The chapter opens with a soliloquy by Harima, who tells Kenji that she is madly in love with him. She tells him that if he had said the same thing, she would have laughed at him. Kenji tells her that she should know that she has been forbidden to enter their house and that she would not have said the things she has said. Harima is shocked at the news and tells her sister to get in the car and go to the annual Christmas party. When she arrives, she finds that the party has already started and that the editor of the newspaper has already read the story. She asks him to take the newspaper to the police station, but he refuses, saying that he cannot print the story because only one person can read it.