CH 5

Walking, walking, walk.

There are two of us and we walk in silence.

Silence is not my forte.

If there are two of us, I want to talk about something, and if it’s quiet, I’m afraid I’ve offended them. I don’t mind if Miyagi is angry, but I was the one who was wondering why I made her angry, but she remains to be silent and does not speak.

I should talk with a little caution.

What a reminder, but Miyagi doesn’t speak, so I walk silently away from the bookstore.

I realized I should have gone home.

I shouldn’t have thought of going to Miyagi’s house.

Under a dreary sky, I walked silently, feeling sorry for myself for being so thoughtless, until I arrived at an expensive-looking apartment building.

She’s willing to pay 5,000 yen for it.

The apartment building, which was magnificent enough to make me think of such a thing, was rather close to our house. It was about a 15- or 20-minute walk. I had no idea that this girl from the same class lived so close to us.

But it was obvious when I think about it.

We bumped into each other at a bookstore and walked straight home, so there was no way she far from her home.

「I’m on the sixth floor.」

Miyagi says as she gets in the elevator.

「Yeah, okay.」

I won’t tell her that my house is close to here.

It’s not something I would go out of my way to mention, and I have no intention of getting close to Miyagi, so there’s no point in telling her.

I look at the elevator display and see the numbers change to four, five, six, and stop. I walk along, following Miyagi. She opens the front door at the far end and invites me in.

「Sit there. I’ll get you something.」

「Don’t mind if I do.」

Her room is about the same size as my room or even bigger. It was one of the rooms for a highschool student. It was clean and tidy, with a large bed and a bookshelf full of books like an idiot.

As I approached the bookshelf to see what kind of books were there, the door slammed open. I turn to see Miyagi placing a glass of clear liquid on a small table.

「Do you read manga?」

I asked as I looked at the spine of the book, Miyagi answered curtly,「I read,」and then suddenly said loudly,「That’s right.」

「I’ll have you read me a manga. Sendai-san, come over here and sit down.」

Saying this, Miyagi stood up. When I was still in the bookshelf, she tapped on the shoulder and said,「Leave them away.」

I sat down at the table and drank the clear liquid, which made my mouth shudder, if I wondered where all the talk about making it work had gone. Realizing that the sweet liquid was cider, I set my glass down.

I don’t like carbonation much.

I was thinking that the usual members would not serve cider in such a situation when Miyagi sat down across from me.

「Read this.」

She handed me a manga with a well-dressed boy and timid-looking girl in the cover. I skimmed through a few pages and found that it appeared to be a romance comic.

5,000 yen just to read something like this?

I don’t understand Miyagi’s thought process.

But as I was honestly turning the pages because I was told to read them, Miyagi said in a bored tone.

「No, not like that. Read it out loud.」

「Read aloud?」

「Yes. That’s your 5,000 yen job, or rather, my order.」

「So it’s not a job, it’s an order?」

「Un.」

I don’t know when work was replaced by orders, but it’s probably useless to ask why. Miyagi is not thinking deeply about it. She must be deciding in the spur of the moment or something.

「I don’t care if it’s a job or an order, but five grand for something as simple as reading a book?」

I quickly proceed to talk my way home.

「Un. But, read all the way to the last page.」

「Okay—」

If all I have to do is read the manga aloud, it’s a piece of cake.

I would casually reply and read out the toothy lines like “I love you” and “You’re the only one.”

If I had been asked to read out a novel, I would have been disappointed, but since it was a manga with few words, I was able to get right to it. However, I soon came to regret taking on the project so lightly.

「……Isn’t this book, too erotic?」

After abandoning the task of reading the book and checking the storyline ahead of time, I found that the characters were nearly naked, whether I flipped through or not.

Half of the book was a bed scene.

And the dialogue is all about moaning and stuff like that.

The content is quite intense, and I wonder what is going on in Miyagi’s head, having such things read aloud.

It’s not like I don’t like erotica, but it’s not something I want to read up on. I mean, not many people would want to read it out loud. There was a fresh surprise that even a simple girl like Miyagi would read this kind of manga, but regret outweighed it.

「It’s erotic.」

Miyagi says simply.

「Am I going to read this out loud down the road?」

「Read the whole thing out loud.」

「Are you listening to porn, by any chance?」

「It’s not my cup of tea, but I can’t think of any other orders?」

「Don’t you have to give me an order? If you got the change and the money I pay you back tomorrow, that would solve the problem.」

I don’t know why she don’t want to accept the money but Miyagi is too much trouble. She is stubborn and difficult to deal with.

「I don’t care about the 5,000 yen, and I don’t want it. Quick and read again.」

She really doesn’t seem to care about the money, and Miyagi rushes me.

I have no obligation to go along with this nonsense, but I don’t want to take 5,000 yen from her, and I since I promised to work for 5,000 yen, I must fulfill that promise.

Yes, I am a problematic person in my own way.

「——Okay.」

More or some.

Something or other, one way or another, or something.

I’m dizzy from the endless dialogue I don’t want to say out loud.

What am I doing?

What am I being read in front of Miyagi, who I have never spoken to before, just because we are in the same class.

Absolutely, Miyagi is an idiot.

There is no doubt about it. She is a perverted fool.

As I recall, her grades are——

I wonder what her grades are.

I don’t know much about Miyagi.

「Sendai-san, keep your voice down.」

My attention turns away from the book, and Miyagi notes.

「It’s not something you read out loud.」

「There’s no one here today, so it’s okay to read out loud.」

Even if it’s okay there, it’s not okay here.

Today is the worst, it’s not my lucky day.

I can’t find my wallet and she make me read pornographic manga.

While complaining in my mind, I had to read it aloud, even wheezing exactly, I had to quench my thirst with soda, which I didn’t want to drink.

「Surprisingly, you’re not very good at this, you’re like a stick. I thought you were good at this kind of thing because you play along with them.」

「I’m a neat and tidy girl, so I’m playing around. Also, I don’t play around.」

I need to correct Miyagi’s rude remarks.

「You do that kind of thing because it makes you look good with men.」

「I told you that’s wrong.」

Acting neat and tidy at school is not for the guys to like me. I’m just trying to get the teacher’s attention.

「People say you look innocent, but you’re actually playing around.」

「That’s the image you have of me.」

I didn’t know that the group to which Miyagi and the others belonged thought I was playing around. Or rather, that was the rumor. It was a fact that I am not happy about.

「And that’s the end of your orders?」

I ask Miyagi, tossing aside the disgraceful rumors.

「Finished.」

「What do I do now?」

「You can go home or not. Do whatever you want, Sendai-san.」

「Then, I’m going home. And can I borrow the rest of the manga? It was pretty interesting.」

It says first volume on the spine, so there must be second volume. I’m not a fan of reading it up, but I am curious to see the rest of the manga itself. But Miyagi said something different from what I expected in a voice devoid of any affection.

「No.」

「Ugh, petty. Why don’t you just lend me a manga?」

「5,000 yen.」

「What? Are you going to charge 5,000 yen just to rent one manga? It would be cheaper to buy it myself.」

「Wrong. I’ll give it to Sendai-san.」

「Haah?」

The unexpected words made me sound dumb.

「You’re buying them for 5,000 yen each, after school, Sendai-san. So you can read the rest when you come here.」

Buying a classmate for 5,000 yen is too much to be true.

She gave me some incomprehensible order to read aloud an erotic manga earlier, and it’s not surprising that she said she was looking for my body.

「No, I’m not selling myself. I mean, what are you going to do with me? Sex? Isn’t 5,000 yen too cheap for that? Also, I’m not interested in women having sex with other women.」

I was quickly wound up with a proposal I hadn’t considered.

「What am I going to do, Sendai-san? I don’t intend to do anything like that with you?」

「Then, what is it? What are you going to do with me for 5,000 yen.」

「Once or twice a week. Come to my house after school and listen to what I say. Just like today.」

Miyagi looked at me without smiling.

「You mean I’m going to do reading of an erotic manga?」

「Yes, that’s one thing, and I’d like you to do my homework or something like that.」

「What’s that? Uh, I’m your handyman?」

I don’t like being asked to sell my body for 5,000 yen, but I also don’t like being told to do a homework for 5,000 yen.

But I don’t think it’s a bad price to pay for doing homework for 5,000 yen.

「Wait, that’s wrong. I’m going to give you an order, and you’re going listen to it.」

「An order of what? I don’t want you to hit me, and I definitely don’t want to have sex with you.」

I really don’t know what’s going on in Miyagi’s head, so I can’t predict what she will say. So, in the meantime, I declare that I will not sell my body.

「I don’t like violence either, and I have no intention of getting into relationship where I would have sex with Sendai-san.」

「If I said didn’t want to, would you ask someone else to do it?」

「I won’t. I’ll pay you 5,000 yen to let me order you to do something, you really thought I’m crazy for saying it like that.」

No, no, the current situation is already strange enough.

I have already inputted that “Miyagi is a dangerous person” in my mind.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not interested. I buy magazines I don’t want to read to get into a good mood in order to talk to my group in school. It seems to me that something more interesting is about to happen than just doing that.

「Would you be okay with me?」

「It wasn’t a nice idea, but it just happened.」

「Well, fine then. You’ll give me 5,000 yen for one order to pass the time. We can’t do it in holidays, but after school.」

If it happens there, it happens here.

I don’t want to be forced to read an erotic manga, but that seems the upper limit of the command game, and it’s not a bad idea to go along with it for a little bit.

I am also interested in Miyagi as a person.

I want to know what this strange girl will order me to do. Besides, if I really don’t like something, I can just turn in the 5,000 yen—— I don’t think she would accept it, though.

「Then, it’s a deal. Also, I won’t talk to you at school, but can I contact you on my phone?」

「That’s fine.」

I accepted Miyagi’s proposal lightly, knowing that I might regret it again.

We then exchanged contact information and left her room.

I waved to Miyagi, who ritually walks me to the entrance of her apartment building and I head home.

It was not raining.

I looked up at the sky, which had been gloomy, and before I knew it, the clouds had disappeared.