Mamiya tells Hideo he will pursue Ayako

Mamiya tells Hideo Harada he will pursue Ayako, Hideo’s ex-wife, and hopes to marry her. The announcement is also a professional break: Mamiya says he will no longer work with Hideo. By placing these decisions together, the scene makes a private romantic ambition feel like a choice between Hideo’s writing and the woman he once married, while showing how little comfort Mamiya’s appeal to friendship offers Hideo in the moment.

The Conversation’s Unexpected Turn

The encounter begins under the sign of professional trouble. A television producer arriving at a writer’s doorstep ordinarily brings news of a project in crisis, but Hideo has no current work with Mamiya and cannot explain his grim expression. Instead, Mamiya asks, “Shouldn’t you be seeing more of your son?” Hideo experiences the question as an undeserved reprimand and cannot find a connection between Mamiya and his relationship with his son. He tries not to show his unease and asks where the question is coming from.

That opening matters because it briefly directs the conversation toward Hideo’s family before revealing its actual subject. The question about his son does not answer Hideo’s confusion; it sharpens it. Mamiya then says, “I came to tell you I won’t be able to work with you anymore.” Hideo initially takes this as a possible departure from producing, but Mamiya denies that interpretation. The withdrawal is specific to their work together, and its reason remains unexplained until Hideo presses him for one.

Mamiya’s Declaration

Before speaking, Mamiya appears to struggle with the disclosure. His lips part, close firmly, and his jaw trembles as though he is holding back words. When he speaks again, he does so deliberately. The hesitation gives the declaration the character of a prepared announcement rather than a casual remark: “I want you to know I intend to start seeing Ayako.”

Hideo understands the words but finds them difficult to accept as real. Ayako is his ex-wife, and Mamiya makes the link between the divorce and his own intentions explicit: “Now that I know you’re divorced, I can no longer contain my feelings. I hope to marry her.” His statement moves from beginning to see Ayako to a hope of marriage, making clear that he is not merely reporting a passing interest. Hideo can only repeat the idea of Mamiya seeing Ayako, his puzzlement audible in the question.

Work, Friendship, and the Personal Cost

Mamiya’s decision to stop working with Hideo and his wish to pursue Ayako are presented as parts of the same disclosure. Hideo asks for an explanation because, without more from Mamiya, the situation is incomprehensible to him. The personal declaration therefore does not arrive in isolation: it comes alongside a change in their professional relationship, making the news feel like a rupture in the friendship as well as a romantic surprise.

Mamiya tells Hideo, “You’ve been a very important person to me.” Hideo hears this as hollow rather than reassuring. In his judgment, the phrase is an overused cliché from the entertainment business, where such language can be deployed for effect. Applied to a private matter, it stings: Mamiya is ending their work together so he can pursue Hideo’s former wife, yet presents Hideo’s importance in terms Hideo regards as vain and insincere. Hideo interprets Mamiya’s anguish as a performance, believing that Mamiya feels neither the pain nor the regret that the declaration ought to entail. That reading belongs to Hideo’s hurt perspective, not to an independently confirmed account of Mamiya’s feelings.

Hideo’s Reaction and the Uncertain Prospect

The news produces a complicated response rather than simple jealousy. Hideo wonders whether Mamiya’s interest should make him regret having ended his marriage, but he also feels that Mamiya is about to make a serious mistake. He cannot, however, find an effective warning to give him. His “I see” is all he can manage; the words mark the gap between understanding the announcement and knowing how to respond to it.

As despair rises and he feels a sob in his throat, Hideo rolls his head back and looks toward a corner of the room, pretending to inspect neglected cobwebs. The small act of looking away gives his distress a physical expression while allowing him to conceal it. Mamiya adds that he expects Ayako to reject him, an expectation that leaves the intended courtship unresolved. The scene ends not with a response from Ayako or a settled romantic outcome, but with Hideo absorbing the combined loss of professional partnership and trust in a friend. Mamiya’s announcement makes the prospect of a new relationship sound hopeful to its speaker and, to Hideo, like a painful and possibly misguided turn.