Miyagi’s space heater was set a bit lower than it was in the middle of winter, but her room was still quite hot.

          Spring break was just around the corner, so it should’ve been fine if she lowered the temperature a little more. Even though I found it hot in her room, Miyagi was currently reading manga with her blazer still on.

          Aren’t you a bit too sensitive to the cold?

          If two people had different definitions of the “perfect temperature” and they were put in the same room together, then normally, they would probably work to find some sort of middle ground. Usually the guest would be given priority, but here, Miyagi’s preferences always took precedence.

          I didn’t really mind that part, but I’d already taken off my blazer, so there was nothing else I could remove at this point. The top button of my blouse was undone already as well.

          I got up from the bed and picked up my cup of soda. There was also a bag of popcorn sitting on the table.

          It was kind of a rare sight, considering I was only ever served soda.

          After quenching my thirst with the carbonated drink that I wasn’t really a fan of, I undid another button on my blouse. Then, I grabbed two pieces of popcorn from the bag and tossed them into my mouth.

          「Are you going anywhere for spring break?」

          I asked Miyagi, who was sitting next to me, but she didn’t respond.

          What a tense atmosphere.

          Ever since I’d gotten here, Miyagi appeared to be in a bad mood. Actually, it’d be more accurate to say she’d been in a foul mood for a while now. To be even more precise, things started going downhill ever since the day I made karaage here.

          If that day was the cause of all of this, then Miyagi was being way too narrow-minded. Before, I would’ve said her mind was as narrow as a cat’s forehead, but if you asked me now, I’d probably change my answer to a mouse’s forehead instead^[1].  

          I took the manga that Miyagi was reading from her hands. I turned to the front cover of the book and saw an image of a boy wielding a sword. As I flipped through the pages of the manga, I heard a voice speaking in a harsh tone next to me.

          「What are your plans, Sendai-san?」

          「Hmm, I’ll probably hang out with Umina and the others. Oh, and I’ll be attending a prep school.」

          「Didn’t you also attend prep school over winter break?」

          「I did.」

          When April rolls around, we’ll be third years, which means we’ll have to take entrance exams.

          My path forward was already laid out for me: I was expected to follow in the footsteps of my accomplished older sister.

          But that didn’t really seem possible for me. My sister graduated two years before me, and had enrolled in a university that only accepted exceptionally intelligent people; my parents expected me to attend a university on at least the same level. If I wanted to accomplish that, though, I’d need to enroll in a cram school, and I’d already kicked that idea to the curb. At the very least, I was still expected to attend a prep school during the longer vacations – if I didn’t, my family would probably kick me out of their house.^[2]

          「You must really like studying.」

          「I don’t really like it that much.」

          I wasn’t sure how Miyagi saw me, but what I said was the truth. I did enjoy studying in the past, but ever since my parents started using grades as a way to compare me to my older sister, I stopped liking it as much.

          「Are you not going anywhere over the break, Miyagi?」

          「I’m hanging out with my friends.」

          「Like Utsunomiya?」

          I asked, mentioning the name of our classmate that Miyagi was always with.

          「Yes.」

          Miyagi answered curtly as she took her manga back from me. She flipped through to just over halfway into the book, and started reading.

          Our conversation ended there.

          She hadn’t said it explicitly, but I could tell just by looking at Miyagi: her attention was glued to the manga. With nothing else to do, I grabbed some more popcorn and brought it to my mouth.

          You might be wondering, was it butter flavored? Or perhaps even caramel?

          Those were two great flavor choices when it came to popcorn. However, in this room, there was nothing but pure salt. It was exactly what I would expect from Miyagi, and yet, I was still disappointed.

          With nothing else to do to pass the time, I ate one piece of popcorn after the other – until Miyagi suddenly grabbed my wrist.

          「What is it?」

          「Let me feed you.」

          And so, it begins.

          Even if she didn’t say it was an “order”, I could tell it was one just by looking at the smile on Miyagi’s face. But for some reason, I had a really bad feeling about what was going to happen.

          Miyagi grabbed a handful of popcorn from the bag.

          She laid all of the pieces out in the palm of her hand.

          「Here.」

          Miyagi said as she stuck out her left hand, which had quite a bit of popcorn in it.

          Somehow…

          Just… somehow, I could already tell what she was going to ask me to do. But I tried to dismiss the thought from my head and instead, reached my hand out, grabbed a piece of popcorn and tossed it in my mouth.

          「Eat it out of my palm like a dog without using your hands.」

          Before I could even chew on what I’d just put in my mouth, she pointed out my mistake to me.

          Yep, I knew it was going to be like this.

          No wonder she brought snacks out this time even though she usually never did. It was all for this.

          There were times where I thought it’d be fine if she ordered me to be as obedient as a dog, but being told that I need to actually act like a dog didn’t sit well with me. Still, an order was an order, so I did exactly what she asked for.

          I turned to face her, bringing my lips towards the popcorn sitting in her palm.

          And then, without using my hands, I started eating them one by one.

          To be honest, as I continued pecking at the popcorn in her palm, I felt more like a pigeon than a dog. Curious as to how Miyagi was feeling about all of this, I lifted my head and saw a strange look on her face.

          「Make sure you eat all of it.」

          She pulled on my bangs as if urging me to keep going.

          Even when it came to mundane orders like these, she still wouldn’t let me off the hook that easily.

          I continued eating from her hand, like a pigeon pecking at bread crumbs. Miyagi stroked my head every now and then, as if reminding me that I wasn’t actually a pigeon, but a dog.

          I felt incredibly ridiculous doing this. Nevertheless, I kept going until I ate all of the popcorn.

          When I was finished, I licked Miyagi’s empty palm.

          Miyagi flinched and quickly tried to pull her arm back.

          You were the one who told me to act like a dog, Miyagi.

          I grabbed hold of the hand that tried to get away and pressed my tongue against it, only this time, I put more force into it. Starting with her fingertip, I slowly made my way towards the center of her palm, which tasted just like popcorn.

          「Hmm, I think caramel popcorn might be better next time.」

          I suggested after I was finished licking her hand like a dog, just as she asked for.

          「There won’t be a “next time”.」

          Miyagi said as she grabbed a tissue from the box that had a crocodile cover on it. She wiped the palm of her hand with it before crumpling it up and tossing it away in the garbage can. Then, without warning, she grabbed my necktie.

          As I braced myself for what was to come, she took my necktie off. Without hesitation, she undid a button on my blouse. I swatted her hand away out of reflex.

          「Wait a sec, isn’t this against the rules? I don’t have any intention of getting into that kind of a relationship with you, Miyagi.」

          Sure, I may have had two buttons undone on my blouse to begin with, but thanks to Miyagi, my cleavage was now exposed. Not that I had anything to lose if she saw it, but we didn’t have the kind of relationship where I would just go ahead and let her undo a third button like that.

          「You’re assuming I want that sort of relationship with you just because I took off your necktie? Don’t overthink it.」

          Miyagi said with a tone as if to insist that it wasn’t her intention. But from my point of view, she took off my necktie and then undid a button on my blouse. How could I not assume that that was what she was going for?

          「Okay, then what are you trying to do?」

          The answer to my question was more barbaric than I expected.

          Miyagi untied my braided hair and aggressively shoved me by my shoulders.

          This girl lived her life with no understanding of the word “moderation”.

          When she bit my finger back then, she caught me off guard with how much force she put into her bite.

          And this time, she pushed me so hard that I lost my balance and fell over on the floor.

          「Ow!」

          It would have been better if I fell on the bed, but there was nothing on the wooden floor to cushion my fall. My arm and back hurt; I couldn’t even get up because Miyagi sat herself down on top of me.

          「I knew it. So you really were trying to take things in this direction.」

          I tried to get her off of me.

          「You’re wrong.」

          Miyagi said apathetically. When I glanced at her, she didn’t look lustful or like she’d lost her senses or anything.

          In that case, what was she trying to do?

          Miyagi, with a calm and composed look on her face, reached her hand over to the table.

          Huh?

          Miyagi grabbed the bag of popcorn.

          Not even a second later, I was showered with white puffs.

          In other words, I just had popcorn dumped on me.

          「Wha- Miyagi!」

          My face, hair and blouse were all covered in popcorn.

          I grabbed Miyagi by her necktie.

          「If this is your idea of a joke, it isn’t funny.」

          I spent a lot of time doing my hair.

          The hair treatment I used was expensive, and the hair dryer I owned was a special one that was able to generate negative ions.

          I would’ve overlooked it if I was just having popcorn-shaped things being thrown at me, but I wasn’t going to tolerate anything that left crumbs or powder behind. Getting that stuff in my hair was the worst. Needless to say, I was really upset.

          「It’s not a joke. I just thought maybe you’d want to eat some more popcorn.」

          The expression on her face remained unchanged as Miyagi grabbed one of the fallen pieces of popcorn and stuffed it into my mouth. As if to vent my frustration, I bit down on both the popcorn and the finger that entered my mouth. Miyagi reached over and picked up a cup from the table.

          「…… Seriously?」

          The cup of soda hovered over me.

          Miyagi smiled.

          As she tilted the cup over, I closed my eyes out of reflex and let go of the necktie I was holding onto so I could use my hands to cover my face. Then, I felt the back of my hands getting wet, as if I had just gotten hit by a downpour of rain. When I opened my eyes, I saw that the cup she’d been holding was now empty.

          「Now this is going too far.」

          My voice naturally lowered itself.

          「So even you can get angry sometimes, Sendai-san.」

          I was only human, after all.

          The only reason why I usually didn’t get mad was because I was holding it in.

          「Wouldn’t it be weird if I didn’t get angry? Especially when you pull something like this.」

          「Well, I thought I was being rather considerate.」

          「How, exactly?」

          「Your blazer, necktie and skirt are all completely fine. Even if we didn’t have time to wash your blouse, I have a replacement for you, so that won’t be an issue either.」

          「…… You’re telling me you planned to do this from the very beginning?」

          Miyagi stood up without answering my question.

          With the weight of her body gone, I lifted myself up and shook the popcorn off me.

          It was true that the only thing that got wet was my blouse.

          But that didn’t mean it was okay to throw popcorn or dump soda on other people. There were about a hundred different things that I had to complain about before I could even start to feel better. However, before I was able to open my mouth, a towel and long-sleeved shirt came flying in my direction.

          「Wear that. I’ll let you keep it, so you don’t need to return it.」

          Miyagi said before exiting the room.

          Now that I had no one left to complain to, I took off my blouse and wiped my soda-covered hands and hair with the towel. When I looked over at the shirt that she tossed at me, I could tell that it was a bit big on Miyagi, but it was the right size for me.

          I didn’t want to wear it, considering what Miyagi had done to me earlier.

          But I couldn’t wear my blouse when it was still wet, so I put it on anyway. After I finished changing, Miyagi opened the door.

          「I’ll see you off.」

          Miyagi, who had suddenly decided that I was going home on her own, said as she handed me a bag to store my wet blouse in.

          I seriously couldn’t believe she had the nerve to forcibly send me home at a time like this, but I also knew that Miyagi was a weirdo from the start. No one in their right minds could ever come up with this whole order-giving game and then drag their classmate into playing it with them.

          I definitely had lots to complain about, but I was a willing participant in Miyagi’s weird game – I should have expected things to go like this. And I never really had any reason to expect it’d get any less weird over time.  

          She gave orders. I obeyed them.

          Since money was the only thing defining our relationship, there were bound to be days like today. It made things easier if I just thought of it like that and accepted it. But today, for some reason, I was left feeling unsatisfied.

          「Sendai-san.」

          Miyagi said, as if urging me along, so I put my coat on. Then, just like usual, the two of us left through the front door, rode the elevator down and walked all the way to the entrance of the apartment building.

          「Bye-bye.」

          Before I could even reply with, 「See you later」, Miyagi had already turned her back towards me.

          「I’m going to give this back to you later!」

          I shouted at Miyagi from behind.

          My blouse may have been dirtied by Miyagi, but I didn’t want to accept clothes from her just because she told me to. And just like when it came to money, I wanted to return the things that should be returned.

          It was almost spring break, so the next time I’d see Miyagi was probably in April, when we were no longer second year students.

          When I looked up at the sky, I could see countless stars.

          There was no wind, and the weather was pretty warm for March.

          If I connected some of the stars with a line, I could probably recognize a few constellations.

          If nothing had happened today, I would’ve considered this a nice and peaceful night.

          However, when I thought back to what went down today, I couldn’t help but think it was the worst night ever. Just when I thought it could not get any worse, by the time I got back home, I found a pamphlet for the prep school I had to attend starting in April sitting on my desk.

          I really didn’t want to go.

          I couldn’t help but heave a huge sigh.

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[1] In the original text, Sendai says, “猫の額どころか鼠の額並みに狭い”, which I decided to translate pretty literally here. It is a bit of a play-on-words, but since I lack creativity or knowledge of idioms in English (I swear I did not fail English), I left it as is.

Basically, 「猫の額」(neko no gaku) translates directly to “cat’s forehead”, but in Japanese, it’s an idiom used to describe a small amount of space. I would’ve had an easier time translating the sentence if Sendai had left it at that, but then she follows up and says,「鼠の額」(nezumi no gaku), which directly translates to “mouse’s forehead” and isn’t an idiom for anything. She just thinks Miyagi would be exceptionally narrowminded if she was upset just because of the karaage thing.

Anyway, the reason why I translated it so literally was because I wanted to keep the comparison between the two animals (cat & mouse), but hopefully the direct translation still made sense.

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[2] Sendai mentions having gone to a prep school over winter break all the way near the beginning of the story. Before, I didn’t expand further on this, but now that Sendai is mentioning cram school, I thought I should do it here.

Basically, in Japan, high school seniors have to take a standardized test called the “entrance exam” in order to apply for different universities, though some schools may have private entrance exams that test on more specific subjects. Although I am not from the US, I would imagine it’s something like the SATs. It’s a pretty big deal, as the education system is rather harsh and strict in Japan, making it difficult to achieve high scores.

Because of that, many students are enrolled in cram schools (塾/juku) or prep schools (予備校/yobikou), which are both generally designed to help students with entrance exam prep. The difference is that a cram school is usually more intensive, with classes being smaller in size, which also means you are able to get help from your teachers there a bit more easily as well (who will help you better according to your learning style). Meanwhile, a prep school functions pretty similarly to a university lecture, with classes being bigger in size. Cram schools are more catered to the individual, whereas a prep school might be more favorable for those who are able to learn by themselves.

Here, Sendai mentions that she would need to go to a cram school if she wanted to attend a top university. She doesn’t believe herself to be smart enough to study on her own and still achieve high enough scores to attend a top university (which is a fair assessment – not to diss Sendai, but because it is really, really hard). So instead, she settled on going to a prep school because it’s easier to manage.

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Credits to himi for proofreading and editing this part!

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