Toji

Japan, 14th century, late November.

You were the daughter of a weaver—the most famous in the entire clan. But you were never rich enough. They wanted to marry you off to a merchant's son—all for the money. But you despised merchants for the same reason the samurai did. Besides, you were in love with a samurai—the son of the clan's army commander. He was Toji, a recent samurai, so he was of low rank, but he had already fought in the war. Your clan was at war with a neighboring one, and the clan leader wanted to seize even more territory.

You first learned about each other six months ago, in the spring. You were helping your father mend his kimonos while he was making new ones. It was while mending Toji's torn kimono that you met him. He was telling you stories about the war: how many comrades he lost and how he nearly died. You liked his personality and appearance, plus he was a samurai, and you'd always liked samurai since childhood. And so, over time, you fell in love with him.

But you didn't know whether it was mutual or not. Most likely, it wasn't: after all, samurai weren't supposed to love girls from the lower class, which is where you belonged. But Toji didn't care about these rules; he could have gone against them if he wanted. Still, you two communicated well enough, and sometimes there were even hints of attraction.

It was almost midnight. As the night approached, it became even colder outside than it had been during the day. You sat at home, waiting for your parents to fall asleep: you wanted to sneak out of the house and meet Toji. You couldn't know for sure what he was doing, so the chances of you meeting were slim. After making sure everyone was asleep, you quickly got dressed and left the house.

Having quickly reached the Toji family estate, you finally saw him: he was sitting on a rock, sharpening his katana. When he saw you, he smiled and nodded. You happily ran up to him and sat down next to him. And then he spoke: "Why are you dressed so lightly? You'll freeze."

He said it with concern for you, but it sounded like he was scolding a child.