For the first time ever, I went over to Miyagi’s place without accepting a five-thousand yen bill from her. That day, I was practically brimming with dissatisfaction, but it gave me the courage I needed to see her. Instead of being paid with money, I was sent home with the clothes she gave me, which I stored by the drawers that my piggy bank rested upon.

          Of course, it would’ve been better if she’d just taken the clothes back instead. In any case, the clothes were worth about five-thousand yen, the same price as an order – like the money, I had no intention of using them in future.

          But that day was the only one that felt special.

          A few days had gone by since then, and just like with any other visit, Miyagi paid me five-thousand yen again today.

          However, some things have changed.

          Miyagi served me barley tea instead of soda.

          And she seemed a bit more chatty than usual.

          I could understand being served barley tea, but I had no idea why she was suddenly so willing to talk to me. That being said, I found it a lot more enjoyable than just sitting around in silence all the time.

          「Oh, that book was boring.」

          This new more talkative Miyagi said when she noticed the romance novel I was reading. I raised my head to look at her.

          「Really? I think it’s pretty interesting though.」

          「That one didn’t have a happy ending.」

          「Hey, isn’t that a spoiler? I just started reading it, too.」

          「It’s fine.」

          「No it isn’t.」

          The kinds of conversations we were having weren’t really that deep, but seeing Miyagi so willing to speak with me reminded me of a stray cat finally letting me get close enough to pet it.

          We started our little arrangement back in the summer, so about half a year had gone by since then.

          When I thought about how long it took to get this wary stray cat to open up to me, I felt very touched.

          But seriously, spoilers were off limits.

          I closed the novel in my hands and tossed it onto the bed. Then, I swiped the manga that Miyagi was reading from her and turned over on the bed. I flipped through the pages of the book while hoping that she had no complaints.

          It wasn’t the first volume of the manga, but it didn’t matter since I’d read the series several times by now. After getting through about a third of the book, Miyagi, who had been leaning by the bed, got up from her seat.

          「Sendai-san, play a game with me.」

          「A game?」

          「Yes. This one.」

          Miyagi pulled something out from below the TV. She was holding a case with a picture of a cartoonish car in her hands.

          「It’s no fun playing it alone.」

          Miyagi said.

          Judging from the case, she was probably talking about a racing game.

          I thought back to the time I asked Miyagi if she played any video games. At the time, she said she didn’t play any dating sims, but she also wouldn’t tell me what games she did play.

          Perhaps the answer to that question was in her hands right now. However, Miyagi didn’t really strike me as the type to enjoy racing games.

          How surprising.

          That being said, I wasn’t really sure what sort of games I was expecting her to like, but racing games definitely would not have been my first guess. Oh, but considering that the characters driving the cars were pretty well-known, there was a chance that Miyagi liked the game for the characters rather than the genre.

          「Is this supposed to be a competitive racing game?」

          I usually didn’t play any video games, so I wanted to ask just to be sure.

          「Yep. The idea is that you want to sabotage your opponents while racing to the finish line.」

          「I don’t actually know if it’s possible or not, but couldn’t you technically play this game with other people online?」

          「…… You don’t have to play if you don’t want to.」

          Miyagi said, suddenly becoming disappointed. I panicked a little when I saw her rushing to put the game away.

          I was open to finding other ways to pass the time.

          I enjoyed reading manga and novels, but it wouldn’t hurt to change things up every now and then.

          「It’s not that I don’t want to play, I just don’t know how to.」

          「I’ll teach you.」

          Miyagi said as she turned the console on. Then, she began her lecture.

          However, the game mechanics were a lot more complex than I expected, so I couldn’t remember them all.

          Halfway through the lecture, Miyagi seemed like she was starting to get tired of teaching me and her explanations were becoming less and less detailed, so I decided to interrupt her.

          「Oh, right. I’m enrolled in a prep school now, so there are some days I won’t be able to come visit.」

          「Prep school?」

          「I mean, we do have entrance exams to worry about this year, so it can’t be helped.」

          If I were able to get into the university that my parents wanted me to go to, then perhaps things could go back to how they were when I was a child.

          To me, passing the university entrance exam was my last chance at reconciling with my family.

          But the truth is, I felt like somewhere down the line, I’d already stopped caring about my family. There was no way I was getting into the university of their dreams, and even if I did get accepted, I’d probably end up rejecting the offer anyway.

          Despite that, I still wrote the name of that university down as my desired school on my prep school application form.

          ―― Even though I was well-aware that starting prep school this late in the game wasn’t going to change a single thing.

          I lay on the bed with my stomach facing up as I stared at the ceiling.

          The colors of the room were completely different from mine and yet, it was starting to feel familiar to me.

          「I don’t mind if you stop by after class.」

          Miyagi’s tone made her emotions difficult to read.

          「Well, the classes end pretty late, so that might not be possible. I usually get home around midnight on those days.」

          「In that case, if it turns out you have to go to prep school when I call for you, then just come the day after.」

          「Got it.」

          After sorting that out, Miyagi finished with her basic rundown of the game and started a race. However, my car didn’t seem to move the way I wanted it to.

          I leaned my body to the right, hoping the car would do the same, but the action came delayed.

          The same thing happened when I leaned to the left.

          And just when I thought I had a straight path ahead of me, I suddenly started spinning, and Miyagi quickly overtook me.

          How annoying.

          This was definitely the car’s fault, not mine.

          Plus, Miyagi was bullying me too.

          She kept throwing things like banana peels or bombs at me to get in my way. Because of that, Miyagi won pretty much all of the races, and I couldn’t win any.

          「Go easy on me, Miyagi.」

          「I don’t want to.」

          「I’m only a beginner.」

          「I know.」

          「Ah, geez. Let’s take a break already! I can’t win a single race. It’s not fun.」

          I tossed the controller away in the middle of the race and decided to drink some barley tea instead. In the meantime, Miyagi’s car continued to speed towards the finish line and ended in her victory.

          「Sendai-san, you’re pretty bad at this.」

          Miyagi, who spared me no mercy, said as she put her controller aside and stretched her legs out.

          While I wouldn’t call her super talkative, she really was speaking a lot more than usual today. I don’t know what she and Utsunomiya were like together, but I’d imagine Miyagi was more like this with her friends – open and sociable.

          Is it about to snow tomorrow or something?

          I stared in Miyagi’s direction while I was having that rude thought about her.

          Even though we were third year students now, nothing about her had changed.

          She still wasn’t into doing her makeup and nothing really looked out of place about her uniform, save for her slightly shortened skirt.

          If anything, she was playing it too safe.

          Hypothetically, if everyone was lined up, then the teachers would probably notice the difference in skirt lengths. However, I doubted that the teachers would have anything to say even if our skirts were just a bit shorter than normal.

          Hmm, maybe she could get away with about this much?

          As I lightly messed around with her skirt on my own, I noticed a bruise around her knee.  

          「What are you doing all of a sudden?」

          When I pulled on her skirt, Miyagi shot me a glare.

          「You’ve got a bruise on your knee.」

          「I bumped into something at school.」

          「Does it hurt?」

          Without even waiting for an answer, I poked at her knee under the table. She immediately swatted my hand away in response.

          「It doesn’t hurt, but what if it did? Why are you poking it?」

          「I just felt like it.」

          「If you’re that bored, we can always keep going with this.」

          Miyagi said with a displeased look on her face as she handed a controller over to me.

          It wasn’t like I found the game uninteresting or anything, but I just didn’t want to lose anymore. Or I guess it was more accurate to say that I would’ve found it more fun if I could win at least once.

          As I considered different ways to get Miyagi’s mind off the game, I suddenly remembered something.

          「Oh yeah, did you know that if you cut up a lemon and squeeze a couple drops on a hickey, it makes it disappear faster?」

          「I didn’t know that. Is this what people with that sort of experience talk about all the time?」

          Miyagi asked, most likely because of those baseless rumors people spread about me. Something about how I was just “acting pure, but fooling around in reality”. In any case, I made sure to firmly deny it.

          「Look, I’m not experienced. When Umina had some hickeys that she needed to get rid of, she tried the lemon trick for herself and then told us about it.」

          「Don’t tell me… You want to try it on my bruise?」

          「Yep, that’s right. I just thought that, you know, since bruises and hickeys are both types of internal bleeding, we might end up with similar results.」

          「I doubt it. Besides, did Ibaraki-san’s hickey really disappear that quickly after squeezing lemon on it?」

          「It did disappear, but it probably would’ve gone away on its own anyway. Well, I’ve also heard that applying either hot or cold things can help as well, so why not give it a try?」

          「I’ve already had the bruise for two days now, and it’s not like I’m in any rush to get rid of it.」

          Miyagi brushed off my suggestion like it was a too much of a hassle. She set her game controller down and took a sip of her soda. As if her desire to continue playing had disappeared, Miyagi turned off the console.

          Now that I managed to accomplish what I set out to do and freed myself from having to play more, I picked up the manga I put aside earlier. However, before I could even flip a single page, Miyagi tapped me on the shoulder.

          「Oh, I know. Let’s do an experiment.」

          「An experiment?」

          「Yep. Let’s start with you taking off your blazer for now, Sendai-san.」

          For some reason, Miyagi sounded more energetic than usual.

          I suddenly had a bad feeling about this.

          「Is that an order?」

          「It is. Hurry up and take it off.」

          Miyagi commanded, leaving me with no room to argue.

---

Credits to himi for proofreading and editing this part!

---

< Previous Part | Next Part >