Her home had the same basic floorplan as Kokoro’s, though she got the impression it had been designed with Tojo-san’s family specifically in mind. The building materials were the same, as was the height of the ceilings, yet the ornaments on display in the hall, the pictures hanging on the wall, the light fixtures and colour of the carpeting were all different. The identical construction and layout made these differences stand out all the more.

Tojo-san’s home was so smart and stylish, with paintings just inside the entrance based on the fairy tales her father was apparently fascinated by.

Tojo-san’s father was a college professor researching children’s literature. On the wall, he had framed line-drawings from old illustrated books he’d picked up while in Europe. Scenes from stories Kokoro was familiar with: Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats, Hansel and Gretel.

‘Pretty weird scenes, aren’t they?’ Tojo-san said. By this time Kokoro was addressing her, too, more familiarly, as Moé-chan.

‘Papa collects drawings by this artist, including their illustrations for the Brothers Grimm books and illustrations from the Hans Christian Andersen stories.’

The scenes didn’t strike Kokoro as weird, exactly. The one from The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats was the well-known episode where the wolf breaks into the young goats’ house and they scramble to escape. The drawing from Hansel and Gretel, too, was one of the more famous ones, where Hansel is walking in the forest, tossing out breadcrumbs. There was a witch in the picture, but that alone told you which story it was from.

Their houses were the same size inside, but for some reason Tojo-san’s house seemed much more spacious.

In the living room were shelves lined with books in English, German and other languages.

Tojo-san took one out. ‘This one’s in Danish,’ she said.

‘Wow,’ said Kokoro. She could understand a bit of English, but Danish was totally alien.

‘Andersen was a Danish writer,’ Tojo-san explained bashfully. ‘I can’t read it either. But you can borrow it if you’re interested.’

Kokoro was thrilled. She might not be able to read Danish, but from the illustration on the cover she knew it had to be The Ugly Duckling.

‘And there are lots of books in German, too,’ Tojo-san said. ‘The Brothers Grimm being German and all.’

This made Kokoro even more excited. She knew many of the Grimms’ fairy tales, and these foreign picture books seemed so stylish and cool.

‘You should come over to my house next time,’ Kokoro said. ‘We don’t have anything nice like these, though …’ Kokoro really thought it would happen. At least she thought it should.

So why did things turn out the way they did?

Tojo-san ended up turning her back on Kokoro.

KOKORO QUICKLY WORKED OUT THAT Sanada and her little cohort had said something to Tojo-san about her.