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It has been two years since we last met. What would she look like after all this time? All I had was a mental image of her. A photograph would be the next best thing.
My next composition to her, Breaking the Silence, is about lovers not telling each other that they love one another. Of the thwarting of desire and unrequited passion. I would have imagined that we were somewhat like the characters in the poem. Only a fool could have seen otherwise. Otherwise was it all one sided? Was I the only one feeling this way?
Perhaps Emi was caught in the same bind. I would have loved to think so. She definitely knew what was going on. I thought about the Japanes concept of two faces - tatemae - the public face and honne - the realistic face. She liked the attention and yet she didn't want to carry it on so far. Did she refrain from telling me the truth and kept quiet pretending that I didn't have any feelings for her and my messages to her were nothing more than scribbles from an over enthusiastic writer to a friend.
Her photograph arrives. She is seated on a window sill overlooking part of the ancient city of Kyoto. The picture I send her was taken during an interview for an article.
