What Miyagi wants to see — 243
Translated by KaiesV
Edited by KaiesV
「Are you not cold, Miyagi?」
I walk past where I see Mike-chan and look next to me.
「I’m fine.」
Miyagi, her nose reddening, says in a curt voice.
The weather is fine and the temperature is high.
But that’s in the winter category.
The blue of the sky and the glare of the sun are unreliable compared to summer.
No matter how warmly we are dressed, the wind is cold against our cheeks as we walk to the station, and the weak sunlight does nothing to completely counteract the chill. We need something warmer.
「Shall I buy a disposable body warmer at a convenience store?」
When I mentioned something warm that came to mind, Miyagi, who looked cold even with a scarf and gloves on, said dismissively.
「Sendai-san, if it’s so cold, you should have stopped wearing your ponytail.」
「I thought Miyagi might want to use it instead of me.」
「I told you I’m fine.」
Exhaling white breath, Miyagi speeds up her walk. My ponytail sways behind my head as I speed to match. It’s not a winter hairstyle, and it’s a little cold, but I like this haircut, which looks good with the blue earrings.
「When was the last time you went to the zoo, Sendai-san?」
Miyagi says, without looking at me.
「When I was in elementary school. 5th grade, maybe 6th grade.」
「You said you went to the zoo with your family before. Is that it?」
Apparently Miyagi remembered the story I told her on the way home from the aquarium.
「Yes. What about you, Miyagi?」
I see her looking forward but I can’t see her ears.
I wish she would put her ears out like I do so I could see her earrings, but I also think she would catch a cold if she did.
「I went there on an elementary school field trip.」
「You didn’t go with a friend?」
「Do you go to the zoo with a friend?」
「…I might not go there much.」
I don’t know about in general. But I’ve never been to the zoo with friends or talked about going there, so for me and Miyagi, the zoo is not a place to go with friends.
In this light, the zoo may be the perfect place for us not-friends to go.
We, who are not family, go to the zoo to play, not as a school event.
It seems to us that there’s a special meaning to such a visit.
「Oh yeah, Miyagi. You don’t mind if I take a picture today, do you?」
「I do mind it.」
Without a pause, I get a denial, but in my mind, taking pictures of Miyagi is a done deal. If I took the photo without telling her, she would argue about whether or not to erase it, so I just interjected the act of asking for consent, and I wouldn’t accept her reply that she didn’t want to do it.
「Do you not want to take pictures with the animals?」
I ask Miyagi, who continues to walk straight ahead without looking at me.
「What you just said, permission to take pictures of animals?」
「I thought you were going to take pictures of the shoebill, but you didn’t?」
「…I’d like to take a picture of it, but…」
「Then let’s take pictures of people in addition to taking pictures of animals.」
「The extras, I don’t want them. Just the animals.」
「It’s alright. People are animals, too.」
「Sendai-san, why are you so sketchy only in these situations?」
Miyagi wrinkles her brow and looks at me.
「It’s alright.」
I want to save this day on my phone.
I want to be able to look back on today whenever I want.
「…If it’s an extra, fine.」
Miyagi blurts out, and her footsteps quicken even more.
As she paces, the scenery flows by faster than when she walks alone. Under a blue sky, Mike-chan does not show up and we arrive at the station. We go through the ticket gates and board the train, which comes just in time.
「What do you want to see first?」
I ask Miyagi as we ride by the train, which isn’t loud but not quiet either.
「Anything is fine.」
「I don’t know if we have time to see everything, so let’s go from elephants to tigers and look at various things, and then head for the place with the penguins and the shoebill.」
With a map of the park in my head, I tell her about the route I have decided on in advance.
「I’ll leave it to you, Sendai-san.」
As expected, I answer,「Leave it to me.」We continue our casual conversation and arrive at our destination station. After getting off the train and walking for about five minutes, we saw the gate to the zoo and we paid our entrance fee and went inside. I had the route in mind, but after getting a pamphlet with a map of the zoo, we headed for the elephants.
The zoo is reasonably crowded, even though it is winter. I don’t know if it’s because of the great winter vacation or if there are many animal lovers, but it is lively and there’s an atmosphere of fun in the air.
Miyagi, walking next to me, doesn’t look unhappy either.
But she didn’t seem to like the elephant that much, and as soon as she reached it, she headed toward a nearby prairie dog. I don’t think it should be a very rare animal, but she seems to like it better than elephants.
I take my phone out of my bag and take one picture of Miyagi looking at a prairie dog.
Miyagi looks at me in response to the crunching sound, so I point my camera at the prairie dog eating grass and take a picture. Then I tuck my phone into my coat pocket so that I can take a picture of Miyagi at any time.
「There’s an otter over there.」
I smiled and told Miyagi.
「Let’s go.」
With that said, Miyagi stopped in front of the otter as the pheasant walked by unnoticed and took her phone out of her bag.
She took a few pictures of the otter, even though she doesn’t take pictures of me, and starts walking away.
I’m not that interested in elephants and pheasants, I like prairie dogs more than elephants and pheasants but not enough to take pictures of them, and I like otters enough to take pictures of them.
I have no idea what Miyagi likes.
The only thing that is clear is that I am not one to bother taking pictures.
I don’t want her to take pictures, but I feel like I’m losing her to the otter, and I’m not explaining it.
「Sendai-san, a tiger.」
Miyagi, who was walking next to me, stops and points a little ahead.
「That’s a pretty big place to be.」
At the tip of her index finger, a tiger is lumbering through a forest-like area of grass and trees. We approach the glass that separates the tiger from the people and look inside.
「I wonder if they’ll come this way.」
Miyagi muttered quietly, and her gaze fell on a tiger walking around the pond, but it seemed unlikely that it would come anywhere near the glass.
「I’m sure we’d get some great pictures if it were.」
I take my phone out of my pocket and take a picture of Miyagi.
I save one or two pictures of Miyagi on my phone and take a third picture of the tiger. Next I point my phone at Miyagi again, and the screen fills up with her palm.
「You don’t have to take pictures of me, just look at the tiger.」
Miyagi makes a gruff sound as she pushes my phone with her hand.
「I’m looking at it.」
「You’re not looking. Turn your face away from me.」
She points at the tiger and I have no choice but to look behind the glass. But I am more concerned about Miyagi, who is motionless next to me, than the tiger that is wandering around.
「Do you want to look at the tiger, Miyagi?」
「I’m looking at it.」
I hear low voices, but I can clearly feel their eyes on me.
Miyagi is probably looking at me, not at the tiger, which I said was the animal I wanted to see.
「Miyagi, don’t you love tigers?」
I put my phone away in my pocket and looked from the tiger to Miyagi and saw a disappointed look in her eyes.
「…Tigers are a feline animal.」
「I know that, but…」
「I had enough. Let’s move to the next spot.」
Miyagi says boringly and starts to walk away.
「Eh, ah, wait.」
As I hurriedly followed the saxe-blue scarf, I heard a curt voice say,「Sendai-san, hurry up.」I grab Miyagi’s arm, who has no intention of waiting for anyone.
「…Maybe that’s why I said I wanted to see a tiger?」
She went out of her way to tell me that she wanted to see a tiger, a feline animal, because I had told her in the past that I liked cats.
I can’t keep up with her understanding, but maybe that’s how it is.
「Not really. I just wanted to see the tiger.」
「The tiger, it was so cute. And cat-like.」
「If you don’t like it, then don’t like it.」
She is obviously in a foul mood.
「I like it.」
「Then why didn’t you say tiger when I asked you what animal you wanted to see?」
Miyagi stares at me.
It’s not as cold as the winter air, but it’s still cold.
I let out a small breath and clutch the phone in my pocket.
Apparently, I have more interest in Miyagi than the otter.
「I just forgot to mention it.」
I told her in as normal a voice as possible and let go of the hand that was holding Miyagi’s arm. Then, instead of her arm, I grabbed her hand. To be precise, I held her hand, but she didn’t shake it off.
「Which one will we see next?」
Miyagi says in a whisper.
「Ah, err. I guess the tapir. There’s a polar bear or something just up ahead, so we can go that way, but…」
「Let’s go to the tapir.」
Walking out of either direction, we arrive in front of the tapir. But it seems that the tapir wasn’t so interesting for Miyagi, and she immediately said to move on and walk toward the polar bears.
The hands that remain clasped are fuzzy and different from the usual smooth hands.
I wished I didn’t have gloves, it occurred to me.
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