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Chapter 109
The reason to meet Miyagi — 109
Translated by KaiesV
Edited by KaiesV
After school is approaching and the classroom is restless.
Homeroom is like a digestive game, and the teacher seems unmotivated. I shift my gaze from the teacher to Umina, who is looking for words to conclude the day.
The test, which was the common entrance exam, went off without a hitch.
I don’t know how serious she was about it, but Umina said she had plenty of time to spare. Mariko also laughed that she had managed to do so.
I can’t assure her that it will be absolutely fine, but I think it went well, too.
But I don’t know what Miyagi was like.
I haven’t seen or heard from Miyagi since the day I did the spell, so there’s no way to know.
Normally, in a situation like this, I would think she would at least contact me to let me know if the test went well or not, but we don’t have that kind of relationship. I know, but I think Miyagi is heartless.
I return my gaze to the blackboard.
The teacher looks around the classroom and announces something not so important as if it were a big issue and ends homeroom. The classroom soon begins to buzz and after school arrives.
「Hazuki. I have a place I want to go today, will you go with me?」
I hear Umina’s voice and am lost in reply.
I stood up but could not say「okay.」
「Hmm? Do you have an errand to run, by any chance?」
Umina puts her bag on my desk and asks me a question, but I don’t look too good.
I should say「I’m going」now.
I raise the corners of my mouth and smile.
As I was about to say “I’m going,” I hear Mariko’s voice from across.
「Why not just the two of us today?」
「Eh—」
Mariko starts to walk away, pulling on Umina’s hand, who makes a disgruntled sound.
「Sorry. I’ll make it up to you next time.」
When I called out to their backs, Mariko responded with a flutter of her hand.
I took out my phone, though I don’t feel like it.
I didn’t really want to see Miyagi.
But I was the real me, the one who got lost when Umina invited me.
『Come on, call me.』
I input my message.
My hand stops as I was about to press the send button.
Me contacting Miyagi who has not contacted me.
I am dissatisfied with this kind of composition, but it can’t be helped because if I don’t contact her, she may never contact me again.
One sigh.
I press the send button and wait for five minutes, but there is no response on my phone.
As expected, Miyagi didn’t reply.
I stop, thinking about calling her to the music preparation room. If she doesn’t respond to my current message, I won’t come when she call me.
Miyagi’s class is next door.
It would be faster to catch her in person.
I grab my coat and bag and head out into the hallway. The door to the next class is closed, and I look in through the small window. Then, as Miyagi is about to leave the classroom through the back door with Utsunomiya and the others, I look down the hallway.
My eyes meet Miyagi’s.
But before I could call out to her, Miyagi said,「I forgot something,」and went back to the classroom. And soon after, her phone rang.
『Come over to my house a little later.』
The text on the phone I pulled out of my bag must have been a message he sent me, thinking it was better than being accosted in front of Utsunomiya and the others. That’s how I felt when I thought about it. I want to drag Miyagi out of the classroom. I want to tell her in front of Utsunomiya and the others that Miyagi and I have been spending after-school time together all this time, and that we met during summer and winter vacations.
I don’t think I would actually do such a thing, though, because it would make my remaining high school years very difficult.
『How much is a little?』
Leaning against the wall between the classrooms, I send a reply. As I look around in a daze, I wonder if the hallway is too cold or if Utsunomiya and the others who were waiting for Miyagi are going back to their classrooms. Meanwhile, a message is sent to my phone.
『A while after I left the classroom.』
『Alright.』
『I’m leaving the classroom now, so don’t call out to me.』
『Okay, okay』
I don’t speak to her at school.
I send a message that I will keep the promise I almost broke and watch the hallways. Soon Miyagi comes out and walks away with Utsunomiya and the others.
I don’t know how long a while is, but long enough to wait in the hallway. I can’t even think of going into the classroom, so I wait five minutes before I leave the school too.
I walk down the road to Miyagi’s house, trying not to be too hasty.
The slow-moving scenery is bland.
There was no greenery on the street trees, and the people on the street looked plainly dressed.
The scenery, lacking in color, is depressing just to catch the eye.
What should have been a leisurely, but not too fast pace, picks up in tempo. I must have left five minutes late, but I can see her back, not just Miyagi’s apartment.
「Miyagi.」
I call out to her when I am about a minute away from reaching the apartment.
But Miyagi doesn’t stop.
I line up next to her in front of the apartment and head inside.
「Sendai-san. I told you to come to my house after a while, didn’t I?」
「I left school a while later, but I caught up.」
We walk through the entrance and get on the elevator together.
「Isn’t it crazy that you had to catch up with me? You must have come in a hurry.」
「Isn’t Miyagi just walking too slow?」
「I’m not slow. Sendai-san is just fast.」
Miyagi and I get off the elevator to complain and walk to the door. After she unlocks the door, I go in after her and Miyagi disappears into her room, saying she will be back in a moment. She then came back quickly and handed me 5,000 yen.
「Thanks.」
When I tugged on it, I still felt a slight tug, but it soon came to hand. After putting away the 5,000 yen I had received, I looked at Miyagi and saw a subtle expression on hee face.
「Miyagi?」
「It’s nothing.」
We repeat the same exchange as before today, and Miyagi disappears into the kitchen. I go into the room first and take off my coat and blazer. Then I unbutton one of the buttons of my blouse and grab a manga from the bookshelf where the black cat keeps watching.
As I lay on the bed flipping through the pages, the door opens and Miyagi puts barley tea and cider on the table.
「Your aircon, what temperature do you set it to so it’s not too hot?」
Miyagi asks as she hangs her coat and blazer on hangers on the floor.
「It’s like a habit to take it off, and I don’t care how many times you do it. If it’s hot, I say it’s hot— So, Miyagi. You’ve got something to tell me, don’t you?」
I close the manga I’m reading and then get up.
「Something to tell you?」
Miyagi sits in place and looks at me with a look of total confusion.
「Your tests, how did it go? Did you do well?」
「Do I need to tell that to Sendai-san? I said I would tell you if I was accepted, but I didn’t say I would tell you if the test went well. Besides, I still have the test.」
「You can at least tell me right now if it was good or bad. Don’t be stingy, tell me.」
I grab a pillow and smack Miyagi on the head.
There are still exams to take, and this is not the end. She is under no obligation to report to me whether the exam went as well as she says it did. It is my selfishness to want to hear about it, since I have not promised to do so. But I can’t stop the desire to know.
「Miyagi.」
Once again, Miyagi wrinkled her brow as she tapped her head on the pillow.
「…Well, just average.」
After a short pause, the words come back vague.
「Average? What do you mean by average?」
「Even if I say that, it was average, so what can I do? In general, how was Sendai-san?」
「Just average.」
I returned the words I had just heard, and Miyagi turned her back on me.
Even though I couldn’t see her face, I could tell immediately that she was in a bad mood.
Miyagi takes a glass and drinks the cider. The half-empty glass is returned to the table.
I am used to this silence.
I knew it would put her in a bad mood, so I said, “Oh, well.” Still concerned about the dreary air hanging in the room, I call out to Miyagi.
「Miyagi, you know, do you do graduation trips?」
I shake up a common and uninteresting story.
「I don’t. What about Sendai-san?」
「It’s not much of a trip, but I’m supposed to go out with Umina and the others.」
「Heh…」
A slightly low voice comes back.
Miyagi turned and looked at me, got up and took the manga from the bed as if to take it from me.
「I’m reading it, though.」
Not that I want to read the rest of the book, but I complain.
「It was closed and you didn’t read it.」
「I’m about to read the rest of the book.」
「I’ll give you an order, read the rest later.」
When she said this, Miyagi puts the manga away on the bookshelf.
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「What am I going to do today?」
「Sit down right there.」
Orders fly in from the front of the closet.
「In the bed?」
「Yes.」
Following Miyagi’s words, I sit on the bed as if sitting on a chair, and the closet is opened. Miyagi then pulls out a light blue towel.
「Take it.」
At the same time as the words were spoken, a towel was thrown with a plop, but it landed in front of where I was. But Miyagi doesn’t care. Before I can pick up the towel, she utters her next command.
「You know what to do with that, right?」
When she said this in a quiet voice, Miyagi pointed to the towel.