That afternoon, Toru has a peculiar dream. He is at a bar where he spots Malta. He tries to approach her, but she walks away. He is stopped by a man with a dark shadow for a face. This man calls Toru by his name and tells him to follow him. The faceless man brings Toru to room 208 and tells him that the whiskey he ordered is in the room. Toru feels a sudden craving for whiskey and attempts to open the doors of the cabinets in the room, but the cabinet doors are all fakes. He is interrupted by Creta, who is standing in the room with him. Creta removes her clothes and performs oral sex on Toru. Toru wakes up from this dream soiled, having experienced a nocturnal emission. He washes up and the phone rings. It is Kumiko, informing Toru that she won’t be home for dinner.

Toru remembers the one time he almost cheated in his marriage with Kumiko. He had been friends with a woman at work who was moving away to get married to a man in another town. There was a little party for her the night of her last day.