CH 165

What Miyagi wants me to tell her — 165

Translated by KaiesV

Edited by KaiesV

「It’s different from what I imagined. I thought it was more like a college girl’s room.」

As soon as she entered my room, Utsunomiya said a line that I have heard somewhere before.

「Miyagi said something similar.」

The me from Utsunomiya’s mind would still be the same me from high school who was in tune with Umina, so it would not be surprising if she gave me the same impression as she did last year like Miyagi. I’m not making myself that much of a college student right now, so I’d like to update my image in her if possible.

「What did Shiori say about something similar?」

「What did I say?」

Miyagi says annoyed and sits down at the table with a plate with his pancake on it and a glass of iced tea.

I carried my own portion.

Then Utsunomiya and I, who carried the plates and glasses to this room, put what we brought on the table in the same way. Then I sat diagonally in front of Miyagi and Utsunomiya sat across from me.

「She came to my house last year during summer vacation and told me she thought the room looked like a high school girl’s room.」

I say something that Miyagi would not have wanted me to say.

Utsunomiya knows that Miyagi and I have been close since high school. And since the story goes that we were teaching each other to study, it’s not surprising that we went back and forth to each other’s homes.

The more lies were made, the more likely they are to fall apart.

It’s better to talk about things that wouldn’t be a big problem to talk about than to hide them in a strange way.

When I look at Miyagi, she’s looking at me with disgruntled eyes, but I pretend not to notice.

「If you two were close enough to visit each other’s homes, you should have told me sooner.」

「Surely if I had told you earlier, the three of us could have had pancakes sooner. Right, Miyagi?」

「That’s right.」

Miyagi smiles vaguely and asks,「Can I have some pancakes?」Not wanting to keep pestering her, I asked her「if you wanted to eat before it gets cold,」and she replied,「Itadakimasu,」from both of us.

「Oh— it’s very fluffy. Delicious.」

Utsunomiya takes a bite of her pancake and smiles at me from across to me.

「Thanks. If it tastes good, then I’m glad.」

I say a small “Itadakimasu” and put the knife into the pancake.

「Shiori told me that Sendai-san is a good cook. Do you like to cook?」

「It’s not that I like cooking. But Miyagi, did you say that?」

Good at cooking.

I didn’t know Miyagi thought of me that way.

To begin with, I had never properly asked Miyagi what she thought of me. I had never heard the specific words, only learning the other day that she thought I looked like a Borzoi.

「Shiori told me about it on the way here.」

「Heh. You don’t usually say things like that.」

I looked at Miyagi diagonally in front of me and saw a subtle look on her face, not wrinkled between the eyebrows but with temples that could have been twitching.

「I’ve told you many times that it’s delicious.」

Miyagi says wildly, and Utsunomiya chuckles.

Utsunomiya’s words are true, as I don’t deny that I am a good cook.

Miyagi was praising me in front of other people.

It makes me feel strange to think so.

I bring the fluffy pancake to my mouth.

The sweetness of maple syrup soaked into the soft pancakes is comforting. I take another bite and look at Miyagi. She is eating pancakes too, but she doesn’t say they are good. I wish she would.

They talk about the best parfait stores and recent purchases, while I bring the pancakes to my mouth. Miyagi smiles at Utsunomiya with a smile I’ve seen in high school. Just as my hands stopped eating the pancakes because of that smile, which wasn’t directed at me, Utsunomiya opened her mouth.

「Oh, right. Sendai-san, are you dating anyone?」

Topics that never come up when I’m alone with Miyagi come up.

「I don’t have any. Does Utsunomiya have one?」

「I don’t have them as well. What about Shiori?」

「You know I don’t have any. Why did you ask?」

「Because that’s the way it goes.」

Utsunomiya says with a smile.

I’m glad she’s the star of today’s show and seems to be enjoying herself, but I have a feeling that her enjoyment is being traded for Miyagi’s longevity. And it’s not good for my heart either.

「I don’t need one. That’s the way it goes.」

Miyagi sighs one sigh and takes a sip of her iced tea.

I’ve never had this kind of conversation with Miyagi before, so it’s a new experience for me, but I’m a little nervous that I might hear something she doesn’t want to hear. But something else comes to mind that I would like to ask.

Things I don’t usually get a chance to ask.

If I heard it, I wish I hadn’t.

Such words go round and round in my head.

「Then, any people you like?」

My heart thudded as what I wanted to hear came out of Utsunomiya’s mouth, not mine.

「You know. That person’s not here.」

Miyagi responds immediately.

I’m relieved and disappointed at the same time to hear the answer as I had thought it would be. If she doesn’t like someone, then there is no possibility that she even like me. I know, and even if she said they’re here, I don’t think it’s me, which makes me depressed about who they might be. Either way, it was discouraging, so I still think it would’ve been better to remain unaware.

「Don’t you have someone you like, Sendai-san?」

Utsunomiya stares at me.

Well, she’s going to ask me if this is the way it’s going to go.

I’m in trouble, I thought.

If I said they were there, it would be troublesome, and I don’t want to say they’re not there where Miyagi is.

「What about Utsunomiya?」

In the meantime, I’ll return the question with a question.

Miyagi would complain, but I don’t think Utsunomiya would complain to me, with whom I am not yet that close.

「None.」

「Okay. Do you always talk like this with Miyagi?」

「Not that I’m saying this, but I was wondering what you would do if someone had a lover sharing a room.」

「We have rules about sharing a room, but we didn’t decide what to do when someone have a lover. Maybe we should set those rules, too.」

I don’t want those rules, because I don’t want the day to come when we need such rules. But I couldn’t bring myself to tell Utsunomiya that, so I kind of went on with the story and asked Miyagi for her agreement, to which she replied,「Indeed.」

「I guess there are rules after all.」

Utsunomiya said sincerly that she was satisfied, and the conversation was cut short.

After eating the rest of the pancakes and looking at Miyagi, she stood up as if remembering.

「I’m going to the toilet.」

Miyagi told Utsunomiya to run away from me.

I know how she felt.

If things continue as they are, Miyagi will be hit by another stray bullet.

「Take care.」

Continuing this conversation, both Miyagi and I are likely to be seriously injured, so we maturely send Miyagi off.

Now, I am alone with Utsunomiya.

What should we talk about?

I pull a nearby platypus tissue cover and pat its head, looking for a bland topic. Then Utsunomiya said,「Ahh!」

「That looks like something I would find in Shiori’s room. Do you like that kind of thing, Sendai-san?」

「This platypus was chosen by Miyagi.」

Popping and banging the head of the tissue cover.

「That’s why I felt it’s like Shiori.」

In my mind’s eye, I see the crocodile tissue covers I saw so many times in high school. I have no idea if that tissue cover is in Miyagi’s room now. But when Utsunomiya, who had been in Miyagi’s room earlier, casually said, “I felt it’s like Shiori,” I think she saw that crocodile in Miyagi’s room.

I wanted to see for myself what was going on in the Miyagi room, which is an unopened room for me, but I had no choice. It’s not Utsunomiya’s fault and I still don’t know if the crocodile is still there or not.

「You two are closer than I thought you would be.」

Utsunomiya looked at the platypus and added,「She had those things in her room.」

「Enough so that we share a room.」

「That’s true. You two share a room, so both of you were close.」

Utsunomiya then drank half a cup of iced tea before looking at me.

「Sendai-san is easier to talk to than I expected. In high school, you were a bit difficult to approach…」

「That’s because Umina was by my side.」

「Well, that’s true.」

I knew it.

For better or worse, Umina was the flamboyant and conspicuous type, so she was shunned by some students. I think she’s a friendly person, but she doesn’t follow the school rules and was also noticed by the teachers, so it’s no wonder that she thought it was difficult to talk to me with her like that.

「Sendai-san, did you teach Shiori to study, right?」

Utsunomiya changes the subject, perhaps concerned that she has come to speak ill of Umina.

「It was a thank you for loaning me money. I wasn’t planning on teaching her for that long, but Miyagi, being the type of person who isn’t around, made it interesting.」

「Ahh, that’s true. Ibaraki-san and Shiori are completely different, aren’t they?」

「I read a lot of manga in Miyagi’s room. And there was very little in Umina’s room.」

「Shiori’s room is full of them.」

Utsunomiya says with a smile.

I read most of the manga in Miyagi’s room, which was very cozy back then. I still sometimes read manga in her room, but that is something Miyagi brings to my room and I have never picked it out directly from the bookshelf.

「And so you two became friends until you shared a room.」

「I was also a bit nervous about living alone. I didn’t expect her to say she lived with her relatives.」

「I didn’t think Shiori was living with Sendai-san either.」

In a cheerful voice, she adds,「I was surprised.」Then Utsunomiya let out a small breath.

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She looked at me as if she wanted to say something and then lowered her eyes.

After taking a larger breath than she had exhaled, Utsunomiya said quietly.

「…To tell you the truth, I was shocked to hear that Shiori and Sendai-san were living together. Shiori had never said anything like that, and I felt like I was being left out. I know this kind of thing is childish.」

Utsunomiya, was laughing, she laughed in annoyance and looked at me and apologized, saying,「I’m sorry I said something weird.」

「I don’t think it’s childish. If the same thing happened to me, I’d feel like I’d lost a friend.」

I’m the one who is really childish.

I couldn’t be honestly happy that Utsunomiya was coming to this house, even though I told her she could come, and I told Utsunomiya to go to Miyagi’s room, but I didn’t say it from the bottom of my heart.

If I could, I would tell her how I felt, just as Utsunomiya did, but that is not an option. I can’t tell her why I couldn’t be honestly happy about coming home, or why I couldn’t say from the bottom of my heart that she should go to Miyagi’s room. There is no way I can talk about my feelings here and now that I have not even told her.

I tell her instead what I had planned to say when Utsunomiya arrived today.

「About calling me. It’s fine to call me, Hazuki.」

Miyagi stubbornly does not call me by my first name, but most of my friends call me Hazuki. So I would like Utsunomiya to call me Hazuki. I feel that by having her call me that, I can be closer to them than I am now.

——In short, I want to get to know her so well that I will no longer be jealous of Utsunomiya.

It’s a bit calculating, but that’s not all.

I thought we seemed to hit it off and could be friends. And I wanted to get to know Utsunomiya again after she shared her true feelings with me.

「Nhn—」

Utsunomiya gave a small groan and then straightened her back.

「Shiori hasn’t called you Hazuki, and I think I would call you like that Sendai-san until Shiori does. Sendai-san is the one who should call me by my name.」

She says it with a serious face, and I respond sincerely to her for taking it seriously.

「I wonder if I want to call you Utsunomiya until the day Utsunomiya calls me Hazuki.」

「Okay, so that’s what I’ll do.」

Utsunomiya clapped her hands to conclude the conversation. And then she called me, “Sendai-san.”

「What is it?」

「Do you think we get along?」

「Of course.」

When I replied, Utsunomiya said,「I’m glad.」As we both chuckled, the door opened and Miyagi appeared.

「What were you two talking about?」

Miyagi sits diagonally in front of us and looks at us alternately.

「About Miyagi’s secret… I wish it had been, but it was a story about teaching Miyagi to study in high school or something like that.」

「Maika, is that true?」

Miyagi asks Utsunomiya, keeping her doubtful gaze on me.

「It’s true, it’s true. We didn’t talk much.」

Utsunomiya smiled when she said that.