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Sendai-san does not kiss me in a way that can be joked about.
It was the same when I kissed her for the first time.
If the kiss is just a little lip contact, it can be excused as just a joke. But Sendai-san tries to kiss me in a way that allows no excuses. I don’t mind a kiss that ends with our lips touching, but she want more than that.
When Sendai-san’s tongue touches my lips, I am horrified and restless.
Her body heat tries to mix with mine, making the back of my head hot.
That’s why, that kind of kiss is not what we should be doing, and I bit Sendai-san’s lip. The kisses she gives, which are no joke, are unacceptable because they evoke feelings that I have kept submerged in my heart in a box with a key.
The wound on Sendai-san’s lip was deeper than expected, but she deserved it.
I apply pressure to the finger that holds the wound.
Sendai-san’s face contorts, and she stares at me, just holding back the pain.
I think I haven’t seen Sendai-san with defiant eyes in a long time.
Seeing this kind of face that Sendai-san makes only in this room gives me a kind of feeling of superiority, similar to when I get something rare. And my feelings are heightened by the fact that I am the only one who can make her look that way.
——Not long ago, that would have been the case.
But now there is a part of me that doesn’t want Sendai-san to look at me in a bad way.
This is not right.
The one to blame was Sendai-san for trying to kiss me excessively, and I should have been in a position where I was willing to give her a little payback. It doesn’t matter what she looks like.
I claw at the wound.
My fingertips are wet with slimy blood, and Sendai-san grabs my wrist.
「I told you it hurts.」
With a word, the hand is roughly removed from the wound.
I looked at my fingertips and saw Sendai-san’s blood on them, and the same blood on her lips. When I licked the blood off my finger, it tasted the same as when I licked Sendai-san’s lips, and it was not tasty.
「Don’t lick it, wash your hands.」
Sendai-san then tries to get the water out of the sink. I stopped her hand and grabbed her arm.
「Wash your hands afterwards.」
「Then, what are you doing now?」
Sendai-san is on a roll during summer vacation.
I tried to kiss her, but she looked at me and kissed me as if it was natural for her to kiss me. I don’t mind a kiss, but I don’t think it’s fair that only Sendai-san is free to do what he likes.
This is my house, and the three orders have already been completed, so I should be able to do as I please, just like her.
「Kiss.」
I am not going to wait for Sendai-san’s answer.
I will take a step closer to her and bring my face closer to hers.
Eyes never close.
Sendai-san in my field of vision gets closer. Still, when I didn’t close my eyes, Sendai-san closed her eyes as if she had lost her patience, and I slowly put my lips on hers.
Along with the warm body heat, a liquid, probably blood, stains the lips.
The sticky sensation from the lips is unpleasant, but the contact itself is pleasant. When I pressed my lips hard against hers, feeling as good as when she kissed me, Sendai-san pulled back a little, as if the wound hurt.
I don’t know if I would feel the same way as anyone else.
I don’t even want to know.
But now I know what happens when I kiss Sendai-san.
I grab her T-shirt and press my lips hard against hers. There was more blood than before, and the softest lips anywhere clung tightly together. But soon Sendai-san moved away from me.
「Be a little gentler. My lips hurt. Also, let go of my T-shirt, it’s getting stretched.」
Then Sendai-san taps the back of my hand.
She wash her hands without answering and then mix the eggs. Sendai-san begins to cut the bread without blaming me for not responding, and the only sound in the kitchen is the clacking sound of her chopsticks against the bowl.
My heart was still pounding a little.
I keep seeing only yellow liquid in my eyes. But I could not remain silent for long.
「What should I do with this?」
Unsure of the finished form of the yellow liquid, I ask Mr. Sendai without looking up.
「It’s fine already. Now all I have to do is soak the bread and bake it, so Miyagi can go over there.」
Sendai-san, who had called me from the living room to help her, had told to remove me from the kitchen.
That’s irresponsible.
I’m complaining about being turned away after going out of my way to help, but it’s also awkward to continue to stay in the kitchen. Besides, I don’t want to be told to bake bread.
I honestly follow Sendai-san’s words and leave the kitchen.
Waiting at the counter table, a sweet aroma wafts through the air with the sound of sizzling bread baking. My stomach, which had not been very hungry, started to urge me to eat, and I leaned forward to see a piece of burnt bread. Then, after waiting longer than expected, the French toast is brought out.
「I don’t know if it tastes good because someone didn’t listen to me. Try it.」
Sendai-san places a knife and fork in front of me and sits down next to me. We didn’t speak in unison, but our “Itadakimasu” overlapped and our eyes met with Sendai-san’s for a moment.
I put a fork in a piece of bread that resembles an egg roll and cut it into small pieces. When I put the golden mass in my mouth, the crunchy surface and fluffy inside bring a nostalgic taste of egg and butter mixed together.
「How do you feel about eating French toast for the first time?」
Sendai-san looks at me.
「Sweeter than expected.」
「That was Miyagi’s fault, right? Because you put sugar in it like a fool.」
Sendai-san complains.
「Well, but, I think it’s pretty tasty.」
This, was not a lie.
It may be a little too sweet, but I can classify my first taste of French toast as one of my favorite foods.
Karaage, even tamagoyaki.
What Sendai-san made was delicious. Perhaps she can make something delicious that I don’t like.
「Well, that’s good to know.」
A relieved voice comes from next to me.
When Sendai-san cooks for me, she always makes that kind of sound when I tell her how delicious the food is. She shouldn’t have to worry about my reaction, but she do care a little.
I take another bite of French toast. As I chewed the fluffy bread and dropped it into my stomach, I heard a clatter and the sound of a fork or knife hitting the plate, and I looked next to me and saw Sendai-san holding her mouth.
「Are you okay?」
I don’t have to ask why she was holding her mouth shut.
The french toast hit the wound.
Maybe that’s what happened, but there is no need for me to be worried because the cause of the wound was caused by Sendai-san. But she looked so sore that I couldn’t help but ask her if she was fine.
「Don’t bite so hard that you bleed.」
Sendai-san stares at me with a wrinkle between her eyebrows.
「It’s Sendai-san’s fault for making her want to bite so hard she bleed.」
「You don’t mind kissing me.」
「I don’t even like it.」
「Heh.」
Sendai-san’s voice and eyes are filled with doubt.
I take a piece of French toast to my mouth to escape her voice and gaze. I chew slowly, and after the buttery flavor disappears from my mouth, I tell Sendai-san one thing I want to say.
「After the day after tomorrow, things should be a little more normal.」
「By normal, you mean?」
「Don’t do anything weird.」
I don’t mind kissing, as Sendai-san says, and I wouldn’t mind doing it with her.
But I don’t think it’s something I’ll do many times in the future.
We are not in what the world calls a kissing relationship, nor do we plan to be. It is just that this summer vacation is an irregular situation, and once the second semester begins, the students should be spending the same days as in the first semester.
Besides, if something like this happens again, I feel that I will not be able to stop it. I don’t dislike it, so I’m not confident I can be normal.
I know that if I keep cheating and doing this, it’s going to be a bad thing.
「What’s that weird thing?」
Sendai-san stabs the French toast with a fork.
「Weird thing is weird thing, right?」
「Say it clearly. You want to tell me not to kiss you.」
「If you know what you’re doing, then don’t do this anymore. If you’re going to do it, do it by studying, talking, or something like that. If you don’t want to do that either, there are books and games and something to pass the time at random.」
Roughly speaking, I took the French toast from Sendai-san’s plate. After taking a bite of it, Sendai-san chuckled and said,
「Miyagi, do you know? Doing things like that together is called being friends.」
A deliberately cheerful voice echoes through the living room, and Sendai-san stands up, saying,「I’m going to get something to drink.」She heads for the kitchen, and only her voice can be heard from a short distance away.
「Well, but, if Miyagi wants to be that kind of friend, I’ll do it the day after tomorrow.」
Sendai-san soon returned and placed two glasses on the table.
「Not that I want to have a friend like you.」
「Really? If you want normal, then I’ll just play a friend. If you want, we can go see a movie together like friends do.」
Sendai-san, with a smile I often see at school, drinks barley tea.
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I can tell from her voice that she is not serious.
There’s no way I’m going.
Sendai-san thinks I would say so.
So I will never tell her.
「…Okay. We’ll go see something.」
「The movie?」
「Yes. Let’s go tomorrow or maybe Thursday.」
I have tried to treat Sendai-san like a friend, although we are not playing friends.
We talked about trivial things and played games together.
We did things together that we would do with friends.
In the end, Sendai-san did not become my friend.
But this time it could turn out differently. At that time, I was trying to think of Sendai-san as my friend, but now she is playing “pretend games” with me. I don’t want to be friends with her, but it might be an opportunity to undo a relationship that is on the verge of twisting.
「Why tomorrow or Thursday?」
Sendai-san asks probing questions in response to the unexpected answer.
「If you’re going to play friend, I might as well not have a tutoring day.」
「That’s true. Then, Thursday.」
Sendai-san said with a smiling face I have never seen in this house.