The chapter opens with a flashback to the night before the company trip, when the two of them went on a shopping trip. The narrator tells us that she is nervous about meeting Hiroshi outside of work for the first time since they returned from the trip. She is also aware that she has been avoiding Hiroshi since they are both in the same company. She tells him that she will be heading back to work, and he tells her that he has left a note for her on his desk. He asks her if she has started thinking about him, and she says that it doesn't matter to her whether or not she is interested in another man. He tells her to brace herself for the possibility that she might be interested in someone else, and the narrator tells him to brace himself for that possibility, for she is not interested in anyone else. She asks if they are going shopping, and Hiroshi replies that they are. She says that she looks at him from a distance, and that she feels the same way about him. She wonders why they are meeting in public, and when she realizes that it is Hiroshi who is doing the shopping, she wonders if it is because he is tired. He says that things were busy before they went on the trip, and they didn't have much time to do anything