Summary

Fuyuko takes a walk, remembering Mitsutsuka’s words about light. She listens to her “favorite piece by Chopin,” wondering how the night can be “so beautiful” (9).

In Chapter 1, Fuyuko’s coworker Hijiri called asking if she received the recent manuscripts. They talked briefly about authors’ tendency “to use so many sources” (11).

Fuyuko made lunch for herself and settled in with her most recent manuscript. As a proofreader, she “repeated the same process, again and again,” scouring the texts for errors and inconsistencies (12).

Three years prior, she left her proofreading job at the publishing company for which she had worked since college. She had quit because of the people. When she repeatedly declined her coworkers’ invitations to socialize, they stopped talking to her. Then they started gossiping about her. The environment depressed her.

Then she received a surprising “call from Kyoko,” a former editor at...