murakami, haruki - Norwegian wood

without you these past two months?"
This took me completely off guard. "No," I said. "It never occurred to
me. I thought you were angry with me and didn't want to see me."
"How can you be such an idiot? Of course I wanted to see you! I told
you how much I like you! When I like somebody I really like them. It
doesn't turn on and off for me just like that. Don't you realize at least
that much about me?"
"Well, sure, but - "
"That's why I was so mad at you! I wanted to give you a good kick up
the arse. I mean, we hadn't seen each other that whole time, and you
were so spaced out thinking about this other girl you didn't even look
at me! How could I not get angry at you? But apart from all that, I had
been feeling for a long time that it would be better for me if I kept
away from you for a while. To get things clear in my head."
"What kind of things?"
"Our relationship, of course. It was getting to the point where I
enjoyed being with you far more than being with him. I mean, don't
you think there's something weird about that? And difficult? Of course
I still like him. He's a little self-centred and narrow-minded and kind
of a fascist, but he's got a lot of good points, and he's the first man I
ever felt serious about. But you, well, you're special to me. When I'm
with you I feel something is just right. I believe in you. I like you. I
don't want to let you go. I was getting more and more confused, so I
went to him and asked him what I should do. He told me to stop
seeing you. He said if I was going to see you, I should break up with
him."
"So what did you do?"
"I broke up with him. Just like that." Midori put a Marlboro in her
mouth, shielded it with her hand as she lit up, and inhaled.
"Why?"
""Why?'!" she screamed. "Are you crazy? You know the English
subjunctive, you understand trigonometry, you can read Marx, and
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