Today wasn’t a very good day.

         It was raining, and it looked like a thunderstorm could break out at any moment. Sendai-san wasn’t home right now because she was at work. I wished she’d stay home and take a break on days like this, but she went to her student’s house like always. It seemed like both her job as a tutor and her student were very important to her.

         I knew Sendai-san would never take a day off from work, but being alone like this made me want to complain about her not being here.

         Even though I knew it wouldn’t really distract me, I tried reading manga, but nothing on the pages would stick. I couldn’t focus on video games either. Instead, I kept worrying about whether the weather would get even worse.

         It was already later than when Sendai-san normally came home, and there was no sign of her voice saying “I’m home.”

         I picked up the black cat plush from my bookshelf and lay down with it in bed.

         Both the gloomy weather and my pointless worries felt like Sendai-san’s fault.

         I stroked the plush’s back and set it on my chest.

         Even though it had been several days already, I still couldn’t stop thinking about how Sendai-san had asked what she was to me.

         On the day we talked with Ami and Maika, Sendai-san had wanted me to call her something other than my “roommate.” But aside from the few words that described what we used to be, “roommate” was the only other thing I could bring myself to say.

         The truth was, Sendai-san and I were two people who were never meant to meet.

         Even when we were in the same class, there was always a boundary between us. I never went near where she and her friends were, and she never approached me either. We were simply classmates—nothing more, nothing less. And yet, somehow, after everything that happened, we ended up being connected by the word “roommate.”

         And now, it felt like Sendai-san was determined to make me find another word to define us.

         Her presence had already taken root in my life so deeply that it couldn’t be erased. She was always there—appearing in my schedule, shaping my days, changing me into someone I hadn’t been before.

         Maybe there was a word that suited us better than “roommates,” but I didn’t know what it was, and I didn’t want to find out.

         I just wanted us to stay as roommates.

         Even after graduating from university.

         I wanted this time together to last forever.

         And I was afraid that if we tried to call ourselves something else, and that word didn’t fit us, we’d end up losing everything.

         I caressed the black cat plush’s head and kissed its nose lightly.

         Setting it by my pillow, I closed my eyes—but a sudden, heavy rumble from outside made my body tense up.

         It wasn’t a sound I wanted to hear, yet I couldn’t stop myself from listening for it.

         No more thunder followed.

         I let out a quiet sigh and sat up. Just then, I heard something from the other side of my door.

         When I stepped out of my room to see what it was, I locked eyes with Sendai-san.

         「I’m home.」

         Sendai-san said softly as she was about to enter her room.

         「Welcome back. Your hair’s soaked. Was it raining that hard outside?」

         I asked, grabbing her arm before she could go in. My hand met the damp fabric of her sleeve; it wasn’t just her hair, her clothes were wet too.

         「The rain wasn’t bad, but the wind was really strong.」

         Her messy hair was proof of that, and it stood out even more since she hadn’t tied it up today.

         That was when I realized the loud noise I’d heard earlier probably wasn’t thunder—it was the wind.

         「Have you eaten yet, Miyagi?」

         「No, not yet.」

         「Then let’s eat together. I’m going to get changed first, so give me a few minutes.」

         「Why don’t you take a bath first? We can eat afterward.」

         She wasn’t soaked to the point that her hair or clothes were dripping with water or anything, but it still didn’t seem like a good idea for her to stay that wet.

         「I’m pretty hungry right now, so I’ll take a bath later.」

         「You’ll catch a cold if you stay like that, though.」

         Before summer vacation last year, Sendai-san had once shown up at my apartment completely drenched. She wasn’t wearing her school uniform now, but the blouse she had on reminded me of that day, and the sight of it made the memory resurface.

         She hadn’t caught a cold then, but she might this time, which was why I wanted her to bathe and change as soon as possible. If she insisted on staying like this, I knew I’d end up wanting to take off her clothes for her—just like I had back then.

         Well, no—I hadn’t exactly taken all of her clothes off back then.

         But what about now? I wasn’t sure what I might do.

         Which was why I wanted her to just take a bath first.

         「I’ll dry my hair and change into something else, so I’ll be fine.」

         「Go take a bath first.」

         「It wasn’t like I’d gotten that drenched, so I don’t think I need to take one immediately.」

         She smiled as if to reassure me, but I tightened my fingers on her sleeve and said her name firmly.

         「Sendai-san.」

         Then, she shrugged my hand off and leaned her back against her bedroom door.

         「What, are you planning to strip me if I don’t take one right now? Like that one time?」

         She must’ve remembered the same thing I did.

         「What if I said I would?」

         「Hmm… then I guess I’d do the same to you.」

         Sendai-san said as she lifted the hem of my T-shirt. She only raised it enough to reveal a sliver of skin before stopping, as if to say the rest depended on me. I couldn’t tell if she really meant what she’d said or not.

         I didn’t want her to undress me, but I wanted to unbutton her blouse the way I had back then. Only this time, I wanted to take the whole thing off—and the bra beneath it as well.

         ― No, this isn’t good.

         Lately, we’d been stepping well beyond the line of what being “roommates” was supposed to mean.

         「I wasn’t actually going to undress you.」

         There was no need to, either.

         I knew that, but my hands moved on their own, finding the top button of Sendai-san’s blouse—the one that was already undone.

         「… But I will leave a mark.」

         I said as I unfastened the second button.

         「Where?」

         Without answering her, I unfastened two more buttons, revealing the faint line of her cleavage. I hadn’t undone all the buttons like I had last year, but it was enough to expose her undergarments.

         「Miyagi, what happened to not undressing me?」

         「I’m not undressing you. I only undid three buttons.」

         What I was about to do didn’t belong within the definition of “roommates,” but there was no turning back now.

         I knew that if I truly wanted our time together to last forever, I shouldn’t keep crossing this line—but Sendai-san had been the one expanding these boundaries all on her own, until this had simply become normal for us.

         Besides, this wasn’t anything new—we’d been doing things like this since the beginning, and we’d already done other things far more inappropriate for people who were supposed to be just roommates.

         「You didn’t have to unbutton my blouse if all you’re doing is leaving a mark, you know.」

         「What, so you’re saying I can leave one where everyone can see it?」

         「Well, I didn’t say that part was okay.」

         She said, but she wasn’t really rejecting the idea of me leaving a mark on her.

         I pressed my lips to her now exposed neckline.

         Sendai-san tugged on my hair, though not very strongly—not enough to stop me from leaving a mark.

         I sucked firmly on Sendai-san’s skin, and she neither resisted nor encouraged me. When I pulled my lips away, a red mark remained on her fair skin.

         「Seriously, Miyagi. You’re always so quick to do things like this.」

         Sendai-san said, tracing the mark I’d left on her with her hand.

         「Weren’t you the one who said it was okay for me to leave a mark that would last all through summer vacation the other day? This is basically the same thing. Besides, I made sure to leave it somewhere your student wouldn’t see when you go to work.」

         「I appreciate your consideration, but it’ll probably be gone by the time I go to work again.」

         「Well, if it disappears, that just means I’ll have to give you another one.」

         I pulled Sendai-san’s hand away from her neck and buttoned her blouse back up.

         「You say that, but because you were so considerate about where you left it, you’ll never know it’s gone unless you check for yourself, right?」

         「Just tell me when it’s gone, then.」

         「Nope, you’ll have to check it yourself, Miyagi.」

         「Well, we go by the honor system around here.」

         「Okay, well in that case, it’s gone already.」

         Sendai-san said with a bright, playful smile, and I tried to wipe that smug expression off her face by kicking her in the leg.

         「It’s impossible for it to disappear that fast.」

         「Oh, really? Why don’t you see for yourself?」

         Sendai-san said as she undid one of the buttons I’d just fastened for her and grabbed my arm.

         She’d accused me earlier of being quick to do things like this, but that description fit Sendai-san far better than it did me. She was always the one doing things like this—teasing me, and blurring the lines what it meant to be “roommates.”

         I pulled my arm free from her grasp.

         「I don’t need to check anything. I know it’s still there. Now go take a bath or change your clothes or something. I don’t want you catching a cold.」

         「Okay, okay. I’ll go get changed, then.」

         Sendai-san said—her voice even softer than the black cat plush by my pillow—and opened the door to her room.

---

< Previous Part | Next Part >