Flesh-Colored Horror - Approval

Approval

• Originally appeared in "Monthly Magazine Halloween" May 1991

The story starts with a young couple, Misuzu and Kyosuke, at Misuzu's home. Her father is denying them permission to marry and it's obviously not the first time. He says that Misuzu already has another marriage proposal, and turns to his son Setsuo and tells him to explain why Kyosuke isn't an acceptable match. Setsuo explains that Kyosuke is just a low class got (as in not wealthy) and wouldn't be able to make Misuzu happy. The father then throws Kyosuke out.

On the street Kyosuke says that he's tried everything, and that eloping is the only way for them to be together. But he knows Misuzu isn't that brave, so they can no longer be together. Misuzu weakly asks 'Goodbye?' and he says yes - if she still wants her father's consent that it is over.

The next scene shows Kyosuke at his job in a dental office. (He looks like he's making dentures.) He laments on how patient he was for nothing, and how he won't see Misuzu anymore. His thinking distracts him from work, but his kindly coworker, Yuko, brings him back. He offers Yuko a ride, they get to talking over dinner, and Kyosuke thinks he's starting to like Yuko as they make plans for another date.

A period of time passes and Kyosuke is greeted outside his car by Misuzu's older brother, Setsuo. They move indoors and Setsuo asks Kyosuke if he still loves Misuzu because he's changed his mind - he wants Kyosuke to marry his sister. Kyosuke explodes - after all, Setsuo said some mean things to him - but Setsuo apologizes and gives him a giftwrapped bottle of his father's favorite drink, explaining that Misuzu will call him a cab and Kyosuke should give the drink to their father when he arrives. Setsuo pleads for Kysouke to come, saying how in love Misuzu is, and leaves Kyosuke staring at the giftwrapped bottle.

Later that night the doorbell rings and Misuzu is there to bring Kyosuke to her home. She looks strangely the same as the last time he saw her, but Kyosuke goes with her. At her father's house, Setsuo is now all about what a good guy Kyosuke is, but their father will still have none of it. Misuzu says they will not give up until he agrees, and the father tells them to do what they want. Outside, Setsuo tells them not to give up and goes back inside the house, peering suspiciously at them through the blinds. Misuzu says that she never stopped loving him but was afraid he was seeing someone else since he hadn't been by to see her for a whole month. He murmures that no, he wasn't seeing anyone else.

The next scene shows Kyosuke getting a gift from Yuko, who said that she remembered he had broken up with his girlfriend before Valentine's Day and was afraid he hadn't gotten anything. She invites herself over to his house to make dinner. That night after dinner (looks like sukiyaki) Yuko and Kyosuke are just about to kiss when the doorbell rings. Yuko answers it and comes back - it's Misuzu, and she's come to pick Kyosuke up to go ask her father to allow them to marry. Again.

In the cab Misuzu asks Kyosuke if that woman, Yuko, is his new girlfriend. He stops the cab and finally tells her - yes, they're seeing each other. He has realized that he is in love with her, and tells Misuzu that he's sorry but he was going back to the apartment. He gets out of the cab and gives Misuzu one last look - where she is looking back at him, tears streaming down her face.

The next day, Yuko doesn't show up at work. She has a fever and called off. When he doesn't hear from her, he stops by her house (?) and an elderly woman tells him she's in the hospital. He goes there with flowers - and finds that Yuko died in the hospital, surrounded by her family. Kyosuke blames himself and goes home to cry where Misuzu finds him (she shows up and just walks in) and cries with him.

There's a major flash forward where Kyosuke talks about being in his thirties and still asking Misuzu's father for permission to marry her. He's still being denied, and Setsuo continues to coax and lure him back by demanding that he not give up on their love. Kyosuke says he will never give up. Kyosuke and Misuzu head to the cab. Kyosuke stops and says he needs to go back - he forgot his bag. As he heads back he hears Setsuo and his father talking about him. Setsuo is assuring his father that Kyosuke will continue to come back for approval, and his father saying how disgusted he is that such a man would want to take away his daughter. He tells Setsuo to keep up the good work, that it makes his life worth living, and that he'll never give Kyosuke what he wants. Setsuo seems to share his disgust and they laugh. Kyosuke turns to find Misuzu, presumably to ask if she was in on their plot, but she's vanished.

Angry, Kyosuke begins to bring gifts of poison-laced liquor, thinking to himself that the old man's death would be all the approval he needed - once the man was dead, he would marry Misuzu. He increases the doses of poison and the old man gets weaker and weaker, while Kyosuke gets older and thinner, almost like he too was being poisoned. Misuzu stays young and beautiful looking.

Finally, the old man is on his deathbed, and Setsuo, Kyosuke, and Misuzu are gathered around him. He calls Kyosuke to him and tell him that he has known the man for 13 years, and all this time Misuzu really loved him. She told him that, when she had broken up with Kyosuke, but he had brushed her off and she had killed herself a few days later. But her spirit had come back and spoken to Setsuo, asking him to help her convince their father to give his approval. He couldn't, of course - it was too late. But her spirit began to show up when Kyosuke would arrive and so he had been using Kyosuke all those years so he could see his dead daughter. The old man begs for forgiveness, then dies. Horrified, Kyosuke turns to where Misuzu was just standing, saying it all must be a lie - but she is gone.

The end shows Kyosuke, sitting alone in his apartment and looking ragged and worn out. He thinks back to Yuko, wondering if maybe she was killed by a ghost, and says that he looks like a ghost too. And every night Misuzu shows up to ring his doorbell, as beautiful as ever, happy and smiling and saying that their marriage has finally been approved.