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Chapter 126
A wall between Miyagi and — 126
Translated by KaiesV
Edited by KaiesV
I can’t decide what to do for Golden Week.
I haven’t heard something from my family.
I don’t mind because I knew that was coming and I don’t feel good about being asked to come home. The fact that my parents do not want me to return is not something I am saddened by now. I consider it convenient because I had no intention of leaving in the first place. However, I have nothing to do, so I have extra time.
I would like to consume some of that extra time with Miyagi.
Now, several days after that dream, I know that Miyagi won’t be returning home, although I have not gotten around to asking her about her plans for the holidays in detail.
The problem is that the conversation has not progressed beyond that point.
It was nothing more than asking her to go out with me to pass the time, but I don’t think Miyagi would honestly say yes.
I exhale.
I look at the teacher on the podium.
The slides change one after another.
As I listen to the teacher’s voice echoing through the lecture hall, I am reminded of the fried eggs I had this morning.
The yolk did not seem to break on its own, and Miyagi’s dish was beautifully done. Perhaps because of this, Miyagi was in a better mood than usual, but my unwanted comment changed the situation.
I shouldn’t have said anything about her hair.
They say that the god who does not touch you is cursed, but I know very well that the saying is true. But people don’t live their lives doing only what is right. Lately I’ve been trying to cover for Miyagi, whom I can’t touch, and I’ve been adding unnecessary one-liners to her mood.
Thanks to this, I had to leave the house without talking about Golden Week, which I had planned to do.
I can’t find a part-time job, and nothing good is happening.
Sighing, I look at the slides.
In college, what must be done is serious.
Socializing is there.
I don’t need to have excellent grades, but I want to graduate from college in four years and work for a good company. Now is not the time to be thinking about Miyagi. There’s a teacher who doesn’t do much writing on the board, so if you don’t listen to him seriously, I will lose track of his lectures.
Once Golden Week is out of my mind.
I then concentrate on the teacher’s voice.
Unlike high school, ninety-minute classes are long.
I run my pen over my notebook.
Thirty minutes pass, then forty minutes, and the lecture ends just before the ninety-minute mark.
「Hazuki.」
As I closed my notebook, I heard someone call my name. I looked up and saw Mio, one of my new friends at the university, watching me from the seat in front of me.
「I have a something good to talk about.」
I don’t want the kind of relationships I had in high school, so I’m not going to make an effort to expand my friendships. Still, I have made a few friends and can at least kill my free time with idle talk.
「Something good?」
「Yeah. So don’t look so bored, smile and listen to me.」
「Whether or not I listen with a smile depends on what you’re talking about.」
When I said that, Mio smiled in my place.
「Hazuki, you were looking for a part-time job, no? So I thought I’d introduce you to a good part-time job.」
Her cheerful voice echoes.
Indeed, I told Mio that I was looking for a part-time job.
My parents provide me with the money I need to live, so I can live without a part-time job. However, I need money.
I have no intention of returning home after college.
I am hoping to find a reasonably good job here. But it may not work out, and I may have to find a new room. Considering the possibility of various “maybes,” it is better to have money. So I plan to work part-time and save money while I am still a college student, which my parents are willing to pay for.
「By that, what kind of part-time job is that?」
「Home tutoring.」
I leave the lecture room with Mio, who answers with a big smile.
「Mio, do you tutor someone?」
「Do I look like the type of person who would be a good tutor?」
「Doesn’t look like one.」
Mio is friendly and smart, but she does not think deeply about things. In the best case, she is decisive, but in the worst case, she is unthinking and random. I think it would be fun if the tutor was Mio, but I don’t think it would improve my grades.
「Like a quick answer. Well, no matter. I’ll introduce you if you’re interested.」
「Students?」
「No. How can I introduce such person? I’ll introduce you to my Senpai. She’s looking for someone who wants to tutor.」
Mio’s words brought back memories of teaching Miyagi how to study.
I know it was not only my strength, but her grades must have improved because we studied together. I wouldn’t say that alone made me a good tutor, but teaching learning seemed to be something I enjoyed in its own way.
「Is it okay if I just listen to what you have to say?」
「It’s okay, it’s okay.」
Her light voice echoes down the hallway, I’m not really sure if it’s okay.
「Then, I’ll introduce you to my Senpai.」
I don’t know if I will do it.
But I am interested.
I don’t know what kind of person Mio’s senior is, but I would like to at least hear what she has to say.
「Okay. I’ll try to contact her.」
With a bright voice, Mio took out her smartphone. Then, after exchanging messages with her senpai a few times, she looked up.
「She’s busy right now. She says she’d like to talk to you in person when she has time. Can I give you her contact information?」
「That’s fine.」
When I answer that, Mio quickly proceeds and her senior’s contact information is registered on my phone. I am then told that I will receive a phone call in about three hours.
Furthermore, Mio starts talking about senior, and the fact that she is a woman, a third-year student, and a number of other personal informations is input into my mind. However, I didn’t hear from her senior after the afternoon lecture, nor did I hear from her when I boarded the train to go home, nor did I hear from her when I arrived at the doorstep.
I take out my keys and open the front door.
The light is on and I look at my feet and see Miyagi’s shoes.
Today, she said, she is earlier than me.
I took off my shoes and went inside to find Miyagi in front of the refrigerator, where I thought she would be holed up in her room.
「I’m home.」
I call out to Miyagi’s back.
「Welcome back.」
Miyagi seems to have done some shopping, and there is a bag of foodstuffs beside her.
「Sendai-san. What are you going to cook today?」
「Is there anything Miyagi wants to eat?」
「Doria.」(TN : A Japanese western dish that is similar to gratin.)
Miyagi stuffs the refrigerator with food and stands up.
「I’ve never made it. Is there anything else?」
「You’re the one who asked me if I had anything to eat, Sendai-san.」
「I didn’t say I would make it, just asked. Mostly, did you buy the ingredients for the doria?」
「I didn’t buy them because I don’t know what they’re made of.」
「Then, that’s impossible.」
I searched for a recipe and checked the refrigerator at first glance, but there was still nothing in there that could be an ingredient for doria.
「If you want to eat so much, do you want to go out to eat somewhere now?」
I offer a realistic proposal.
「I’ve had enough for today. I’ve been shopping. Let’s cook something.」
As expected, a curt voice comes back.
I wished we could go out together once in a while, but it seems Miyagi has no intention of doing so.
「How about tomorrow?」
There’s no way I’ll get a good answer, but I’m going to ask just the same.
「
Okay then.」
Miyagi gave me a different answer than I expected and I looked at her.
Where are we going?
What time it would be?
I’m not sure which to ask first, and just as I’m about to ask where I’m going, my phone rings.
「Just hold on for a second.」
I pulled out a phone from my bag that ringed with a ringtone.
Looking at the screen, I saw the name of the senpai, whom Mio told me about. Apparently, the appointment was not forgotten. When I picked up the phone, I heard a calm voice and was told only what my business was. And within five minutes, the call was disconnected and I apologized to Miyagi.
「Sorry. I’ve got an errand to run tomorrow. Can the Doria come the day after tomorrow?」
「What errand?」
Miyagi’s voice is just a little bit lower.
「I’m meeting someone who says she’s going to introduce me to a part-time job.」
「——Sendai-san, you want to have a part-time job?」
Miyagi stares at me, interested not in Doria but in the errand, and now in the bite.
「I’m going to do it. I’m trying to save money.」
I wasn’t hiding it, but I hadn’t yet told Miyagi that I was thinking of taking a part-time job. The reason for this was simple: I hadn’t had a chance to tell Miyagi. Generally speaking, Miyagi is a human being who is either in a bad mood or disappears from my presence before I have anything important to say to her.
「If you’re looking for money, there’s the one I gave you in high school.」
Miyagi’s voice changes to something even lower.
「That is why, because the money is not mine.」
「Even if it’s not Sendai-san’s, you can use it.」
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Then Miyagi kicked me in the leg.
I look at her with exaggerated pain, though not strongly, but lightly, around the shin.
Miyagi is so quiet these days that if it weren’t for her kicking and biting me, I’d feel like I was back in the old days. But I know that what was just done to me is not something I should be happy about.
I move away from Miyagi and sit in the chair I always sit in.
「Sendai-san, are you going to break your promise?」
Miyagi says in a disgruntled voice as she stands in front of the refrigerator.
「Sorry.」
I apologized with a clap of hands.
Doria doesn’t run away, but the busy senior doesn’t know when she’ll see me again if I missed tomorrow. The part-time work was one of the things I wanted to do when I became a college student, so I think I’d like it to be the day after tomorrow when we go out to eat Doria. But Miyagi doesn’t say「okay.」She stays silent and doesn’t even come close.
「About the doria, does it have to be tomorrow?」
Maybe Doria should be the priority, not the senior.
I look at Miyagi with hesitation.
「
I don’t care if it’s the day after tomorrow, but there will be punishment game.」
「Eh?」
「If someone breaks a promise, there’s a punishment game right?」
Miyagi brings up a rule that I don’t remember deciding on, in response to a word I heard with resignation.
「No, that’s wrong. The punishment game is applied when I break a rule that we both set, and a promise we made normally is a different thing.」
「We decided earlier that we’d both eat together, it’s like a rule.」
「Miyagi, I know what you’re saying is messed up.」
I think it’s too arrogant to include a little commitment in the rules we set for living together. But Miyagi seems unwilling to back down and leans forward with her hands on the table.
「You didn’t tell me that the only punishment is if I break a rule we both agreed on, did you? If that’s the case, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to punish Sendai-san for not following through on what we decided recently.」
As for whether or not I said it, I didn’t say “only” when I break the rules we set together. That said, Miyagi’s reasoning is not something that needs to be acknowledged, and it is too unreasonable.
Even the person saying it must know that it is not reasonable. But Miyagi is saying this because she thinks I will accept this unreasonable punishment.
I let out a small breath.
「Well, I don’t mind if that’s the case this time. What are you going to make me do?」
「I haven’t decided yet.」
「Is it something you have to think about and decide so slowly?」
「Why don’t I take your time? We don’t even have a deadline for the punishment.」
I have a bad feeling about this indeed.
If I give her unlimited time, Miyagi is bound to come up with something ridiculous.
「You have until tomorrow to decide.」
「That’s impossible.」
Miyagi says once and for all.
「It’s not that you can’t, it’s just that you don’t want to decide. Miyagi can do whatever you want with me now. Let me know when you decide.」
I am used to following her words.
I was also willing to be punished for it.
I was accustomed to following the orders of the most ridiculous people.
So this isn’t a bad thing.
I think so and stand up.
「So, Miyagi. What’s for dinner today?」
I asked her as she stood in front of the refrigerator.