In this chapter, the narrator explains that he has slept with a "pudgy co-worker" , a man who works for a company called "Daiwa." The man has told him that he would like to pretend that he never spoke to him, even though he is a man. He has also told the narrator that he is avoiding him because he needs to "strike up a conversation somehow" . The "co-worker," however, has avoided him for three days in a row, and the narrator is worried that he will not be able to catch up with him.