In Tokyo that July, a series of typhoons threatened. Ana had never acclimatised to summers in Japan; back in Tallinn there was nothing like this humidity. It made cowlicks in her hair, it made her top stick to her back, and worst of all, it made her feel sluggish and stupid. It was hard to reach anyone among her old group of friends, most of whom now worked in ‘office flower’ jobs – menial roles that meant long hours and low-level harassment. She whiled away the hours at the nearby Segafredo, listening idly to the talk of diplomats and bankers. After a long, lacklustre decade, Tokyo was booming again. It was a sign of the times that the hospital up the road was building a new unit for cocaine overdoses. ‘But it’s only another kind of bankruptcy in disguise,’ she heard an American declare. ‘Pouring money into Tokyo while the rest of the country is stagnating…’

A waiter was tipping a pail of water onto the footpath to cool the air. One table over, a man read Nanami Shiono’s Stories of the Romans. The sky was a soft close grey; there never seemed to be a sun at this time of year. Checking her phone – it was near six – she saw a text from Shigeko: I hope you are not ungry. Did she mean hungry or angry? Angry, probably. Ana didn’t answer, and just then the phone rang.

‘So you’ll be okay?’ said Dev. ‘With the eel guy, I mean?’

‘Takuya? He’s fine.’

She was still seeing a few clients, Takuya among them. Generous as Dev was, she had to earn some money. And Takuya, who made his living advising restaurants, liked to dine in the company of European women. That night he was taking her to eat hamo, a type of eel you could only get during the summer months.

Takuya was one of Shigeko’s circle, like many of Ana’s clients. The first such introduction had come soon after she moved in. Ana had answered Shigeko’s notice on a board: ‘Single Japanese woman seeks English-speaking flatmate.’ It was a comfortable, large apartment not far from the college campus, and Shigeko did not ask for a lot of rent, although she did require key money of eighty thousand yen up front. She was in her early thirties, with a pale oval face and prominent teeth, and wore demure clothes. She was vague on what she did for work, but mentioned corporate events. When Ana moved in, Shigeko made her feel welcome by inviting her along to drinks and dinners out.