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Chapter 212
After Sendai-san — 212
Translated by KaiesV
Edited by KaiesV
Kashari.
An electronic beep sounds once, and Maika makes a deliberately difficult face as she looks at her phone.
「Shiori, your expression is stiff. Smile more, smile.」
「I’m supposed to be smiling, though.」
「Okay, now double your smile. I’ll take another picture.」
Impossible.
I managed to make a face that was a little harder but still good enough for anyone to see, and I hope you’ll forgive me for that.
The corners of my mouth, next to Sendai-san’s, do not obey my will. I can’t smile well, and I can’t make a good face that is nothing. If I could make a smile that Maika would be satisfied with, I would have already made it.
「Shiori—」
A urging voice echoes, and I command my brain to smile. But the corners of my mouth only go up halfway, and Maika’s phone doesn’t make a crackling sound.
I want to banish the word “smiling” from this world. If I can’t banish them, I want to change the meaning of the word “smile.” I want the word “smile” to mean a subtle look or a hard expression, just for today.
Haah.
Sighing inwardly and resuming his struggle with the corners of his mouth, Sendai-san said in a cheerful voice,「Utsunomiya.」
「Maybe, Miyagi can’t smile right now.」
Sendai-san said something like she looked into my mind and I looked at her involuntarily.
「Eh, is something wrong, Shiori?」
「Miyagi’s tummy is making noisy noises. She’s trying to tell us she’s going to die from hunger.」
With a joking voice, a hand reaches out from next to me and taps my stomach.
「It’s not rumbling.」
「It does rumble.」
「It’s not rumbling at all.」
I retrieve my arm, which is still held by Sendai-san, and push her arm that she says my stomach rumbles, which it doesn’t, and she responds,「that’s dangerous.」In addition, I hear a giggle and a small laugh, and this time when I pull on Sendai-san’s arm, she says something that isn’t true,「your stomach rumbles again.」
I am disgusted that Sendai-san seems to be enjoying herself so much.
「Sendai-san.」
I hadn’t thought of the words that would follow, but I was about to complain when I heard a crack and I looked at Maika.
「I got some good pictures, and I’ll save the smirking for later.」
It sounds satisfying, but I definitely think it’s a weird photo.
As proof, Maika is looking at the photo with a smirk on her face.
I wish the corners of my mouth moved as much as Maika’s when I was next to Sendai-san.
I don’t mean to smile, but I need to be able to make at least one smile even when Sendai-san is next to me, otherwise I would be in trouble at times like this. It would be nice if Sendai-san and Maika wouldn’t get involved at all in the future, but since they have become friends, these things are bound to happen in the future.
「Maika, show me the picture.」
When I gave up on moving the corners of my mouth as I wished and approached Maika, Sendai-san followed me, saying,「I want to see it too.」
「It’s an interesting photo, look.」
「It’s not a good picture, it’s an interesting picture.」
I complained and asked to see her phone, which showed me pulling on Sendai-san’s arm with a grim look on my face.
「I told you it was a good picture. Sendai-san is smiling. Wait, huh? Sendai-san?」
Maika looks up from her phone with a dubious look on her face.
「What’s wrong with me?」
「Your ears. Did you have your ears pierced before, Sendai-san?」
Maika says, staring at Sendai-san’s ear.
「We’ve been doing it for a while. I did it the last time you two came to my part-time job.」
「Really. Maybe because I was looking at your uniform, I didn’t notice. When did you open it?」
「More than a month ago, I think.」
「That’s the piercing that was on the piercer, right? Aren’t you going to change it?」
As if in response to Maika’s words, Sendai-san puts her fingers to her ears. Then she gently strokes the earring I put on.
My gaze is stuck on her fingers and won’t come off.
Her fingertips tugged at her earlobe, and Sendai-san opened her mouth.
「I’ve been thinking about changing it, but… it’s the first piercing I ever had, and I’m very attached to it, and I feel like it’s a waste.」
Sendai-san’s earrings have been there ever since I put them on her on her birthday. It holds a promise to her body and continues to adorn Sendai-san in a way that I can see.
I could change my earrings just like I change my clothes depending on the day, but Sendai-san doesn’t change hers. A month has passed, and she continued to wear the same earrings she wore on my birthday.
「Surprising. Sendai-san, you seemed like you would change it quickly without waiting a month for something like this.」
「Surprising even to myself.」
Sendai-san laughs at Maika and smiles at me.
The word “unexpected” was uttered by both of them.
It is a word that I have in my mind as well.
I’m not saying that she shouldn’t have different piercings, and if she wants to change them to something different, like I have the piercings that Sendai-san gave me, she can do so.
If I don’t change it without my knowledge, if I don’t let someone else choose it without my knowledge, I can always change it.
「Well, I might change it if I find some cute earrings. Anyway, how about we eat something? Miyagi looks like she’s too hungry to die, and we’ll continue with the pictures when we’re eating.」
「Great. Let’s do that.」
Maika agreed with Sendai’s words, and I nodded「yes.」
「Then, what shall we eat? Is there anything you want to eat, Utsunomiya?」
「Okonomiyaki.」
「What about Miyagi?」
「Yakisoba. What about Sendai-san?」
「Nhn, let’s see. Why don’t we share okonomiyaki and yakisoba together?」
「Ah, that’s good!」
Maika answered in a cheerful voice, and we bought okonomiyaki and yakisoba, as well as juice, from a booth, and the three of us sat down on a bench. We then sat down on a bench, dividing the okonomiyaki and yakisoba equally, and ate our lunch.
「Speaking of which, isn’t your university having a school festival right now, Sendai-san?」
Maika, who has eaten half of her okonomiyaki, looks at Sendai-san.
「Until tomorrow. I’ll show you around if you want to come.」
「I have an errand to run tomorrow. Can I go with Shiori next year?」
I was mixed up in the conversation without asking, and before I could deny that I had said I wanted to go, Sendai-san responded smugly.
「Of course. I’ll show you around. Come to our college next year.」
「Yay.」
「Miyagi. You look like you’re talking about someone else, but Miyagi is coming with us next year.」
I won’t go.
I want to answer that, but I can’t.
If I said I wouldn’t go, Maika would surely have to go alone, and I would be left with only one answer.
「I know. I’m coming with you.」
I don’t want Maika to go to Sendai-san’s college alone.
So, even if I don’t feel comfortable, I had no choice but to go with her.
「Then, it’s decided.」
Sendai-san smiles and brings the yakisoba to his mouth.
We continued to eat the okonomiyaki and yakisoba while chatting about nothing, and when most of it had settled in our stomachs, Maika said something that reminded me of her.
「Ah, the photo.」
「Miyagi, you’re the cameraman.」
With a tap on my shoulder, I awkwardly pull my phone out of my bag like a machine and stand up. I took a step or two away from the bench and looked back at a good distance to see Sendai-san sitting next to Maika.
I hold up my phone.
Sendai-san pulls herself closer to Maika.
My heart thumps in place of the shutter sound, and I let out a small breath.
On a small screen cut out of a scene from the school festival, Sendai-san is smiling with a face I used to see in high school.
The beautifully crafted smile is not mine, but Maika’s.
Next to her, of course, Maika is also smiling.
I think that’s my place.
I was always there, it was natural for me to be there, and there was no one there but me. I don’t know much about Sendai-san outside, but if we go out together, there will be no one but me next to her.
And yet, today, Maika is where I should be, and I take her picture.
Boring.
Not interesting.
But it must be taken.
「Shiori, take the picture.」
I hear Maika’s voice and tap the shoot button as if my fingers were not my own.
Kashari.
One sound I have heard many times today, and the two people on the screen are recorded on my phone as a photo.
「I took it.」
“Here,” I said, walking toward them and showing them my phone.
Sendai-san and Maika are happily saying something, but I can’t hear them. My eyes are fixed on my phone and I keep looking at the two people I just saw, even though I don’t want to see them.
The smile on the screen is more beautiful than the smirk that would’ve been my distortion.
My phone is heavy when it should be light.
So heavy that I want to throw it away.
I sit down on the bench and put my phone away in my bag.
I squeeze the finger that pressed the shooting button with the opposite hand.
The scab is forcibly peeled off, and I feel a pain similar to when you hurt yourself silently. Jiggle, zing, and ache. The discomfort spreads as if the wound is small but it’s soaked with blood, and without knowing it, the blood is everywhere.
Now I want to put a mark on Sendai-san’s body and make more red marks.
If that doesn’t work, I want to touch her neck and show the red marks to Maika.
「It’s time to go to the talk show hall.」
I hear Sendai-san’s voice and look up from my slumped position.
I see her neck, which should have a red mark on it, and I almost reach out my hand and stand up to cover it up.
The red mark on Sendai-san’s neck.
There was no way she would think I had made it, but I couldn’t let Maika see it. That mark is something that only Sendai-san and I know exists, and it’s a secret between us.
「Shiori, the venue is the second school building, right?」
I hear Maika’s voice.
If I shift the thing covering the red mark just a little, I can show it to Maika.
I could even tell Maika that this is mine and that Sendai-san is mine.
——Not good.
If I only think about Sendai-san, I will go crazy.
Today is a day full of fun things to do, so I should look more elsewhere instead of next to me.
「Yeah.」
I made my voice as cheerful as possible and started walking with them.