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Not that one, not this one.
I can’t decide what to wear, despite the fact that I spend about thirty minutes laying out my clothes on the bed, groaning, and then putting them back in the closet.
I know I don’t need to spend so much time on every piece of clothing.
Yesterday, Sendai-san and I did not decide on a movie to watch, but we quickly decided on a destination.
Places where we would not normally go and where students from the same school would not normally go.
The rendezvous is such a place, and we have to take the train to get there.
No one knows that I meet with Sendai-san after school, and it is a secret that they meet during the summer vacation. I couldn’t go to a place where I would bump into someone I knew, so I went out of my way to pick a place that was far away from me.
Go to the station and take the train.
The line takes a long time to go, if only to see a movie. Still, the appointment to meet is in the afternoon, so there is still time.
「I’ll take this one.」
White blouse and jeans.
I pick up the clothes I wore when I met Maika and the others the other day.
There is no need to get all worked up to meet Sendai-san.
I should have made my decision quickly, instead of slogging through it.
I dressed quickly and put away the clothes I had pulled out. I open the curtains, wondering if I should tie my hair up. I looked out the window and was flooded with glistening, dazzling sunlight.
It looks hot.
I feel like my neck is going to burn, so instead of tying my hair up, I put sunscreen on it. I checked my watch and found it was still a little early to leave the house.
One sigh.
Although I was on board with what Sendai-san must have said in jest, I felt heavy-hearted. There are movies that I would like to see, but I don’t know if they are the ones that Sendai-san would like to see. If she had a movie she wanted to see, I didn’t even know if I wanted to see it.
I didn’t know much about Sendai-san’s friends that she would know.
Her favorite movies, her favorite music, her favorite food.
I had never heard of anything that her friends would know as a matter of course.
After a long exhale, I lightly slap my cheek.
Today we are just going to play “friends”.
It’s not that hard.
I can spend time with Sendai-san as I spend time with Maika and the others. Even if the movies we want to see are different, there must be a compromise, and we have been able to reconcile our different tastes and preferences with Maika and the other members of the group.
「A little early, but okay.」
I grab my bag and leave the apartment.
Within ten minutes, sweat is pouring out, creating a stain on my shirt. The sound of cicadas mixed with the sound of cars driving by makes it even hotter and more depressing.
I run into the shadow of a building and stop.
Come to think of it, Sendai-san’s house was not far from mine. If the destination is the same, the train I take may be the same.
I don’t intend to look for her, but I look around.
There’s no way she’s there.
I go through the ticket gate to get on a train that I usually don’t take. There were no familiar faces on the muggy platform or in the not-so-cool car.
I passed through several stations and got off the train. Inside the station, I head for the weird statue that we have designated as our meeting place. But before I can approach the weird statue, I find Sendai-san.
The person, whom I recognized even from a distance as Sendai-san, was different in dress and atmosphere from the Sendai-san who comes to my house.
The long skirt and sleeveless shirt she wears are the kind of clothes you can find anywhere, nothing special or unusual. But she looks good and seem to stand out because of her appearance.
She is the type of person that I would never talk to if we weren’t meeting up, and even if we were meeting up, it would be difficult to talk to her. I can tell that if we were in class, we wouldn’t get along and we wouldn’t belong to the same group. Sendai-san is close to the impression I had of her before we started this kind of relationship when we had just started our second year.
But I can’t help but not speak to her.
Swallowing a sigh, I take three steps forward and my eyes meet those of Sendai-san. Before I could approach her, she came up to me and waved「Miyagi」at me.
「Sorry. Did you wait?」
I wasn’t late for the meeting. I don’t need to apologize because I still have at least enough time left before the appointment, but I do apologize in case she is my friend and I should apologize.
「I came directly from the prep school and arrived a little early.」
I don’t know how long she waited, but Sendai-san laughed and said she didn’t care. Then, after looking me over from top to bottom, she said.
「Miyagi, you don’t look much different from when you’re at home.」
「I don’t need to change it.」
「I see.」
「Is that how you always feel, Sendai-san?」
The last time I saw Sendai-san with Ibaraki-san, the atmosphere looked a little different from now, perhaps because of the distance.
I was somewhat curious and asked her about it, but it is not unusual for people to wear different clothes on different days, so I don’t think it was worth asking. But she picked up her skirt and looked very serious.
「Yes, is it that weird?」
「Beats me. I just kind of heard about it.」
「If that’s the case, fine. Let’s go for now.」
Fluttering her skirt, Sendai-san walks away. The destination is a movie theater without being told, and I walk a short distance through the station and get on the elevator. After going up several floors and getting off the elevator, I saw a poster on the wall.
「Do you have a movie you want to see?」
Sendai-san asks, looking at the poster.
「Just in case.」
「There is. What is it?」
I tell him the name of a Japanese movie that is based on a romance manga that I have at home.
「Ah— after that. Umina said she wanted to see it.」
「Ibaraki-san did?」
「The guy who plays the heroine’s partner. She seems to like him.」
「Oh, I see.」
I answered in a mumbled voice,「Do you like it too, Mr. Sendai?」I ask. But I quickly swallowed the words and uttered the most natural line of dialogue in the place.
「Does Sendai-san have movie she wanted to see?」
「I do.」
What I heard from her mouth was the title of the movie I least wanted to hear in this world.
「Do you want to see it?」
「It’s for summer, isn’t it? Is Miyagi okay with horror?」
It’s not alright.
The movie that Sendai-san wanted to see was a so-called B-grade horror movie set in a school. She doesn’t seem like the type to watch these movies. And I don’t even want to watch commercials for horror movies.
I would like to turn around and go home right now if she says she will watch this movie, but I don’t want to tell Sendai-san because she might make fun of me if I tell her I don’t want to watch it.
「…」
「Oh, is Miyagi someone who can’t take horror stories?」
Sendai-san asks me, as I remain silent.
「It’s not that I don’t want to, I just want to see a different movie.」
「That’s the one. That’s the type of person who can’t go to the bathroom at night because they think it might be haunted.」
「It’s not.」
「If not, would you watch horror?」
Sendai-san says happily.
I never wanted to say I didn’t want to see it because this is what happens. But I don’t want to have to watch horror stories as it is.
「…There’s no such thing as ghosts, but you never know, a hand might come out of the toilet.」
There is something behind me.
I know there is nothing behind me, but when I am home alone, I sometimes feel like there is something behind me and I get scared. In such a case, I don’t think it’s surprising that something came out of the toilet.
「Miyagi, your parent comes home late, right?」
Not only is it late, but he doesn’t come home much. But when I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to bother saying such a thing, Sendai-san chuckled and said.
「Okay, it’s a movie Miyagi wants to see. It would be a problem if you couldn’t go to the bathroom at night.」
「You’re making fun of me.」
「That’s not true. I just think it’s cute, like a child.」
「You’re really making fun of me.」
「I didn’t. But I thought Miyagi likes happy endings. This one, it’s not a happy ending, you know?」
The movie I want to see is a romance movie and in the original comic the heroine dies. As Sendai-san says, the ending is not a happy one, but the main character does get together with the boy she had a crush on, and the ending is not a bad one.
But now I am more concerned about Sendai-san’s memory than the ending of the movie.
It is true that I once said in front of her that a romance novel with a non-happy ending was boring, but that was only once.
「You remember it well.」
「I resent you for spoiling it for me.」
Sendai-san says in a tone that makes it hard to tell whether she is joking or serious.
「After all, you read it all the way through.」
「Well, yeah. So, does the movie have to have a happy ending?」
「Even if it doesn’t have a happy ending, I still like it.」
「Then, let’s buy the tickets.」
Sendai-san smiles at me and turns away.
She smiles more than usual today.
Because we are friends.
Even if that was the reason, Sendai-san was different from yesterday, and I was not at ease when the movie started.