Aibou TV Season 7 Episode 15 - Secret Love(密愛)

Subtitle: Secret Love(密愛)

 Etsuko Usami(宇佐美 悦子), a former professor of French literature at the University of Tokyo and Inspector Ukyō's teacher, asks the inspector to drop by her mountain villa. She asks the inspector if he could find a close relative of Toshio Sakaki(榊 敏郎), an employee at her villa who recently had committed suicide by drinking poison. Though Etsuko claims she didn't really know Sakaki that well, Inspector Ukyō realizes that there might have been more to their relationship than his former teacher is telling him.

Label found on a jar of herbs discarded just outside her villa

Thé de l'herbe Mélenge Etsuko

Jean Tardieu(ジャン・タルデュー)'s poem

空席　　　　　ジャン・タルデュー Empty Chair Jean Tardieu


死者たちが戻って来なかったからには、 The deceased have not returned
いまさら何を生者たちは知りたいのか？ What do the living still want to know?

死者たちが不満を言うすべを知らないからには、 Because the deceased don't know how to complain
誰を、何を生者たちは不満とするのか？ Who, what do the living complain against?

死者たちがもはや黙っていられないからには、 Now that the deceased cannot stay silent
生者たちも沈黙を守っていてよいのか？ Should the living maintain their silence?


詩集『化石した日々』 より　　安藤元雄　訳 From Fossilized Days translated by Andō Moto'o

Characters appearing/mentioned in the story

Etsuko Usami(宇佐美 悦子) - Inspector Ukyō's former teacher of French literature at the University of Tokyo. She was adored by both male and female students, and they gossipped which celebrity she might be dating. While the inspector was her student, the inspector would always go up to her and complain about her grading  methods, and she would always stand her ground and explain her reasons for grading his paper a certain way. The inspector eventually dropped her class, the only time he ever did so while he was a student.

Later, she left the university after getting into a conflict with fellow professors over the university's teaching policies. She then became famous translating French poems into Japanese, and is now considered one of the most successful women in Japan. She now lives in a country home in Nagano(長野).

While reconstructing the Sakaki's story, the inspector used the pseudonym "Catherine" to refer to his former teacher.

Toshirō Sakaki(榊 敏郎) - Former employee at Etsuko's mountain villa.

Etsuko found Sakaki starving on the road near her property. A man came by shortly afterwards looking for him. Sasaki revealed that he owned and worked at a small jewelry store with his wife in Tokyo, but he foolishly co-signed a document making him a guarantor for his friend's business. That business failed, and Sakaki was held responsible for his friend's debts. His wife passed away from stress shortly afterwards. He tried to run away but was caught. Those men beat Sakaki up and he was about to be brought back to Tokyo, but somehow managed to escape. He ran out of strength and lost consciousness on a lonely road, and that's when Etsuko found him.

She converted a storage room separated from the main house to a living space for Sakaki. Eventually, he regained his strength, and he started doing some chores for her, including going to town to buy supplies. A week ago, Etsuko went by to the former storage room to ask him to clean the garden when she found the room bolted shut from the inside. When the rescue workers broke down the door, they found him dead on the ground. A brown bottle containing the poison was found nearby. Because the door could not be opened from the outside, the Nagano police ruled Sakaki's death a suicide.

Etsuko had Sakaki's remains cremated, but she did not know what she should do next. He had told her that all his relatives had already passed away. She called the inspector to ask him to find any relatives who could take Sakaki's remains.

The inspector though, wasn't so sure that Sakaki's death was a suicide. There was the jar labeled "Thé de l'herbe Mélenge Etsuko" containing herb tea left outside her home. When he first met his teacher again, he asked her if she could prepare herb tea for him, but she told him that she didn't have any at the moment. Sakaki had an expensive pen not fitting him in his jacket's pocket with an eavesdropping device inside He also kept a French poem collection (one of the poem collections translated by Etsuko) under his pillow. He selected then earmarked the pages containing love poems from the book. Then he added numerous pronunciation marks in katakana for those poems.

While reconstructing the Sakaki's story, the inspector used the pseudonym "Julien" to refer to Sakaki.