The Perfect Insider:Chapter 1-4

The White Conversation 4

A knock sounded at the door, and the graduate student Moe knew so well, Hamanaka Fukashi, entered. He was in his first year of the master's program on virtual reality. He was of small stature, and gave off an effeminate air.

"Uh, Professor Saikawa, the computer's acting sort of funny. Do you mind taking a look?" Hamanaka spoke with a high-pitched voice. "Oh, Nishinosono, you're back already?"

Moe nodded with a grin. Saikawa put out his cigarette and stood up. "Is Kunieda out?"

"Professor Kunieda is in the middle of a seminar," Hamanaka said, looking to the side. It wasn't visible, but in that direction was the room of Saikawa's assistant, Kunieda. "It was a little hard to butt in and ask."

The timid Hamanaka always did his best to avoid Kunieda Momoko. She was generally feared by the student body.

"Nishinosono, wait here a bit." Saikawa and Hamanaka left the room together. The graduate student room was on the floor below Saikawa's room. Moe had been there several times, but found it to be a disaster area of clutter.

Moe remained in Saikawa's tabacco-scented room, sipping her cooled coffee. She had a sensitive mouth, so she preferred this temperature of black.

Associate professor Saikawa's room was almost perfectly square, thirty meters on all sides. The room was originally an assistant's room, no more than half the size of the professors' rooms. According to what he'd told Moe, when he was promoted to associate professor last year, he'd been too lazy to move all his books and furniture, and so he'd stayed put. The spacious accociate professor's room that Saikawa should have been occupying was on the same fourth floor, though currently it was being used by several students from Saikawa's bachelor thesis lecture. Moe had never been inside.

Surly steel shelves covered every inch of the walls in Saikawa's room, and were packed tightly with scientific texts and files. There were two desks, on one of which stood two Macintosh computers. There was no printer to be seen. Not only did Seikawa almost never print anything out, whenever he absolutely had to, he could use one of his students' printers wirelessly. As for anything customized, there was the single decorative plant Moe had brought. None of the walls were visible, but stuck on the back of the door were countless pictures of aerobatic planes. Saikawa had never spoken to her about aeroplanes before, but she supposed he was into them.

In the narrow space between the glass of the steel shelves and the books within, various miscellanea were placed. It was totally erratic and out of harmony. A fake fruit parfait, a model of a stealth fighter, an Australian boomerang, an old IBM typewriter font head, a Chinese clay doll, a ChocoBall Kyoro-chan, an antique ampere meter, a twin lens reflex camera. These things had two commonalities. One was that they were all things with no relevance to his field of architecture, and the other was that they were all things Moe liked.

"Oh Souheeii," a woman called, without knocking, through the slightly ajar door. Moe startled and stood up. A longhaired woman entered, smiling from ear to ear.

"Oops… pardon me," the woman spoke with a faint voice, thick and wet. "Are you a student?"

"Yes. Professor Saikawa will be back soon," Moe answered.

The woman came all the way into the room, then looked all around. Her wavy hair swayed gently, and she carried the scent of perfume. No matter how you slice it, she was not a student. Her short pencil-skirt was navy blue. She had freckles under her eyes, and a deep red lipstick on her mouth. Probably owing to her heels, she stood slightly taller than Moe. She was beautiful, slender and fair-skinned, though her age was hard to place. Maybe her late twenties.

"Then, could you give this to him for me?" the woman said, handing Moe a paper bag.

"Excuse me for asking, but who are you?" Moe asked politely.

"Hold on, are you… could it be…? Miss Nishinosono?" The woman spoke softly, and didn't seem confidant speaking. Moe guessed she was putting it on intentionally to appear ditzy. The bag she'd been given had a wrapped box inside. When Moe didn't answer, that confirmed the woman's speculation, and she let out a chuckle.

"My name is Nishinosono, but… I don't think I caught yours?" Moe was a bit annoyed, so her voice had risen.

"Oh me?" she giggled. "I am Gidou Setsuko." After she said that, her eyes became crescent moons from her smile.

"Gidou… you said?"

"That's right… Um… Have you read the Manyoushuu, by any chance?" Gidou Setsuko said.

"I have not…" Moe shook her head. She wasn't used to this person's conversation tempo yet. "What about the Manyoushuu?"

"So you're Miss Nishinosono then…. Hrrmm…" Gidou ignored Moe's question entirely. Moe was staring harshly at her. "You know… if you grew your hair out long? It'd look nice on you."

"Um, how do you know me?" Moe was thoroughly irritated.

Gidou giggled. "How else? Kouhei does nothing except talk about you." She laughed again.

Calling associate professor Saikawa by his first name was the thing that pissed Moe off the most. He had gone to an all-boy's school in his hometown, and he'd said all his highschool friends call him Saikawa.

Moe was about to ask "What relationship do you have with the professor?" but abruptly noticed the underlying tenderness in what she had said. Moe kept quiet.

"I'm sorry to put this on you, but I have a taxi waiting for me." Gidou Setsuko smiled broadly, then grabbed the doorknob. "Miss Nishinosono, do you like puzzles?"

"No…" Moe answered immediately. "By puzzles you mean like jigsaw puzzles?"

"Sure, those count too. Me? I love them…. Next time, let's do one together, yeah? …Well, give my regards to Kouhei, and please specify that Setsuko dropped by."

Gidou Setsuko left the room.

For a while, Moe just stood facing the closed door. She never quite managed to reach the same wavelength as Gidou Setsuko, she felt.

"What did she mean by puzzles?" Moe thought.

Moe washed both coffee cups and put them away in the cupboard. Saikawa's cup was still half full of water, so she dumped it. That action, somehow or other, made her understand how upset she was.

She left the room intending to go down to the graduate student room on the third floor. Since Saikawa was just one floor down, she felt the need to tell him about Gidou Setsuko now. Moe wondered why Gidou hadn't thought of that herself as she descended the stairs.