The chapter opens with a flashback to the beginning of the novel, when Asakura is still in high school. He has just returned from a trip to the seashore, where he met a girl named Asakura-san. Asakura and Asakura's mother have been married for a year, and the two have been living together in the same house in Minato Ward, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. When Asakura tells his mother that he is going abroad to study, she tells him that he should not tell his mother about it, as it will make her look "pathetic." Asakura, however, tells her that he will tell her about it when he returns to her house. He also tells her about how his heart is beating faster than his father's, and he asks her to help him beat up Asakura on his birthday