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Chapter 179
Sendai-san's summer vacation — 179
Translated by KaiesV
Edited by KaiesV
Five thousand yen for three times a week.
Last summer vacation, I was taught to study by Sendai-san, who suddenly said such a thing.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
Sendai-san, who came to my house almost every other day then, is next to me every day this year. Even if she doesn’t have five thousand yen, even if she didn’t have a reason to teach me to study, she will stay home and say good morning and good night to me. She wasn’t my family, she wasn’t my friend, but she’s one of the things I see every day, and today she’s still within my field of vision.
「Miyagi, why don’t we take a break?」
It’s been a little over three hours since we both started watching a foreign drama series.
From next to me comes a voice that sounds a little tired, more like she’s getting tired of looking at the screen.
「I’ll have to watch one more episode.」
Three hours is a long time, but we are still in the middle of 1st Season, so the drama has a long way to go. I’m anxious to see what happens next and I think it’s too soon to take a break.
「Then, Miyagi will watch it.」
Sendai-san said something irresponsible and lay down on the bed, even though she had chosen this drama for the two of us to watch together.
「Watch it. If you don’t do that, you won’t understand the story.」
「It’s okay, it’s okay. I’ll have Miyagi tell me later.」
Sendai-san says from the bed, looking disheveled.
This is Sendai-san’s room, so I don’t care if she is lounging around or flopping around, but it’s a different story when she asks me to watch alone a drama that she said she would watch with me.
「No, I don’t want to tell you. Don’t stay in that place, take a good look yourself.」
「I’m already tired.」
「You just got tired of it.」
「I’m not bored, but I’m tired of sitting around all the time. Oh well, why don’t we go out for a change?」
「Sendai-san, you want to go outside right away. We went to the aquarium the other day. We don’t have to go out anymore.」
The promise that the two of us would go out together was fulfilled a few days ago. We also promised to go to the zoo and once again to the aquarium, but we haven’t yet decided on the date to go to the aquarium, since we are talking about going to the zoo in the fall.
「It’s summer vacation, so let’s do something more summer-y. It’s fun for us to go out together.」
「I don’t want to. More importantly, what’s this summer-y you talk about?」
I don’t know where she wants to go, but it’s already evening. I don’t think there is any place we need to go all the way at this hour. And just because it’s summer vacation, it doesn’t mean that I have to do summer-y things.
「Going to the pool or watching fireworks?」
「It’s not the time to go to the pool, and there are no fireworks today. The other day you said you wanted to go on a trip to a hot spring, or something really random like that. If you want to go somewhere, think seriously.」
「So, what about going out to buy ice cream?」
「You said and did that too the other day.」
「Then, would you like to go out for dinner?」
Even if I don’t do anything summer-y, just being in this room is enough for me.
I have always disliked long vacations, even though I’m used to being alone but I don’t like being alone, but now that I have Sendai-san, I can see that long vacations aren’t so bad and that there are fun things to do.
But I don’t want to go out now.
「I won’t go. I’ll read manga. Sendai-san can rest there.」
I dismiss Sendai-san’s suggestion, stop the drama that keeps playing, then pick up my own phone and select one of my e-books and open it. As I turn the pages with the bed at my back, I am pulled by my hair from behind.
「Miyagi.」
Sendai-san’s voice comes down from above my head.
Apparently, she stopped rumbling and got up.
「What?」
I answer without taking my eyes off my phone.
「I’m not busy.」
「If you’re not busy, do you want to watch the rest of the drama?」
「I won’t watch it.」
With a weak answer, my hair is pulled again. More than once. Sendai-san pulls my hair in bunches several times and continues to touch it silently.
「What are you doing?」
When I asked her about it while flipping through the pages, she replied,「Braids」and I realized for the first time that she was continuing to make and untie braids, a completely unproductive process.
「Is it interesting?」
「Pretty much.」
I don’t know what part of this is interesting, but it doesn’t get in the way of reading the book, and it seems to be an enjoyable task for Sendai-san, so I let it go.
I turn the page, although the next line of dialogue pops into my head without having to turn the page for a comic I’ve read several times.
In the small screen of my phone, the story moves forward.
Sendai-san’s hand touches not only my hair but also my ears and neck from time to time.
I keep turning the pages.
As if in proportion to the number of pages I turn, the amount of time Sendai-san’s hands are touching my ears and neck increases. It was comfortable to feel the body temperature that cannot be felt from the tips of the hair. You can feel Sendai-san even if I cannot see her in my eyes.
「If only Miyagi would come this way.」
Sendai-san, apparently bored with my braids, says quietly and kisses the top of my head.
「I’m not going. You might do something weird, Sendai-san.」
「You don’t want to do it, Miyagi?」
「I don’t want you to do it.」
I put my phone on the table, but keep my back to Sendai-san as I answer.
「Today, it’s okay to lose track.」
Sendai-san whispers in my ear and I pushed her head away.
It’s foul to bring up what happened last time.
I suppress the urge to run away.
I enjoyed the aquarium more than I thought I would, so I made an effort to share some of my thoughts, but I may have tried too hard. I think I said some things that I didn’t need to say.
「It’s not a good thing.」
「So how long do I have to wait?」
Sendai-san says in a soft voice.
「Just keep waiting.」
「Do you think I can wait forever, Miyagi?」
「You should try to wait.」
「Miyagi, it’s not that you don’t like doing it, right?」
Sendai-san doesn’t say she will make an effort, but asks a new question.
I don’t want to answer.
I don’t want to say either because if I say I don’t hate it, it’ll be like I said she could do it, and if I say I hate it, Sendai-san will surely not touch me anymore.
「Miyagi.」
Sendai-san’s hand combs my hair.
Then she crawls her fingers behind my ears and strokes my neck.
「Sendai-san, you are depressing.」
When I slapped her hand, which kept touching me gently, she pulled her hand away without resistance, and I heard a popping sound from behind me. When I turned my body toward the bed, I found Sendai-san lying down.
「I’ll wait for you, it’s alright.」
When she said this, Sendai-san smiles at me as if to reassure me. But words do not accompany actions. Her hand, just retracted, reaches out and touches my chin. Fingertips slide down my neck and stop at my collarbone.
「I’m not alright with that.」
I catch a hand that, if left alone, would have slipped into my T-shirt.
Sendai-san says she is『waiting』for me, but this is the same as saying she wants to『do it now.』
「I just want to touch Miyagi’s body. I won’t do it from this point on until you forgive me.」
Perhaps Sendai-san has no sense of shame.
She says these things without shame.
The last time she asked me how good I felt, I asked her how good she felt after, and she said something that I knew she was doing herself, and she was out of her mind.
Normally, I would never say something like that.
I sometimes wonder if she has done it since then. Of course, I’ve never asked because it’s a difficult topic to broach, but I’d like to know if she would answer me if I asked.
「Don’t touch me, I’m reading a book.」
I slip and peel her hand over my collarbone.
「And if I don’t touch you, it’d be cold.」
Sendai-san says something random and tries to reach for the hand I just peeled off, so I catch her hand and seal it on the bed with mine.
「It’s not cold. Sendai-san, it’s hot, isn’t it?」
On the bed, our overlapping hands are hot with her body heat.
I like the room to be cold for me, but this room has been kept at the right temperature for me all these days. Since I am at a comfortable temperature today, Sendai-san should not be cold.
「Yes, you’re right. It’s hot, take the remote control. I’ll make it cold.」
「You don’t make it cold, you make it cool, usually.」
「I thought I’d make it hot enough to make Miyagi want to stick with me.」
「Sendai-san, stop acting like a fool and shut up.」
I release Sendai-san’s hand and touch her lips with my fingertips and press lightly. I do not cover her mouth, but Sendai-san becomes quiet.
Her lips open thinly.
I push my fingers inside, and her tongue clings to me.
My fingers are wet and I can clearly feel Sendai-san’s heat.
Between the first and second joints.
I slowly pull my finger out and look.
The wet fingers bring back memories of that time.
I repeat the process of loosening and relaxing.
The raw warmth of the tongue pressed against it and the intermittent hardness of the teeth feels good.
「Miyagi.」
I hear Sendai-san’s voice.
But when I didn’t answer, she got off the bed and sat down next to me.
「I’ll wipe your fingers.」
Then Sendai-san takes a tissue from the back of the platypus and wipes my fingers.
「Miyagi, you were just thinking of something erotic.」
「I’m not thinking it.」
「Really?」
「Really. You’re the pervert one, Sendai-san.」
I picked up a platypus and slapped Sendai-san’s thigh with it.