But I can't help thinking of the shock I felt when I finally realised it was winter, on exiting Mizuko's apartment. The summer was long gone, but I hadn't noticed until then.

I don't know, I can't know, but I almost did.

But I do not know the people I am crying for anymore. I don't let myself sympathise—I think it would be wrong.

Instantly I remembered everything I hated about him. But it was, in a way, comforting to know that he had not changed at all.

Man had such impenetrable means to stop the outside world from coming in, and so little to stop our inside world from surging out, wrestling any foreign object into submission.

If everything stays the same, it seems possible for someone to come back.