Villain a Novel (2010) Read Online Free Page A

moaned.
    Their room in the love hotel was a cheap, claustrophobic place that rented for ¥4,320 for three hours. Its concrete walls were wallpapered, the rug was shoddy, and although the pipe-frame bed did have a mattress cover, the quilt on top was, for some unknown reason, one size too small for the double bed. The window didn’t open. It overlooked a highway overpass, not the harbor.
    “Come on, let me take your picture.”
    Yuichi tried again, vaguely, to persuade her, but Yoshino justlaughed at him. “Don’t be an idiot,” she said. She seemed more concerned about the wrinkles on her shirt.
    “Just one photo. I won’t take your face.”
    Yuichi sat up formally on the bed and made his request. Yoshino glanced up at him for a second and said wearily, “How much are you willing to pay?”
    Yuichi only had on underwear. His jeans lay discarded on the floor, the wallet in his back pocket bulging out.
    When he didn’t reply Yoshino said, “I’ll do it for three thousand yen.” She no longer hid her chest with the shirt, and her shiny bra was visible, her breasts straining against the fabric.
    Yuichi pushed the button with his thumb, the shutter snapped, and he was left with a photo of a half-naked Yoshino.
    Yoshino leaped onto the bed and pestered him to show her the photo. After making sure her face wasn’t in it, she said, “I really have to get going. I have curfew.” She got up off the bed and buttoned up her shirt.
    From the parking lot of the love hotel they could see Fukuoka Tower off in the distance. Yuichi was craning his neck for a better look, but Yoshino said, “I’m kind of in a hurry here,” urging him to get going.
    “You ever been up to the observation platform on the tower?” Yuichi asked.
    “When I was a kid, yeah,” Yoshino replied, as if she couldn’t be bothered. She motioned with her chin for him to get into the car. “It looks just like a lighthouse,” Yuichi was about to say, but Yoshino was already in the passenger seat.

    “If Keigo and I do go to Universal Studios during New Year’s break, we probably should stay two days, don’t you think?” Yoshino said, picking up an already cold
gyoza
from the pan.
    Her date with Yuichi was scheduled for ten p.m. and the clock on the wall showed it was already past that.
    “You ever been to Osaka, Yoshino?” Mako asked, her face flushed from two draft beers.
    “Nope, never have,” Yoshino replied.
    “Me neither. But I have a cousin who lives there.”
    Mako was usually the quiet one, but she became talkative when she was drunk. Generally she lisped a bit, but when drunk she talked in a syrupy sort of voice. At parties with guys, she was always kind of a pain.
    “I’ve never been abroad, either.…” Mako said, seated casually on her cushion, elbows splayed on the table.
    “Me neither,” Yoshino said.
    “Sari’s been to Hawaii,” Mako said, eyeing the cushion where Sari had been sitting before she got up to use the restroom. Mako didn’t seem particularly envious.
    Yoshino sometimes found Mako’s indifferent attitude frustrating. Mako never said things overtly, but she always spoke about herself in a self-deprecating way.
    Yoshino, Mako, and Sari were a tight threesome at the apartment building. Sometimes they’d gather for dinner at one of their rooms, or take over the arbor in the courtyard and sit there laughing until dark. Their poor sales records also bound them together. In the beginning Yoshino and Sari competed to see who could close more deals, but once they started turning to relatives to improve their sales figures, they quickly lost interest. Now, after attending the morning meeting at their head office, they more often than not joined Mako in skipping out on pointless cold calls and going to see a movie instead.
    Mako, the easygoing one, was like a buffer between Yoshino and Sari.
    “Hey, if Keigo and I do end up going to Universal Studios, you want to go with us?”
    Sari hadn’t come back from the