Neighborhood Story

An Album without Photos (1x40)

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All the adults thoroughly inebriated save for Noriji becomes the backdrop for Tsutomu to lead Mikako outside where the two adolescents compare notes about the party thus far; an awkward silence later, Mikako presents Tsutomu with a pair of hand-made pajamas (after Sensei Hamada grades them) and the motorbike key she has withheld from him. Tsutomu escorts Mikako back home to call it a night after giving her a locket of his design; Mikako's search through the photo albums becomes the forum of having the prologue of Mikako's father explained and emphasizes that she wants to have her father there if nothing more than his photos; as if by telepathy, this rouses Ruriko from her inebriated slumber to the epiphany that it would not be surprising if Tsutomu decided to make love to Mikako on the spot considering the circumstances -- a frightening prospect that sends Ruriko racing home to find Mikako taking a bath. The ironic deus ex machina is Mikako having placed in the locket a photo of herself as a child that her father has taken; Tsutomu quickly sees through Mikako's mirage and affirms his volition to assist Mikako in locating her father.