>>2888410[Yuichi gets a blackmail letter in the mail that his wife and mother see, scandalizing them. He realizes he's in deep shit, and he needs to take care of the situation immediately. Luckily, Minoru picks just the right moment to drop by Yuichi's house]
When the stranger turned toward him, Yuichi was shocked to recognize the face of Minoru. They ran to each other and shook hands.
“A letter came, didn’t it? An awful letter. I found out that my old man sent it. I was so sorry about it I cleared out of the house. The old man put a detective on our trail. He found out all about us.”
Yuichi was not surprised. “I thought as much,” he said.
“There’s something I want to talk over with you, Yuchan.”
Affecting the calmness of an older person, Yuichi took the boy’s arm and guided him. Talking rapidly of the difficulties into which they had just been plunged, they hastened their steps.
“What did you want to talk about?” asked Yuichi.
“When this business happened, I decided I couldn’t stay in my old man’s house any more. I’m going to leave home. Yuchan, will you come with me?”
“With you?” Yuichi hesitated.
“Are you concerned about money? Don’t worry about that. Look how much I have.”
His face serious, his mouth slightly open, the boy unbuttoned the back pocket of his trousers. He withdrew a carefully folded roll of bills.
“Keep it for me,” he said, handing it to Yuichi. “Heavy, isn’t it? It’s a hundred thousand yen.”
“Where’d you get this money?”
“I broke open the old man’s safe and cleaned it of cash.”
Yuichi looked at the pitiful sum, the niggardly result of one month of dreaming with this boy of adventure. They had turned away from society and dreamed of a youth of daring deeds, exploration, heroic evil, of the brotherly love of comrades-in-arms who face death on the morrow, of sentimental exploits they knew would end in disaster, and of all manner of youthful tragedy.
