Summary

Keiko listens to Shiraha’s hesitations and rants, but eventually becomes fed up and brings him home to her small, dirty apartment. While he is in the shower, she calls her sister and experiments by telling her that she has a man in her apartment. Mami makes her own assumptions about what this means and is thrilled, congratulating Keiko and asking if they are considering marriage. Keiko realizes that Shiraha was right, nothing has changed since the Stone Age, and all she needs to do to satisfy other people is to provide a vague illusion that she is in a relationship and their imaginations will run wild and make up the rest. She lets Shiraha stay with her and adopts him as a sort of pet. She refers to him as an animal and provides his “feed” for him (109). In exchange, he gets...