You know, Chihiro, darling- all it takes is one little wrong step and you end up feeling frustrated your whole life, like me.

Was that what it means to be an adult, to live with ugly ambiguities?

Over and over, we begin again.

Her eyes were those of someone who's just fallen in love, someone who sees nothing but her lover, someone who has no fear of anything. The eyes of someone who believes that every dream will come true, that reality will move if you just give it a push.

At that moment I had a thrilling sharp intuition. I knew it as if I held it in my hands: In the gloom of death that surrounded the two of us, we were just at the point of approaching and negotiating a gentle curve. If we bypassed it, we would split off into different directions. In that case, we would forever remain just friends.

I should have told her at the time. I could have taken a deep breath, looked away, and forced myself to say it.

Why were we so far apart, even when we were together? It was a nice loneliness, like the sensation of washing your face in cold water.