Something’s strange.

       Something is definitely wrong.

       I stopped knocking on Miyagi’s door.

       Even if I were to keep going, she wasn’t going to come out anyway, and I didn’t want to be a nuisance to her neighbors.

       But I wasn’t happy with this situation.

       I mean, Miyagi was acting way too strange.

       Why did I get chased out of her room in the first place?

       I didn’t even do anything.

       If anything, it was Miyagi who was on the verge of doing “something”, and if anyone had the right to be dissatisfied about that “something”, it should have been me. Yet, Miyagi was the one in a bad mood for some reason.

       Something like this had happened before.

       I turned my back to her front door as I briefly thought back to the beginning of the new school year.

       As I gazed down at the city from the sixth floor, all I could see were people and cars; the view felt quite lacking. The upscale apartment building seemed to prioritize convenience over having a good scenery.

       It all seemed so boring.

       The scenery.

       Miyagi.

       Just… everything.

       I took a deep breath and headed for the elevator. Usually, Miyagi would ride it with me, but today, I was alone.

       I left through the entrance of the apartment building and walked through the dimly lit streets.

       At the very least, Miyagi didn’t seem to hate me or anything.

       While we weren’t exactly friends – let alone lovers – I did sense some form of affection from her, so her decision to kick me out seemed strange to me.

       「Come on… Now it just seems like I was the one who did something wrong.」

       It was Miyagi who had ordered me to close my eyes. She was the one who attempted to kiss me. Yet, she abruptly stopped and then sent me home for the day, as if it were something she could just decide on her own. To leave things half-finished and chase me away without even discussing things properly was not a great way to maintain obedience from me.

       …… Well, no, that wasn’t entirely true.

       Miyagi didn’t make me obey her.

       I was the one who pushed her into issuing me the order.

       What would happen if I let Miyagi kiss me?

       I wanted to know the answer, so I made her give me an order.

       However, it was Miyagi who decided what it would entail.

       Ultimately, she was the one with the final say, so it was only fair that she assumed responsibility for what happened.

       I don’t care if it seems like I’m just taking my frustrations out on her – it was much worse on her part to abruptly stop things the way she did.

       I quickened my pace.

       I rushed back home so fast that I was almost out of breath. I went up to my room and shut myself in. Although I felt a bit hungry, I couldn’t muster the appetite to have dinner. I changed out of my uniform and into more comfortable clothes before pulling my wallet out of my bag.

       「Even if I try to give this back to her, she’s not going to take it.」

       I didn’t think what I did today was worth five-thousand yen.

       If possible, I wanted to give the money back to her, but knowing Miyagi, she’d just stubbornly decline. On that note, I wasn’t sure if she even wanted anything to do with me anymore.

       I stuffed the five-thousand-yen bill into my piggy bank and then lifted it up.

       I wasn’t sure if the piggy bank had gotten heavier or not, but the balance had grown by another five-thousand yen. If anything, the money I had put in felt like a weight on my conscience.

       「You’re such an idiot, Miyagi…」

       I lobbed my complaint at the piggy bank as I flopped onto my bed.

       Whenever situations like this came up, Miyagi usually kept her distance from me.

       The same thing happened after she poured soda on me before the start of spring break.

       She ran away from me and stopped contacting me.

       Sometimes, she’d act impulsively and do something crazy, but when it came to facing the consequences, she’d choose to avoid them instead.

       That was her way of “solving” her problems.

       「You’re just going to do the same thing again this time, aren’t you?」

       In the end, my prediction came true, and I didn’t hear from Miyagi over the next four days.

       I stared at my phone screen in the classroom after school.

       You could say that it had only been four days, but considering what had happened between me and Miyagi, it felt like an eternity had gone by. Though there have been times where we’d go this long without seeing each other before, I felt like it’d be another week or two before I’d hear from her again.

       On that day, Miyagi, who had never apologized to me before, extended an apology.

       I wasn’t exactly sure what led her to do so, but whatever it was seemed to be the reason Miyagi was avoiding me.

       I put my phone in my bag and went over to Umina’s desk. She and Mariko had been excitedly discussing their plans for after school. When I called out to them, they filled me in on their decision.

       「I was just talking to Mariko about what to do, but you wanna just hit the usual spots today?」

       「Sorry, I have prep school, so I can’t go. But invite me again next time.」

       「Whaat? Can’t you just like, skip it every once in a while?」

       「It’d be a huge pain if my parents ever found out.」

       「Oh come on, just let them be angry.」

       Mariko backed up Umina’s irresponsible suggestion with a casual, “Yeah, exactly.”

       「Sorry. I’ll treat you guys to something next time.」

       The three of us headed towards our shoe lockers as I suggested a few ideas for things to treat them to. After changing out of our indoor shoes, we walked to the school’s front gate and said our goodbyes. Once their figures were out of sight, I took a different path than the one leading to my prep school.

       I’d never skipped prep school before, but I had no plans of going today.

       I felt a little bad for Umina and the others, but I had something else I needed to do.

       My destination was Miyagi’s apartment.

       I walked along the path I’d grown so used to taking at a brisk pace.

       There was only one thing to do now that I’d come this far.

       I called for Miyagi from the intercom at the front entrance of the building. However, there was no response.

       「Well, of course she wasn’t going pick up.」

       Once.

       Twice.

       And then a third time.

       I continuously called her on the intercom, but Miyagi’s voice never came through.

       Well, I guess I should’ve expected this.

       I pulled out my phone and sent Miyagi a text.

       I’d never arranged our hangouts before, but this was the second time I was taking the initiative to message her. Both times were to get her to answer me.

       『Miyagi, answer the intercom.』

       『I know you’re there.』

       『Don’t just ignore me. Let me in.』

       Some of the messages I sent were being marked as “read”, but she didn’t reply to any of them. Feeling irritated by her lack of common courtesy, I continued ringing the intercom.

       Something like this had happened around the start of the new school year when our classrooms were reassigned. Last time I did this, she ended up letting me in, but today, she didn’t answer the intercom or reply to any of my messages.

       I was getting annoyed.

       Very annoyed.

       For the first time ever, I decided to call her on her phone.

       Although I’d expected as much, the phone kept on ringing, and I wasn’t able to hear Miyagi’s voice through it either.

       『Pick up the phone.』

       My messages stopped being marked as “read”.

       「How can you even be this avoidant? Are you a child or something?」

       Midterm exams were approaching.

       Now wasn’t the time for me to be standing out here, bombarding Miyagi with texts. However, if we didn’t address the tension between us, I doubt I’d be able to concentrate on studying anyway. At this point, it felt like anything I attempt to memorize wouldn’t stick for very long.

       It was all Miyagi’s fault that I was such a mess right now.

       My emotions felt wavering and unstable, like an unrelenting dizziness.

       I decided to leave her apartment building and head home.

       None of this was a big deal or anything.

       I mean, to begin with, it didn’t really bother me if my connection with Miyagi came to an end. While it was a bit of a shame considering our arrangement was supposed to continue until graduation, I didn’t mind too much if it ended a bit sooner.

       Sure, I may be losing the one place I felt most comfortable being myself, but I’m confident I’ll find another place like that in the future.

       But I wasn’t going to let things end so half-heartedly, especially considering the situation we were in.

       I wasn’t sure how I found my way back, but I managed to make it home.

       If anything, I probably just took my usual path back.

       Apart from Miyagi ignoring me, nothing about my daily life had changed.

       When I went back to my room, I glanced over at my desk.

       All I needed was one simple excuse.

       I put the eraser I took from Miyagi into my pencil case.

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Um… I overslept.
Also, Sendai totally forgot she was supposed to be skipping prep school. What a rookie mistake!

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