Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Regular opening hours are until eight p.m. But if you decide you want to wait, you can wait for as long as it takes.’

Because that woman . . . is a ghost,’

‘Why? I’ll tell you why,’ Kazu began. ‘Because that’s the rule.’

if you return to the past, reveal your feelings, and ask him not to go, it won’t change the present.’

Fumiko reacted impulsively to Kazu’s cold hard words. ‘That sort of defeats the purpose, don’t you think?’ she said defiantly.

‘Even if I tell him how I feel?’

‘The present won’t change.’

When you go back, no matter how hard you try, the present won’t change.’

. A sleeveless kimono jacket hung on the back of her chair,

white short-sleeved dress

a song she used to sing as a child, and they agreed to go in.

She had arrived at the meeting place in an elegant pale-pink dress with a beige spring coat and white pumps, having caught the attention of all the men she had passed on the way there. It was a new look for Fumiko. She was such a workaholic that, before her relationship with Goro, she had owned no other clothes but suits. Suits were what she had worn on dates with Goro as well – after all, they mostly met after work.