CH 29

I knew that if I opened the refrigerator, there would be nothing in there.

I sigh in the kitchen.

If Sendai-san did not buy the ingredients, she would not be able to make karaage.

Well, even if I had the ingredients, I couldn’t make it.

「What should I eat, I wonder?」

Although I mumbled as if there were enough dinner to choose from, there was only one thing that was in this house that I could easily eat.

I close the refrigerator and take out two cup noodles from the kitchen cabinet. I peel off the wrapping film and open the lid. I try to open another one and realize that it is not necessary.

「Ahh, ugh.」

After the eraser hunt, which began on a whim, I felt somewhat awkward and sent Sendai-san home. It was like a habit for us to have dinner together on the days she came over, so it was like a habit for me to prepare dinner for both of us, and my body would do it on its own.

I put the extra one back on the shelf, then put the cup of noodles on the counter table and pour hot water from the pot. Then, I set the timer on my phone and wait three minutes.

The spacious kitchen and living room are unnecessarily large, making me feel uncomfortable when I’m alone, as if something is lurking somewhere.

It’s like being in someone else’s house, except in my own room.

I turn around and look at the TV that no one watches and the table that no one uses.

When was the last time I had dinner with my father here?

I try to think about it but I can’t remember.

I sighed at the memory I couldn’t find, and my phone made a high-pitched sound that made me shiver.

「That scared me.」

Heartbreaking.

As heartbreaking as anything Sendai-san does.

Today, when she called me Shiori, my heart almost stopped.

Only Maika and Ami call me Shiori, and Sendai-san has never called me that before.

So my breathing was disturbed by the unexpected call.

I don’t think it’s a good thing I didn’t turn around right away.

I peel off the lid of the cup ramen and take the noodles in my mouth.

「It doesn’t taste very good.」

Cup ramen is not that good, but it tastes better when you eat it with someone.

Even if she was Sendai-san, she should be there.

But Sendai-san does things differently than usual, so I had to eat alone.

「What is with, today?」

Sendai-san was being familiar to begin with, but she became even more familiar than before. The distance is strange, she licks my fingers when I don’t order her to, and she suddenly calls me Shiori.

She touched me as if she wanted me to get closer to her, which made me want to touch her too.

The result was a search for erasers.

She’s out of her mind.

Sendai-san is crazy.

If she had been sane, I would not have been eating dinner alone.

What happened, and what’s going on?

I have no idea——

I get some barley tea and put the glass on the table.

As I traced my fingertips down my own neck, my barley tea-cold hands felt awfully cold.

Perhaps Sendai-san is aware of what I have done.

The day Sendai-san creased the cover of the textbook, I touched her neck.

She started doing mean things to me since then.

She was obedient in her own way, but lately she’s been rebellious and does things I don’t want. I don’t want to be called by my name, nor do I want to be ordered to do something I didn’t order to be done.

There are rules here.

If I follow them, Sendai-san will listen to any order I give.

I can give any order I want within the rules. If I want to touch her, I can touch her, and I can even get her to change her rebellious attitude. I don’t care if Sendai-san was aware of what I had done, because I could order her to forget about it if I wanted to.

And yet, today I felt awkward, as if I had done something naughty.

I eat my ramen, which is almost stretched out, and drink barley tea.

I still don’t think it tastes good.

It’s not enough to taste and eat, so I shove the rest of the noodles into my stomach and get up.

I clean up the garbage that has been produced and turn off the lights.

In the pitch-dark living room, even my outline is not clear.

I holds my finger, touched by Sendai-san’stongue, up to the extinguished light.

I can’t see anything, so I touch the tip of my finger with my lips as if to check it.

Naturally, I couldn’t taste anything, so I went back to my room.

「Ah, the eraser.」

The open bag reminds me of this.

Sendai-san had not given me back my eraser.

「You better give it back.」

I can’t do my homework.

I was not willing to do it, but I was going to do it. But because of Sendai-san, I can’t do it. If this is the case, I wish I had asked her to do my homework.

But Sendai-san has gone home, and complaining won’t get me my eraser back. Homework was not going to magically get done.

I should ask Maika to show it to me.

Homework will be abandoned early, leaving it to Maika tomorrow.

Sleeping early, the next morning I ended up buying erasers at a convenience store before going to school.

Sendai-san is in the next class, but she never came to return the eraser. Even when we passed by each other, she never even mentioned the eraser.

I promised not to talk to her at school, so that’s how it is. I’m not the least bit unhappy about it.

I can ask where the eraser is the next time I call to her. I don’t have to worry about having a new eraser, and if you lost it because erasers are cheap, that’s fine.

But then nothing unpleasant happened that made me want to call Sendai-san. I was willing to put up with a little bit of unpleasantness, and it was kind of hard to call her out on it. But after a week had passed since the last time I called her, I couldn’t not call her.

Because it is strange that I suddenly stopped calling Sendai-san.

I send a message to Sendai-san even though I have no business with her for the first time.

『Come to my house.』

The reply came quickly, and she came to my room the next day, saying she had a prep school.