As they grew older, they began to feel more self-conscious in each other's company and they drifted apart, although they continued to love each other.
The girl's parents offered to find her a husband, but she declined as she still had feelings for the boy.
One stormy night, he was just setting out on one of these visits, when he decided to turn back to find out the identity of his wife's lover.
Unaware that he was watching, she was applying her make-up and composing a tanka: He realised then how much he was loved and never went back to the other woman.
On his way to Hatsuse, he stops at Ariwara Temple and recognises the locale as Isonokami, where Narihira and Ki no Aritsune's daughter lived long ago.
The priest asks a village man about the place and hears the story more plainly.