“My wife died.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“I could never divorce her because her father was my boss. He had adopted me.”
A while back, Mozasu had explained to her that after Hansu’s father-in-law retired, Hansu became the top man in the second most powerful yakuza family in all of Kansai.
“You don’t have to explain anything to me. We don’t have anything to talk about, you and I. Thank you for coming today.”
“Why do you have to be so cold? I thought you’d marry me now.”
“What? This is my mother’s funeral. Why are you still alive and my Noa gone? I couldn’t even go to my own child’s—”
“He was my only—”
“No, no, no. He was my son. Mine.”
Sunja marched to the kitchen, leaving him leaning on his cane. She could not stop sobbing, and when the women in the kitchen saw her, they embraced her. A woman she did not know rubbed her back gently. They thought she was grieving for her mother.
14
Yokohama, 1980
It was too exciting, and Solomon had never been with anyone. Hana knew a lot, so she taught him to think about other things, to close his eyes if he got too excited, because it was important for him to wait until she was done. Girls would not want to fuck again if he came in a minute, she said. Solomon did everything Hana told him to do, not just because he was in awe of her, but because he wanted to make her happy. He would have done almost anything to make her laugh, because even though she was smart, too lovely to bear almost, and thrilling, she was also sad and restless. She could not be still; she could not bear not to drink every day. It was also important for her to have sex, so for six months she made him her ideal lover, even though he was not yet fifteen. She was almost seventeen.
It started after Yangjin’s funeral. Hana bought beer, and they went to Etsuko’s apartment. She removed her dress and blouse, then she took off his clothes. She pulled him to her bed, put a rubber on his cock, and showed him what to do. He was amazed at her body, and she was amused by his happiness. Hana was not angry that he came right away—she had expected this—but after he did, she started her lessons.
Almost every day, they met at Etsuko’s place and made love several times. Etsuko was never home, and Solomon told his grandmother that he was with friends. He went home for dinner, because his father expected him at the table, and usually she went to Etsuko’s restaurant for her meal.
After being with her, Solomon felt different; he felt older and more serious about life. He was still a boy; he knew that, but he started to think about how he could be with her all the time, not just after school and during breaks. When he was at school, he did as much work as possible so he could see her without thinking about schoolwork. His father expected good grades, and Solomon was a strong student. When he wasn’t with her, he wondered what she did when she went out. Often, he worried about losing her to an older boy, but she said there was nothing to worry about.
Etsuko and Mozasu did not know they were having sex, and Hana told Solomon that they must never know. She told him, “I’m your secret girl, and you are my secret boy, nee?”
One afternoon, about four months in, Solomon came over to the apartment and found Hana waiting for him wearing flesh-colored lingerie and high heels. She looked like a petite-sized centerfold in Playboy.
“Do you have any money, Solomon?” she asked.
“Yeah, sure. Why?”
“I want some. I have to buy things to turn you on. Like this. Pretty, nee?”
Solomon tried to embrace her, but she pushed her left hand out gently.
“Money, please.”
Solomon pulled out his billfold and took out a thousand-yen note.
“What do you need it for?” he asked.
“I just do. Do you have any more?”
“Uh, sure.” Solomon pulled out the emergency five-thousand-yen note that he kept folded in a square behind the wallet-sized photograph of his mother. His father told him he always had to have some money just in case something important came up.
“Give it to Hana-chan, please.”
Solomon handed it to her, and Hana put it on the table with the thousand-yen note.
Hana walked slowly to the shelf where Etsuko kept a radio and fiddled with the channels until she found a pop song she liked. She bent over and started swaying her hips in time to the music, making sure that he was watching her. Solomon went to her, and she turned around and unbuttoned his jeans. Without saying a word, she pushed him into the armchair near her and got on her knees. Solomon never knew what she was going to do.
Hana slid the straps of her lace-trimmed brassiere over her shoulders and pulled out her breasts over the small cups so he could see her nipples. He tried to touch them, but she swatted him away. With her hands cradling his bottom, she started to suck him.
When he was done, he saw that she was crying.
“Hana-chan, what’s the matter?”
“Go home, Solomon.”
“What?”