I’d expected Miyagi not to be here when I woke up the next morning.

         I hadn’t thought she’d be gone the entire day, but knowing her personality, I wasn’t too surprised when she was.

         What I hadn’t expected was for her to be gone for three whole days.

         「I thought she’d be back a lot sooner than this.」

         I muttered with a sigh as I poured myself some orange juice.

         I’d figured I would give her a day to cool off and then she’d come home feeling a little awkward, maybe a bit sheepish. But now that it was the fourth day and Miyagi still hadn’t returned, unease began to creep in.

         I could understand how hard it would be to face me—the person who was just her roommate—after doing something that roommates usually didn’t do. Even I didn’t know how I was going to face her. I knew it would take time to get used to, but three days was far too long.

         I picked up my cup and headed back to my room.

         I wasn’t too worried about where she was.

         「I bet she’s been staying over at Utsunomiya’s place.」

         I drank half my orange juice before setting the cup down on the table.

         I’d texted Miyagi earlier, asking if she was at Utsunomiya’s, and she’d simply replied, “Don’t worry about me.” That made me even more certain I was right. If she hadn’t been there, she would’ve said something like, “I’m not at Maika’s place.”

         At times like this, I felt relieved knowing Miyagi had somewhere to go. But I had mixed feelings knowing she was with Utsunomiya.

         It wasn’t that I thought there was anything between them.

         Even so, I wasn’t exactly happy about it either.

         Still, it was better than not knowing where she was or whose place she was staying at.

         But if she didn’t come home soon, it felt like Utsunomiya might end up becoming her roommate instead. And that would be a problem, so Miyagi needed to come back.

         I flopped onto my bed.

         I’d already washed the covers and sheets, but even so, I could still catch traces of Miyagi’s scent. I didn’t regret what had happened on Sunday, but I did sort of regret that it happened in my room. Now, whenever I lay here, my mind went straight back to that day.

         How Miyagi had been here. How I’d touched her, kissed her, and gone even further—

         The memory burned vividly in my mind. And with Miyagi gone, those memories kept replaying themselves, uninvited.

         If we’d gone right back to eating together like usual or spending time together as normal roommates, I could’ve locked those moments away and contained them to my dreams. But with her absence, there was no guilt here to hold me back, and my imagination ran wild.

         I hated this.

         Even as I worried about her not coming home, my thoughts kept circling back to what happened on Sunday.

         I slapped my cheek lightly, then reached for my phone.

         I’d sent Miyagi messages earlier, asking when she’d be back, but there were no notifications waiting for me. Still, I checked, just in case.

         As I’d expected—no reply.

         My lectures were about to start, but I had no motivation to go to campus today.

         I’d thought about it a few times since she’d left, but now I was seriously considering going to her university. I didn’t know where Utsunomiya’s place was, but at least I knew where their school was. If Miyagi was staying with her, that probably meant she was attending classes properly too. Maybe I’d run into her there.

         But I hesitated.

         I knew it would be better to see her in person rather than be trapped with the Miyagi that lived in my memory. And I wanted to see her. But I didn’t know how to face her. Between the two of us, it was probably harder for me to treat her like just a roommate again.

         The reason was simple, though it was something I didn’t want to admit.

         Even now, I still wanted to pretend I hadn’t realized it.

         But I knew.

         I’d known for a long time.

         That I was in love with Miyagi.

         I couldn’t pinpoint when those feelings had taken root, though “taken” wasn’t quite the right word. It was more like they’d slowly eaten their way in. At some point, she had slipped past my guard, rooting herself deep inside me before I even realized it. By the time I noticed, the feelings had grown too large to rip out. So I shoved them into a dark, cramped corner and hid them beneath the flimsy cover of a five-thousand-yen bill, doing my best not to look.

         Even if something stirred those feelings, I could pretend they didn’t exist simply by ignoring them. That never changed, even when Miyagi—who hadn’t even been a friend—became my roommate.

         Even after graduation, when the five-thousand-yen lid was gone and those feelings that had been breathing quietly in the corner of my heart began to make themselves known, I still wouldn’t let myself look.

         Until Sunday happened.

         By touching Miyagi in a way I never had before, the emotions I’d been hiding and ignoring for so long burst open and shoved themselves right in my face.

         ― Sendai Hazuki was in love with Miyagi Shiori.

         Now that I’d realized it, there was no going back.

         Even now, she was all I could think about.

         I knew she’d never let me do it again, but I wanted to touch her, kiss her, hear that voice no one else had heard before. If I were to see her while holding these feelings, I doubted I could treat her like a normal roommate again. Not knowing how to handle these emotions, part of me was relieved she wasn’t here. But at the same time, I hated this part of me that used my feelings as an excuse not to look for her.

         Whether she was here or not, my thoughts were always in disarray because of her.

         She really is quite the pain, I thought to myself.

         If she came back on her own, I’d have no choice but to force myself to sort through my feelings and pretend to act like a normal roommate again. But at this rate, it didn’t seem like she was going to come back out of her own volition.

         I got out of bed.

         I wished I’d asked for Utsunomiya’s contact information before we graduated from high school. Miyagi wouldn’t listen to me no matter what I said, but if it were Utsunomiya telling her to come home, she probably would. Still, with no way to contact her, the only option was to visit Miyagi at her school.

         「Come on, most people would’ve come home by now.」

         I muttered, pacing my room and checking my phone again.

         I took a deep breath in, then let it out.

         I sent Miyagi another message, asking when she’d be back.

         I decided to wait until noon. If there was still no reply, I’d go to her university.

         I couldn’t just waste away here, skipping all my lectures. The longer I waited, the more awkward it would get. I wasn’t sure if I’d run into her, but if I was going to try, it had to be today. Even if I couldn’t find Miyagi, I might at least run into Utsunomiya.

         When I’d touched Miyagi on Sunday, I’d realized she accepted me more than I’d thought. I doubted she hated me—if she had, she never would’ve let me do something like that to her. That was the only thought I could cling to right now.

         I set my phone—still empty of notifications—down on the table.

         Then I flopped back onto my bed and closed my eyes.

         But the moment I did, Miyagi appeared in my mind again, and I let out a quiet sigh.

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