"Don't ever call me Princess again" she said, head still resting on my shoulder.
"Did I do that?" I asked.
"Yes, you did."
"I don't remember."
"Driving back from Tsujido, that night. Don't say it again."
"I won't. I promise I won't. I swear on Boy George and Duran Duran. Never, never, never again."
"That's what Mama always calls me. Princess."
"I won't call you that again."
"Mama, she's always hurting me. She's just got no idea. And yet she loves me. I know she does."
"Yes, she does."
"So what am I supposed to do?"
"The only thing you can. Grow up."
"I don't want to."
"No other way," I said. "Everyone does, like it or not. People get older. That's how they deal with it. They deal with it till the day they die. It's always been this way. Always will be. It's not just you."
She looked up at me, her face streaked with tears. "Don't you believe in comforting people?"
"I was comforting you."
She brushed my arm from her shoulder and took a tissue from her bag. "There's something really abnormal about you, you know," she said.

Dance Dance Dance

Haruki Makimura