have much time to explain. Just come here.” I grabbed a motorcycle jacket and my wallet, and left without even locking the door. There were about ten lights on the way, but they all turned green for me right as I approached. I arrived at the destination much sooner than anticipated. At the same bus stop where my first day’s duty had concluded, I found the girl in her uniform alone, burying her face in a dark-red scarf and sipping on a can of milk tea as she watched the stars. I decided to look up too, and saw the moon poking out from between the clouds. The clearly visible shape of its shadow reminded me less of the man in the moon, and more the blotted skin of an old man who’d spent too much time in the sun in his youth. “Sorry to make you wait.” I got out of the car and went around to the other side to open the passenger door. But the girl ignored me, instead sitting in the back seat, throwing her school bag off, and exasperatedly closing the door. “Where should we go?”, I asked. “To where you live.” The girl took off her blazer and tightened her necktie. “Sure, that’s fine. But can I ask why?” “It’s not a big deal. I attacked my father, so I can’t stay at home anymore.” “Did you have a fight?” “No, I just decided to hurt him. ...Look at this.” The girl rolled up the sleeve of her blouse. There were many black bruises on her thin arm. Even if they were just burns, I supposed they must have been at least a year old. With eight of them neatly lined up along her arm, I suspected they had been made in an unnatural way. I recalled how after the accident, the girl called off her “postponement” of