norwegian forest

This is a touching, gentle and elegant, slightly sentimental, 100% love novel. The protagonist Watanabe of the novel unfolds his love entanglement with two girls in the first person. Watanabe's first love, Naoko, was originally the girlfriend of his high school classmate Kizuki, who later committed suicide. A year later, Watanabe and Naoko met by chance and started dating. At this time, Naoko had become quiet and shy, with an elusive shadow flashing through her beautiful crystal eyes from time to time. The two of them just walked aimlessly in front of, behind or side by side in the fallen leaves of Tokyo day after day. The two had sex on the night of Naoko's 20th birthday, but Naoko disappeared the next day. A few months later, Naoko wrote to say that she was admitted to a mental sanatorium far away in the mountains. When Watanabe went to visit, he found that Naoko began to have the plumpness and beauty of a mature woman. Although the two were in the same room at night, Watanabe restrained himself and said before breaking up that he would always wait for Naoko. Not long after returning to school, due to a chance encounter, Watanabe began to date Midori, who was in the lower grade. Midori is the complete opposite of the introverted Naoko, "just like a deer jumping into the world in the spring morning light." During this period, Watanabe felt very depressed and hesitant. On the one hand, I can't forget Naoko's lingering illness and tenderness, on the other hand, I can't resist Midoriko's bold confession and charming vitality. Soon the bad news came that Naoko had committed suicide, and Watanabe walked around in despair. Finally, with the encouragement of Naoko's roommate Reiko, she began to explore her future life.