It was the first time I had not exchanged 5,000 yen that day when I went to Miyagi’s house with a certain amount of frustration and courage. Instead, the clothes I brought home were stored in the back of the chest where I kept my piggy bank.
It would have been best if I could have returned it, but since it was the price of the order, I don’t plan to spend it the same way I spent the 5,000 yen.
But it was that one day that was special.
Today, a few days after that, I received 5,000 yen from Miyagi as usual.
But some things have changed.
Miyagi served barley tea than cider.
And she’s a little more chatty.
I know why she offered me barley tea, but I don’t know why she wanted to talk. Yet it was definitely more enjoyable than the silence that followed.
「That book, was boring.」
Miyagi, who had been talking to me in whispers, blurted out again, and I looked up from the romance novel I was reading.
「Really? I think it’s interesting.」
「It didn’t have a happy ending.」
「Hey, that’s a spoiler. I just started reading it.」
「That’s fine.」
「It’s not fine.」
The words she uttered were not much. But at looking Miyagi talking to me, I felt as if a stray cat that had never missed me had let me pet its head.
Since the beginning of summer, so more than half a year.
It is deeply moving to think that it took that long to tame such a wary stray cat.
But, you know, spoilers aren’t allowed.
I close the novel I was reading and throw it on tbe bed. Then I took up the manga Miyagi was reading and laid back down. Good thing, I didn’t hear complaints, so I turn the page.
It was not a complete book, but I had read it several times before, so I didn’t mind. About a third of the way through the book, Miyagi, who had been sitting on the bed with her back on the book, stood up.
「Sendai-san. Play this game.」
「Game?」
「Yes. Here.」
Pulling something out from under the TV, Miyagi turned around. In her hand was a case with a deformed car on it.
「It’s boring to do it alone.」
Miyagi says, holding a piece of software that is probably a racing game.
I once asked Miyagi if she played games. She told me then that she doesn’t play games where a good looking guy can hit on her, but she didn’t tell me what kind of game she plays.
Perhaps the answer is the software in her hand, but Miyagi does not look like the type to play racing games.
It’s surprising.
I don’t know what kind of game would have convinced me, but at any rate, I am certain that the game that fits Miyagi’s image is not a racing game. However, it is also possible that she like the characters and not the race, since the famous characters are depicted along with the cars.
「Is this the one where they race the cars?」
I’m not sure because I don’t usually play games.
「Yes. The one where you try to get in the way of your opponent and aim for the goal.」
「I don’t know much about this, but aren’t these things available on the internet」
「…If you don’t like it, you don’t have to play.」
Immediately Miyagi gets grumpy and tries to put back the game she pulled out, and I get upset.
More tools to pass the time are welcome.
I like manga and novels, but sometimes I want to do something different.
「It’s not that I don’t want to play, but I don’t know how.」
「Now, I’ll teach you.」
Miyagi turns on the game console and begins her lecture.
But the controls are more complicated than I expected and I can’t remember them.
「Oh, right. I’m going to a prep school now, so I might not be able to come on some days.」
「Prep school?」
「I’m taking entrance exams. Well, it can’t be helped.」
I believe that if I can get into college my family wants, I should be able to live the same life I did as a child.
Applying to college is the last chance I have to get back into my family.
But I also feel like I don’t care about my family or anything like that anymore. I can’t get into the university that everyone wants me to go to, and even if I could, I would refuse to go.
Yet I wrote my name on the application form for the prep school that was promised.
——I was sure that attending a prep school now would not change anything.
I lean back against the bed and look up at the ceiling.
The wallpaper is a different color from that of my room, and it is awfully familiar to my eyes.
「I don’t care if it takes you a little longer to get here.」
Miyagi said in a emotionally unreadable voice.
「I finish prep school pretty late, so I might not be able to make it. If I go home after school, it will be close to midnight when I get home.」
「Then, if you have prep school, come back the next day.」
「Alright.」
When I answer that, Miyagi finishes her explanation and starts the game. But my car doesn’t move as I expected.
The body leans to the right before the car turns to the right.
Same for the left.
I think I’m driving straight, but I wobble and Miyagi soon passes me.
Annoying.
This is definitely the car’s fault, not mine.
Also, Miyagi is a bully.
She throw things like banana peels and bombs in my way. Thanks to them, it was only Miyagi who wins and not me.
「Go easy on me, Miyagi.」
「I don’t want to.」
「I’m a beginner.」
「I know.」
「Ah—, enough, let’s take a break. Break time! I can’t win, it’s boring.」
I throw out the controller in the middle of the race and drink a cup of barley tea. Meanwhile, Miyagi’s car continues to run on the screen, and she finishes first.
「You’re too weak, Miyagi-san.」
The merciless Miyagi puts down her controller and stretches her legs.
Not quite talkative enough, but she really has a lot to say today. I don’t know what she talks about with Utsunomiya, but she probably talks to Miyagi like this, with a touch of affection added.
Maybe it will snow tomorrow.
With such a rude thought in my mind, I look at Miyagi, who is more talkative than ever.
Three years have passed, she still the same.
She doesn’t wear makeup, and her uniform is a little short in the skirt and not much else out of place.
Safe would be an understatement.
It is put together on a line that won’t attract the teacher’s attention. However, I don’t think they would pay attention to me if I made the skirt a little shorter.
I guess this is about it.
I took the liberty of pulling her skirt down a bit and noticed a blue bruise on her knee.
「What’s this all of a sudden.」
Miyagi glares at me, pulling back the skirt I pulled on.
「You got a bruise on your knee.」
「I got it from school.」
「Does it hurt?」
As I ask, poke her knee, which is stretched out under the table. But she quickly brushes my hand away.
「It doesn’t hurt. But it could have hurt, so why poke me?」
「I don’t know.」
「If you’re not going to be poking me in the knee, why don’t you go in?」
Miyagi, with a face full of discontent, hands me the controller.
The game is fun in its own way, but I don’t want to lose any more. Or rather, not being able to win even once is no fun.
I tried to pull Miyagi’s mind away from the game, and then I remembered something.
「By the way, did you know that a hickey disappears faster if you put a cut lemon on it?」
「I don’t know, but that’s what people who have been there, say.」
Miyagi asks based on my unwillingness to answer her question about “my rumors that I was actually playing around while appearing innocent,” so I deny it.
「I’m not experienced. Umina told me to put a slice of lemon on the hickey to make it disappear.」
「You mean you want me to put a lemon on this bruise?」
「That’s right. That kind of bruise is internal bleeding and hickey is also said to be internal bleeding, so I thought it would be effective.」
「I don’t think so. Roughly, Ibaraki-san’s hickey, did it disappear early with a lemon?」
「I think it disappeared, but maybe it would have disappeared even if I had left it alone. I heard that warming or cooling it is also good, try something.」
「It’s been there for about two days, so there’s no need to make it go away now.」
Miyagi said tiresomely, put down the controller, and drank the cider. She turned off the console, as if her desire to continue playing the game had disappeared somewhere.
Freed from my role of continually losing the racing game, I picked up the manga I had left out and opened it. But before I can read a single page, Miyagi taps me on the shoulder.
「Ah, right. Let’s do an experiment.」
「Experiment?」
「Yes, an experiment. Sendai-san, take off your blazer for now.」