Spending time with Sendai-san in my room made me think about how little time we had left together, and that thought left me feeling down.

         Back in late January, we’d made nikujaga together, and now it was already February. Whether I liked it or not, the graduation ceremony was just a month away.

         「Wanna take a break, Miyagi?」

         After writing beside me with her pencil for two hours, Sendai-san nudged me and asked.

         「Sure.」

         I knew I needed to study, but rushing wouldn’t suddenly make me able to do things I hadn’t managed before. And there was no point forcing myself to keep going if I couldn’t concentrate.

         I set my pencil down and looked over at her.

         It hadn’t been that long since I last saw her, but for some reason, it felt like it had been a while.

         Maybe it was because I hadn’t gone to school at all since February started.

         Maika and Ami had both said they weren’t planning on going in during the optional attendance period, and I didn’t want to either if I didn’t have to.

         The optional attendance days had only just begun, but so long as I stayed home, I wouldn’t run into Sendai-san by chance.

         Since I could only see her if I invited her over, maybe that was why it felt like so much time had passed since the last time.

         「So, Miyagi, what’ve you been doing since the optional attendance days started?」

         Sendai-san asked, like she was just making conversation.

         「Studying.」

         I didn’t like studying, but I felt restless if I wasn’t doing it, so that was how I’d been spending most of my time.

         「Right. Have you gone to school at all?」

         「No. Maika and Ami aren’t going either, so it’d just be boring. You haven’t been going either, right, Sendai-san?」

         She was wearing casual clothes today instead of her school uniform, which meant she’d come straight from home.

         Even if I had gone to school, I wouldn’t have seen her there anyway.

         「Well, yeah.」

         Sendai-san replied without much energy.

         I glanced at the notebook lying open in front of her.

         Her writing was tidy, though some letters spilled outside the ruled lines.

         Even so, I thought it looked really neat and clean.

         Just like her outer appearance.

         She always looked put-together. Even though parts of her look went against school rules, she kept things neat enough that teachers wouldn’t scold her.

         Whenever I was beside her, I couldn’t help but wish I was more like her.

         She had beautiful handwriting, was good at studying, and was attractive too.

         If I could be like that, maybe I’d feel a little more confident in myself.

         I let out a quiet sigh so Sendai-san wouldn’t hear, then shifted toward my bed and leaned against it.

         I shut my eyes tight, blocking out the characters on her notebook from view.

         After stretching a bit and opening my eyes again, I noticed her long hair.

         She wasn’t in her school uniform today, but unlike during winter break, she was wearing a blouse instead of a turtleneck. Even so, her hair hid her neck.

         Her hair looked pretty, even without a braid, but I couldn’t tell if she was wearing the necklace.

         I reached out and gently tugged on her hair.

         「What is it?」

         Sendai-san asked, glancing at me.

         I could just order her to show me, since I paid her five-thousand yen today.

         I ran my fingers through her hair again, then let go.

         I’m sure she’s wearing it today.

         Every time I’d checked, it had always been there.

         「It’s nothing.」

         I said flatly and sat up straight, moving away from the bed.

         Sendai-san undid a button on her blouse. Before I could ask what she was doing, she pulled the necklace out from underneath.

         「Here.」

         She said, as if it were only natural, while looking at me.

         「I never asked you to show it to me.」

         「You looked like you were about to.」

         「I wasn’t. It didn’t even cross my mind.」

         「Is that so?」

         She replied dryly, tucking the necklace back in. But she left her blouse button undone and tugged on the hood of my hoodie.

         「Hey, you remember I told you to let me know if you pass your entrance exam, right?」

         「I do.」

         There’s no way I’d forget.

         That promise with Sendai-san was probably the reason I’d been feeling so anxious.

         What if things didn’t go well?

         I’d end up having to tell Sendai-san that I failed.

         Our promise only required me to tell her if I did pass, so technically, I didn’t have to say anything if I failed. But if I stayed silent, she’d figure it out anyway, so not telling her wasn’t really an option.

         If I had to say something either way, I’d much rather it be that I passed.

         「You think you’ll be okay for the exam?」

         Sendai-san asked, her tone unchanged.

         「I’ll probably be fine.」

         「That’s good, then.」

         ‘That’s good?’

         I had no clue what was supposed to be good about any of this.

         I was lying when I said I’d probably be fine. I still didn’t have any confidence in myself.

         Sendai-san hadn’t noticed at all.

         I knew she couldn’t have picked up on how I felt unless I actually said it out loud, but still—I couldn’t help thinking that she should’ve noticed anyway.

         「Sendai-san, cast a charm on me.」

         「Is that today’s order?」

         「Yeah.」

         「When you say ‘charm,’ do you mean like the one I did last time?」

         Sendai-san asked, resting her chin in her hand.

         「You said it would guarantee results, right?」

         I knew the charm she did last time wasn’t a real one. It felt more like a joke meant to make me uncomfortable than anything magical. So of course, I didn’t believe it would actually help.

         But still—when Sendai-san, who was good at everything, touched me, it felt like I was getting even just a little bit of her strength.

         「Give me your hand.」

         Sendai-san said as she turned to face me.

         I held my hand out like I was told, and she gently took it. Just like last time, her lips brushed against my fingertips.

         I thought it was unfair how good she looked even in moments like this.

         Feeling uneasy, I tugged lightly on her bangs. Unlike the order she’d done it in last time, her lips went up to the second joint of my middle finger.

         This wasn’t going to suddenly give me more confidence, but somehow, it felt better than doing nothing at all. Even if I couldn’t become more like Sendai-san, at least it eased some of my anxiety about studying.

         Her lips touched the base of my finger.

         Then, something warm traced along the back of my hand.

         If it were a dog or a cat doing this to me, I probably would’ve found it cute. But that wasn’t the case with Sendai-san. The feeling in my chest was different—probably because I didn’t look at her with the same kind of pure affection I felt for animals.

         I hoped she didn’t do this kind of thing with anyone else.

         I wanted to be the only one who got to feel her body heat up close like this.

         The tongue that had been licking the back of my hand stopped, and then she kissed my palm. But she only kissed it once before lifting her head.

         「Is that it?」

         I asked, and she responded by tightening her grip on my hand.

         I didn’t grip back, but since I hadn’t pulled away either, Sendai-san said, “Not yet.”

         Without warning, she pushed up the sleeve of my hoodie to my elbow. As I watched her, she brought her lips to the inside of my arm and sucked hard.

         It hurt, like I was being pricked by needles.

         It felt like countless needles were entering my body from where her lips touched me. The pain shouldn’t have been that intense, but it felt far worse than it should’ve. The needles flowed through my bloodstream, all converging at my heart, where they kept pricking it relentlessly.

         She moved her lips, shifted their position, and sucked again.

         Like before, it hurt more than it should have.

         After leaving two marks behind, Sendai-san looked up at me.

         「Is this supposed to be part of the charm too?」

         I asked, even though I already knew it wasn’t a real charm.

         She answered, “It is.”

         The spot where she’d left the marks still felt hot.

         Sendai-san kissed one of them before pulling my sleeve back down.

         「Will this charm actually work?」

         「It will. Trust me.」

         「I don’t trust it because it’s you, Sendai-san.」

         I couldn’t really believe in it when the marks were just going to fade away so quickly.

         If they stayed all the way until the exam results were out, then maybe I’d be able to believe in them. But there was no way they’d last that long.

         「It’ll work. Really. Have a little faith in me for once.」

         Sendai-san said irresponsibly.

         「Will you take responsibility if I don’t pass?」

         「Sure.」

         「How?」

         「I’ll let you decide.」

         Sendai-san was always leaving it to me.

         She always pushed the decision onto me.

         But I knew she was just joking around like always, so it’d be dumb to seriously consider what she said. There was no point playing along anymore, so I decided to end the break here and picked up my pencil.

         But before I could do anything, Sendai-san snatched it from my hand.

         「What? I thought you finished casting the charm.」

         「Nope. Not yet.」

         She said, tracing her fingers over my lips.

         「Whatever you’re trying to do now, it definitely isn’t part of the charm, is it?」

         I grabbed her wrist and moved her hand away.

         「It is.」

         「You’re just trying to kiss me, aren’t you?」

         Sendai-san didn’t answer.

         She didn’t confirm or deny it.

         She just reached for my lips again in silence, so I pushed her away.

         「Miyagi.」

         Even though I didn’t give her permission to keep going with the charm, she leaned in close.

         So I leaned in too—and bumped my forehead into hers.

         A dull thud echoed in my skull.

         「Ouch!」

         Sendai-san exclaimed, pressing her hand to her forehead.

         I did the same.

         「Are you stupid or something? That really hurt.」

         「It’s your fault, Sendai-san. It hurt for me too.」

         I didn’t mean to hit her that hard, but it ended up hurting way more than I expected.

         「I’m not gonna care if you forget everything you studied because of that.」

         「Even if I forget a few things, it’s fine. I’ll just keep studying to make up for it. Besides, I’m not going to see you again until the exams are over, Sendai-san.」

         「Wait, what? Is that supposed to be payback or something?」

         「No.」

         I didn’t think not inviting her over counted as payback.

         But that didn’t mean I’d firmly decided not to see her until the exams either.

         It was just something I’d been thinking about since yesterday.

         「But there’s still quite a bit of time until exams, right?」

         「Yeah, but I’ll be spending all that time studying.」

         「You don’t want to study together?」

         Sendai-san asked, her voice a little quieter than before.

         「I’m planning to study on my own. You’ve got your own exams to worry about too, don’t you, Sendai-san?」

         It wasn’t that I couldn’t study with her—she always answered my questions, and studying with her was way better than doing it alone.

         But right now, I wanted to do whatever I could on my own, by myself.

         「Okay, I get it. We’ve both got to do our best, huh.」

         Sendai-san replied, looking displeased as she closed my reference book on the table.

         She shut my notebook too, and started putting my pencil and eraser back into the pencil case.

         「Sendai-san, I just said I was going to keep studying.」

         I opened my reference book and notebook again, but she reached over and closed them once more.

         「Hey, Miyagi.」

         I didn’t answer.

         I didn’t want to respond to someone who was obviously trying to be annoying.

         「Don’t just ask me to cast a charm on you. Order me to kiss you instead.」

         Sendai-san said as she grabbed my hand.

         「I’m not going to do that.」

         「We’re not going to be seeing each other for a while, right?」

         「What about it?」

         「Don’t you want to do it too?」

         「I’ll be fine even without it.」

         「I see.」

         She said with an uninterested tone and let go of my hand, leaning against the bed without saying anything more.

         Normally, she’d push until I was backed into a corner and gave her what she wanted, but today, she backed off so easily that it left me feeling uneasy.

         That was why I said what I did next.

         「― If you want to do it that badly, then just do it.」

         「Is that an order?」

         「Sendai-san, you really want to be ordered around, huh?」

         She didn’t respond.

         Instead, Sendai-san sat up from where she’d been leaning and brought her face closer to mine.

         Before her lips approached, her fingers softly grazed my cheek.

         Our eyes met.

         I stared back at her, but since she didn’t close her eyes, I closed mine first.

         Then, her lips touched mine.

         It felt like it’d been a long time since we last kissed.

         Her lips were softer than the hand stroking my cheek.

         She pulled back slightly—then immediately leaned in for another kiss, but I pushed her away by the shoulders.

         「Miyagi.」

         「No more.」

         I replied curtly, gripping my own arm tightly.

         Then, I reopened the reference book and notebook that Sendai-san had closed earlier.

---

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