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Chapter 222
Miyagi is greedy — 222
Translated by KaiesV
Edited by KaiesV
I place my chopsticks on the chopstick rests of a black cat and a tortoiseshell cat.
As I carry a plate of half-boiled fried eggs, sausage, and incidentally chopped tomatoes to the table, I hear Miyagi’s voice.
「Sendai-san, good morn——」
The word breaks off there and「hair」is added.
「Miyagi, good morning. What’s wrong with my hair?」
「Sendai-san, what’s with your hair?」
「What do you mean, I just put it in a ponytail.」
As soon as she came out of her room, I smiled at Miyagi, who looks at me without blinking. Naturally, she doesn’t smile back at me. She just looks at me, or more precisely at the earrings she just put on yesterday.
「Why?」
Miyagi says in a very serious voice and comes up to me.
「Why? Because that’s the mood I’m in. Does it suit me?」
Since I have received a mark that I can show to anyone, I want to show it to everyone. It doesn’t change anything just because I show it, but I am glad that I have something that I don’t have to hide, and I don’t mind wearing a ponytail at least for today.
「…It’s kind of strange, because I’m not used to seeing it.」
Miyagi blurts out, and continues,「I’ll prepare the rice.」
As I watched Miyagi take a bowl out of the cupboard, I gently touched the earring that had been placed in my ear yesterday.
Integrity, truth, charity, et cetera.
Not so bad words if you look for the meaning of the stones on the earrings Miyagi chose. But I don’t think Miyagi entrusted these earrings with those feelings.
I caress the blue stone with my fingertips.
September birthstone.
Sapphire.
I looked it up when I was choosing my earrings in Miyagi, so I won’t forget it. I remember it well. This blue stone is Miyagi’s birthstone.
——I never thought I would hear it, though.
However, only Miyagi, who bought the earrings, knows if the stone on them is really a sapphire. I have looked it up on the internet and compared it to the others, and I know I’m not wrong, but I would like her to tell me that she is.
「Sendai-san, it’s prepared.」
Miyagi sits in her chair with her bowl on the table, and I sit across from her and say,「Then, let’s eat.」
「Itadakimasu.」
Our voices aren’t matched, but we are aligned.
I take the chopsticks from the tortoiseshell cat’s chopstick rest and eat the tomato.
I bite into a sausage, bring the rice to my mouth, and drop it into my stomach.
「Is the stone in these earrings a sapphire? Wasn’t it expensive?」
When I ask as if it were nothing, I get a curt response.
「Not really.」
Miyagi neither denies nor affirms.
But if what is on my ear is not a sapphire, she would definitely grumble and say,「It’s not sapphire.」
「Okay. Thank you. I’ll take good care of it.」
「That doesn’t mean what Sendai-san thinks it means.」
「Integrity, truth, that kind of thing?」
「Yes.」
My words are affirmed and I know that what she is saying is definitely in stone language.
「Don’t worry, I didn’t mean it that way.」
If Miyagi had put some feelings into the earrings, she would never have spoken of those feelings herself. The fact that she went out of her way to tell me about the stone language herself makes me think that the earrings really don’t have that kind of meaning. But I don’t think the blue stones on my ears have any meaning at all.
Birthstone of the month in which Miyagi was born.
Surely, the shining blue stone is her replacement.
I can think of no other reason why Miyagi’s birthstone, not mine, was chosen for the earrings.
「Miyagi’s birthday is in September, so why don’t I give you the same thing?」
At my words, Miyagi, who had been carving the white meat of a fried egg, stopped her hand.
「I don’t need it.」
Her clear voice comes back to me.
「Even though it’s Miyagi’s birthstone?」
「It doesn’t matter if I wear it. It’s a sign that you’re mine. If you don’t like it, give it back.」
Miyagi’s words are what I can only assume are correct, and I strongly feel Miyagi’s body temperature in the temperatureless earrings.
「I’ll keep it on.」
Miyagi never speaks kind words to me or shows me soft expressions. I am glad that Miyagi chose my birthstone as something to wear on my ear.
「Oh yeah, I hadn’t heard. Do the earrings look good on me?」
I know I won’t get the answer I want, but I’m going to ask just the same.
「…Do you think it suits you, Sendai-san?」
「It does.」
「If so, that’s good enough.」
Miyagi said, and then she snapped and ate a sausage.
I wasn’t told that it looked good on me, but I wasn’t told that it didn’t either. That’s not a bad idea, so I take a bite of a sausage.
We continue eating in silence, emptying our plates and bowls.
「Sendai-san, I’ll take care of the cleanup.」
Miyagi gets up and lowers the dishes.
「Thanks. I’ll leave it to you.」
I go back to my room and look in the mirror at my earrings.
Miyagi’s birthstone adorns the piercing hole I opened on her birthday.
My chest heats up and I exhale.
I stroke the blue stone and go to the common area to get ready for college.
「I’ll go first. I have a part-time job today, so I’ll be late.」
After calling out to the next door, I leave the house.
Walk to the station and take the train.
I follow my usual course to the university.
We pass through the gate among the crowd of people and enter the school building.
Enter the desired lecture hall, a little behind the middle.
I found Mio and sat down next to her.
「Morning.」
When I call out to her, she responds with a droning「Morning.」But the word「ah」is attached after the reflexive word.
「Hazuki, that’s a rare tail.」
Mio pointed at my tied hair as if she was surprised. Then she continued,「Okay.」
「You changed your earrings, didn’t you? Maybe someone gave it to you?」
「My roommate gave it to me.」
「All you do is lie. It’s really your boyfriend, isn’t it?」
Mio smirks.
「I told you, I don’t have a boyfriend.」
「You say that, but you go out of your way to show me your earrings in a ponytail, and you’ve only got it from your boyfriend.」
「It’s not.」
「So, did you seriously get it from your roommate? I mean, does your roommate even exist?」
Next to doubting whether she has a boyfriend, Miyagi’s very existence is in question.
I think it is inevitable that he would react this way because I have continued to dilly-dally with Mio’s request「to go to Hazuki’s house to visit.」If I had said that Mio would come to my house to visit, Miyagi wouldn’t have liked it, so I had no choice but to refuse. But now, I can at least prove her existence.
「I have a picture, but…」
I take out my phone and look at Mio.
「You have a picture?」
「I do.」
「Then you should have shown me sooner.」
「It’s a long story.」
I made a lame excuse and showed her a shot of me and Miyagi taken yesterday.
「This girl is my roommate.」
「Hazuki, what did you do to this girl?」
Mio says something unexpected.
「What do you mean?」
「She doesn’t seem to be in a good mood.」
Well, sure.
In the photo, Miyagi looks anything but good-tempered.
But to me, this is the usual Miyagi I’m used to seeing. Her expression is not linked to her mood, so her mood is not as bad as it looks in the picture.
「I didn’t do anything. She just happen to look like that.」
It is difficult to explain Miyagi’s expression and mood.
I don’t think she would believe me if I told her, and I abandon telling Mio that Miyagi’s mood is not bad.
「By chance, huh? But still, is she really your roommate?」
「Why do you doubt it? Because this girl is from the same high school as me.」
「No, because she’s from a different group.」
「Sure, she was in a different group.」
「You were close even though she was different?」
I hear voices of interest, and I have a feeling it will be troublesome.
People’s curiosity is a tricky thing to handle.
If you provoke it in a strange way, a gentle breeze can quickly turn into a storm.
What can I say to deflect the conversation?
Thinking about this, I answered,「Well, I guess,」and then I heard a sparkling voice from next to me.
「Sounds like fun. You should let me meet her sometime.」
「Eh?」
「She doesn’t seem to have any contact with Hazuki at all. I wonder what kind of girl she is. Ah, would she like to work part-time at our place with you?」
「Is the part-time job at the café owned by your relatives, Mio?」
The story is too far fetched.
I can’t keep up with the momentum, as if the destination of my trip goes from near to the other side of the world.
「Yeah-yeah. I have a lot of kids going home for winter break. I’m looking for a part-time job.」
「My roommate doesn’t work part-time.」
No part-time work during winter break.
Miyagi said so, and probably will not work part-time with me outside of winter break.
「Then what about you, Hazuki?」
I would like to have a part-time job, but there are hurdles I have to overcome to get a part-time job.
「Can you wait two to three days for a reply?」
「Okay～」
Mio said in a voice lighter than a bird’s feather.