@Tamerlane
I think she's real, she's sexy but aging. The artist tends to draw sensual women, look at their previous works.
If it shows anything about him, he isn't interested in sex anymore. Before this he'd pounce on Yamada if his sexual desires piled up.
But in this chapter he wouldn't even accept Yamada's offer for a kiss.
Took up reading to try and have a passtime, find something, but it didn't quite fit what he was looking for.
He feels like he's lost meaning but he realizes he never had meaning all along, and that Yamada was the only thing that invited healing
and meaning into his life.