It was still early, around seven or eight o'clock, and he had arrived before her, but these past few days he had been busy dealing with matters that were neither big nor small, and occasionally there were issues at the company that required his personal attention and instruction. Therefore, he hadn't had time to adjust to the time difference and was simply pushing through.
He hadn't felt sleepy just before, simply propping up his body while lying on the bed. When he looked again at the woman sleeping soundly, the restlessness that had been floating in his heart gradually settled, and the bedroom became very quiet. In the darkness after turning off the lights, he could hear the sound of the rising and falling tide even more clearly.
So distant, as if it came from outside the world.
Yet so near, echoing in his ears, that he could imagine the scene of the seawater slapping the sand.
