Miyagi's summer vacation — 182
Translated by KaiesV
Edited by KaiesV
I sigh one more time as I am rocked by the train heading home.
Miyagi said she had an appointment with a friend today and left before I got to my part-time job.
She doesn’t have to be at home, she don’t have to have an appointment with a friend.
I’m not at home today because I have a part-time job, and sometimes I go out with friends if they invite me. But it’s no fun when Miyagi is not at home, and I wonder who her friends are.
Who are they really?
Utsunomiya is back in her hometown and has not yet returned.
I know that Miyagi has friends other than Utsunomiya, but I haven’t heard of any friends who are close enough to go out together during the summer vacation.
Even though today is my birthday.
I look out the window.
I don’t have any special feelings for the day I was born, and my birthday is so unimportant that when I receive an『Ota-ome』message in the middle of the night, I realize that my birthday is today. I don’t even expect Miyagi to celebrate my birthday. I don’t think she remembers my birthday in the first place, but the thought that Miyagi is out with a friend I don’t know on this day makes me feel infinitely downcast.
Birthdays aren’t nice.
Sigh, I exhale loudly and get off the train.
I head home, illuminated by the streetlights.
Miyagi should be home by now because she left, saying she would eat dinner with me. So, although I will see her soon,「What kind of a friend was that person?」I’m not in a happy mood because I’m afraid I’m going to ask something boring. I am frustrated with Miyagi, of all people, for making today the day of her appointment with a friend. Even though I know it’s just a reflection of my anger, I feel like complaining a hundred times.
On days like this, I would feel more at ease if I could pet Mike-chan, but only on days like this, Mike-chan doesn’t appear. No, thinking about it, Mike-chan is not often walking around at this time of the day.
Up the stairs to the third floor, when I open the front door, I see Miyagi’s shoes.
It seems that she has returned home.
When I took off my shoes and headed into the common space, I found Miyagi wandering around the dining room and kitchen, looking restless.
「I’m home. What are you doing?」
I call out to Miyagi, who stops in front of the refrigerator.
「Welcome back. I didn’t do anything.」
「I’m asking you because you’re here when there’s nothing.」
Miyagi isn’t in the common space unless she has something to do. It is rare to see Miyagi in the common space without cooking or taking something out of the refrigerator.
「It’s nothing, so Sendai-san, please go to your room——」
The chime rings, interrupting Miyagi’s words, and I reflexively look at the intercom monitor.
「Somebody’s here.」
「I’ll get it. Sendai-san, wait in your room.」
「It’s fine. I’ll get it for you.」
「You don’t have to. I’ll get it. Sendai-san, stay in your room.」
Miyagi rushes up to me and pushes my shoulder. She then opened the door to my room and pushed me inside.
「Eh? Ah, wait!」
I am not prepared for it.
I thought the “room” I was in would be my room, so I didn’t expect to be shoved into Miyagi’s room.
「Sit down and wait for me.」
「Sit down, what do you mean, Miyagi!?」
I called out to the owner, but Miyagi walked out of the room, closing the door vigorously.
「…Isn’t this too much mess?」
It’s too random for me to enter Miyagi’s room for the first time since I moved here. It’s not that I wanted a special performance, but there is something different about being thrown into a room with just a little momentum like this. Since it was my first time entering the room, I wanted at least some time to sort out my feelings. It was too messy and I was more surprised than impressed.
Well, maybe it’s just like us.
It suits us better to enter a room in a casual manner than to be formally asked to come into a room.
I walk around the room and stop in front of a bookcase.
In a room whose atmosphere is not so different from that of my high school days, a stuffed black cat is placed on a bookshelf smaller in size than it was back then. On my way home from the aquarium, I heard that a black cat had also moved in with Miyagi, and I couldn’t help but smile as I was able to confirm with my own eyes that this story was true.
I pick up the black cat and pat its head.
I don’t know if the touch is the same as before because it has been so long since I touched it, but it is comfortable to pet.
「Glad you’re fine.」
I call out to the stuffed animal, which must be adored by Miyagi, who bears some resemblance to a black cat, and kisses the tip of its nose. After patting its head once more and putting the black cat back where it belongs, I hear the door open.
「Why are you standing? I told you to sit down.」
「Sorry. I saw the black cat.」
「Sit down over here.」
Miyagi points across from the bed, then places two glasses of orange juice on the table.
「Juice? What are you going to do with dinner?」
I sit down where I was told and ask Miyagi.
「We’ll eat here today. I’ll bring it to you now.」
「Over here?」
Strange.
Miyagi isn’t a normal person who would let me into a room that had been an unoccupied room before and start saying that we would eat our meal here. I can only think that she hit her head somewhere or was brainwashed.
「Is it bad?」
Miyagi stares at me, saying in a gruff voice.
「It’s not bad, but…」
「If it’s not, then you can sit quietly.」
The curt voice makes my back itch.
I feel restless because of all the impossible things that are happening, and I hold Miyagi back as she tries to leave the room.
「Oh right, Miyagi. Do you want some cookies later?」
「Cookie?」
「A birthday present from Kikyō-chan.」
Hanamaki Kikyō.
She is a student that I’m tutoring and I have gotten to know her well enough to call her by her first name. She had prepared cookies, which she said were homemade, as a birthday present.
「…I won’t eat it. It’s a gift for Sendai-san, so you should eat it yourself.」
Miyagi says in a low voice and leaves the room. But she soon returns and places a large pizza and chicken nuggets on a small table and sits down across from me.
「…Why pizza?」
I utter the question that almost escaped my mind.
「You said so yourself earlier.」
「What was I saying?」
「Birthday.」
「Birthday?」
「It’s Sendai-san’s birthday, right? That’s why I ordered a pizza.」
「Eh. ——Ehh!?」
Miyagi says something I never expected to hear, so I’m at a loss for words.
「…Happy Birthday.」
Miyagi said in a whisper, and I replied vaguely.
「Thank you.」
Suddenly the room is quiet, and we both mutter『Itadakimasu』and reach for our pizzas.
No, what, why.
Why would Miyagi prepare a pizza for my birthday and wish me happy birthday?
I don’t understand.
I had already told Miyagi when my birthday was, so it was no surprise that something like this would happen, but when Miyagi celebrates me in a surprising way, it makes everything unbelievable, which is a real problem. I don’t know what to look like and I can’t smile even though I’m happy.
I take a bite of the pizza, which is loaded with cheese.
It’s delicious.
——I feel as if. Something happened that I hadn’t thought about, and I don’t know what it tastes like.
「I’ve got some cake.」
Miyagi further says something that had never crossed my mind.
Miyagi on summer vacation is anything but tolerant.
I think she may have been drugged to be nice to me.
「Did you buy one?」
Because so many things have happened all at once, my mind and emotions are in turmoil, and I hear the obvious.
「It’s your birthday.」
「…Were you perhaps went out today to buy a cake?」
「…That’s right.」
「Why don’t you just say so?」
「I didn’t want to tell you.」
「Why?」
「I just wanted to go quietly. And yet, Sendai-san, you never leave the house, and your part-time job starts in the evening.」
Miyagi said accusingly and bites the pizza.
「Then, what about the promise to your friend?」
「I just said “friend” because it was easier to go out if something was wrong. I went shopping alone.」
It’s a relief to know that she didn’t go out with friends whom I don’t know.
「…You made up an excuse to go out for me, didn’t you?」
「…If you’re a roommate, I’d at least celebrate your birthday.」
「I know, but I thought it was unexpected.」
「We’re roommates, so it’s not strange.」
「Don’t you think you’re overemphasizing the word “roommate”?」
I know that Miyagi needs the word roommate. But if too much emphasis is placed on it, I, who want to move on from the roommate relationship, am about to show my face.
「Don’t worry about that and just eat.」
Miyagi said in a flat voice, picked up a new pizza and ate it quickly. Her expression was as grim as ever, and she didn’t smile.
I am not a penguin, and maybe not so interesting to Miyagi, but I would like to see a softer face when it comes to celebrating my birthday.
「I’ll eat, but preferably with a little more enjoyment on your face.」
When I expressed my modest hope, Miyagi wrinkled her brow.
「Impossible. If I could do it if I was told to, I would have done it already.」
「Well, that’s certain.」
I look at Miyagi without a shred of affection.
I don’t think Miyagi is the kind of person who would smile and congratulate me at a time like this, so perhaps this is just as well. Miyagi remembered my birthday and went out of her way to celebrate by ordering pizza and buying a cake, but I was extravagant to still want something.
Birthdays will come many times in the future.
It’s okay to have some fun to save for later.
I bit into my pizza while looking at Miyagi, who did not smile.
