image: E. Nagase
“Yeah … I’m sorry too. Merry Christmas.”
“Hi, it’s me. How are you?”
“I’m okay … How is Tokyo? Where are you calling from?”
“It’s allright … the same as always. I’m at a public phone at some subway station right now. I miss you.”
“Why are you calling? It’s still morning here.”
“I just … I don’t know. Like I said, I miss you.”
“Yeah … well … What do you want me to say?”
“I was hoping you would miss me too. I guess that is what I want to hear from you.”
“Of course I miss you, but not in the same way as I used to. Things have changed between us, you know that.”
“I know … but still …”
“You have to go your own way, as well as I have to. I cannot help you with this. You have to do this by yourself.”
“I’m sorry. I cannot let go this easily after all these years. I am still wondering how you do it.”
“For me, it’s different. But I know this is the right thing to do. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah. … I’m sorry too. Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas. I hope you will find happiness.”
“You too. Bye …”
“Bye. Take care of yourself, will you?”
“Yeah … Thanks, I guess.”
*Click*
And I walk back to the neon lights of Shibuya, where the people are reveling in their Christmas parties[1], wondering whether there is any home to return to. 
referenced works
- From mid-December to mid-January Japanese people find three reasons to drink uninhibitedly: 1) 忘年会 or "year end party," 2) Christmas parties, usually organized by lonely, single people who are trying to stave off the intense sadness brought on by being alone in Japan on the 25th of December, and 3) 新年会 or "new year parties." 忘年会 and 新年会 parties are often held in izakayas, and very often, those izakayas are located in Shibuya. ↩
location information
- Name: Payphone in Shibuya station
- Address: 東京都渋谷区道玄坂1丁目
- Time of story: late night
- Latitude: 35.65826
- Longitude: 139.70171
- Map: Google Maps
033 “Dewy eyes closed, her porcelain arms and legs splayed attractively”
032 “The ika had made too many turns.”
031 “A tongue was moving around my big toe, like a warm slug crawling. ”
030 “Ichor will gush out of this carefully constructed image”
029 “I wince, more than her.”
028 “Their schoolbags were puddled around their socks, forgotten”
027 “Amongst the bottles and the obscure records and the crimson velvet walls”
026 “Nostalgia isn’t an easy indulgence for amateurs”
025 “... but anyway please take one of these little cheese cakes ...”
024 “The inhabitants of the blue, makeshift tents in the bushes.”
023 “Yeah … I’m sorry too. Merry Christmas.”
022 “I was dead broke. It was winter.”
021 “The district's energy had faded to rest on my last night there.”
020 “The slightly bald salaryman didn't correspond to any memory I could conjure up.”
019 “She laughed at my effort and responded in English, ‘Long time, no seduction.’ ”
018 “In my dreamy state, oblivious to signs and announcements I often boarded the wrong train.”
017 “I was fifteen years old and it was one of those nights.”
016 “That ear of corn just wanted to go home”
015 “With his painstakingly coiffured mane blowing in the wind”
014 “Her voice, even across languages, betraying her worry.”
013 “I saw them drawing bamboo sticks from a silver rectangular box.”
012 “A simulacrum of someone else's home, equal parts comfort and loss.”
011 “Jumbled Escheresque insanity where geography in any traditional sense ceases to exist.”
010 “I could hardly make out anything apart from his glowing eyes...”
009 “Shibuya was like a stroke.”
008 “I cried for a while and wiped the dead bracken off my karate pants.”
007 “Both my tie and my disposition hang limp as I calculate the remaining distance to the station.”
006 “I once read about a Chinese maiden whose feet were unbound by a cruel man …”
005 “The Bad Girl strutted off and I was left with a ham egg pie.”
004 “I arrived expecting an irritated Japanese person to step out of the crowd and identify himself as Hideki.”
003 “The woman at the ticket window seemed surprised to see another human being. I was the only visitor.”
002 “Flanked on either side by adult manga shops and the like, the smell of yakitori in the air.”
001 “For two weeks the day began with this morning walk, our shared routine.”
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