Hiroshi was a good-for-nothing husband who had accumulated massive debts through online stock trading and got fired from his company. Without his wife Misae's knowledge, he had put her apartment up for sale as collateral for his debts, completely chilling their relationship. With too much time on his hands and nothing to do every day, Hiroshi decided to pose as his wife to find email pen pals.
He happened to find a college student named "Himawari," who looked like a singer Hiroshi liked. He quickly sent her an email and managed to become her pen pal. The two deepened their friendship by complaining about their lives, eventually reaching a point where they could talk about anything.
One day, Hiroshi decided to arrange a meeting with Himawari to confess that he was actually a man. However, she preempted him, saying, "Actually, there's something I need to confess..." Suspicious and apprehensive, Hiroshi asked what it was. Hesitantly, she dropped a shocking revelation: "Actually, I'm not 19, I'm 42. And I'm a man (lol)."
Hiroshi was dumbfounded. Unaware or uncaring of Hiroshi's shock, the man continued, "And your wife, I'm in love with her!" "You're despicable! I love my husband! Never email me again!" Hiroshi sent that email, closed his laptop, and hung his head in despair.
However, silent phone calls and numerous persistent emails from the man kept coming. Using Hiroshi's email address, the man figured out where he lived. Eventually, an email arrived saying that the man had even gone to Misae's workplace. Come to think of it, Misae had recently muttered, "I feel like someone is following me."
Though he used to make excuses to refuse whenever she asked him to pick her up, Hiroshi felt a sense of guilt and started driving to pick Misae up every night from that day on. But the man grew furious, writing, "You're doing this just to rub it in my face, aren't you?!" Gradually, the man transformed into a malicious stalker.
Around that time, loan sharks kidnapped Hiroshi. The truth was that Hiroshi had gone back to online stock trading—something he had sworn he would never do again—and had once more racked up a massive debt. When Hiroshi begged for forgiveness, kneeling and saying he had no money, the boss of the loan sharks made him a proposal. "Your wife owns an apartment, doesn't she? If she were to die, everything would belong to you, wouldn't it...?"
With no other options left, Hiroshi hired the loan sharks to murder Misae. Of course, using the email history on his computer as evidence, he planned to pin the entire crime on the stalker.
On the morning of the appointed day, Hiroshi refused to pick Misae up, saying, "I have a job interview today." Misae was murdered by the loan sharks just as planned.
After the funeral, sitting alone in his empty apartment, Hiroshi absentmindedly opened his computer. There was a single new email from that man. The date was two days ago—the day Misae died.
"It's Misae. Surprised? (lol) Actually, all those emails up until now were from me. I'm sorry for tricking you. But I wanted you to pay more attention to me, so I did this. I'm bad at saying things face-to-face, you see. Forgive me. I was so happy when you came to pick me up. I'm planning to cook a homemade meal for the first time in a while tonight, so look forward to it! Well, good luck with your job interview."
Hiroshi covered his face with his hands and wept silently. (The End)