CH 14

Compared to midwinter, the temperature of the fan heater was set lower. Still, it was hot in Miyagi’s room.

Spring break will be here in a few days, so the temperature should be set a little lower. Miyagi is reading a comic book in a room so hot that I think so, without even taking off her blazer.

She must be too cold.

If two people are in the same room with too different room temperatures that feel just right, one of them has to compromise. Normally, they would give priority to their visitor, but it seems that I am not a visitor and Miyagi’s preferences always come first.

I didn’t mind that, but I had nothing to take off as I had already taken off my blazer. I had already undone the top button of my blouse, too.

I got off the bed and picked up the cider. There was also a bag of popcorn on the table.

It’s unusual because I usually just have the cider.

After quenching my throat with the soda, which I don’t like, I unbuttoned another button on my blouse. Then I took two white lumps out of the bag and threw them into my mouth.

「Do you go away for spring break?」

I asked Miyagi who’s sitting next to me, but she didn’t reply.

This doesn’t feel so good.

She has been in a bad mood since I got here. Or rather, she has been in a bad mood recently. To be precise, she has been in a bad mood since the day I made karaage.

If that day is the cause, I think Miyagi’s mind is too small. Not just a cat’s forehead, but as narrow as a rat’s forehead.

I pick up the manga Miyagi is reading and flip to the cover, which shows a boy with a sword. After reading a few pages, I hear a piercing voice from next door.

「What are your plans, Sendai-san?」

「Well, I’m going out with Umina and the others. I’m also going to a prep school.」

「Didn’t you go to a prep during winter break?」

「I did.」

In April, I will be a third-year student and will take the entrance exam.

The path I should take is set.

I will follow in the footsteps of my older sister, who is very talented.

I just don’t think I can do it, My sister, who is two years older than me, is attending a university that only very smart people can go to. What is required is to go to a university at the same level as hers, and the truth is that even now she has to go to cram school. Since I’m kicking it and wandering around, I’m likely to be kicked out of the house unless I at least accepts to go to a prep school for a long vacation.

「You like to study, don’t you?」

「Not so much.」

I don’t know how Miyagi sees me, but the words she uttered are true. I used to like studying, but not so much since my parents started using it as a tool to compare me with my sister.

「Miyagi isn’t going anywhere?」

「I’m going out with my friends.」

「Utsunomiya?」

I mention the name of a classmate she is always with.

「That’s right.」

She answered shortly and Miyagi took back the manga from me. Then she opened the place a little further than halfway.

The conversation is over.

It wasn’t verbalized, but I could tell by Miyagi, who never looked up from her comic book. I pick up a handful of popcorn and bring it to my mouth.

It’s either butter, or caramel.

That’s the kind of flavor I like when I eat popcorn, but the one in this room is just salty. It’s like Miyagi, but not enough.

Still, as I picked up another popcorn to pass the time, Miyagi grabbed me by the wrist.

「What?」

「I’ll feed you.」

It began.

Even without calling it an “order,” I could tell from Miyagi’s smiling face that the “order play” had begun. However, I do not have a good feeling about what is about to happen.

Miyagi grabs a bag of popcorn.

She places the contents roughly in the palm of her hand.

「Okay.」

Miyagi said this and held out in front of me her left hand, which was heaped with a good amount of popcorn.

Somehow.

I somehow expected it to be demanded. But I erase it from my mind, pick up a piece of popcorn and throw it in my mouth.

「Eat it without using your hands like a dog.」

I was told no before chewing the food in my mouth.

I knew it, so that’s how it is.

I am convinced that this is why there was such a thing here as sweets, which are not usually available.

I once thought it would be better to be told to be obedient like a dog, but I would not feel good if I were really told to be a dog. Still, an order is an order, and I obediently obeyed.

I turn to her, bring my face close to her palm, and take the popcorn between my lips.

One by one, without using my hands.

I put it in my mouth and eat it.

When I actually ate the popcorn from Miyagi’s hand, I felt more like a pigeon than a dog. I looked up to see if she finds it interesting for me to do this, and Miyagi had a subtle look on her face.

「Eat it all.」

As if urging me to do so, she tugs at my bangs.

Apparently, she doesn’t intend to stop with the boring orders.

I pick at the popcorn like a bird eating crumbs from a person’s hand. Miyagi’s hand pats in the head as if to tell me that I, the pigeon, was a dog all along.

I ate every single piece of popcorn she have left, even though it seems terribly ridiculous.

Finally, I lick Miyagi’s empty hand.

Miyagi’s hand trembled and she tried to pull her arm away.

It was Miyagi that said to act “like a dog.”

I caught her hand as it tried to run away from and pressed my tongue hard against it. I slowly licked from the base of her fingers and to the middle of her palm, and it tasted like popcorn.

「Caramel flavor might be good this time.」

I lick her fingers like a dog, as she wishes and then makes the request.

「Not this time.」

Miyagi pulls out a tissue box with an alligator cover and wipes her palm. The tissue, now a scrap of paper, is rolled up and tossed into the trash. Then, without warning, she grabbed my tie.

I prepared myself for what she was going to do to me, but then my tie was undone without hesitation. Relentlessly, one of the buttons of my blouse was undone, and without thinking, I brushed her hand away.

「Hey, this is against the rules. I don’t intend to have that kind of relationship with Miyagi.」

Two of the buttons on my blouse had been undone from the beginning, so my bosom was bare because of Miyagi. It doesn’t diminish the fact that she can see it, but she was not close enough who would unbutton the third button.

「I think you’re overthinking the relationship we had just because I loosen your tie.」

Miyagi says in a tone of voice that says she has not the slightest intention of doing so. However, having had my tie and buttons undone, I can’t help but to think that was the intention.

「Then, what are you going to do?」

The reply to the question was a bit rough.

Miyagi untied my braided hair and roughly pushed my shoulders.

She lives her life by forgetting the concept of addition and subtraction.

When she bit me on the finger, she did so with surprisingly strong force.

Even now, she pushes me so hard that I lose my balance and fall to the floor.

「Ouch—!」

A bed would have been fine, but I had pain in my arms and back from being pushed down on the wooden floor with nothing to cushion me. On top of that, Miyagi would come up riding me as her horse, making it impossible to get up.

「I knew it, this what you were going to do.」

I try to brush her off.

「No, it’s not.」

I looked up at Miyagi’s cold voice and saw that she had neither a lustful look on her face, nor a look of hesitation on her face.

Then, what are you going to do?

Miyagi, looking cool if forced, reaches for the table.

Eh?

Miyagi picked up a bag of popcorn.

The next thing I know, white stuff is falling on my face.

In short, I was smashed with popcorn.

「Hey— Miyagi—!」

With my face, hair, and blouse covered in popcorn, I grab Miyagi’s tie.

「This isn’t but a joke.」

I spend a good deal of time on my hair.

I use expensive treatments and expensive hair dryers with negative ions.

I can forgive anything that is in the shape of popcorn. But the fine pieces and powdery stuff is not acceptable. They get mixed in with my hair and it’s awful. It is indeed annoying.

「I’m not kidding. I’m just trying to get you eat more popcorn.」

Without changing a single expression, Miyagi picks one of the scattered popcorn pieces and and shoves it to my mouth. After biting down the popcorn with every finger in my mouth as if to vent my frustration, Miyagi took a glass from the table.

「…Seriously?」

Ciders shakes on her face.

Miyagi laughs.

The glass is tipped and I involuntarily closed my eyes and let go of the tie was holding on to. When I covered my face, the back of my hand got wet as if raindrops were slapping against it. I open my eyes and see that it that the glass was empty.

「You really did this much to me.」

My voice naturally lowers.

「Even Sendai-san can get angry.」

I’m a human too.

The only reason I don’t usually get angry is because I’m holding back.

「I’d be crazy to not be mad about this.」

「I think you’re being nice.」

「What’s wrong with that.」

「The blazer, tie and skirt are all safe. Even if the blouse is don’t get washed in time, I have replacements, so you won’t be in trouble.」

「…You mean you were planning to do this from the beginning?」

Without answering, Miyagi stands up.

With weights gone, I raise myself up and dust off the popcorn.

Indeed, the only thing wet in the uniform was the blouse.

That doesn’t mean it’s okay to dump popcorn on people or pour cider on them. I would have say not one, but a hundred complaints to make me feel better. But before I can open my mouth, towels and long-sleeved cut-and-sewns come flying out.

「Put it on, I’ll give it to you. You don’t have to return it.」

After saying this, Miyagi left the room.

Having lost someone to complain to, I take off my blouse and wipe my cider-soaked hands and hair with a towel. I looked at the clothes that had been tossed to me and saw that they were something that I, a little bigger than Miyagi, would have been able to wear.

I don’t want to wear it.

I think about that when I look back at what Miyagi did. But I couldn’t put on my wet blouse, so I put on Miyagi’s clothes and the door opened.

「I’ll walk you home.」

Miyagi, who took the liberty of deciding I was leaving, says, holding a bag in her hands to hold my wet blouse.

I can’t help but question her nerve to send it to me so ritually even at a time like this. But Miyagi is a strange person from the beginning. She was not a normal person at the time she started playing command games with her classmate, so I think she should agree that this is the kind of person she was.

She will do what she want to do anyway, even if I complain, and I will not see any improvement. It is not the kind of thing that is expected to improve in the first place.

Those who give orders and those who are ordered to do so.

Since money is an intervening factor, there are days like this. It would be easier to be convinced of this. However, I am left with an unsettling feeling.

「Sendai-san」

She tells me to urge myself to put on my coat. Then, as usual, we both leave Miyagi’s house, take the elevator, and walk to the entrance.

「Bye-bye.」

Miyagi, says,「See you later,」before I can even greet her, and turns away.

「I’ll pay you back for this.」

I shout to Miyagi’s back.

My blouse was stained by Miyagi. Even so, I don’t want to take the clothes if I am told they are mine. Just like money, I return what I have to return.

It’s almost spring break and I probably won’t see Miyagi again during this sophomore year. The next time I will see her will be in April.

If I look at the stars, I can see a number of stars.

There is no wind and it is warm for March.

I could even find constellations by connecting the stars with lines.

If nothing else, I think it was a good night.

But when I remember what was done to me today, it only seems like a bad night. When I returned home, I found on my desk a pamphlet for a prep school that I would have to start to attend starting April.

I don’t want to go there.

I sighed loudly.