The novel opens with a conversation between Hiroshi and Hiroshi's mother, who tells Hiroshi that she has permission to visit her son and his family in the country. Hiroshi tells his mother that he wants to spend some time with his son, who is out of town. He tells her that he and his friend, Amemura, have been friends since they were children, and that they are now "old friends" . The two of them plan to spend the night at the house of the landlady, who lives in a boarding house. The landlady is kind enough to let them stay in one of the four bedrooms in the house. As they are talking, Hiroshi says that he is "getting too comfort able" , because there are so many bedrooms to choose from. He says that his friend is like a "lone wolf" in the sense that he has no one to love him, but that they're "just old friends" because they've known each other for a long time. He explains that before he met Nobu, he thought him as a "wild monkey wild monkey" and that he was cool with him. Now, he says, he thinks him as "a favorite of all those who love me." He says he's not trying to make couples because he is embarrassed to be alone in the boarding house, but because he feels like he belongs to all the people who love him. He asks his friend if he likes mako, and she responds that she does not care about his feelings. She tells him that he should be himself, and he says that she beats him every time he asks her about them. He adds that she is always saving him, and this is