Chapter 43: Beyond the purple smoke.

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Translator: Soafp

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Every day is the same, endlessly repetitive and unproductive.

I couldn't help but think this, as I went through time like a scene replaying over and over again. Three days had already passed.

Sharing a room with Maya.

The only question was whether I'd strangle her while she slept first, or if she'd strangle me first while I slept.

This twisted game of chicken was losing its sense of life-or-death tension.

“…Don't you worry that I might strangle you while we're sleeping in the same room?”

“If I were to be killed by you, Kazunari, I would still be happy.”

She replied with a pitiful attempt at bravado, and I quickly lost the inclination. But Maya never asked the reverse question. Of course, if she felt guilty, she wouldn't.

In the end, I survived another night and woke up to a new morning.

The bed next to mine was already empty. Maya never went to bed before I did, and she was always up before me in the morning.

One might think she was a perfect wife, like in some patriarchal declaration, if only we hadn't gone through the affair.

──But what's the point of any of this now?

“…Good morning.”

When I went to the living room/kitchen after getting ready for work, Maya greeted me with a worn-out face, having prepared breakfast. Despite knowing full well from the past three days that I wouldn't eat what she made, why does she still make a show of preparing breakfast?

“…I don't need anything.”

It was pointless to ignore her now, so I replied with the bare minimum, glancing at the fried eggs on the table before heading straight to the front door.

“…I see. Have a good day.”

Maya said in a low tone. Since the affair was discovered, she hadn't gone to work at all, so she probably wouldn't leave the house today either.

“Don't force yourself to stay holed up in the house.”

Frustration building up, I ended up throwing that remark at her with a hint of sarcasm, not even bothering to look in Maya’s direction, of course.

──It's fine, you know, if you want to keep visiting Naoki.

“No… I'll be here, waiting for you to come home.”

“Ha”

Such acts, driven by self-satisfaction rather than any real atonement, make me sick to my stomach.

When Maya was sneaking around with Naoki, I was the one stuck at home, waiting for her to come back. Now, what good does it do for her to mirror my old self?

Watching Maya’s imitation of the pre-discovery me makes me sick.

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Before I knew it, the workday—a brief escape from Maya—was over.

──When was the last time work hours felt so short? Probably not since I first joined the company.

Thanks to Katsuragi covering for me, I managed to clock out on time, but my reluctance to go home hasn't changed since the affair came to light.

To delay my return home as much as possible, I slipped a cigarette into my suit pocket and decided to stop by a café.

Without hesitation, I headed to the second floor, which had a smoking room. With a coffee in hand, I made my way to the smoking room, a cigarette already poised in my mouth.

But there, I had an unexpected encounter.

“…Kazunari-san…?”

“Oh… you're…?”

Standing beyond the door to the smoking room was Mari-san, whom I had briefly chatted with before at Katsuragi's house.

“What a surprise, meeting you here! Do you come here often, Kazunari-san?”

“No, it's just a coincidence today… But why are you here, Mari-san? This place is quite far from your home, unless your workplace is nearby…?”

“Oh, no. I came to pick up Onii to visit our grandfather, but he unexpectedly had to work late. He asked me to kill some time for an hour or two, so here I am.”

“…”

Katsuragi, you idiot.

I didn't want him to cover for me at the expense of keeping his sister waiting.

I should apologize—it's my fault.

“…Kazunari-san, do you dislike women who smoke?”

For some reason, Mari-san's question came first, making my intention to apologize vanish. Instead, my mind turned to answering her question.

“No, not at all. I came here to smoke myself, after all.”

I don't know what a cigarette hater might say, but that's my honest answer.

“Oh, that's good to hear.”

“…Yeah.”

──Has someone told her I dislike it?

Though the answer seemed obvious, I had no intention of asking her such a question.

It’s probably similar to my own experience of quitting smoking after starting my relationship with Maya.