I didn’t like going to school, nor did I particularly hate it.

          But it didn’t matter whether I liked it or not, I still had to go either way. I didn’t really want to attend classes today, but I came anyway. Besides, my reason for not wanting to come to school was something trivial.

          My bangs were too short.

          I sighed while standing in front of the bathroom mirror.

          My hair was only around shoulder-length, so I didn’t feel the need to cut it, but my bangs had started getting in the way. Because of that, I decided to give them a trim myself, but I ended up cutting off a bit more than I intended to.

          I knew that even if I pulled on my bangs, it wouldn’t magically make them grow longer.

          There was no use crying over spilled milk, so I had no choice but to accept it.

          Though I say that, every time I managed to catch a glimpse of my short bangs, I felt a little gloomy. And whenever I was feeling down, there was only one thing I wanted to do.

          『Come over today.』

          The text I sent was the same every time.

          Usually, I’d send it after second period or around lunch break, but there have been times where I’d send it right after school. However, no matter when the message got sent out, the recipient was always the same. It was to none other than Sendai-san.

          Sometimes, she would reply immediately, and other times her response would come a little later. She had never turned me down even once, though if she ever had other plans, she would let me know that she was running late. Today happened to be one of those days, so when I received her reply, it read:

          『I have something else to do first, so is it okay if I come by a little later? 』

          『I’ll be waiting at home.』

          That was the stock answer I would always reply with in situations like these. After sending her that message, our classes went on again.

          When she said that she “had other things to do”, she was probably referring to hanging out with Ibaraki-san and the others.

          From my spot by the window, I looked over at Ibaraki-san, whose desk was situated close to the hallway.

           She was flashy and outgoing and was generally considered the center of the class. She was always talking about people or things that she found either cool or cute. All of the conversations she had with others seemed rather uninteresting, and I couldn’t help but think of her as someone who lived in a different world from me. On top of that, she was quite irritable as well, so she felt like the kind of person you’d be better off avoiding altogether.

          I wondered if Sendai-san ever felt like it was tiring to be around her.

          While listening to our teacher’s voice, I looked over to one of the desks at the very front of the classroom.

          The sight of neatly braided hair entered my field of vision.

          She looked pretty sloppy whenever she came by my room, but that wasn’t the case at school. She was kind, considerate and great at studying. She always wore a smile on her face and would never show a hint of any negative emotions. Because of that, she was part of the popular group in our class and you probably wouldn’t be able to find anyone that would tell you that they disliked her.

          However, there were some people that would call her a people-pleaser behind her back.

          I wasn’t sure if she – who was currently giving her full attention to class – knew about that, though.

          I fidgeted around with the bangs that I had accidentally cut too short.

          Our classes were supposed to be fifty-minutes long each, but time felt like it was passing by way too slowly.

          The teacher droned on and on, as if they were delivering a sermon, which made me drowsy.

          I sluggishly managed to trudge through two more classes. Then, finally, it was time to head home.

          I announced my return as I opened the front door – there was no reply.

          But that was to be expected, as no one else was home.

          I went to my room, and while still wearing my uniform, I laid down on my bed.

          I took my time getting home, and yet, I still hadn’t heard the intercom ring.

          I was getting sleepy.

          Right as I was about to give in to the temptation of slumber, the sound of a notification from my phone woke me up. I rubbed my eyes as I peered at the screen. The message only contained one short sentence.

          『I’m heading over now.』

          And then, after waiting for thirty minutes.

          She came into my room.

          「Sorry I’m late.」

          Sendai-san said, taking off her coat and blazer, before sitting next to the table.

          「That’s okay, but it’ll probably be late by the time you get home.」

          I already knew what she was going to respond with.

          I set down the usual cups of soda in front of Sendai-san, then took a seat across from her as I leaned my back against my bed.

          「I’ll be fine.」

          “My family lets me do whatever.”

          It was something she’d told me many times before, and just as she said, Sendai-san wasn’t concerned about when she’d be back today either. Perhaps the reason why nobody in her family scolded her for being back late was because they had that much trust in her.

           「Hey, Miyagi. Do you know what day it is today?」

          Sendai-san suddenly asked as she opened her bag.

          「―― Niboshi Day¹.」

          Two, one and four – which were individually read as “ni”, “bo” and “shi” respectively.

          Well, “two” being read as “ni” and “four” as “shi” were normal, but usually, you’d never find “one” being read as “bo”. Though, when it came to wordplay, it was fine even if it was a bit of a stretch. That being said, most people would probably understand the pun if you referred to February 14^th as Niboshi Day.

          But Sendai-san didn’t seem like she was a big fan of that answer.

          She furrowed her brow and sounded unamused when she said:

          「Don’t reply with something that makes you sound like a bitter lonely guy. Answer me seriously.」

          「It’s Valentine’s Day, right?」

          It was an uninteresting day that people seemed to get overly excited about.

          A day that was not much different from yesterday.

          「Correct. I had to exchange friendship chocolates with Umina and the others earlier, so that’s why I ended up being late today. Anyway, I brought some for you as well, Miyagi.」

          「Huh?」

          「I spent yesterday making chocolate for Umina and the others, so I thought I’d make you some too.」

          Sendai-san said casually as she placed a neatly wrapped box on the table.

          The wrapping paper had a floral pattern on it, and the box also came with a pink ribbon.

          There was homemade chocolate inside of the box.

          Her femininity was off the charts to begin with, so seeing this touched a nerve.

          「You don’t want it?」

          When she saw that I was staring at the box without doing anything with it, she asked me with a questioning look on her face.

          「I don’t have any chocolate to give you in return.」

          「Did you not give any to your friends?」

          「We don’t really do things like that.」

          My friends were the type that would only make Valentine’s Day chocolate if they were planning to give it to the person they liked. We exchanged birthday presents with each other, but when it came to occasions such as Christmas, Halloween, or other trendy events along those lines, we didn’t bother with preparing gifts for those.

          The idea of exchanging chocolates with your friends felt like it was a custom that belonged to a totally different culture.

          「I see. Well, I wasn’t expecting chocolate in return anyway, so it’s fine if you don’t have anything. If you don’t want it though, I’ll just bring it back home with me.」

          Sendai-san said with a smile and followed up with, “So, what will you do?”

          「I’ll eat it.」

          「Okay.」

          I picked up the overly cute-looking box from the table and untied the ribbon. I carefully peeled off the wrapping paper without ripping it, and then opened the box.

          I was met with the colors white, brown, and pink.

          Inside the box sat six pieces of truffles that were slightly smaller in size than the ones you’d find in stores.

          「You made this?」

          「I said I did, didn’t I? I made them small enough to be perfectly bite-sized, too.」

          Sendai-san said, sounding unusually proud of herself.

          Just as she said, she made the truffles small enough that they could fit perfectly in your mouth. At first glance, the chocolates looked like they were store-bought. As someone that was terrible at cooking, hearing that these were homemade almost seemed like a lie.

          God was unfair.

          Sendai-san was cute, good at studying, and she could cook. Even though we were both human beings, I had none of the qualities that she had.

          It really was unfair.

          I couldn’t help but glare at the chocolate as Sendai-san said,

          「I think they turned out pretty delicious.」

          Hearing those words, I reached for one of the truffles.

          But I immediately withdrew my hand.

          「Feed it to me, Sendai-san.」

          「Is that an order?」

          「Yes, it is.」

          It seemed like Sendai-san had gotten used to being ordered around, but as of recently, her mischief was starting to get out of hand.

          I’d ordered her to lick my feet several times by now, but each time, she’d go a little further than what she was asked to do.

          She’d do things like bite me or press her lips against my feet.

          I didn’t want that at all.

          Sendai-san was the one who should be obeying my orders. She was the one who should be experiencing that pain and other strange feelings, not me.

          And that was exactly what I was planning to do today.

          「Come here.」

          I was still leaning against the bedframe when I called for Sendai-san to sit next to me, and she obediently did so.

          「Which one do you want to start with?」

          「The white one.」

          I pointed at the truffle that appeared to be dusted in powdered sugar.

          「Okay.」

          Sendai-san picked up the white truffle with her index finger and thumb.

          I opened my mouth as the white lump that looked like snow approached my lips.

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1. Niboshi are a type of Japanese small dried fish, usually eaten as snacks or used as soup stock. In 1994, a campaign was launched in an attempt to get people to be healthier by consuming niboshi on February 14th, and they would call it Niboshi Day (煮干しの日).
   
   The play-on-words is exactly how Miyagi describes it. Ni (に) is two, bo (棒) is one, and shi (し) is four. Together, it makes 214, which then becomes February 14th (going by mm/dd). The reason why Miyagi says that reading the number “one” as “bo” is unreasonable is because it is almost never read that way. As for why it works here, it’s because the kanji used for “bo” is actually 棒, which means stick, and the number “1” is a stick shape.
   
   Also, for some reason, WordPress keeps trying to delete this footnote and this is the fourth time I’ve had to write this out, so forgive me if it’s not as detailed as the previous iterations. If this gets deleted again, I WILL glue a bunch of niboshi together, craft a swordfish out of it and then stab myself with it. ↩︎

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Credits to himi for proofreading and editing this part!

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