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Chapter 209
After Miyagi — 209
Translated by KaiesV
Edited by KaiesV
「Wear this today.」
I knocked twice on the door and showed my skirt to Miyagi, who showed her face.
「
You didn’t tell me you were going to change my clothes.」
I smile at the expected words.
There was no way Miyagi would accept me wearing a skirt to the school festival anytime I asked. I know, but I feel that if I tell her before we go out, she will put it on, so I tell Miyagi on the morning of the school festival.
「I didn’t tell you, but I bought this skirt for you, Miyagi.」
「I didn’t ask you to buy it, and I don’t want it.」
I didn’t ask for it, and Miyagi never asked for it. I knew she would say she didn’t want it and I wouldn’t care what she wore.
But I have a certain attachment to the skirt.
I like Miyagi’s legs showing through the skirt, and seeing her in a skirt reminds me of our high school days. She doesn’t have to wear them all the time, but she can wear them sometimes to please me.
「It’s not expensive, so take it.」
The words I have uttered aren’t lies. The skirt I am about to give her is one of the cheapest if she ask me whether it is expensive or not. I didn’t want to be turned away because of the price, so I chose one from a fast-fashion brand.
「Why don’t you just wear it yourself, Sendai-san?」
「I bought it from our money to fit Miyagi’s size, and I need Miyagi to wear it.」
The skirt was bought with the contents of my high school savings account. The money is supposed to belong to the two of us, but since I saved the 5,000 yen that Miyagi gave me, I don’t think it’s strange that I bought something that only Miyagi would use.
「That was your money, Sendai-san.」
Miyagi utters the expected words, and I say the words I had prepared.
「We decided it was for both of us.」
「Then, what is it that Sendai-san is shopping for alone, deciding how to spend your money?」
「If Miyagi cooperates, though, we’ll both have used it.」
「Cooperate?」
「In charge of buying and in charge of wearing. This would be another cooperation.」
It’s a painful reason to make her wear a skirt bought with our money, but I think Miyagi would be able to push it through now. If Miyagi really didn’t want to do it, the door would’ve been closed by now.
「That’s not cooperation.」
Miyagi says in a gruff voice while looking at her skirt.
「If you don’t wear this, I won’t let you out of this house. Utsunomiya, you’re going to make her wait, you know?」
I don’t believe these words are a threat, and even if they are, we can’t make Utsunomiya wait. But Miyagi blurted out words that were not a complaint.
「
What about above?」
「Above?」
「What should I wear there?」
Then she raised her eyebrows and kicked my leg. The skirt I was wearing swayed a little, and Miyagi kicked my leg again.
「I think the hoodie you have is fine, Miyagi. You can borrow my clothes if you want.」
「I’ll dress myself.」
「Then come to my room after you change. I’ll give you a quick make-over.」
As I hand the skirt to Miyagi, who looks at me with nothing but discontent, I hear a slightly low voice.
「You don’t have to.」
「If you really don’t want to, I won’t. Come call me anyway.」
「Got it.」
Miyagi, grim-faced as usual, slams the door and I am left in the common space.
A Saturday with several marks and a Sunday with more marks.
Since then, the many marks have faded with the passage of time, assimilated into me, and our lives have returned to normal.
——On the surface.
I let out a small breath and go back to my room.
I sit on my bed and look at my leg, kicked by Miyagi.
Miyagi added one new rule to life as usual.
We did not discuss it and I do not approve of the rule.
I stroked the bottom of my collarbone over my clothes.
Here is a new mark made by Miyagi.
The new rule.
Something you might call a ritual.
It made some new marks on my body while many marks disappeared.
The rule that Miyagi made up on her own applies on days when I have a part-time job at the café and not on days when I have a part-time job as a tutor. So, one mark is given on the days when there is a part-time job at the café, and not on the days when there is a part-time job as a tutor.
I haven’t heard the reason why some part-time jobs are marked and others are not, but I think Miyagi probably doesn’t like the cafĂ© part-time job, which was added later.
I glance at the door.
She’s just going to put on her skirt, but Miyagi hasn’t come yet.
I press hard below my collarbone.
That’s what happens when I don’t remember agreeing to it, and it gets marked and disappears along with the bites. And maybe there will never be more.
The reason is simple.
As promised until the school festival, my part-time job at the café is over, so the new rules no longer apply to me.
And that discourages me a bit.
The marks on the body are something that makes me feel Miyagi strongly, as if to express the words that Miyagi uttered, “It’s all mine.”
Miyagi’s lips, which make marks, strongly stimulate my unspoken feelings, but it feels good to have Miyagi whisper to me that I was hers. It makes me want her to mark me more. But I also think that marks that aren’t too numerous are just fine because they’ll end up being put on before they escape me from reason.
Five minutes or ten minutes pass, and then there is a knock at the door.
Sitting on the bed, I say,「Come in,」and Miyagi, wearing the skirt I gave her, enters the room.
「I’m dressed.」
I stood up and walked over to her as Miyagi babbled on in front of the closed door.
「It suits you.」
「You don’t have to say that.」
「I thought you’re cute.」
「Sendai-san, shut your mouth. Shut up.」
I reach for Miyagi, who only complains, and tuck her hair behind her ear.
After stroking the earring, I put my lips to the ear and attached them, and the scent of shampoo grazed my nose.
「You smell good.」
「That’s your shampoo.」
「Now it’s your shampoo too, Miyagi.」
「
That’s true, but,」
Miyagi uses my shampoo instead of buying a new one when she runs out of her own, so there is now only one kind of shampoo in the bathroom. This is because the promise I made the day I picked up Miyagi’s lipstick in the common space has been kept, and these days Miyagi wears the same scent as me.
I stroke Miyagi’s hair, happy about such trivial things.
I pick up a tuft and bring it to my lips, and before my lips touch her hair, Miyagi pushes my body. The distance between us is short, and Miyagi’s hands unbutton two buttons of my blouse. Her hand crawls over my collarbone, and my heart thumps.
If I want to stop Miyagi, I can.
But I don’t want to.
Miyagi’s fingers caress the mark under my collarbone and bring my face close to hers. But there were no lips there, and her teeth were set on my neck. After a slight pain, something soft sticks to it. The lips suck hard on the skin, even though that isn’t a place that can be hidden by clothing.
「Hold on
」
I pushed Miyagi’s shoulder, but she doesn’t let go.
Miyagi’s body heat and my body heat mix on my neck, and the combined heat pricks my heart like a needle.
I thought the part-time job was over and the ritual was done, but apparently not.
This ritual, which began as a punishment, is a ritual that is difficult to defy and makes me want to hug Miyagi even though I know I am being marked in visible places.
I put my hands behind her back, pressing her shoulders.
I almost hugged her tightly and squeezed her hoodie, and her lips left my neck.
「Miyagi, are there any marks on it?」
I don’t have to bother asking her to know what’s going on with my neck, but I will.
「It’s right here.」
Stroking my neck with her fingertips, Miyagi says in a voice that shows no sign of remorse.
「That’s where I can see it. Maybe you put it there because you didn’t want me to go to the school festival?」
I am responsible for not stopping her, but it’s not good to have a hickey on a visible place to meet Utsunomiya from now on. She wouldn’t think Miyagi would have put it on, but it would be a hassle.
I guess I’ll just have to change.
I don’t want to change my clothes because I’ve already put on my makeup, but it’s better than seeing my hickey.
「Sendai-san, swear on my earrings.」
Miyagi says quietly, I am in the mood to sigh.
「Is it about not going to the school festival?」
It’s not like this kind of thing will prevent me from going to the school festival, but Miyagi is likely to make a mark for that reason.
「No, it’s not. I said I don’t want Maika to find those marks.」
「Don’t worry, if she find it, I won’t say I was marked by Miyagi.」
「I’m not worried about those things. I just don’t want her to see those marks on you.」
「Then put it somewhere out of sight.」
「Sendai-san is mine, so I don’t care where I put it on.」
Miyagi’s extremely grumpy voice rings in my ears.
Her voice is angry, but it is sweet like caramel, and I can’t say anything. I just have to follow her voice and touch the plumeria earrings with my fingertips to utter the pledge.
「
I’ll make sure Utsunomiya never finds out.」
It’s extremely unreasonable to ask me to mark a place where people can see it and not be able to find it.
Miyagi is really cruel.
Even though I think so, I put my lips on her earring.