Before the Coffee Gets Cold

28-year-old Fumiko thinks that her boyfriend Goro has invited her out to coffee to propose to her. As their first-choice café is closed, they go to one whose name sounds like a song Fumiko knew as a child. The café is in a windowless basement and has three large antique wall clocks, each showing different times.

Fumiko, who works in an IT firm in Tokyo, has model-like features and is “the epitome of the smart, career-driven woman” (4). For a while, Fumiko’s work took precedence over her love life, but for the past few years, she has been dating Goro, a systems engineer three years her junior who is employed by a medical company. To her shock, Goro breaks up with her, announcing that he is going to work in America.

A week later, Fumiko is telling her story to a waitress, Kazu, and another café regular, Hirai, who has curlers in her hair. Kazu, shy and discreet, is a student at Tokyo University of the Arts. Fumiko, who has heard rumors that it’s possible to time travel at the café, asks Hirai and Kazu to “transport [her] back to that day” (9). She feels she was too proud in refraining from begging Goro not to go.