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murakami, haruki - Norwegian wood

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eginning of October."<br />

"Whew! That can't be true. We're talking six months here!" "You<br />

heard me."<br />

"So how did you lose so much weight?" "By growing up," I said.<br />

Midori put her hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eye with a<br />

twisted scowl that soon turned into a sweet smile. "It's true," she said.<br />

"Something's kind of different. You've changed."<br />

"I told you, I grew up. I'm an adult now."<br />

"You're fantastic, the way your brain works," she said as though<br />

genuinely impressed. "Let's eat. I'm starving."<br />

We went to a little restaurant behind the literature department. I<br />

ordered the lunch special and she did the same. "Hey, Watanabe, are<br />

you mad at me?" "What for?"<br />

"For not answering you, just to get even. Do you think I shouldn't<br />

have done that? I mean, you apologized and everything."<br />

"Yeah, but it was my fault to begin with. That's just how it goes."<br />

"My sister says I shouldn't have done it. That it was too unforgiving,<br />

too childish."<br />

"Yeah, but it made you feel better, didn't it, getting even like that?"<br />

"Uh-huh."<br />

"OK, then, that's that."<br />

"You are forgiving, aren't you?" Midori said. "But tell me the truth,<br />

Watanabe, you haven't had sex for six months?"<br />

"Not once."<br />

"So, that time you put me to bed, you must have really wanted it bad."<br />

"Yeah, I guess I did."<br />

"But you didn't do it, did you?"<br />

"Look, you're the best friend I've got now," I said. "I don't want to lose<br />

you."<br />

"You know, if you had tried to force yourself on me that time, I<br />

wouldn't have been able to resist, I was so exhausted."<br />

"But I was too big and hard," I said.<br />

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