Malice

“It wasn’t easy, was it? I can’t say whether it was bad luck, a lack of talent, or a mix of both, but you never realized your dream. When your body began to fall apart around you, you realized that you never would.

all they were able to come up with was that they ‘just didn’t like him.’ It was just hate. Pure, simple malice.

been enough to dispel Kaga’s suspicions, then he was onto my trick.

The relationship between teacher and student is based on illusion. The teacher is under the illusion that he is teaching something, and the student is under the illusion that he is being taught. What’s important is that this shared illusion makes both teacher and student happy. Nothing good is gained by facing the truth, after all. All we’re doing is playing at education.”

That meant that last night she lost two important things: one was her husband, the other was the author Kunihiko Hidaka’s new novel

Oshima was a good kid, not the type to offer empty praise

If I told her the truth, she’d think I was the devil incarnate.”

“Sorry for the intrusion

and his suspicious frown turned into a wry smile

The buds had been about 30 percent open the last time I was there,