Still silent, Shoji closed his eyes and tried to rest. The flight had left him exhausted. He hadn’t managed to get any sleep. Too many things were weighing him down. He felt like he was sinking in a bottomless sea.

‘Yoko is alive and well,’ Liyun had told him. ‘At least she was, up until two weeks ago.’

Shoji stared. ‘What do you mean?’

‘She came to Singapore on the anniversary of my brother’s death.’

‘Do you know where she is now?’

‘Not the exact address, but she told me she’s working for a conservation organisation. Their headquarters are in Okinawa.’

•

The taxi came to a halt.

‘We’re trapped,’ the driver said. ‘It’s going to take a while before we reach the next turn.’

‘Uh-huh.’

The driver turned on the radio, and the sound of an orchestra filled the car. Shoji closed his eyes. Exquisite and haunting, the melody sounded familiar. Ah, the song was one of the pieces he used to listen to when he’d been working in the tearoom. The beautiful notes had given the place a sophisticated ambiance.

‘It’s Chopin,’ Yoko had once told him. ‘I overheard Madam telling Mr Sato the music has to be Chopin.’

‘Why Chopin? There are many other famous composers — Bach, or Beethoven, or Mozart.’

‘Maybe because his music sounds good?’ She thought about it again before reframing what she’d said. ‘His music makes the piano sound good.’

‘I didn’t know you were a classical music aficionado.’

‘You don’t need to be an expert to appreciate Chopin. I’m sure you get the same feeling too? There is a dark undertone beneath the beautiful melody. It appeals to our humanity.’

‘What do you mean?’

Yoko pursed her lips. ‘Well, everyone has a secret they don’t want anyone to ever find out.’

He thought for a while before saying, ‘Maybe.’

Back then, Shoji had thought only of himself. He hadn’t wanted Yoko to learn about his strained relationship with his father. Why hadn’t he realised she had been referring to her own secret? The more Shoji learned about Yoko, the more he thought he’d never really known her.

‘There’s been an accident,’ the taxi driver said.

Shoji looked out of the window. He could make out a mangled motorbike lying on the ground. A truck with a badly dented bumper had stopped nearby. Not far from the vehicles, a body was covered with a blue tarpaulin. Two policemen were busy at the scene, and a third was desperately trying to direct the traffic onwards. Yellow and black police tape circled the area.