2. ◇ Yusuke Seri, in the Entertainment District
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Today, I came into the entertainment district during a break from work to look for a present for my wife.
It was meant as a return gift for the Valentine’s chocolate she had given me last month.
Though it was only a weekday afternoon, with night still far from falling, the streets were already crowded.
I rarely wandered around here during daylight hours, so the sheer number of people surprised me, and I felt a little out of place as I walked on.
I already had some idea of what I wanted to give her, so I let my gaze sweep over the shops, searching through the throngs for the right kind of store.
And then—among this sea of strangers—my eyes, as if drawn by instinct, focused on a familiar figure.
I was walking with my head up, taking in the scenery, when my vision suddenly caught a face I knew.
It was that unmistakable sense that only someone deeply familiar can recognize.
At first, I thought it must simply be a stranger who looked similar.
The reason was simple: that woman was speaking cheerfully to a man I had never seen before.
But then I noticed her hairstyle—identical.
And then her clothes—the very same ones I knew well.
There was no mistake.
That woman was my wife.
“It had been years since I’d seen her with such a gentle, radiant smile. And for just as long, I had not been the one she looked at that way.”
The man at her side was clearly younger than she was.
Their demeanor suggested they hadn’t just met recently.
I had only seen them for a fleeting instant.
It wasn’t as if I had been secretly observing them for long, yet somehow I felt certain they might be intimately involved.
Why did the thought come to me so quickly?
Because I myself bore the stain of past infidelity.
Human beings are strange that way.
“Before I had ever strayed, I doubt I would have jumped so quickly to that conclusion. But having sinned myself, I could not stop my mind from turning to it.”
And yet, selfish as it may be, I could not accept the possibility that my wife carried a side of herself I knew nothing about.
