I have been licked on the ear by a man I met for the first time

During a celebratory drink with clients, a man suddenly licked my ear.
It wasn’t a joke. It felt like something he had done many times before—
a habitual act, normalized in his world.
He was the most powerful person in the group, and no one was in a position to speak up.

My body remembered. And remained silent.

This work confronts a moment of sexual harassment—uninvited,
unquestioned, and quietly absorbed into the silence of social hierarchy.
In Japan, such incidents are often hidden, dismissed, or left unspoken.
But silence is not absence. It echoes—across offices, cities, and cultures.

This is not just a personal story.
It reflects the global prevalence of harassment,
and the social mechanisms that keep it in the shadows.