“I want a boyfriend.”

          “I want a cool boyfriend who won’t cheat on me.”

           Boyfriend, boyfriend, boyfriend.

          We were hanging out in a karaoke booth after school, where Umina kept repeating the word “boyfriend” over and over and over again, to the point I was beginning to think she was a robot who had no other words programmed into her dictionary.

          One of the girls in our friend group got a boyfriend. Umina had been dumped by her own boyfriend in January, and as soon as she found out about this, wanting a boyfriend became all she could talk about. Umina was kind of a pain at times like these. Even though I went out of my way to watch that show yesterday, it seemed like it wasn’t going to be useful at all today.  

          「Must be nice for you, huh, Hazuki. Since you’re so popular and all.」

          I forced a smile on my face when I heard Umina say my name.

          “Popular,” she said.

          It didn’t matter if it was true or not.

          My reply had already been decided from the very start. I was pretty much required to say something along the lines of,「You’re more popular, Umina」without being too pushy about it or denying what she said about me.

          Girls were like colorful cakes, decorated with whipped cream and fresh fruit on top, but not all of them were as sweet as real cakes on the inside. They might look sweet, right up to the moment you take a bite – then you notice the poison. So, without sounding sarcastic, I had to steer Umina away from the poisonous topic of my own popularity, and butter her up instead.

          Umina’s mood had already been steadily declining, so she seemed unconvinced.

          「I mean, you left us in the middle of Valentine’s Day, didn’t you, Hazuki? Were you meeting up with someone else? Was it Iida? Or maybe even Sasaki?」  

          「I already told you, that’s not it. I had to leave because my parents called for me. If I ever get a boyfriend, you’ll definitely be the first to know about it, Umina.」

          Miyagi had called for me on Valentine’s Day, so I had to part ways with the group a bit earlier than usual. But the next day, Umina and the others started saying I’d actually gone to meet up with my supposed boyfriend instead. I thought I’d managed to clear up their misunderstanding; now Umina was throwing a tantrum, though, so I guess it was going to be used against me again.  

          Umina wasn’t a bad person, though.

          Whenever I felt down or I had any worries, she would be there to offer me some encouragement. She just had more emotional ups and downs than most people.

          That being said, it was difficult to keep her in a good mood all the time.

          Out of the four people in our friend group, only one person had a boyfriend and she was really excited about it. Meanwhile, the other person in our group had crossed Umina and was subsequently banished. That left me as the only person responsible for fixing Umina’s mood.

          Seriously, what a hassle.

          At times like this, I wished Miyagi would contact me.

          Technically I could’ve just made a random excuse up and left, but it was easier to wriggle my way out if I had a real reason to do so.

          But judging by how things have gone up to now, Miyagi was unlikely to ask for me two days in a row; today was no different.

          In the end, Miyagi didn’t contact me until a week later. She had me do her homework again and we shared another unhealthy meal together. The same happened the next time I visited, and then the time after that as well. Each time I went over, I would always be served unhealthy food for dinner. Miyagi never once brought up the topic of having me cook for her either.

          But today, when she messaged me, I went straight to the supermarket from the bookstore and bought some chicken before heading for Miyagi’s house.

          I was planning to make a side dish.

          Besides, I didn’t think it was a good idea for us to continue eating stuff like cup noodles or frozen foods for dinner.

           Plus, I wanted to see the look on Miyagi’s face when I did something she hadn’t ordered me to. And there was no reason I had to be so conscious of what Miyagi had said about wanting to see my disgusted face.

          Also, making dinner at Miyagi’s place was no different from just making it at home.

          Anyway, I ended up bringing a bag of ingredients for tonight’s dinner into Miyagi’s room.

          「Were you out with Ibaraki-san and the others?」

          Miyagi asked, trying to figure out why I was late, as she gave me a five-thousand yen bill.

          「Nope. Here, put this stuff in the fridge.」

          I took the five-thousand yen bill from her and handed her the bag of ingredients that I had bought from the supermarket.

          「What is this?」

          「Ingredients for karaage.」

          「Why did you bring all of this here?」

          「I’m making dinner here tonight.」

          「I didn’t order you to do that.」

          Miyagi looked blatantly displeased.

          I had to obey her orders.

          That was what I promised her, but she never made me promise not to make her dinner. I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted unless I was ordered otherwise, so at least for today, I shouldn’t be at fault if I made her dinner.

          As if Miyagi realized that herself, she refrained from telling me not to make dinner. Instead, she simply furrowed her brows and glared at me.

          I didn’t think I was the type of person who wanted to see someone else’s disgusted face, but somehow, I found it amusing to watch Miyagi’s reactions whenever I did things she didn’t ask for.

          「Look at it this way. I haven’t done anything to thank you for all the times you provided dinner for me. Besides, I want to eat something decent every now and then.」

          After coming up with some excuses so she wouldn’t turn me down, I tried to hand the bag over to the girl who actually lived here, but Miyagi would not take it from me.

          「Put it in the refrigerator yourself.」

          Miyagi said bluntly as she went to turn her space heater on, raising the setting high enough to turn the whole room hot. Then she walked out of the room and headed for the kitchen. I followed closely behind her, the plastic bag in my hands crinkling as I went. When we reached the kitchen, I found myself standing in front of a ridiculously large fridge. 

          Just how many people are in her family?

          I wondered to myself as I opened the fridge, but when I looked inside, it was incredibly empty despite how big it was.

          「Hey, your fridge is practically empty. Isn’t it kind of bad that the only thing you have in here is juice?」

          「It isn’t bad at all.」

          She said with a low voice, insisting that things were fine this way.

          Well, I guess it wasn’t really my place to be complaining about other people’s fridges.

          I silently loaded the ingredients for tonight’s dinner into the fridge. The last few items in the bag were a couple of bags of flour and potato starch – I figured Miyagi probably didn’t have either of these things, so I made sure to buy them myself. After I was finished emptying the bag, I called out to Miyagi.

          「What are you going to order me to do today?」

          「Why not just do whatever you want?」

          「Well, I just think if we’re going to save it for later, then I’d like to make the karaage now.」

          「I haven’t decided on anything yet, so just do as you please.」

          Miyagi said this as if it wasn’t her problem, as she tried to leave the kitchen.

          「Wait. Cut the cabbage for me.」

          I took the cabbage out of the fridge and handed it to Miyagi.

          「Me?」

          「Well, I don’t see anyone else here.」

          「You’re the one who said you wanted to make dinner, Sendai-san, so you should do all of the work yourself.」

          「Oh, don’t tell me. You don’t know how to thin-slice a cabbage, do you?」

          I asked her while washing the cutting board. Then, I heard her respond in a low voice.

          「I’ll do it.」

          So does she know how to thin-slice a cabbage or not?

          I wasn’t sure what the answer was, but Miyagi put the cabbage on the cutting board.

          I started grating the ginger right beside her. After that, I threw it into a bowl and poured soy sauce and sake into it. I didn’t really like garlic, so I decided not to include it. Then, I put the chicken that had already been cut into appropriate serving sizes into the marinade and rubbed it all in.

          Out of curiosity, I glanced over at Miyagi, but instead of seeing her cut the cabbage, it looked more like she was trying to slice her fingers off. Well, that was kind of an exaggeration, but I probably should’ve known better than to hand a knife over to someone who clearly hadn’t used one before.

          「Wait, Miyagi. Isn’t that kind of dangerous?」

          「What is?」

          「Look at your hands! You should be curling your fingers to form a cat’s paw!」

          「What do you mean by “a cat’s paw”?」

          「You never learned it when you were in home economics?」

          The fingers on the left hand had to be curled inward whenever anything was being cut.

          She should’ve learned that already.

          And yet, the way her fingers were sticking out while she was holding the cabbage was scaring me.

          「I don’t remember.」

          Miyagi replied curtly as she lowered her knife.

          What’s more, even though I asked her to slice the cabbage into thin strips, all I could see were chunks spread all over the cutting board.

          「If you cut it like that, you’re just going to end up slicing your fingers off instead of the cabbage. And you’re lifting the knife way too high.」

          It would be an exaggeration to say she was swinging the knife down, but she was still lifting it quite high.

          「Sendai-san, you’ve got way too much to say. Be quiet already.」

          「Ahh, geez. Miyagi, just go somewhere else.」

          I was getting anxious just looking at her.

          If that was the case, then I’d rather just handle everything myself.

          However, she didn’t back down.

          「Leave me alone. Just let me do it.」

          Whenever she brought the knife down on the cabbage, it sounded like the cutting board was being smacked.

          It was a huge mistake asking her to do this.

          But no matter how much I regretted it, I couldn’t take back my request to have the cabbage thinly sliced. In the end, I couldn’t help but feel nervous as I sprinkled the chicken with flour and potato starch.

          Whack.

          Smack.

          Noises that didn’t sound at all like a cabbage being sliced kept coming, one after the other. Suddenly, they stopped, and I heard Miyagi let out a quiet groan.

          「What’s wrong?」

          No response.

          「Miyagi?」

          When I lowered my gaze to her hand, I saw that part of the green cabbage had been dyed red.

          「Hey, Miyagi. You’re bleeding. If you cut yourself, then you should’ve said something right away.」

          I washed off all of the powder from my hands and grabbed Miyagi by the wrist. When I pulled her hand towards the running water, she immediately turned the faucet off.

           「In situations like this, shouldn’t you be licking the cut on my finger?」

          「You read too much manga. Even if I lick it, the wound isn’t going to heal on its own. You have to wash it properly and then bandage it.」

          「Don’t I need to disinfect it?」

          「Disinfecting it might make the wound heal slower. So, where do you keep your bandages? If you don’t have any, should I go grab mine?」

          The cut didn’t look that deep.

          But blood was still dripping from her index finger.

          Wash the wound and then stick a bandage on it.

          And then kick Miyagi out of the kitchen.

          That was all that needed to happen, but for some reason, Miyagi wouldn’t let me do any of it.

          「Okay, then disinfect my wound by licking it.」

          Miyagi said as she stuck her finger out towards me.

          「You’re still bleeding, and licking it isn’t going to disinfect it.」

          「It’s an order.」

          「… Did you cut yourself on purpose?」

          「As if.」

          Miyagi held her finger out right in front of me, as if telling me that her orders were absolute.

          Blood continued to flow from the cut, dyeing her finger red.

          Just the sight of it filled my mouth with the taste of iron.

          「Hurry up, Sendai-san.」

          Even though I’d licked my own blood before, I couldn’t say the same about someone else’s.

          Was the taste of someone else’s blood the same as my own?

          I would soon find out the answer to that question.

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Credits to himi for proofreading and editing this part!

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