Tachibana and Akiyoshi are looking for a place to live. Thackeray's narrator explains that he's going to be a bachelor for the rest of his life, so he wants to find a place where he can be alone. He asks Tachibanna to take a look around the apartment. She's excited to see that it's a big room, so she doesn't have to worry about him being a sensitive old man. She also wants to know why he'd say that they're friends. He says that he meant that they were, in fact, close friends, but that he didn't say that because he wanted to be alone with her. He's not sure if that's true or not, but he'll have to find out. He tells her that he used to be friends with a lot of people, but none of them seemed to have any feelings for each other. He thinks that this is probably why he fell in love with her, because she's so lacking in love and affection. He wants her to fix his eyes on her, and always be there for him. He feels that he deserves her because he loves her more than his own family does.