“I was — until yesterday.” She stuffs the letters into her purse. “Now that I’ve gotten you here in one piece, I am done.” She dons her jacket and runs to the genkan where she left her shoes. “Congratulations, welcome to Zozo, and tell Manager I had to take these to the school.”

Andrew follows after her. “Wait! All of a sudden, you’re in a rush to leave? Come on, aren’t you going to take me out on the town or something? I thought the Japanese were supposed to be polite.”

Yoshino puts on her shoes, saying nothing to dignify him. The building is so quiet she can hear Lieko’s voice, way down the hall, mingling with that of the landlord as he locks his door. She only has a few seconds to make her escape.

“So, I’m not going to see you again, ever? Come on, Yosh, you can be nicer than that. Why don’t you give me your number and we can meet up later when you’re not in such a hurry?”

“Oh, Andrew.” She smiles as politely as she can. “I wish I could be here to see how far you go.”

Andrew blushes. “What a sweet thing to say. Doumo arigatou,” he says with an awkward bow. “So, how about that number?”

“Nope. I’m off! Oh, you can toss the envelope.”

“The envelope?”

Yoshino is already gone, running down the hall as fast as her heels will let her — which, by the sound of it, is pretty fast. Andrew grins to himself. Must be a Japanese-girl thing. They all wear such loud high heels here. Lots of practice.

“Aha,” he spies the envelope on the kotatsu. A simple, cartoon-covered thing with Yoshino’s name on it in very flowery writing. He finds the remote for the TV. There is a talk show on, something about food. Lots of exclamations and words flashing at the bottom of the screen, but it is all gibberish to him. He flips through the rest of the channels. “Seven channels, not one of them in English. Fantastic.” So, this is his new life. Tiny apartment, nothing on TV, a ton of condiments and spices he can’t read, and a bitchy manager instead of a super-cute co-worker who can actually speak. It’s going to be one hell of a year.

Andrew examines the envelope in his hand. It smells weird, otherwise what’s the big deal? He brings it closer to his face. No — it smells amazing. It is a sweet, warm scent …

Andrew’s eyes grow heavy. It gets harder to keep them open.

… sweet, yeah. But a little sour. He hears Lieko’s footsteps echoing down the hall. Andrew’s head tilts forward … peach … and lemon?