The narrator returns home from work and wonders if he will be able to make it back to his apartment in time for his meeting with uzoru. He worries that he will end up falling in love with Tamura instead of with her. Tamura has no money, so he can't eat out of his retirement, but he still wants to see her. The narrator wonders if Tamura's daughter has gotten the stomach flu and will be unable to come to pick strawberries with him. He tells Tamura that his daughter's friend, Kazami, and his wife, Numata, will be coming instead, and they'll have to take a train three hours to get there. He's glad that he's taking care of Mikuri, because he thinks that's a good thing. Mikuri tells the narrator that a neighbor of his is going to rent her place out to him for a few hundred dollars, and he wonders if she needs a room for her child.