Dude, since you mentioned this book, I looked it up. The story is summarized on Wikipedia. Wow! Dramatic! I just had a question, there's no information on Wikipedia. Did the wife like K in a romantic way? Were they just friends to her?
It's been quite a while since I read it, in a language I'm not very good at, but I doubt that she ever voiced her opinion about it. Her family had the last word in the matter anyway, this was in the late 1800s in Japan. And the MC was told the story many years later ( at the end of the Meiji era in 1912), not by her but by her husband. It's pretty obvious he had his doubts about her preferrence, but things like that were not talked about back then.
Anyway, she's not that important a character in the story other than a catalyst for the happenings in the past, we don't get to know her that well. Most of the story is about the men and their relations to each other and to a quickly changing Japan torn between strong western influences and traditional Japanese values (the book was written over 100 years ago). And in traditional Japanese fashion several choose suicide.
What a day! I took half the day off to drive to the hospital (well over an hour with car and ferry), donated half a liter of blood, drove back home, had dinner and wrote this post. And then the lights went out. It's been back for a minute or two a few times, and it's now midnight here in Norway and the wind is still raging outside, blowing more trees across the powerlines I guess.
Edit: Finally got the power back long enough to get the internet up and get this posted. Pretty cosy with just candles in the dark though.