CH 25

Miyagi, who’s bewildered, was interesting.

What a bad character to say, but I have a problem with Miyagi who reacts as if she is confessing her sins.

「Don’t move.」

I reach across the table toward Miyagi, who is sitting on the other side of the table reading a comic book. But before my fingertips could touch her, she made a dubious sound.

「What?」

「It’s got hair on it.」

When I tell him why I reached for it, Miyagi looks up from his book and asks,「Where?」

「I’ll get it for you.」

I puts my hands on the table and leans forward.

With fingers outstretched toward her chest, I touched Miyagi’s neck.

I didn’t touch it hard.

Just really lightly, for a moment.

It was just a crazy touch on my hand, but Miyagi jerked back more than she should have.

A few days ago.

The day I fell asleep in this room, I woke up with a tickle in my neck area. But my head was more than half asleep, so I didn’t know exactly what had been done to me.

Well, however.

The event that I thought was a dream was not a dream after all.

Watching Miyagi’s reaction, I can be sure of that.

It was Miyagi’s lips that touched my neck that day.

I tug at her shoulder-length hair.

「Ouch.」

「Sorry. It wasn’t out of it yet.」

I’ll say that, even though the hair I pulled was not shedding by any stretch of the imagination.

「You’re doing it on purpose.」

「It looked like it was missing, so I just thought I’d take it off for you.」

I don’t deny that it’s deliberate, because it’s not wrong.

I fasten one button of the blouse that was always two open.

I had just entered this room wearing my tie more properly than usual, but she looked away from me.

Ever since then, Miyagi has been acting strangely.

Even now, she’s surprised to the point of exaggeration at the slightest mischief.

「Homework. Come on, do it.」

Miyagi says grimly.

A stray cat, which should have been friendly, reveals its wariness.

Because today, Miyagi looks like that.

「Don’t rush me. I’m almost done.」

Do your homework.

The orders given about an hour ago have become a bit cumbersome since the class split. If we were in the same class, the homework was the same, and the feeling was that I was being asked to copy the homework I had done. But now I have to do her homework just for her because the homework assigned is different.

Miyagi’s grades are not particularly good, and she seems to have difficulty in some subjects, but they should not be that bad.

There are exams to take, and you should take them seriously.

Whatever it is, the better classified you are, the more options you have.

It is better to be able to study than not to be able to study.

There are more colleges to choose from and more futures to choose from beyond that. Of course, there is a limit to everything and there is a fixed place to reach, so it can be a futile effort.

「College, have you decided?」

Miyagi, who answered「I don’t know」when asked a similar question earlier in April, gave a similar but different answer.

「I haven’t decided. If I go, I’ll go wherever I can get in.」

「It’s too random」

「I’m not interested. I don’t care about that, and I just want to have my homework done.」

「Yes, yes. I know, I know.」

What a waste.

I’m not going to tell her to go to the same prep school, and I’m not going to tell her to give it her all, but Miyagi is too unmotivated.

She is always throwing herself at me.

That day, she touched me aggressively, or rather, without refusal, with her lips.

I put my hand on my neck.

I don’t know why she decided to put her lips on such a place. I thought it might have been an extension of the hickey she wanted to wear, but then she would have had a mark on my neck.

What does it mean to just touch?

I don’t mind if Miyagi approaches the relationship of friend that she denies. But her actions seem to be rapidly transforming our relationship into something other than friends.

I’m glad that she misses me, but I don’t want things like that to continue.

I’m afraid that I’m going to get too involved with Miyagi.

I don’t want a relationship that intense.

I am fine with a gray level of friendship, not too white, not too black.

Otherwise, I feel like I won’t be able to say goodbye well next year.

Besides, I didn’t really feel that bad about what Miyagi did to me.

That’s not how it works.

I can’t explain what is different, but it is different.

I pick up an eraser and throw it at Miyagi.

The gently curved eraser goes over the textbook and rolls to her side.

「You don’t talk much today. What’s wrong?」

I call out to Miyagi, who looks up and unbuttons the second button from the top of her blouse, and she looks away unnaturally.

I am uncomfortable that I am the only one who is emotionally disturbed.

Miyagi should be a little annoyed too.

「Nothing.」

Miyagi said in a brusque voice and immediately looked down at the book he was reading.

「Do you want to talk about someone you like?」

「I don’t.」

I know.

You don’t seem to like that kind of talk.

I thought she was not a gossipy person, but I was wrong. She have a good network of people who know enough to know that I have been confessed.

「Miyagi, is there anyone you like?」

「That kind of talk, I don’t like it.」

「Then why did you ask me about it the other day?」

She wanted to talk so much that she went out of her way to ask me why I refused to confess.

Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten that.

「…」

She don’t seem to want to respond, and I can hear them flipping through the pages of their comic books.

「Miyagi.」

I urged her to respond, but she didn’t move an inch.

But if I look closely, I can see a wrinkle between Miyagi’s eyebrows.

I stroke my neck lightly.

That’s because you kissed me in this place.

It’s self-inflicted.

You should be sorry.

But it is no fun to be in the same room with Miyagi who ignores me.

「Oh, right. Lend me your books during Golden Week.」

It’s time to forgive her and change the subject.

「I don’t want to.」

「I thought you would say that.」

These places are always Miyagi.

I wish it could be like this all the time.

If the same things are repeated as usual, the peace will last longer.

I don’t want to be on an emotional roller coaster.

That’s why Miyagi’s unchanging reply was comforting.