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Happy New Year.
When I woke up and looked at my bedside phone, I saw a January 1st-like message from Maika and Ami, and I did the same, replying「Happy New Year.」
No message was received from Sendai-san.
Of course, there’s no phone call either.
She doesn’t call me at the moment when the year changes, nor does she send me a message of congratulations. I haven’t called or messaged her either, but I think she should at least contact me.
I lay back and stare at the screen of my phone.
Suddenly, there is no ringtone.
「I don’t mind if you don’t.」
Sendai-san is not here, but I am not alone today.
Unusually, my father is here, and we are going to have dinner together.
As a child, I loved New Year’s Eve and New Year’s when my father was home. Once I entered junior high school, it wasn’t such a special event anymore, but I felt safe knowing that someone was at home. Right now, I am more concerned about my phone with no word from Sendai-san than I am about having dinner with my father.
I roll over and pat the head of the stuffed black cat on my pillow. Then I crawled out from under the covers with my phone next to the black cat.
I stretched wide and left the room.
I brush my teeth, get dressed and head to the living room.
I greet my father with congratulations and we eat breakfast together.
Time seems to pass more quickly than on days when there is school, but it also seems longer because there is not much interesting going on.
I opened my reference book and sat at my desk for a while until the evening came, and I finished my dinner without doing anything other than studying.
There were several calls to the phone that the black cat was keeping watch on, but they were all from Maika and Ami and not from Sendai-san.
After all, just because it’s New Year’s Day doesn’t mean anything unusual is going to happen.
The day was the same as last year, except that I studied, and I went to sleep a little earlier than usual, just as I did last year.
The next day, it was still the same.
When I woke up, I found myself home alone, and it was nighttime.
I look at the clock, it’s past ten o’clock, and I lie down on my bed.
I’m alone in the room where I slept with Sendai-san a few days ago.
It’s not lonely, but it’s boring.
I pulled the stuffed black cat close and tugged on its ears. The black cat didn’t meow, but my phone rang instead. I picked it up from my bedside and looked at the screen to see Sendai-san saying,『Are you alone right now?』and received a message that didn’t seem like New Year’s. I replied,『Yes, but,』and this time I received a phone call from Sendai-san.
One ring and I was lost.
She was waiting for a call from Sendai-san when she answered immediately, and after the ringer rings three times, I picked myself up and answers the phone. With a hello, I call out over the phone, and「Happy New Year」comes back.
On the phone, her voice is close.
I remember when we slept on the same futon.
Sendai-san’s voice was close to mine that time, too.
I squeezed my hand.
A phone call is the least of my worries.
「…Happy New Year.」
I wait for her words, saying the greeting I didn’t say to Sendai-san last year. But Sendai-san doesn’t say anything.
「What do you want?」
I had no choice but to talk to her.
「I was wondering when I should go to Miyagi’s house.」
「I said I would call you when I made a decision.」
「I’m asking because I haven’t heard from you about that.」
「If you haven’t heard from me, that means I haven’t decided yet, so wait a little longer.」
Neither New Year’s Eve nor New Year’s Day is the kind of day that calls for teaching studies. I have that much common sense. Today is difficult to call because it is only the second day and we are still in the New Year’s range. So it’s disheartening to hear her make it sound like it’s my fault for not calling sooner.
「Winter vacation will be over before you can wait, so decide now.」
Sendai-san says in a tone of voice that seems to assume that it is me who is at fault.
「I have plans, too, and I can’t make a decision right now.」
I don’t have any specific plans, but I don’t want to decide right now.
If Sendai-san’s errand is to make the next appointment, then the errand is over and that’s the end of the phone call.
I think we could talk a little more to pass the time.
「Miyagi, you have plans?」
It’s a little irritating to hear someone try to tell me that it’s unexpected. It’s annoying that people take it for granted that I don’t have plans.
「Should there be one?」
「Not that you can’t…… What have you been doing since then?」
By “since then,” I probably mean since the last time I saw Sendai-san.
「Nothing special.」
「Both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day?」
「Of course.」
「Did you meet up with your friends or anything?」
「Sendai-san, you’re so quick to ask like a parent.」
My father doesn’t try to figure out what I do, but Sendai-san sometimes tries to figure out what I do, like the parents we often see in manga and on TV. I don’t find that depressing, but I don’t think it would be interesting to know what I was doing.
「That’s fine, you asked. There’s nothing else to talk about. And you didn’t meet with Utsunomiya or anyone else?」
Sendai-san says in a voice that may or may not be interested.
「We didn’t meet. At this time of year, everyone is busy studying for exams. Even Sendai-san meets with friends and——」
She was about to say, “I wouldn’t,” but then I remembered. But before I could mention what I remembered, Sendai-san mentioned Ibaraki-san’s name.
「I went with Umina and the others for Hatsumode and prayed for success.」
I lay down on the bed with a start, not really wanting to hear the name.
I reach for the black cat and pluck its ears.
「I’ve asked for Miyagi’s share too.」
「You don’t have to.」
「But Miyagi, you didn’t go to Hatsumode.」
She tells me to make up my mind, and I pat the black cat on the head.
「And I don’t believe in that kind of thing.」
「It’s not that I believe in them either, but these are sentiments. My sentiments.」
Sendai-san does not look like the type of person who prays for success. I think she is the type who would study if she had time to put her trust in God. It would be nice if such Sendai-san went alone to ask God for me, but she was not alone. She was on her way to Hatsumode with Ibaraki-san.
It doesn’t seem to me that the sentiment is there.
Still, I felt bad denying Sendai-san any more, so I kept my mouth shut. Then I don’t know what to talk about.
「Are you ready to decide?」
Sendai-san pulls up a nearly forgotten appointment for the next study session and connects the interrupted conversation.
「Do you have time the day after tomorrow?」
「Not tomorrow, the day after tomorrow?」
「Yes.」
「If I don’t mind if it’s in the evening.」
「Then come back the day after tomorrow.」
「Any reason why not tomorrow?」
「It’s the third Sunday of the month.」
Considering Sendai-san’s family environment, it seems that three days of the week is irrelevant to her, but she takes care of it in case.
「That’s the kind of thing I care about.」
「I don’t mind. Sendai-san, you even study on your own, don’t you?」
When I said so, she replied,「The day after tomorrow then.」And the phone hangs up.
The voices that were so close do not become distant, but rather disappear. The room is too quiet, too heavy with no one to talk to.
The winter vacation is short.
If I see her the day after tomorrow, there probably won’t be a next time.
I and Sendai-san are both taking exams.
I don’t want her to say that she failed the university because I interfered with her studies. It’s not that I have to go to the same university as Maika, but I would rather be accepted than fail. If I wasn’t a student taking the exam, I would have been able to call Sendai-san a little more easily.
Last year, I could have called her as many times as I wanted. A year ago, I couldn’t have done that because I kept my promise not to see her on my days off, and I think about that even though I know it was never actually possible.
The winter vacation is really boring.
I let one big sigh.