Chapter 9: The Ring in the Window

Hanamori's Ginza store has a window that takes up the whole corner of the block.

On the Sunday before New Year, it was full of red and gold.

Stacked boxes of New Year monaka, a lacquered stand of yokan, a paper crane two metres high hanging from the ceiling.

In front of the crane, under the lights, Ryota and Reina were posing for the press.

"The new face of Hanamori," said the sign on the easel by the door.

There were maybe fifteen photographers and a crowd of shoppers three deep behind a velvet rope.

Chiaki's mother looked at the sign for a long moment.

"New face," she said. "He has the same old one."

She had come up from Kakegawa with one suitcase and her good coat, and she had put on her pearl earrings this morning.

Chiaki had asked her twice if she was sure.

Her mother had looked at her.

They went in through the side door, past the counter where Chiaki had worked her first summer at Hanamori, wrapping boxes.

The girl at the till recognised her and covered her mouth.

On the little stage, Ryota was holding up a box of monaka beside his face, smiling the dimple at the cameras.

Reina stood beside him in white, her left hand resting on the box so the ring caught the light.

The photographers called for one more.

Chiaki's mother ducked under the velvet rope.

Nobody stopped her.

She looked like somebody's grandmother who had got lost looking for the toilets.

She walked straight up onto the edge of the stage.

"Saeki-kun," she said.

Ryota's smile froze.

The cameras kept clicking for a second, then slowed, then stopped.

"Okaasan," he said. "What a surprise. Let's talk afterwards, this isn't..."

"I'm not your okaasan."

She said it quite pleasantly, and loud enough for the back row.