The teacher talked way too much, to the point where I was starting to think he was doing it on purpose.

       After what felt like forever, the bell finally rang.

       I closed my textbook and notebook and took out a certain eraser from my pencil case. I impatiently tapped my foot on the floor, silently urging the teacher to leave.

       Come on, hurry up already.

       I was glaring so hard at the teacher it felt like I was about to burn a hole through his head. After he distributed today’s homework and went over the assignment, he finally left the classroom.

       I quickly cleaned up my desk and walked over to Umina’s seat.

       「Sorry, you guys should start eating without me. There’s something I need to take care of first.」

       Lunch break was a bit longer than recess, but when I thought about what I needed to do, I felt like it wasn’t long enough.

       「Sure, but where are you going?」

       「Oh, I just need to stop by the class next door.」

       I said before exiting the classroom.

       I walked down the hallway with a certain eraser in my hand.

       I was about to reunite it with its owner.

       Class 1 was just a short walk down the hallway. As soon as I got to the entrance, a girl who was nearby came to meet me. We exchanged smiles, and after I explained the reason for my visit, she turned around and called out to Miyagi.

       「Miyagi-saaan!」

       「What is it?」

       Miyagi replied.

       Her voice came from somewhere around the second-to-last row of desks.

       Miyagi, who was sitting with her friends, had a perplexed look on her face. The girl who called out to her on my behalf then added, “Your friend’s here to see you,” which seemed to fan the flames even more.

       Miyagi grimaced as soon as she heard those words.

       But it only lasted for a second.

       As expected, she wouldn’t lash out at me while we were at school.

       As much as I thought it’d make for an interesting sight, Miyagi seemed determined to keep her composed demeanor. Meanwhile, her friends appeared surprised that I’d been referred to as her “friend”. After a brief exchange with them, Miyagi finally made her way over to me while wearing an ambiguous expression on her face.

       「…… We’re at school, you know.」

       Miyagi said with a displeased tone in her voice as she furrowed her brows.

       「I’m aware.」

       「Okay, then don’t talk to me. Wasn’t that one of our rules?」

       She snapped at me, her voice filled with nothing but dissatisfaction.

       However, she seemed to be conscious of the fact that our conversation could be overheard by others, so she spoke in a hushed tone, ensuring only I could hear her.

       「Look, I found this in my pocket. I just wanted to return this to its owner, so it’s not that weird for me to come find you at school, right?」

       I showed Miyagi the eraser in my hand.

       「You―」

       「“You don’t need to return it. You can just keep it.” Was that what you were going to say?」

       Miyagi fell silent after I took the words out of her mouth.

       I mean, of course I knew what she was going to say.

       Miyagi and I had spent enough time together for me to understand that much about her.

       「I’m willing to keep it, but first, we need to talk.」

       I put the eraser into my skirt pocket and then grabbed Miyagi by the arm.

       「Huh? Wait, what are you-」

       「We stand out too much here. Just come with me.」

       To be honest, we probably attracted a lot of attention already.

       But going somewhere else was a lot better than standing around and having a conversation by the entrance of a classroom.

       I dragged Miyagi along with me as I walked.

       Since it was lunchtime, there were a lot of people in the hallways, so pulling Miyagi by the hand was probably attracting even more attention than before. It seemed Miyagi had noticed that as well, so she immediately shook me off and started walking on her own. She probably knew that if she tried to run away, I’d just go after her again, so she silently followed me without complaining.

       We reached the far end of the old school building, and I ushered the unusually compliant Miyagi into the music preparation room. As we ventured further inside, we found ourselves surrounded by a bunch of instruments, some of which I was familiar with and others I had never seen before.

       「Why did you bring me here? I was in the middle of eating my lunch, you know.」

       Now that we were in a room where people rarely visited during breaks, Miyagi no longer hid her sour mood. I could tell she was upset as I had heard that low tone of her voice on multiple other occasions.

       「Well, if I didn’t bring you here, you wouldn’t even talk to me. You’d just run away again.」

       I leaned against the shelf where some of the instruments were stored and grabbed Miyagi by the arm again.

       Miyagi, with an expression devoid of any friendliness, made no attempt to resist. Instead, she stood before me silently, her arm still held in my grasp.

       「I thought we promised not to talk to each other at school.」

       「Actually, you were the one who said that you wouldn’t interact with me at school, and that you’d only communicate with me through our phones. But I never said I’d do the same.」

       To be honest, I didn’t think my argument held any water.

       I agreed to the rules that Miyagi set last year under the idea that they applied to me as well, so technically, Miyagi was in the right here. However, I needed something to help me bluff my way out.

       I had something to ask Miyagi, and I had things I wanted to say as well.

       「…… Well, even if that is the case, I don’t have anything to say to you.」

       Miyagi said, seemingly willing to let my bluff slide, but she shot me a resentful glare in return.

       「You might not, but I do.」

       「Okay, then just tell me about it the next time you come over.」

       「You never call for me whenever things like this happen. It’s almost as if you’re just willing to let it end like this.」

       「I will contact you.」

       「When?」

       「…… Soon.」

       Miyagi spoke with a tone of uncertainty in her voice. Her words didn’t seem to convey any intention of reaching out to me.

       Yep, as I thought, I need to get the answers from her right here, right now.

       If I let go of her now, Miyagi might actually end up calling it quits.

       I applied more pressure to the hand that was grabbing onto her arm.

       「I need to ask you something. Just answer me.」

       Without waiting for her response, I continued.

       「Why did you chase me out?」

       My voice echoed in the worn-out preparation room.

       Miyagi remained silent and still. The polished instruments, though seemingly out of place in the weathered preparation room, did nothing to alleviate the stagnant atmosphere between us.

       「Answer me.」

       When I tugged on her arm, Miyagi took a step away from me, as if implying she had no intention of responding to my question.

       「You can’t order me around.」

       「Oh, no, I can do whatever I want. This isn’t your house, Miyagi.」

       Miyagi could only issue orders when we were at her place.

       She was basically buying the right to order me around for the price of five-thousand yen.

       That was a rule we established together, but it didn’t apply at school.

       「We took care of all of our business and there was nothing left to do, so I let you go home. I didn’t chase you out.」

       Miyagi said, sounding like she’d given up. She continued with「So, are we done here?」as she tried to shake my hand off. However, I wasn’t going to let her go so easily.

       「You call that “taking care of our business”?」

       「I ordered you to close your eyes, and that’s exactly what you did. That was all I wanted from you, so there was nothing left to do.」

       「Was that really all you wanted from that order?」

       「Wasn’t that what I just said?」

       「It felt like you wanted to do something to me though. Are you really okay with how things ended up?」

       I never really thought of myself as a particularly honest person to begin with, but whenever I was with Miyagi, I was even more aware of it. Especially right now. Even though I was the one who encouraged her to do that “something” to me, I now found myself pressuring Miyagi for answers.

       But things weren’t going as well as I’d hoped.

       「That’s just your imagination, Sendai-san.」

       Miyagi refrained from giving me a real answer and managed to shake my hand away.

       As she turned her back towards me and tried to leave the music preparation room, I started feeling a bit uneasy.

       「Oh, right. Miyagi, have you started studying for exams yet?」

       I called out to her, asking the first question that came to mind. Miyagi turned around and faced me, wearing a dubious expression on her face.

       「Why are you asking about that all of a sudden?」

       「See, I haven’t started studying yet, and it’s your fault that I can’t make any progress, so you better take some responsibility for it.」

       「I don’t get what you’re trying to say.」

       「Do you have your phone on you right now?」

       「Do I really have to answer that?」

       「I’m just asking you a simple “yes” or “no” question.」

       「…… I left it in the classroom.」

       「You better call for me today.」

       I wasn’t about to send her a message first.

       That was Miyagi’s duty, after all.

       Of course, there’d no exception today either.

       I wasn’t in the mood to play nice or pamper her.

       「What if I said I didn’t want to?」

       Miyagi asked with an annoyed look on her face.

       Her current focus appeared to be solely on returning to her classroom, and that irritated me.

       「I don’t care if you don’t want to. You better do it. Oh, and before I forget, let me return your eraser to you.」

       I approached Miyagi while staring her straight in the eye.

       Then, I grabbed her by the wrist and forced the eraser into her hand.

       「I don’t need it. You can keep it.」

       「Fine, then I’ll just take it from you the next time I come over.」

       After placing the eraser in her hand, I stormed out of the music preparation room, leaving Miyagi behind.

       When I returned to my classroom, there was no time left for me to eat my lunch, so I prepared for my next class instead.

       I tossed some candy in my mouth to keep my empty stomach occupied for a little while.

       After sitting through a few more lectures, the school day eventually came to an end.

       When I checked my phone, I noticed I had received a text from Miyagi. 

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