One day
Sei is chatting with the
Secretary Controller of the Office of the Empress’s Household,
Yukinari. Sei and Yukinari are good friends. Sei appreciates that he’s plain-spoken and doesn’t flirt. Yukinari depends upon Sei to carry messages to Her Majesty. The two of them quote Chinese literature to each other—poetry and even the
Analects of Confucius. At one point, Yukinari admits that he couldn’t love an ugly woman, so Sei jokes that she’s horribly ugly and must never show him her face. He takes her seriously. One day, Yukinari accidentally catches sight of Sei’s face through a curtain and teases her in return, saying that he’s now gazed to his heart’s content.