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Chapter 122: Rules to be followed by Sendai-san — 122

Translated by KaiesV

Edited by KaiesV

I heard the destination.

But I’m not sure where that is.

Knowing only the area around my house and the university, I simply followed Sendai-san as she walked without hesitation.

When I turn a few corners, get on the train, and stand looking out the window, I strongly feel that I am a stranger to the unfamiliar landscape that is flowing by. It is depressing to realize that I was having trouble integrating into my new environment.

I shift my gaze to Sendai-san, as if I would want to get off the train before it reaches its destination.

「What is it?」

Sendai-san, who seems to have noticed my gaze, says without looking at me.

「Nothing, it’s nothing.」

「Are you tired already?」

「I’m not tired.」

When I say it plainly, the conversation was cut short.

Sendai-san is still looking out the window.

The flowing scenery stops and the door opens.

The bustling interior of the car becomes even noisier.

As people got off and got on and the doors closed, Sendai-san called me in a quiet voice,「Hey, Miyagi.」

「You drank orange juice in the morning, why?」

The train starts running and speeds up.

I look out the window, as does Sendai-san.

「No particular reason.」

「Hmm. Then why were you running away from me?」

The conversation flows smoothly and lands in different places, just like the landscape, which changes at a constant rate.

「Well, that has nothing to do with orange juice at all.」

I complain about a topic that has been all too naturally swapped.

「Just answer me.」

I hear the same soft, light voice as always.

When I turned my gaze, which had been fixed outside the window, to Sendai-san, I saw that despite her voice, she had a very serious face, and I could not just answer her randomly.

「…I just didn’t know what to do.」

「I knew it.」

「Because Sendai-san has been home all the time.」

I knew I shouldn’t tell her, but I was in no mood to fool her, so I had no choice but to tell her the truth.

「That’s because we live together. I don’t want to be told I’m better off without you.」

「I’m not saying you shouldn’t be there.」

「Get used to me. Also, it hurts me when people avoid me.」

「——Sorry.」

I wasn’t avoiding her because I wanted to, but I felt bad and I apologize.

However, there are times when even Sendai-san avoids me.

I don’t think it’s all my fault, but it’s hard for me to complain because she doesn’t avoid me as blatantly as I do.

「When you weren’t at home, you were meeting with Utsunomiya, right?」

Sendai-san’s gaze turns to me from outside the window.

「That’s right…」

「Where do you usually go?」

I have an appointment with Maika.

I have always given Maika’s name as the reason for not being home and told Sendai-san. But I don’t want to be asked where I’ve been.

「Not really anywhere. It’s around there」

「I’m asking where that area is, though.」

「I’m not sure, so I’m letting Maika handle it.」

「Even if you’re leaving her in lead, you’re still going somewhere.」

「I haven’t been anywhere significant.」

I’m not lying because I haven’t been anywhere particularly unusual with Maika. But not everything was right.

I did not meet Maika for almost half of the time I told Sendai-san. I spent time alone, going to bookstores and cafes. I feel that if I answer in detail where I had been, it would reveal that I had not met Maika.

「Well, it’s fine.」

Sendai-san’s voice didn’t sound convinced by my answer, but she didn’t pursue it further. I am relieved that she gave up. But if she shut up, I would not know where Sendai-san’s interest lies.

Was it Maika, the place we went, or me?

I wonder what Sendai-san really wanted to ask me, but the train shakes and the scenery slows down.

「Let’s get off.」

My thoughts are interrupted when I hear Sendai-san’s voice coming next to me.

After getting off the train and having a light lunch, we walked to our destination and headed for the electronics department.

It takes a lot of time, even though all we want to buy is one electric kettle.

It’s not something I had to buy in a hurry, so mail order would have been fine. If I wanted, we could have bought it near to home. It’s not the kind of thing you buy until you have to come all the way to a place where you have to take the train and have lunch with me.

I look at Sendai-san’s back as she rides one escalator step up.

Her long hair, which has been braided and unbraided since we came to live together, is braided on both sides and pinned back. I now wear makeup, which I didn’t when I woke up in the morning.

Although she looks much the same as she did in high school, except that she is not in uniform, Sendai-san seems like a different person than she was back then.

No, precisely I do not see Sendai-san the same way I did back then.

It must be because of the unused five thousand yen.

I can’t find a place for my feelings.

Both my new life and the different Sendai-san have become terribly unfitting and unwieldy in my mind. When I was in high school, the act of paying 5,000 yen somehow rounded me off, but now that the 5,000 yen is gone and I am no longer rounded off, my emotions are nowhere to be contained.

I wish I could go back to when I was in uniform so I wouldn’t have to think about anything.

I wouldn’t have to worry about what to wear in the morning and what to get out of my room. I wouldn’t have to worry about the interrupted conversations. I don’t have to worry about Sendai-san telling me to wear a skirt, nor do I have to worry about her not telling me anything about not wearing a skirt.

I go down the escalator.

Then I get back on and head up.

My back is straight and tall as I look at her.

Her long hair is beautiful and makes me want to touch it.

I almost reach for it and exhale.

Maybe I’m tired.

I haven’t slept very well, so my mind isn’t working.

「Miyagi, over here.」

Sendai-san walks straight instead of taking the next escalator. As I followed her, I immediately saw electric kettles in line. But Sendai-san is serious about comparing the two kettles. I don’t mean to rush her, but I think she should choose a little more appropriately.

「Which one is better, Miyagi?」

Sendai-san looked at me.

「Anything is fine. I mean, haven’t you looked into this?」

「In the meantime, I’m checking out some good ones.」

「Well, why don’t you just go with that then?」

「I have two candidates for you to choose from.」

Sendai-san pointed to two electric kettles, this one and that one.

「It doesn’t matter which one I prefer, Sendai-san.」

「We’re going to use it together, so at least decide on a color.」

When she says this, Sendai-san points to a large electric kettle. Then she looked at me and said,「I’ll do it this way, pick the color you like.」

「I don’t have a particular favorite color.」

Color has nothing to do with the function of heating water.

It can be white, black, red, or whatever color I want. Besides, it’s better to choose a color that Sendai-san, who wants it, likes than me, who is not interested in electric kettles.

「…Miyagi. Is this what it’s like when you’re shopping with Utsunomiya?」

Sendai-san says with a sigh.

「What do you mean by that?」

「So cold. You’re too uncooperative.」

Her accusatory tone stimulates a sense of guilt.

With Maika, I can think more seriously about what I do. With electric kettles, I can ask for the functions I want and choose the design and color. Rather, I can do better with someone other than Sendai-san. But when the other party is Sendai-san, things that can be done normally with other people suddenly become impossible. Instead, though, I sometimes do things I wouldn’t do with other people.

「You really don’t want to decide?」

I heard Sendai-san’s voice and I stared at the electric kettles lined up. Then, after taking a breath, I sipped a safe color.

「White’s fine to me. It feels like an electric kettle.」

「It’s more like an electric kettle or an appliance, isn’t it?」

「Then, red.」

「Alright. White it is.」

When I change colors with my unanimous opinion, Sendai-san makes an unnaturally bright smile and picks up a white electric kettle. Then, she takes it to the cash register. I have no choice but to follow her and we both pay the bill.

「Is this the end of our shopping trip?」

When I asked, I got a short answer, “Yes,” and I think we are going to go back the way we came. But Sendai-san said she had a stop she wanted to make and took the up escalator.

「You’re not going home?」

I ask Sendai-san, who doesn’t say where she’s going, but whose gait I can only assume is determined by where she’s going.

「I’m taking a short detour」

「Do you have something you want?」

「There’s none, but we’ve got time.」

Then Sendai-san smiles.

She smiles softly, but her eyes do not seem to lend an ear to my opinion. I choose to silently follow Sendai-san rather than waste my efforts.

We ate dinner, shop, and look around the store even if there is nothing I want. That would be more fun than continuing to avoid Sendai-san, and seems like an exemplary way to spend a Sunday.

Now I am not so afraid of more memories.

But I don’t know if this is a typical distance for roommates.

「Here, Miyagi.」

As Sendai-san pulled me down the escalator, I saw a pile of stuffed animals.

「You like this kind of thing, right?」

I am not sure how Sendai-san sees me.

I don’t collect stuffed animals, nor do I arrange them in my room. Of course, in addition to stuffed animals, there are various other small items and toys on the sales floor. Still, when people assume that I like this kind of thing as a matter of course, it makes me want to ask what kind of person I am in Sendai-san’s mind.

But I don’t mind looking at them.

Sendai-san seems to be having a good time, and it doesn’t mean we have to leave immediately. I approach the stuffed animals, pick up a few and put them back. When I went to the back of the room, I found something firmer there. Among them, there was a flat object of a plain color, which made me stop my footsteps.

When I looked at what it was, I saw it was a tissue cover.

Come to think of it, the box of tissues in the kitchen has no cover on it.

I pick up the dark brown tissue cover.

「What’s that?」

Sendai-san next to me looks at my hand.

「A platypus.」

「Doesn’t it look like a crocodile?」

「It doesn’t look like one.」

「I thought they were both mammals, there.」

「Perhaps.」

My memory is a little fuzzy, but platypuses are supposed to be strange creatures that lay eggs even though they are mammals.

「Miyagi, you love this kind of thing.」

「I don’t like them.」

「I don’t mind if you don’t like it, it’s pretty cute.」

After she said this, Sendai-san took the platypus from me and patted its head.

「I’ll go get you one of those.」

I pull on the beak of the platypus that Sendai-san is holding.

「It’s fine. I’ll go get it for you.」

「Why?」

「This is for the kitchen, right? If so, it’s for the both of us, and I’ll take it out of the money to buy something we can use together.」

Sendai-san says as a matter of course and moves the platypus’s hand with a jerk.

「I didn’t say I was going to put it in the kitchen.」

「It’s different?」

「…It’s not different, but…」

「I’ll get you one.」

Sendai-san walks away without waiting for my answer.

In the end, I end up walking behind her, and the platypus is also bought with the “money to buy things for common use.”

I don’t like this kind of thing about Sendai-san.

She always anticipates what I am going to do.

She never listens to me when I complain.

「Then, shall we go home?」

This seems to be the end of today’s schedule, and Sendai-san begins to follow a clear path home. We take the same amount of time to get home as we took to get here. We walk without stopping and without so much as a silly talk.

Silence doesn’t bother me much.

We take the train and walk home again.

The electric kettle we bought was quickly opened and Sendai-san made tea. Sitting across from each other at the table, Sendai-san hands me a bag containing a tissue cover.

「Okay.」

「Sendai-san, just open it.」

I pushed the bag back and she pulled out a platypus from the bag without saying a word. She then pointed to a box of tissues near me.

「Take it to me.」

I did as I was told and said yes, and handed her the box of tissues, and Sendai-san grabbed my hand instead of the box.

My heart thumps.

Sendai-san’s hands are strong.

Her hand is squeezed tightly, and it hurts.

Sendai-san didn’t speak.

In the past, she would kiss me even if I said I didn’t want to, but today she didn’t do anything.

It’s obvious.

It’s different from the past.

Sendai-san is my roommate, and there is nothing in the rules that says I can kiss her. But there is also no rule that says we shouldn’t.

「Sorry.」

Sendai-san says quietly and lets go of my hand.

The box of tissues goes to her.

Then the cover is put on.

There are no clear rules about kissing, and even if there were rules against it, Sendai-san would break the rules with impunity if she wanted to. And yet, today we follow it like there are invisible rules.

I hate this part of Sendai-san.

「Okay, it’s done.」

On a not-so-large table, Sendai-san placed a tissue covered with a platypus.