"Hotaru's Way" is the first chapter of the novel, which opens in a hotel in Yokohama, Japan, where hotaru is staying for the first time. The narrator, who is three years older than hotaru, asks the young man why he wants to get over his unrequited love for an older woman. Hotaru replies that he wants an older, mature woman to lead him through the "no-et-love" phase of his love life. When hotaru tells the narrator that he was "out of his league" at one point, the narrator realizes that he is the older one, and he has to "initiate the no- et-love experience and win" .