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「Violence is a breach of contract.」
Sendai-san speaks of a rule between the two of us.
However, I don’t like the idea of being called violent for lifting her chin up with my foot. What I did was within the scope of our contract, and she had no right to point that out to me.
「This is not violence.」
「It is violence. You kicked me.」
With a disgruntled voice, she plays her thumb with her fingertips.
「I just put it on your chin.」
If I were to be offended by the current state of affairs, I would say it is about as bad as misbehaving.
「Hmmm.」
Sendai-san said in a low voice and grabbed my ankle with more force than before.
She is not convinced.
She looks at me with sharp eyes.
I had a bad feeling and tried to pull my legs up, but Sendai-san did not let go. Instead, she pressed her lips against the back of my leg and sucked hard.
The sensation is different from that of the tip of her tongue crawling up my leg, and my body shudders.
「Don’t.」
I raised my voice to stop her from acting in a way I had not ordered, but words meant nothing. She crawled her finger at the soles of my feet and bit my thumb.
「Ouch.」
The teeth, set hard on the toes, are grinding into the flesh, just barely. Voices echoed in the room, never releasing the pain.
「Sendai-san don’t do this.」
I look down and saw her whiskers.
I grabbed Sendai-san’s head and shook it as if in protest.
「This is an order. Stop.」
I told her in the strongest voice I have ever heard, and the teeth that were clamped on my toes came away. Then her tongue crawled over the bite mark as if to check it.
My toes get sticky and wet.
A warm tongue sends chills down my spine.
I still feel uncomfortable with human tongue. But, realizing that I don’t hate it, I pull her hair to shake off the feeling.
「Stop.」
I repeated the word I had uttered just a moment before, and Sendai-san finally looked up. I pull my legs onto the bed as if to take them back.
「Give me your legs. Let me put them on.」
Sendai-san says with a satisfied and refreshed smile, and takes the socks in her hands.
This makes it hard to tell which of us is giving the order.
I am not happy with the current situation.
「You don’t have to take them on, just take off the rest.」
By saying it, I put my left foot on Sendai-san’s thigh, and she silently obeyed.
「Any other orders?」
「None.」
Having all said that, I stand up.
「Do you want a drink?」
I asked, looking at the table and the empty glass, to which she replied shortly,「No, thanks.」
「Do you want to stay for dinner.」
She will go home.
I know she will answer that. The same question I have asked her several times before has been all answered the same way. So there is no way she would give me a different answer just today. Besides, I don’t want to her to answer that she will eat here.
Yet, as a result of asking the question somehow, I heard the word「eat」for the first time.
Barefoot and wearing slippers, we headed for the kitchen with Sendai-san in tow. From a supermarket bag, I pull out a cup of ramen and boils water.
When I placed two cup noodles with the lids open in front of Sendai-san sitting at the counter on the other side of the kitchen, she looks at me curiously.
「What’s this?」
「Cup noodles. Can’t you tell by looking at it? Maybe the rich Sendai-san has never seen a cup noodle before?」
「If I’m so rich that I’d never seen a cup of noodles, wouldn’t I be attending a school where they greeted you with a “Gokigen’you” instead of the high school I’m in now?」
Though Sendai-san says it as if she was dumbfounded, I have heard that her is well-off.
It’s not that she was wearing brand-name clothes, but she is carrying something that looks classy. Probably, they don’t serve cup noodles at dinner. She must be eating homemade dinners.
Sendai-san seems to be loved by her family.
If we weren’t classmates, I wouldn’t have even had a chance to talk to Sendai-san
——I feel nauseous.
I stare at the electric pot that boils water for the two.
「Besides, I’ve had at least cup noodles before. Ah, perhaps the Miyagi family is poor?」
「I get enough pocket money to pay Sendai-san 5,000 yen once or twice a week, but if that’s being poor, then I guess I’m poor.」
I responded to Sendai-san’s teasing comment without hesitation.
We are the kind of family that serves cup noodles for dinner, but it is not because we have no money. Financially, we are in the category of being wealthy.
「
Aren’t you poor? So, this is what we’re having for dinner?」
「If you’d rather have bento, you buy it. Or do you want to go home and eat there? I don’t mind either way.」
Because I don’t have a mother.
And because I have no talent for cooking.
Those are the two reasons why the dinner are cup noodles.
There are fathers who can cook reasonably well, but they are so busy with work that they rarely come home at a time where their children are awake. Perhaps out of guilt for putting his daughter in such an environment, my father gives me an allowance that is clearly too much to give to a highschool student.
「I’m gonna eat this.」
Sendai-san says as she fiddles with the lid of her cup ramen, and the water in the electric kettle boils.
Fill the container with hot water up to the line.
Set the kitchen timer up to three minutes.
Sip the ramen together.
Whether eating alone or together, cup ramen is cup ramen and tastes the same. Still, it feels better with eating it alone.
「Thanks for the dinner. It’s getting late, I’m going home.」
「Un.」
Sendai-san and I have nothing in common.
We belong to different groups in our class and have different interests.
If you have nothing to say, you have to eat in silence, and a cup of ramen is a quick meal. That’s why Sendai-san leaves without feeling she has eaten dinner with me.
「The volume four, when you buy it, let me read it.」
Sendai-san said as she took her blazer and coat back to my room and looked at the bookshelf.
「I think you can read it next time you come back.」
「Then next week, huh?」
Don’t come back.
She seems to be planning to come to my room again, though I can’t help but say so when I think back on what I did today.
Sendai-san is a strange person.
She’s decent at school.
I hand her blazer and coat, feeling rude to her for listening to me.
「I’ll walk you.」
As usual, we walk out the front door together, take the elevator down to the first floor, and walk to the entrance.
「Then, see you.」
Sendai-san doesn’t stop and waves her hand.
「Bye-bye.」
She call out to my back as she move away.
I wonder if Sendai-san will still be bought for 5,000 yen next year when I change classes in the third year.
I got into the elevator with these thoughts in my mind.