what are you trying to do. I didn't mean for you to take me so seriously," his father said as he slowly picked himself up, a shocked, cold look in his eyes.
The next day when his mother told him that his father had spit up blood, Tatsuya said nothing, but a few days later, after some hard sparring, he returned home with his face horribly swollen. He went straight into his father's study.
"I got a real work-out today," he said, "Look at my head."
This was Tatsuya's rather peculiar attempt to make amends to his father, and he was disappointed when all his father did was look worried and ask if he was all right.
Tatsuya had long given up on love as well. His only notion of it was limited to an image of himself and a woman in a forest somewhere, where they played about naked among the trees. He had no clear picture of the woman either; whether she was the younger or was innocent did not matter.
With this attitude, it was natural that he should not have expected anything special from Eiko over and above simple sex. But for some reason when he danced with her for the first time he did not immediately try to imagine how she looked under her clothes. Generally Tatsuya was not very demanding of the women he dated. When he had gotten to know them intimately, he had inevitably been disappointed, so that now he acquired girls just as a woman would add a dress of the latest style to her wardrobe. Tatsuya was always picking up some new girl, dropping her, and finding another.
On certain occasions, he and his friends regarded women as indispensable accessories. They enjoyed showing up sporting a new girl friend. If someone appeared with a girl everybody knew, it was like wearing an old suit that everyone had seen many times.
If they can say that changes in fashion mirror the history of women, they could change it around to say that changes in women mirrored the history of the young man Tatsuya, and it would have been true. But though his attitude to women was one of changes, it was also one of simple repetition, because Tatsuya would end up bored by each successive girl. Each affair started out hot but soon cooled off until Tatsuya simply dropped the unfortunate girl.
But what was it that Eiko had that attracted and fascinated him?
One day in early summer she came to see him at his home in Zushi; she was on her way home from nearby Hayama where she had been getting the family summer house ready for the warm weather.
Tatsuya took her out sailing, and by the time they got back it was already getting dark. Eiko decided to spend the night at Hayama rather than go all the way back to Tokyo.
Tatsuya suggested that they eat at his house. After dinner he asked her if she wanted to take a bath before he took her home. Tatsuya's room was in the garden, separated from the rest of the house. She decided to bathe and went off to the bathroom in the main building. When she returned, Tatsuya met her at the door.
"I think I'll take a bath myself. Can you wait a while? There's nobody waiting up for you at Hayama anyhow."
Tatsuya's room contained two sections and a spacious hall-like passage with gym mats on the floor and a punching bag hanging from the ceiling. Eiko went into the hall and took a jab at the bag. It hardly moved. She enjoyed looking at the training equipment and walking on the canvas mats.
After his bath, Tatsuya sluiced himself down with cold water. Suddenly he made up his mind for the first time how he felt toward Eiko.
He covered the upper part of his body with a towel and went in and stood beyond the shoji, the paper-covered lattice door that divided the hall from the other room.
"Eiko!" he called out from outside, and sensing her turn round towards him, he thrust his erection through the thin white paper.
There was a dry snap as the paper ripped. Eiko looked startled, then she flung the book she had been reading at the screen with all her might. The book hit its target and fell to the floor.
For a moment Tatsuya felt the thrill and excitement of the boxing ring. He had found a tough opponent and braced himself for the attack.
He slid the door aside and entered the room completely naked. Eiko, who was sitting on the floor leaning back on one hand, looked up at him. There was a slight smile on her lips and her eyes shone brightly. Her glance questioned and challenged his boldness.
Tatsuya was surprised by her look of excitement, but at the same time he found her eyes fascinatingly beautiful. He stepped forward.
"Show how you can punch the bag?" she said. "Hit it hard."
Without hesitating, he punched it as hard as he could. One, two, one, two. It seemed to crumple up under his blows.
He turned to face her, and she put her arms around him. In a moment he had lifted her up, pushed the curtains aside, carried her into the next room, and placed her on the bed. Eiko laughed. He had never told a girl that he loved her but now he told it to Eiko.
But she was too clever for him. Perhaps it was because he had never been so deeply stirred by a woman before, or because his pace was no match for her eagerness, even though it was he who had challenged first. Eiko seemed to be making him grasp for something out of reach. She twisted away from him before he finally got hold of her. He was caught in a web of her making, and in the end he felt as if it were he who had been seduced.
When Eiko opened her eyes, he felt a feeling of affection and a respect similar to what he felt toward a stronger opponent in the ring. He had been beaten but he felt the excitement that accompanied the desire for retaliation.
But can love born of revenge avoid turning into cruel sport? Why was it that he had not savored the happiness he felt when he had first picked Eiko up and held her in his arms?
Two days later when he was practising in the gym, Sahara came over to him and tapped him.
"Say, Eiko is outside," he whispered. "She says she's afraid to come in herself!"
"I can't leave now. Tell her to come in"
Sahara came back a moment later with Eiko. She was wearing a tight black skirt and a white duster-coat. Everyone looked at her as though she were a handsomely decked out prize-fighter. She walked over to the ring and waved at Tatsuya.
"I've come to tempt you," she said.
"What for?"
"As if you didn't know!" she replied.
When he had finished his training and was leaving the gym, Eda stopped him.
"I hope you're not hot for that one. It'll wreck your training—you'll never last more than three rounds."
Tatsuya and Eiko met for the next three days straight. The second day Tatsuya forgot that they were competing and took another drubbing. On the third night, however, he noticed some dark shadows under her eyes and reckoned he had gained a few points.
A week later he saw Eiko at a night club. She was with someone he did not know. When she saw Tatsuya, she smiled and nodded at him but went on whispering to the man she was with. Forgetting the girl with him, he flared up for a moment. He wondered if she greeted other men like that when she was with him. For the first time in his life he was jealous, although he did not recognize his feeling as such. He only knew that he was disgusted with her. He pretended to ignore the situation and moved away, knowing that to show his anger would give her a hold over him.
He
