♫ Memories… ♫

♪ Moonlight is shining on your face~ ♪

The main theme from the musical Cats, "Memory," played softly through the speakers.

Whirrrr.

A cold sea wind swept in through the open window.

Shhh-splash. Shhhhhh-splash.

The sea off Hong Kong was rough and loud today.

♫ I remember… I try to remember the memories again. Of all the times gone by, left as nothing but burnt smoke… The morning is cold, smelling old~ ♫

The aching lyrics mixed with the wind and the waves and filled the room.

"Hnngh... hup..."

Clara wept bitterly, trying to hold back her sorrow.

She buried herself in the bed and cried and cried.

♪ I must wait for the sun. I must wait for my new life. ♪

The heroine's song from Cats said exactly what Clara felt.

For days she hadn't gone into the office. She'd listened to the song again and again and again.

It tormented her, thorn after thorn lodged in her heart.

She'd told herself it was never a deep love.

She'd written it off as youthful fever, like the romances she'd had before.

They hadn't been together long.

Hot as it had been, they'd only kissed a handful of times.

Next to the love she'd burned with passion for at twenty, her memories of that man were shallow.

But now that it had come to this, it hurt.

The thought that she could never see him again took her breath away.

His smile, his broad chest, his sparkling eyes—it all came back.

When he'd hesitated, Clara had been calculating too.

She could guess what her family's affairs and her future held, so she couldn't go to him with all her heart.

All she'd done was watch him agonize.

She could have reached out and held him, but she didn't.

She'd said let's just love each other for this moment, but that had only been an excuse to herself.

Clara hadn't had the courage.

And now it was time to end her last love.

Tomorrow, the man she was to marry would come.

It was sudden, but her father had told her…