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bathroom.’
    ‘Take your time, Yuriko,’ Haruka replied.
    Haruka sat back and sighed, wishing her good friend had not had to witness this today. Poor Yuriko had been head over heels in love when she’d met Ryjust a few weeks ago. Haruka was happy for her, but concerned about the effect he was having on her self-image. She’d been dieting frantically for some time now and since she’d met Ry, she’d become even more obsessed with diet and exercise. Haruka could tell that she thought if she just ate a little less each day and exercised frantically, she’d be the perfect woman, just like those models on the cover of the fashion magazines piled up in the corner next to her bed. Haruka wished she could figure out how to stop her friend from continuing to diet when she didn’t need to anymore and convince her that she was absolutely fine without this excessive exercising.
    Haruka looked around her friend’s room, in which she’d spent many hours gossiping and enjoying her company. It was decorated throughout in various shades of pink. She wondered when Yuriko was going to refurbish the room and do away with the cuddly Hello Kitty toys piled up at the head of the bed and the children’s books on the bookshelf in the corner that had not been picked up for at least eight years. There were also several magazines on dieting on her pillow, which she’d obviously been researching that evening. This concerned Haruka, but not as much as the pro-anorexia websites she knew she’d been devouring lately.
    Haruka turned to see Yuriko came back into the room from her en-suite bathroom a different person, with a controlled and determined face, newly made up with a fresh coat of foundation and mascara.
    ‘Let’s change the subject, Haruka,’ Yuriko said. ‘You’ve just come back from work and you must be exhausted. Tell me, did you meet up with Takashi this evening?’
    ‘Yes we met up in Omotesando again,’ Haruka replied, happy to oblige and change the subject.
    ‘How was that?’ asked Yuriko, seemingly transformed into an emotionally balanced person compared to the scene only minutes earlier.
    ‘It was great meeting up with him, but I told him about my job offer in Kyoto and he wasn’t happy about it. Now I feel a twinge of guilt not telling him how much time I’ve been spending with your cousin Jun lately.’
    ‘Oh, there’s no need to feel guilty about that, Haruka,’ said Yuriko. ‘You aren’t dating Takashi seriously yet and you’ve only met up two or three times with Jun in the last couple of months, and that’s only ever been purely innocent. You’re just beating yourself up over nothing. You’ve done nothing wrong,’ Yuriko reassured her.
    ‘Thanks, Yuriko,’ Haruka replied. ‘To tell you the truth, I absolutely adore Takashi and I’d like to take our relationship to the next level, but I’m afraid I might be making a mistake if I do that and I know this would upset my mother – you know how much she likes Jun.’
    ‘Yes I do,’ replied Yuriko. ‘Is it because she likes him or his money?’
    ‘I’m really not sure,’ said Haruka. ‘Well, if you’re feeling better now, I better head home. My parents will be wondering where I am.’ Haruka picked up her handbag.
    ‘Okay thanks, Haruka,’ said Yuriko. ‘Don’t forget Jun will be staying here again Sunday week and he’ll probably want to see you that evening.’
    ‘I haven’t forgotten,’ Haruka replied as she stood up to leave. ‘By the way, did you know your younger brother had his ear to the door earlier, listening to you when you were upset?’
    ‘I didn’t realise he was doing that again. He gets bored because he has no one to talk to most of the time. You know what my parents are like. My mother’s always socialising and my father’s too busy with work.’
    Haruka thought about this and how rarely she saw Yuriko’s father. He was the general manager of an import/export company and one of those salary men who rarely came