The Lying Counselor’s Eloquent Reasoning - Chapter 35
“I’m done with this… I’ve learned that it’s futile to express any opinion to you.”
“That’s exactly teaching your grandmother to suck eggs, isn’t it?”
“Nothing of the sort.” Tomomi gasped and sighed heavily.
Then, a woman entered the counseling room. Could she be a client? She was the second person to visit the room today, following Takimoto. What a rare occurrence.
“Um, I came here after seeing the commercial.”
The woman said, bowing lightly to Uroma. She was a beautiful woman in her mid-twenties, slim and neat. Her hair was long and shiny black, and her suit was navy blue. She seemed to be an office worker on her way home from work.
“Welcome to the office. Please have a seat over there.”
As usual, Uroma offered her a folding chair that had somehow sprung up in the middle of the room. She sat down in it immediately. Her manner was mature and elegant.
“What can I do for you today?”
“Yes, I lost my fiancée last month…”
“Well, I am so sorry to hear that.”
Uroma said that he felt sorry for the man, but to Tomomi, who knew him better than most, he seemed rather bland.
“So you are here due to unbearable grief? I understand. I’ve been seeing a lot of people like that lately. It’s really agonizing for me, but I’m hoping that I may contribute to the healing of such people’s heartbreak even if only a little. For example, there was once a woman in India named Kisa Gotami??”
“No, I didn’t come here because I couldn’t bear the loss of him.”
“Oh, hmm.”
Uroma seemed to have flinched a little as if his Shakuson style therapy had gotten him off on the wrong foot. Or rather, he was suddenly talking excessively with a heartbroken person. I wonder how much this guy wants to talk.
“Of course, it is not that I am not sad that he is dead. I am still in great pain. But that’s not what I’m troubled about. It’s the cause of his death.”
“Oh, the cause of his death? That’s what’s bothering you?”
“Yes. Last month, he fell from the third-floor balcony of the apartment and passed away. At first, the police suspected that it was an accident, but when I mentioned that we had been arguing that morning, they said that it must have been suicide. They didn’t look into it too closely and dismissed it as a suicide. But I just couldn’t believe that he committed suicide…”
“I see. So you are wondering if your fiancé’s death was really a suicide or if there was some other cause?”
“Yes! I want to know the truth about his death!” The woman’s gaze was deadly intent.
Then, as if reminded, the woman took out a business card from her pocket, handed it to Uroma, and introduced herself. She said that her name was Kiyokawa Sayuri, 27 years old, and that she worked in the public relations office of a certain company.
“So, Ms. Kiyokawa. What kind of person was your fiancé who passed away?”
“He was two years younger than me and worked for a different company. His name was James Hirose. He was born in the United States and had been living with me for two years. I used to call him Jimmy.”
“James Hirose? Is he of Japanese descent?”
“No, he himself is not of Asian descent. But Jimmy’s parents passed away when he was two years old, and he was taken in by a Japanese family living in the United States.”
“I see, so he speaks fluent Japanese?”
“Yes. In the house where he grew up, he always communicated in Japanese, and in terms of speaking, he was no different from ordinary Japanese. Although reading and writing kanji was a little difficult for him…”
As they talked, Sayuri’s face began to cloud over. It seemed that she was recalling James and was filled with sadness.
“Ms. Kiyokawa, are you doing fine? Shall we take a break and discuss something else?”
“No, it’s no problem. It’s been a month since the last time we saw each other, after all.” Sayuri was firm. “After graduating from high school in the U.S., Jimmy went to university in Japan. After that, he landed a job at a Japanese company, and it was through his work that we met.”
“I see, so that’s how you started dating.”
Uroma nodded his head in a hmm sort of way.
“With his background and history, it seems unlikely that he had trouble adjusting to Japanese culture and suffered from mental instability.”
“Yes. Jimmy was able to live in Japan without any difficulties. If he couldn’t read kanji or didn’t understand something, I would teach him… That’s why I couldn’t believe that he committed suicide.”
Sayuri raised her willow eyebrows in sincere sorrow.