CH 42

I touch the straps of the bra.

The white shoulder straps are unreliable and could easily be removed with a slight movement of the hand.

I shifted it a little on my shoulder and looked at Sendai-san, who had a look on her face that told me I was not welcome, though she did not blatantly reject me. Still, Sendai-san doesn’t tell me to stop.

I take my hand away from her and ask.

「You’re not going to resist?」

「Miyagi ordered me not to move. If she wants me to resist, I will.」

If this wasn’t an order, she would have resisted.

It’s obvious, but that’s what Sendai-san says in a voice that sounds like that.

「If you want to resist, go ahead.」

「If you break your promise, I will resist.」

「Isn’t this against the rules?」

「If my uniform hadn’t been soaked, I would have been overstretched.」

「You mean a special exception?」

「That’s right. Miyagi said I’d catch a cold if I didn’t, right?」

Taking off your clothes may be a violation, but only if there is a reason for taking them off.

I guess that’s how it is.

Promises are not so rigid.

She was more flexible and accommodating than I thought she would be.

It can be said that she was convenient.

「But I haven’t given you 5,000 yen yet.」

「Were you not going to give it to me?」

「I’ll hand it over later.」

There is no way that I would not give Sendai-san 5,000 yen.

Even today, if she had not been soaking wet, I would have given it to her. If I don’t, Sendai-san will never come here again. Instead, I give her 5,000 yen and she will follow most of my orders.

The loose rules continue to change and continue to be just right for us today. I’m allowed to pay, and today I got the great honor of being a special exception.

So, I have no problem in undressing Sendai-san as she is. But I’ve unbuttoned her wet blouse and haven’t been able to go beyond that.

I can’t do something that isn’t a big deal.

I hate this kind of thing, it’s like it’s meant to take off her clothes.

I don’t want to feel like there is a guilty part of me.

I hate Sendai-san, who doesn’t even get upset when I was about to take off her clothes.

She is always like this.

She forces me to make a tedious choice and make me choose. Today, too, I am the one who decides what to do next. Sendai-san has a look on her face that says she has nothing to do with it.

Even now, she doesn’t really want to be undressed.

I reached out and placed my hand over Sendai-san’s heart. Then I pressed my palm against it.

「Sendai-san, it’s chilly.」

I couldn’t tell if the heartbeat was fast or not.

However, Sendai-san was so cold that I mistakenly thought my body temperature was high.

「Because I’m soaked.」

Even without looking closely, one can see that the uniform dripping with water is depriving Sendai-san of her body heat.

When I touch her cheek, it is still cold.

When I touch her lips, they are still cold.

Everywhere was surprisingly cold, and when I unexpectedly let go of my hand, Sendai-san touched my cheek.

「It’s warm in Miyagi, isn’t it?」

Her cold hands take my body heat.

Come to think of it, Sendai-san touched my cheek that time too.

The day we kissed for the first time.

Her hands were much warmer than they are now. That was in May, and I remember that day well. But I don’t remember exactly what day it was, or even what day of the week it was.

If I kiss Sendai-san here and now, what would happen to the calendar in my mind?

I grab Sendai-san’s hand, which is touching my cheek, and pulls her closer.

Her lips are not close enough to touch, but her well-defined face is close.

I make eye contact with Sendai-san.

I bring my face a little closer.

But she didn’t close her eyes.

I don’t mind the fact that I kissed her will remain in my memory, but I don’t want the memory of trying to kiss Sendai-san, who would not close her eyes, and being rejected.

I let go of her hand that was holding me and step back a little.

Unable to look Sendai-san in the eye, I opened the front of her blouse.

I see white underwear that I could not remove.

My heart almost reacts and I let out a small breath.

I shift the shoulder straps and put my lips on her chest.

I was sucking hard on her cold body, Sendai-san grabs my shoulders. But she don’t just grab me and pull me off.

Instead of marking the calendar in my mind, I mark Sendai-san with a red mark. These things should be left to Sendai-san, not my memory.

When I pulled my face away, I saw a thin red mark on her chest.

I stroked there as if to check.

The moist skin seems to absorb it and press hard with fingertips. I put my lips on it again, feeling that only the reddened area was hot, and the hand holding my shoulder tightened.

「I thought you were going to undress me.」

I heard a grumpy voice and looked up to see Sendai-san looking uninterested.

「I don’t think the mark, it won’t stay that long.」

I utter a different answer to the question as if it were an excuse.

「I don’t care if it was this bad, it’ll go away soon.」

Red marks are not strongly marked.

It’s just that it may be gone tomorrow. Even the location is chosen to be out of sight of others. There is no reason for Sendai-san to be angry with me, and the fact that I didn’t undress her is not something to be angry about. Still, it is uncomfortable and I leave her.

「I’ll get you a change of clothes.」

She might say I ran away again.

That’s what I thought, but my feet left Sendai-san behind and headed for my room. I pull a change of clothes out of the closet and shoved them at Sendai-san in the doorway.

「I’ll be in my room. Go there when you’re done changing.」

After saying this, I return to my room.

As I sat on the bed and looked at my hands, I saw that the rain that had soaked Sendai-san had also dampened my palms.

「That was different from usual.」

I squeezed my hand.

It looked the same as usual with Sendai-san, but today it was a little different.

The Sendai-san I know would not silently accept something like what I just did, even if there was a reason. She won’t say special exceptions, and she won’t allow hickeys on her chests.

Sendai-san is strange.

To put it correctly, it has changed.

I don’t want to be told which part, but it is different from before.

And I’m not right either.

I wanted to undress Sendai-san until I had a reason to do so.

More importantly, I wanted to see her undressed.

——This feeling is absolutely ridiculous.

Even Sendai-san not resisting is absolutely strange, and it’s odd that something like this can happen so easily.

「Miyagi, I’m heading in.」

With a knock on the door, I hear Sendai-san’s voice through the door, which I would not normally call out to her.

「Why don’t you just go in on your own like you always do?」

I complain to be heard in the hallway, and Sendai-san, wearing my T-shirt and sweatshirt, comes into the room.

「Yes, but somehow.」

Wearing my clothes as if they were her own, Sendai-san looks fresh and different from her familiar uniform.

In addition, T-shirts and sweatshirts that are just loungewear when I wear them look a little expensive when Sendai-san wears them. I don’t want to think of it as a difference in looks, but I guess that’s what it is.

I can’t agree, but I can’t deny it either.

「Give me your uniform.」

Feeling somewhat hazy, I get up and put out my hand.

「What are you going to do?」

「I have a bathroom dryer, so I’ll use that to dry off.」

「Thank goodness I hate going home in a wet uniform.」

After saying this, Sendai-san hands me her uniform. I took it and headed for the bathroom.

Everything is wrong today.

It must be the rain.

It’s the rain that’s causing all this.

I hang the uniform on hangers to dry over the tub.

I turn on the bathroom dryer and take a deep breath.

「It’s all right. Nothing more.」

After saying this to myself, I returned to my room and picked up the 5,000 yen bill that was on my desk.

「Here.」

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I gave 5,000 yen to Sendai-san, who is in front of the bookshelf.

「Thanks.」

Five thousand yen is tucked into her wallet with a thanks. Then silence falls over the room.

We read manga and do our homework.

The silence at those times bothered me only in the beginning, and now it doesn’t bother me not to speak. But today is different. The silence is wrapping around my body and slowly strangling me.

Next door, Sendai-san is doing her homework.

I am reading manga with my bed as my back.

I was doing the same thing as before, but I was suffocating and wanted to leave the room.

「You know, I always give you 5,000 yen in 5,000 yen bills, but do you exchange them every time?」

Sendai-san felt the same way and stopped doing her homework and started talking in a cheerful voice.

「Yes, but why?」

Not exactly every time. I exchange money several times at once.

I have decided to have a 5,000-yen bill ready, as it would give the impression that I am exchanging money, whether by pulling out a 10,000-yen bill and getting change from Sendai-san or handing her five 1,000-yen bills.

「Nothing, it’s just cute.」

「Eh?」

「Because you went out of your way to exchange money to give it to me, right? Isn’t that kind of cute?」

An unfamiliar Sendai-san, dressed in familiar clothes, says with a laugh.

「Shut up. You don’t have to say that.」

「I says it’s better if it’s loud enough.」

Sendai-san looks at me as if to say, “Today is that kind of day.”

「Speaking of which, Miyagi, don’t you go to cram school or prep school during summer vacation?」

「I won’t go?」

「Going to study?」

「I’ll do the homework.」

「That is the minimum required study. Anything else?」

「I don’t want to do it.」

I know I have to, but I don’t want to. I don’t want to go to cram school or prep school, and I don’t have anyone to help me study during summer vacation.

「You should study. You’re a student, right?」

Sendai-san says in a serious voice and pokes my leg with the tip of her pen.

Not much time left until summer vacation.

The thought of a long vacation coming soon depresses me.