Aphrodite by Masaki Yamada

Author:Masaki Yamada [Yamada, Masaki]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Japanese science fiction, JLIT, Floating city, Submarine
ISBN: 9784902075373
Publisher: Kurodahan.com
Published: 2019-08-09T18:30:00+00:00

2028 :: Age 28

1

YÅ«ichi opened his eyes.

He didn’t feel like getting up just yet.

He vaguely thought of all that had happened since he had come to Aphrodite.

He smiled; deep, slightly sad wrinkles appeared around his mouth.

He noticed that he was almost addicted to reminiscing, these days. They weren’t memories that praised him much. Considering he was twenty-eight years old, he wasn’t too healthy, and a bit too eager to avoid being involved.

Well, there was no help for it.

It was like alcohol and cigarettes. You knew it wasn’t healthy, but you had to do it anyway.

Now?

Thinking about now wouldn’t bring him anything, he thought, and didn’t have much value in itself.

Finally, he sat up.

When he did, his arm touched Sue’s naked back. Sue, mumbling something deep in her mouth, curled up and wormed back into the blankets like an oyster.

Yūichi, a bit surprised, looked down at Sue. Even though almost five years had passed since Sue had started staying over in Yūichi’s room once or twice a week, he still couldn’t get used to it. He always felt a slight confusion that the woman sleeping in bed with him should be Sue, and not Anita.

A foolish illusion.

First of all, Anita had been Voight’s wife, and after he had died, she hadn’t entered into any “special” relationship with Yūichi, not even once.

If Anita knew Yūichi was thinking that, she’d certainly laugh. Maybe she’d get angry.

Still, YÅ«ichi yet felt it was a kind of injustice that the woman sleeping with him shouldn't be Anita.

Which wasn’t to say he didn’t love Sue. Quite the opposite—when he looked at Sue sleeping at his side, he choked up with the pain of how much he needed this woman. Yūichi truly loved Sue.

But he couldn’t understand her.

He didn’t know what she thought, or why she was continuing this relationship with him. He felt sure she loved him, but that love had a kind of coldness, like formality to a stranger. It had been that way from the first.

He wasn’t dissatisfied with it, and he didn’t intend to accuse her of indifference. In the real world, not everyone could be the heroes and heroines of a melodrama.

He felt the fragility of their relationship: it wouldn’t be strange for it to end at any time. And perhaps because of that fragility, this slightly unusual relationship had seen Sue staying overnight in his room for five years, without them living together. Their relationship was open and free, and had none of the troubles so common to couples. He couldn’t deny, though, that he felt a formless sadness.

He tried to be careful, but when he got out of bed, he woke her up after all.

Her breathing changed.

YÅ«ichi waited quietly next to the bed in the thin predawn light.

“You’re up already?” Sue finally spoke, with her back still to Yūichi. “You’re going?”

That was a tiny private rule between them. When Yūichi got up to go to work, Sue—left alone in bed—always asked if he was leaving. It was a question rich in feeling, but still hurt: you’re leaving me already.

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