crazy to let his emotions run away like this, he told himself, shaking his head.
