Free Water Lily by Susanna Jones Page B

couldn’t be sure anyone had heard you. Sometimes the drinks
     arrived and sometimes they didn’t. The carpets were old and smelled of cigarette smoke. Now that Runa thought about it, it
     was amazing that it had done so much business out in the countryside and with the neon sparkly Hollywood Dream only a few
     kilometers away. But the Octopus was special.
    She and Jun had sung and danced in their tiny room for hours, then slept on the soft long seats. In the morning they found
     they were covered by blankets. The owner must have come in before locking up. He was known for looking after his customers.
     He never threw people out if there was no taxi for them, if they were too drunk to ride a bicycle. After that, though, Jun
     and Runa were more careful. It wasn’t impossible that someone from the school would see them there. So they started to meet
     at weekends and headed straight for the mountains or the beach. They also began to visit love hotels.
    She looked at the battered video screen in the corner of the room. She tried to remember the songs they sang. Silly pop songs
     mostly. It didn’t matter. It struck Runa as funny that Jun sang a couple of English songs and with good pronunciation, as
     good as hers and she had studied English for years. In class he hadn’t shown much ability at all.
    She returned to the desk and waited.
    She couldn’t be sorry for what they had done. She would leave the school and would leave Jun Ikeda because she wouldn’t be
     hunted and judged—and she hoped that nothing bad happened to Jun—but she couldn’t imagine ever being sorry, no matter how
     hard she tried. They’d had fun. That was the point and she hoped that Jun, too, would never regret that he had met her.
    She knocked on a door marked
private
. She must talk to the owner and ask if anyone had seen her with Jun. If so, who were they?
    The door opened slowly. The owner, a grey-haired man in his sixties or seventies, peered through the gap.
    “Hello. Did you want to book a room?” He looked over her shoulder for Jun.
    “I wanted to ask a question.”
    He looked at Runa with surprise. His eyes were narrow and puffy as if he had just woken up but he was fully dressed. “Yes,
     of course. The small room is free at the moment. Are you sure you don’t want—”
    “No, thank you. I have to get going soon. I’m sorry to bother you—”
    “That’s all right. I’ve had so few customers this week. I thought I’d go to bed early. It’s a warm night, isn’t it? Can you
     hear the frogs outside?”
    “Yes.” She’d forgotten them but again noticed the din. “I just wanted to ask—”
    “They’re so noisy. It sounds as if there are hundreds of them and they’re all big but in fact, if you go and look for them,
     there are only a few and they’re tiny. You wouldn’t think they could make such a noise.”
    “You remember when I used to come here, with a boyfriend?”
    “Oh, yes.”
    “Do you think anyone was ever watching us, I mean, secretly? Did you notice anything?”
    “No, I don’t think so. I only ever saw the two of you, and I can tell you, I would have noticed if anyone were watching.”
    “I thought perhaps someone might have been interested, might have been hanging around to see what we were doing.”
    “I see. It’s not impossible, but it’s very quiet these days and I think you would have noticed, even if I hadn’t.”
    “You’re right. Thank you.”
    “That’s all right. Well, I’ve got some cleaning to do.” He headed back to the door.
    “There’s another thing. I’m leaving tonight. If my boyfriend comes here again, will you tell him I said goodbye?”
    “Of course. Goodnight, then.”
    Outside, she climbed back onto the bike and bumped over uneven paving stones. She headed for the street lamps of the main
     road. It was a clear run now to the next town. She pedaled along humming in the warm night, humming the school song because
     it was the first that came to mind, though she