Review: After Dark
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
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It must feel good; being able to write without having to worry about the three act structure, character motivations, or even a definitive climax. Murakami’s After Dark lacks all and more of these, and yet reads like fine buttered toast.
After Dark, like many of Murakami’s works, flows at its own pace. Nothing remotely interesting happens except for a bunch of people sitting around talking. Yet the deliberation set up in each exchange makes us want to keep listening to what they say. It’s like reading a book version of ‘When Harry Met Sally’, or some Woody Allen Script.
First of all, let’s make it clear, nothing happens in After Dark. There is a trombone playing law student, a quiet bookish smart girl spending nights at Denny’s, her sister who is literally a sleeping beauty, a hapless chinese prostitute, a amazon like wrestler turned love hotel manager, a late night office worker who has a dark side. The story is some alternating moment spent with them over the course of a night, in one of the more unscrupulous areas in the underbelly of the city.
Yet despite no so-called escalating action events, the deliberation and thought put into each conversation, gesture, habit and the general richness instilled in the deserted city streets make it hypnotic to read.
After Dark, like many of Murakami’s works, flows at its own pace. Nothing remotely interesting happens except for a bunch of people sitting around talking. Yet the deliberation set up in each exchange makes us want to keep listening to what they say. It’s like reading a book version of ‘When Harry Met Sally’, or some Woody Allen Script.
First of all, let’s make it clear, nothing happens in After Dark. There is a trombone playing law student, a quiet bookish smart girl spending nights at Denny’s, her sister who is literally a sleeping beauty, a hapless chinese prostitute, a amazon like wrestler turned love hotel manager, a late night office worker who has a dark side. The story is some alternating moment spent with them over the course of a night, in one of the more unscrupulous areas in the underbelly of the city.
“Between the time the last train leaves and the first train arrives, the place changes: it's not the same as in daytime."
"It's true, though: time moves in its own special way in the middle of the night"
Yet despite no so-called escalating action events, the deliberation and thought put into each conversation, gesture, habit and the general richness instilled in the deserted city streets make it hypnotic to read.
Contrary to usual, Murakami sensei takes to writing in the third person, which creates a certain dissonance, like when a guy who plays with Inverted controls switches to normal axis. Then there is the ending.
Many readers were understandably pissed that the story which started with such promise ended in such an abrupt way, leaving almost all storylines unresolved. To introduce characters, make you care for them and then leave their fates unknown can seem cruel. But I think what Murakami was going for was a ‘fellow travelers of life’ sort of storytelling.
In the thought provoking hind language movie, ‘A Wednesday’, by director Neeraj Pandey, the motivations of the main character who perpetuates seeming acts of terrorism is, in part his bond with a stranger. A young man whom he meets on the commute, whom he doesn’t know, and with whom he has shared no words at all. Only a smile of familiarity, and the shared bond of being fellow commuters who at least for the brief instant between two stops are journeying in the same direction.
They share pleasantries and special occasions through smiles and body language, forming a sort of camaraderie. But one day when the gentleman misses his commute, the train becomes subject to a terrorist attack, killing many, including his comrade. And the man weeps for this person, whose identity he doesn’t know, but who had affected him in some profound way.
This stranger influenced our protagonist and caused a paradigm shift in his perspective to life. Though not to the same extent, the individuals who meet and converse over the course of a night in this story, similarly seem to have changed each other, for better or for worse.
_______________________________
For example, both Asai sisters happen to meet the same person, Takahashi, during different points of time. Both end up opening up to him, in regards to their problems, and their relationship (or lack of) with the other. And Takahashi was at best a passing acquaintance to them. But, by talking to him, they managed to air out some thoughts which they’d chosen to deny, and perhaps are in the process of taking the right step towards reconciliation.
Many were consternated with how no comeuppance was delivered to the sociopathic woman beater Shirakawa, that he would go scot free to a normal life, but that seems to be the point. Not all problems, crimes or conflicts are resolved properly. How many unsolved instances of violence and murder are lodged into some long forgotten tome in some government office?
Something like the White chapel murders or the case of Black Dahlia are merely the ones which get the most spotlight. How many multitudes were lost to the ether…but I digress.
Shirakawa’s description, an average looking quiet salaryman, cannot reconcile with the violent brutality he enacts onto his bed companion at Alphaville. This reminded me of when, during the Nuremberg trials, the public were able to see high ranking officials from the Nazi regime, as they were prosecuted for crimes against humanity. Many came across as your average middle aged men, who, if you happened to pass them in the street, you wouldn’t spare a second glance.
But within them, they held the capacity for substantial evil, and had destroyed the lives of tens of thousands if not millions, due to their ideology and the decisions they made. Shirakawa, in the same vein, comes across as an everyman, is good at his job, provides for his family, but is also someone who indulges in his more basal desires and is not averse to inflicting suffering unto others.
As much as we want, given the circumstances, he might just get away scot free for his actions. Neither the caring Kaoru, nor the girl's handlers would care or remember him as the days will roll out.
Mari and Eri, might be more than what meets the eye. Towards the end of the book, Mari muses:
It seems like a curious correlation that Eri seems to be sleeping whenever Mari is awake and about, unable to sleep. And if I’m not mistaken, the brief instance when Eri does wake up, coincides with when Mari was having a nap in Alphaville. In the final page, when Mari is finally drifting off into sleep, that is when see Eri move for the first time. Almost as if both share one mind and two bodies, which seems to take the term sister a bit too literally.
Despite lacking a concrete conclusion, for a story about a bunch of people sitting around talking, After Dark flows well. We feel no boredom as we follow the threads which connect each of the characters, through mundane minutia. Mari to Yoshikawa to Kaoru to the chinese girl to Shirakawa to Eri back to Mari.
Perhaps the reason for that is the characteristic care with which Murakami describes his characters doing things. Mari doesn’t just order food, She sits at a four person table at Denny’s, with a cup of coffee, reading a hardbound book. Takahashi doesn’t order food. He orders chicken salad and crispy toast, extra extra crispy. And they sit in the ambience of the restaurant, "Go Away Little Girl" by Percy Faith and his Orchestra playing in the background.
From the smell of fresh toast and coffee, to the rising smoke from the cigarette, to the dimmed night lights of the establishment, to the constant murmur of the crowd, it is as if we are there beside the characters. And this meticulousness carries on, as we move Alphaville, to the Skylark, as we are strolling through the park, or some decrepit street near the 7/11. Murakami has the ability to keep your eyes fixed even if he is writing about paint drying.
One thing I envy Murakami is how he is able to integrate his own vices and passions into the stories he tells. As has become a staple of his works, there are cats, there is jazz music, men diligently performing exercise, reading, baseball, and a lot of pop minutia one would expect someone who is native to Japan would be familiar with. But man can that guy write, so much so that you can almost forgive the guy for arguably the laziest of his works.
A young girl, short hair, glasses, red sox hat is sitting in a booth, at Denny’s with some sandwiches in front of her, and her attention in the thick tome of a hardcover. In walks a young man, carrying a bag which distinctly looks like a musical instrument. He passes over the girl’s booth, stops and doubles back to look at her face. The girl looks up, and the man smiles ‘I know you, I met you and your sister two years ago in a double date’
He sits in the girl, Mari Asai’s booth, and starts conversation, while ordering and eating some chicken salad. He talks of the time they’d met, he with his friend, and she with her sister Eri, who was the attractive one. They talk about Mari, her likes, dislikes, and the fact that she is fluent in chinese. Takahashi is on his way to an all night Jam session with his band. He says goodbye to Mari, hoping to see her later at night.
Sometime passes, and Mari yet again encounters someone, this time, a tall blonde haired amazon-like woman, who introduces herself as Kaoru, the manager of the love hotel ‘Alphaville’. She and Mari share the mutual acquaintance of one Takahashi, who had directed Kaoru to Mari, since Mari’s ability to speak chinese was suddenly brought to relevance.
At Alphaville, Kaoru takes Mari to a room in dishevel and with blood on the floors. Other than the two, in the room are present Komugi & Korogi, staff at the establishment, as well as a bleeding woman sitting in the corner, folded up into herself. She is, as Kaoru explains a chinese prostitute, who was left this way by a client that beat her, stole all her possessions and rushed out to avoid capture.
Mari speaks to the girl, the same age as her and manages to calm her down. While the girl’s wounds are cleaned and she is given some robes to wear Mari explains what she learned. The prostitute is an illegal immigrant smuggled to the home islands by the chinese mafia, who are now using her body to repay her debt. Her handlers are called, and are not happy at what has transpired. A rough looking chinese gang member on a bike arrives, takes the beaten women and drives off to who knows where.
Kaoru escorts Mari to an establishment and buys her something to drink. While there, they exchange their stories. Kaoru, a retired pro-wrestler, narrates how she came to her current employment. Mari tells her about her childhood, and an uncle who was an avid music lover. They talk about Takahashi and the meaning behind the name of her establishment, as well as its underlying nuances. Mari returns to the Denny's, intent to resume her reading.
Meanwhile, we become silent spectators to Eri Asai, the beautiful older sister, who lies in a bedroom, more akin to a pale corpse than someone who is sleeping. The room , in the darkness and silence, seems to take a life of its own, and reality seems to be overtaken by the ethereal. The unplugged TV in the room, blinks to life and static covers the screen trying to make some cohesive picture. An unknown mysterious stranger appears on the screen, which shows a reflection of the actual room. He is sitting in the middle of the room, staring at the sleeping beauty. In time, reality and the mirror reality bleed over, the bed is now empty, Eri seemingly residing in the reflection within the screen.
Elsewhere, one average looking salaryman, Shirakawa, is typing away at his system, during his late night shift. His right hand is in pain, throbbing from having repeatedly punched the chinese girl. He remembers what he did, but had trouble believing it was he who did it. Seemingly indifferent to the violence that he inflicted, he is almost nonchalant, as he works while listening to music, talking to his wife over phone about his late night shifts, and about buying groceries.
Kaoru and the girls review security footage from the establishment, and get a good look at the man who caused all the ruckus. They deduce that he is a salaryman, working the late night shift at one of the nearby IT firms. Kaory makes copies of his mugshot and passes them onto the gang, hoping they would find an exact justice upon him for beating up the poor girl.
At Denny’s Takahashi returns to charge up during break. He once again sits next to Mari, and they resume their conversation. Walking to the park to feed the cats, both sit on swings as Takahashi explains one time when he met Eri alone in the streets, looking as if she wanted someone to talk to. Eri spoke to the man about her own problems, insecurities, problems, and her estranged relationship with Mari. He hints perhaps Mari should try and reach out to Eri.
Mari cannot even if she wished to, as for the past few months, Mari has been constantly sleeping, waking up only to eat and go to the bathroom. None of the family had seen her awake. They had tried to have her checked up, but she appeared to be healthy, and doctors recommended to continue monitoring her, and hope she would wake up.
Takahashi then shares his own life story, with a father who was an ex-criminal, a mother who died when he was young, orphanhood, return of his father, and a stepmother who he didn’t want to live in the same house with. Despite loving music, he had resolved to quit his band, that night being his final session. He intends to study seriously to gain his law degree, and secure stable employment.
Eri Asai woke up in the alternate world, she is concerned about her surroundings, which seem so similar but alien to her room. She struggles while trying to leave. But, finding the windows and doors not budging, she gives up and resumes her sleep. In a short time, reality bends yet again, and Eri is back in the real world, sleeping like a corpse in the bed.
Shirakawa prepares to return home after work, having packed up his things, as well as bundled up the items he stole in a garbage bag, he boards a taxi and disposes of the bag outside the 7/11 where he went to shop for milk. He leaves the girl’s stolen phone at one of the racks, and returns home. Takahashi, who also came to the store a while later, heard the phone ringing, and got an earful from the gangsters, who mistook him for their perp. He leaves the phone as if, not wanting any trouble. Shirakawa reaches home, and sits in front of the TV, eating yogurt, unable to sleep despite the sleep exhaustion building up in him.
Mari & Yoshikawa meet for the last time at Denny’s. Mari says that she is going to take a job as a translator in china, and will be away for half a year. Takahashi nods along and asks to keep in touch with her. He likes the time they spent, and would want to once again meet and perhaps date Mari. She is apprehensive but relents, agreeing to perhaps give them a chance. She boards the first train back home, as Takahashi walks off from the station back to his own life.
At home Mari enters Eri’s room, and gets in bed with the sleeping beauty. She hugs her older sibling close as tears flow from her for unknown reasons. She desperately wishes for Eri to wake up, so that they can be siblings once again. As Mari drifts off to sleep, after a long night, we see a slight quickening of Eri’s lips, as if indicating the certainty of things to come.
Many readers were understandably pissed that the story which started with such promise ended in such an abrupt way, leaving almost all storylines unresolved. To introduce characters, make you care for them and then leave their fates unknown can seem cruel. But I think what Murakami was going for was a ‘fellow travelers of life’ sort of storytelling.
_____________________
Digression
In the thought provoking hind language movie, ‘A Wednesday’, by director Neeraj Pandey, the motivations of the main character who perpetuates seeming acts of terrorism is, in part his bond with a stranger. A young man whom he meets on the commute, whom he doesn’t know, and with whom he has shared no words at all. Only a smile of familiarity, and the shared bond of being fellow commuters who at least for the brief instant between two stops are journeying in the same direction.
They share pleasantries and special occasions through smiles and body language, forming a sort of camaraderie. But one day when the gentleman misses his commute, the train becomes subject to a terrorist attack, killing many, including his comrade. And the man weeps for this person, whose identity he doesn’t know, but who had affected him in some profound way.
This stranger influenced our protagonist and caused a paradigm shift in his perspective to life. Though not to the same extent, the individuals who meet and converse over the course of a night in this story, similarly seem to have changed each other, for better or for worse.
_______________________________
For example, both Asai sisters happen to meet the same person, Takahashi, during different points of time. Both end up opening up to him, in regards to their problems, and their relationship (or lack of) with the other. And Takahashi was at best a passing acquaintance to them. But, by talking to him, they managed to air out some thoughts which they’d chosen to deny, and perhaps are in the process of taking the right step towards reconciliation.
Many were consternated with how no comeuppance was delivered to the sociopathic woman beater Shirakawa, that he would go scot free to a normal life, but that seems to be the point. Not all problems, crimes or conflicts are resolved properly. How many unsolved instances of violence and murder are lodged into some long forgotten tome in some government office?
Something like the White chapel murders or the case of Black Dahlia are merely the ones which get the most spotlight. How many multitudes were lost to the ether…but I digress.
Shirakawa’s description, an average looking quiet salaryman, cannot reconcile with the violent brutality he enacts onto his bed companion at Alphaville. This reminded me of when, during the Nuremberg trials, the public were able to see high ranking officials from the Nazi regime, as they were prosecuted for crimes against humanity. Many came across as your average middle aged men, who, if you happened to pass them in the street, you wouldn’t spare a second glance.
But within them, they held the capacity for substantial evil, and had destroyed the lives of tens of thousands if not millions, due to their ideology and the decisions they made. Shirakawa, in the same vein, comes across as an everyman, is good at his job, provides for his family, but is also someone who indulges in his more basal desires and is not averse to inflicting suffering unto others.
As much as we want, given the circumstances, he might just get away scot free for his actions. Neither the caring Kaoru, nor the girl's handlers would care or remember him as the days will roll out.
Mari and Eri, might be more than what meets the eye. Towards the end of the book, Mari muses:
‘Consciousness just happens to be missing from it at the moment: it may have gone into hiding, but it must certainly be flowing somewhere out of sight, far below the surface, like a vein of water. Mari can hear its faint reverberations. She listens for them. The place where they originate is not that far from here. And Eri's flow is almost certainly blending with my own, Mari feels. We are sisters, after all.’
It seems like a curious correlation that Eri seems to be sleeping whenever Mari is awake and about, unable to sleep. And if I’m not mistaken, the brief instance when Eri does wake up, coincides with when Mari was having a nap in Alphaville. In the final page, when Mari is finally drifting off into sleep, that is when see Eri move for the first time. Almost as if both share one mind and two bodies, which seems to take the term sister a bit too literally.
Sister→ Schwester (Old High German) →*swe- "one's own" + *ser- "woman."
Despite lacking a concrete conclusion, for a story about a bunch of people sitting around talking, After Dark flows well. We feel no boredom as we follow the threads which connect each of the characters, through mundane minutia. Mari to Yoshikawa to Kaoru to the chinese girl to Shirakawa to Eri back to Mari.
Perhaps the reason for that is the characteristic care with which Murakami describes his characters doing things. Mari doesn’t just order food, She sits at a four person table at Denny’s, with a cup of coffee, reading a hardbound book. Takahashi doesn’t order food. He orders chicken salad and crispy toast, extra extra crispy. And they sit in the ambience of the restaurant, "Go Away Little Girl" by Percy Faith and his Orchestra playing in the background.
From the smell of fresh toast and coffee, to the rising smoke from the cigarette, to the dimmed night lights of the establishment, to the constant murmur of the crowd, it is as if we are there beside the characters. And this meticulousness carries on, as we move Alphaville, to the Skylark, as we are strolling through the park, or some decrepit street near the 7/11. Murakami has the ability to keep your eyes fixed even if he is writing about paint drying.
One thing I envy Murakami is how he is able to integrate his own vices and passions into the stories he tells. As has become a staple of his works, there are cats, there is jazz music, men diligently performing exercise, reading, baseball, and a lot of pop minutia one would expect someone who is native to Japan would be familiar with. But man can that guy write, so much so that you can almost forgive the guy for arguably the laziest of his works.
“She approaches a window and, resting her hands on the sill, strains to see outside. Beyond the glass, however, there is no scenery, only an uncolored space like a pure abstract idea”
The Characters
- Mari Asai: the quiet, introspective, glasses wearing book lover who seems to like spending time in Denny’s during nights. Due to her charismatic model older sister, Mari seems to have taken on herself the persona of the bookish younger sibling. Her apparent estrangement with her sibling, as well as Eri’s sleeping syndrome seems to have weighed on her, and she leaves home for some alone time.
- Eri Asai: Mari’s older sister, the beautiful television model Eri, has almost no lines, or nothing much to do in the story. She spends all the time sleeping in her room, with only the erratically buzzing TV screen for a companion. We as spectators are much more part of her story, as in her unconscious state the reality of her room starts to warp, and she is visited by a mysterious observer.
- Takahashi Tetsuya: The trombone playing law student, who is out one night to jam for the last time with his student band. An acquaintance of Mari & Eri, he coincidentally meets her at the Denny’s and strikes up a conversation. For the rest of the night, meeting at odd hours they converse, about her, him, Eri and many mundane yet relatable things in life.
- Shirakawa: A family man who works late nights in an IT firm, during the late hours of darkness indulges in his more secret desires. An average salaryman as appearances goes, he nonetheless has a hidden violent nature, which causes him to lash out against the prostitute that he hired, beating her brutally, and leaving with all her clothes and possessions. He seems to be hardly affected by this act of violence, resuming his work and leaving for home after disposing of the evidence of his crime.
- Kaoru: The blond haired amazon, a former pro-wrestler turned night hotel manager with a warm heart. She and Mari meet by means of a mutual acquaintance Takahashi, over the incident involving Shirakawa and a chinese prostitute. Much like Takahashi, Kaoru spends time with Mari talking about their lives, and bonding over stuff.
- Komogi & Korogi: Employees at the love hotel ‘Alphaville’, they are supporting characters in the story. It is implied that they have a hidden past which forced at least one of them to abandon their former lives and be on the run. But we don’t get to know much more than that.
Synopsis
A young girl, short hair, glasses, red sox hat is sitting in a booth, at Denny’s with some sandwiches in front of her, and her attention in the thick tome of a hardcover. In walks a young man, carrying a bag which distinctly looks like a musical instrument. He passes over the girl’s booth, stops and doubles back to look at her face. The girl looks up, and the man smiles ‘I know you, I met you and your sister two years ago in a double date’
He sits in the girl, Mari Asai’s booth, and starts conversation, while ordering and eating some chicken salad. He talks of the time they’d met, he with his friend, and she with her sister Eri, who was the attractive one. They talk about Mari, her likes, dislikes, and the fact that she is fluent in chinese. Takahashi is on his way to an all night Jam session with his band. He says goodbye to Mari, hoping to see her later at night.
Sometime passes, and Mari yet again encounters someone, this time, a tall blonde haired amazon-like woman, who introduces herself as Kaoru, the manager of the love hotel ‘Alphaville’. She and Mari share the mutual acquaintance of one Takahashi, who had directed Kaoru to Mari, since Mari’s ability to speak chinese was suddenly brought to relevance.
At Alphaville, Kaoru takes Mari to a room in dishevel and with blood on the floors. Other than the two, in the room are present Komugi & Korogi, staff at the establishment, as well as a bleeding woman sitting in the corner, folded up into herself. She is, as Kaoru explains a chinese prostitute, who was left this way by a client that beat her, stole all her possessions and rushed out to avoid capture.
Mari speaks to the girl, the same age as her and manages to calm her down. While the girl’s wounds are cleaned and she is given some robes to wear Mari explains what she learned. The prostitute is an illegal immigrant smuggled to the home islands by the chinese mafia, who are now using her body to repay her debt. Her handlers are called, and are not happy at what has transpired. A rough looking chinese gang member on a bike arrives, takes the beaten women and drives off to who knows where.
Kaoru escorts Mari to an establishment and buys her something to drink. While there, they exchange their stories. Kaoru, a retired pro-wrestler, narrates how she came to her current employment. Mari tells her about her childhood, and an uncle who was an avid music lover. They talk about Takahashi and the meaning behind the name of her establishment, as well as its underlying nuances. Mari returns to the Denny's, intent to resume her reading.
Meanwhile, we become silent spectators to Eri Asai, the beautiful older sister, who lies in a bedroom, more akin to a pale corpse than someone who is sleeping. The room , in the darkness and silence, seems to take a life of its own, and reality seems to be overtaken by the ethereal. The unplugged TV in the room, blinks to life and static covers the screen trying to make some cohesive picture. An unknown mysterious stranger appears on the screen, which shows a reflection of the actual room. He is sitting in the middle of the room, staring at the sleeping beauty. In time, reality and the mirror reality bleed over, the bed is now empty, Eri seemingly residing in the reflection within the screen.
Elsewhere, one average looking salaryman, Shirakawa, is typing away at his system, during his late night shift. His right hand is in pain, throbbing from having repeatedly punched the chinese girl. He remembers what he did, but had trouble believing it was he who did it. Seemingly indifferent to the violence that he inflicted, he is almost nonchalant, as he works while listening to music, talking to his wife over phone about his late night shifts, and about buying groceries.
Kaoru and the girls review security footage from the establishment, and get a good look at the man who caused all the ruckus. They deduce that he is a salaryman, working the late night shift at one of the nearby IT firms. Kaory makes copies of his mugshot and passes them onto the gang, hoping they would find an exact justice upon him for beating up the poor girl.
At Denny’s Takahashi returns to charge up during break. He once again sits next to Mari, and they resume their conversation. Walking to the park to feed the cats, both sit on swings as Takahashi explains one time when he met Eri alone in the streets, looking as if she wanted someone to talk to. Eri spoke to the man about her own problems, insecurities, problems, and her estranged relationship with Mari. He hints perhaps Mari should try and reach out to Eri.
Mari cannot even if she wished to, as for the past few months, Mari has been constantly sleeping, waking up only to eat and go to the bathroom. None of the family had seen her awake. They had tried to have her checked up, but she appeared to be healthy, and doctors recommended to continue monitoring her, and hope she would wake up.
Takahashi then shares his own life story, with a father who was an ex-criminal, a mother who died when he was young, orphanhood, return of his father, and a stepmother who he didn’t want to live in the same house with. Despite loving music, he had resolved to quit his band, that night being his final session. He intends to study seriously to gain his law degree, and secure stable employment.
Eri Asai woke up in the alternate world, she is concerned about her surroundings, which seem so similar but alien to her room. She struggles while trying to leave. But, finding the windows and doors not budging, she gives up and resumes her sleep. In a short time, reality bends yet again, and Eri is back in the real world, sleeping like a corpse in the bed.
Shirakawa prepares to return home after work, having packed up his things, as well as bundled up the items he stole in a garbage bag, he boards a taxi and disposes of the bag outside the 7/11 where he went to shop for milk. He leaves the girl’s stolen phone at one of the racks, and returns home. Takahashi, who also came to the store a while later, heard the phone ringing, and got an earful from the gangsters, who mistook him for their perp. He leaves the phone as if, not wanting any trouble. Shirakawa reaches home, and sits in front of the TV, eating yogurt, unable to sleep despite the sleep exhaustion building up in him.
Mari & Yoshikawa meet for the last time at Denny’s. Mari says that she is going to take a job as a translator in china, and will be away for half a year. Takahashi nods along and asks to keep in touch with her. He likes the time they spent, and would want to once again meet and perhaps date Mari. She is apprehensive but relents, agreeing to perhaps give them a chance. She boards the first train back home, as Takahashi walks off from the station back to his own life.
At home Mari enters Eri’s room, and gets in bed with the sleeping beauty. She hugs her older sibling close as tears flow from her for unknown reasons. She desperately wishes for Eri to wake up, so that they can be siblings once again. As Mari drifts off to sleep, after a long night, we see a slight quickening of Eri’s lips, as if indicating the certainty of things to come.
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