The Color of Farewell is Moss Green - Chapter 7
I found myself standing on the bridge again.
The sunset was hidden behind thick clouds.
Even as the day faded, the magic hour never came.
What should I do now?
Go to the police and tell Detective Inoue everything?
Go home and call a friend for advice?
Maybe I should just return to my parents’ house.
Take a leave of absence from work.
(Maybe this indecisiveness is why Shimada cheated on me in the first place.)
I pictured his face, that lighthearted, careless grin.
Her name was Yumi, right?
The other woman.
What kind of girl was she?
If she was prettier than me, I’d be pissed.
But she probably was.
Did she even know what had happened to Shimada?
Was she waiting for a text from him right now, completely unaware?
I kept thinking about nothing in particular.
Maybe because I didn’t want to think about the things that mattered.
But even as I distracted myself with meaningless thoughts—
Deep down, I had a feeling.
That he would show up.
And just as I expected—
“Sato-san? Why are you here—”
He looked genuinely surprised.
I met his wide eyes and replied,
“I had a feeling I’d see you here.”
A gust of wind blew past us.
His brows furrowed, an expression that could have been confusion or sadness.
And then, I asked—
“Hey, Okuda-kun… why did you kill Shimada?”
※
I don’t know how long the silence lasted.
But after what felt like forever, he finally spoke.
“How did you know?”
Not a denial.
Not a lie.
Just a quiet acceptance.
“You admitted that pretty easily.”
“I knew I wouldn’t be able to run forever.”
He smiled faintly.
A lonely kind of smile.
“It was actually a simple deduction.”****”
I began, carefully choosing my words.
“You were too kind.”
“Too kind?”
“Think about it—why would a total stranger go out of his way to help some crying girl on a bridge?”
He said nothing.
But that silence—
Was an answer in itself.
“You approached me on purpose.”
“You needed me to establish your alibi.”
His shoulders rose and fell in a quiet sigh.
“After closing the café, you came back with me to my apartment, right?”
He gave a small nod.
“That was your plan—to make it look like we were together the whole time.”
“For something I thought up on the spot, it worked pretty well, don’t you think?”
“I completely fell for it.”
A sharp pain shot through my chest.
“You already knew what was waiting in the bathroom.”
“Of course. I put him there.”
“And when we found the body, you immediately checked his pulse.”
I remembered that moment so vividly—
How he had moved without hesitation.
How natural it had seemed.
“Most people wouldn’t do that first.”
I continued.
“They’d call out to him first—‘Are you okay?’ ‘Can you hear me?’”
Okuda-kun let out a soft breath.
His expression relaxed, as if letting go of something.
“But you didn’t.”
“Because I already knew he was dead.”
“And because you had the spare key.”
He didn’t even let me finish.
He simply said it for me.
I nodded.
“You took Shimada’s key after killing him.”
“You locked the door when you left.”
The so-called locked room mystery was just that simple.
“I don’t know how you knew I wouldn’t come home right away.”
“I didn’t.”
“But it worked out, didn’t it? You came to the bridge, and you ‘coincidentally’ ran into me.”
“And when we went back to my apartment together, you slipped the spare key back into Shimada’s pocket while pretending to check his pulse.”
“That part was nerve-wracking.”
He let out a small laugh.
“You were staring at him so intently—I had to make sure I moved fast.”
“And you fooled me completely.”
The sky was getting darker.
If he had taken the train, the trip from the bridge to my apartment would’ve been under fifteen minutes.
If he spent another fifteen minutes committing the crime,
And another fifteen minutes returning to the bridge—
It was completely possible.
“I spent so long planning my revenge.”
He murmured.
I blinked.
“Revenge?”
He looked at me.
Straight into my eyes.
And said—
“Shimada’s other woman—Yumi? She was my girlfriend.”
“What?”
The words hit me like a train.
I felt my breath catch.
“She cheated on me with him. The guy who did nothing but take advantage of women.”
His voice was calm.
Far too calm.
“And she wasn’t the first.”
“Shimada didn’t just cheat on you, Sato-san.”
“He had other women too. Lots of them.”
My stomach tightened.
“I tried confronting Yumi. I begged her to leave him.”
“But she told me—‘You’re too boring.’”
I saw his fingers clench.
For the first time, anger flickered in his eyes.
“She told me—‘Shimada is more exciting.’”
I felt something cold run through my veins.
“So, I decided.”
“If she liked excitement so much—”
“I’d give her something she’d never forget.”
He smiled.
A chilling, empty smile.
And whispered—
“Shimada’s death? That was my farewell gift to her.”
“Of course, Yumi never knew she was the other woman.”
Okuda-kun’s voice was calm and detached, devoid of human warmth.
And yet, somehow, that made his anger feel all the more real.
“She broke up with me to be with Shimada.”
“Then one day, she found out—she was never his ‘girlfriend.’ Just another fling.”
The shock and regret must have been unbearable.
“Last month, Yumi tried to kill herself.”
“She survived… but just barely.”
“She never regained consciousness.”
A chill ran down my spine.
“I couldn’t forgive him.”
“I hired a private investigator.”
“That’s how I found out about Shimada.”
“About you, too, Sato-san.”
Then, his voice shifted slightly—
“That’s why when I saw you two fighting on the bridge that day…”
“I felt like it was fate.”
“When Shimada ran, I followed him.”
“He didn’t go home to Koenji.”
“He went straight to your apartment.”
“That surprised me.”
“I watched him unlock your door and go inside.”
“And then, I followed him in.”
“He hadn’t locked the door yet.”
“He was startled when he saw me.”
“But when I said Yumi’s name, he just… laughed.”
Okuda-kun’s fingers tightened slightly.
“‘Not my fault,’” Shimada had said, apparently amused.
“She was the one who got the wrong idea.”
“That was the moment I knew.”
“I was going to kill him.”
I felt nauseous.
I had loved that man.
But he had never loved anyone.
And yet, here was someone who had loved so deeply—
That it had broken him completely.
“The rest happened just as you deduced, Sato-san.”
“I chased him into the bathroom.”
“I killed him.”
“I left the balcony unlocked to mislead the police.”
“I locked the front door and ran back to the bridge.”
“And then I saw you.”
“Looking like you were about to jump.”
“So, you decided to use me.”
“Yes.”
Okuda-kun bowed deeply.
“I’m sorry.”
“I didn’t know what to do after I killed him.”
“I just came back to the bridge to think.”
“And then, I saw you.”
“It felt like… the universe was on my side.”
He exhaled slowly, as if finally letting go of something.
A murder born from pure chance.
A haphazard crime scene.
A rushed alibi trick.
There was never any grand plan.
Just a coincidence that snowballed into something unbelievable.
“Okuda-kun.”
“That moss-green apron—”
“You were still wearing it when you followed Shimada?”
He smiled faintly.
“No.”
“I changed into it later.”
“To make it look like I’d been working the whole time.”
It made sense.
The café’s closing time was 5:30 PM.
And yet, last night—
He showed up far too late for someone who had just finished closing duties.
“What now?”
“I’m turning myself in.”
I felt my breath catch.
“I don’t need to run anymore.”
“Why?”
“This morning…”
He hesitated.
His voice shook for the first time.
“Yumi passed away.”
A sharp pain struck my chest.
“Oh… no.”
“I planned the trick so that she wouldn’t blame herself.”
“I didn’t want her to think she’d driven me to murder.”
“But she’s gone now.”
“There’s no point in hiding anymore.”
I had no words.
The wind picked up, damp and cold.
The scent of wet pavement filled the air.
It might rain soon.
Okuda-kun suddenly spoke again, as if remembering something.
“Sato-san.”
“How did you figure it out?”
“You trusted me completely yesterday.”
I thought back.
I retraced my steps.
And then—
“You slipped up.”
He blinked.
“You told me—”
‘Why don’t you ask your landlord to change the locks?’
His expression froze.
“I did say that, didn’t I?”
“You knew I had a landlord.”
“But how?”
“We barely knew each other.”
“I never mentioned it.”
He smiled.
Brows furrowed in a helpless, tired way.
The same way he had when he first saw me on the bridge.
※
A few days later—
The case had been closed.
I ran into Yasui, my neighbor, in the apartment hallway.
I felt guilty for suspecting him.
So I bowed slightly and said—
“Sorry for all the trouble the other day.”
He adjusted his thick glasses and stared at me sharply.
“That young man in the police car…”
“He was the killer, wasn’t he?”
I froze.
“How do you know that?”
Yasui spoke in his usual flat tone.
“I was watching the parking lot from my window that night.”
“And I saw his face.”
“When the police arrived—”
“He looked relieved.”
I felt a shiver crawl up my spine.
“Relieved?”
“Not exhausted. Not anxious.”
“Just… relieved.”
“Like everything had gone according to plan.”
“Like he had finally exhaled after holding his breath for too long.”
Yasui adjusted his glasses again.
“That wasn’t the face of an innocent man.”
Then, without another word—
He walked away.
I stared after him, stunned.
(What kind of person is he, really…?)
But some mysteries were better left unsolved.
Some things didn’t need to be understood.
Some questions didn’t need answers.
I tilted my head back.
The Tokyo sky felt small.
Maybe I’d take a trip home.
See my mother.
Let her know I was okay.
And then—
Move to a new apartment.
Start fresh.
I needed time.
To process.
To heal.
Goodbye, Shimada.
Goodbye, those two wasted years.
And goodbye, the phone that sank to the bottom of the Kanda River.