After straightening out our clothes, we left the park. After that, I took Sorahashi-san home and we put away the dishes she bought together. Then, we parted ways. She had told me it was okay to stay the night, but I wanted to go home because I was concerned about Mizuki.

     By the time I got back, it was already dark and much colder than before.

     After washing my hands and rinsing my mouth, I went back to my room and turned on the lights. As I was about to turn on the heating, I suddenly noticed a lump in my futon. I gently lifted the covers to find Mizuki inside.

     「Mizuki.」

     I softly whispered.

     Was she asleep?

     I could no longer understand her feelings. But what about her? Could she understand me?

     I took a strand of her hair in my hand and ran my fingers through it. Back when she was in elementary school, she always wore her hair tied up. But, when she entered middle school, she stopped doing that. Nowadays she wore her hair the same way as I did, but I didn’t know if that was just a coincidence or on purpose.

     「Kurumi, don’t be so touchy.」

     Mizuki said, abruptly getting up. She smoothed out her messy hair and looked at me with a grumpy expression.

     「Sorry. …I’m home, Mizuki.」

     「Welcome back. How was your date?」

     I didn’t know how to respond. Just a while ago, I had been engaged with Sorahashi-san in something that I couldn’t tell anyone about. When I crossed paths with someone while the afterglow of our deeds still lingered, I had no clue what sort of expression I ought to make, or even what sort of expression I even had on my face.

     Mizuki looked at me and sighed deeply.

     「If you had fun, you should just say that.」

     「Mizuki, have you been here this whole time?」

     「Not really. I was just bored, so I came over a little earlier.」

     「…I see.」

     This conversation wasn’t going anywhere.

     「Did you have dinner outside?」

     Mizuki asked. I shook my head.

     「No, I didn’t.」

     「Hmm. So you’ll be eating at home today?」

     「Yeah.」

     「Good.」

     Saying that, she stood up.

     「If you eat out too much, it’s bad for your skin.」

     「I’ll be careful.」

     「…Also, you should cook for me once in a while. It’d be a waste if you got rusty.」

     My eyes widened. Did Mizuki still want to eat my cooking? Even though there was a lot more I wanted to talk to her about, she left the room in a hurry.

     I laid down on the bed. It was still warm, and I could smell Mizuki’s scent. It was different from her perfume, a scent that I’d known for a very long time.

     When was it that I last went to sleep with her in my arms? How many days had it been since she’d last hugged me? I didn’t know, but I had already begun to forget both her touch and her warmth.

     A few minutes later, I heard a knock. I hastily went to respond and saw Mizuki peeking at me from behind the door.

     「Dinner’s ready.」

     「Ah, sure. I’ll be right there.」

     I slowly got up. Maybe it was because I’d dozed off for a bit, but my head felt oddly heavy. I took a tie out of my drawer and put my hair up. That lightened the weight a little.

     Mizuki immediately took off as soon as I got out of my room.

     「It’s been a while since I’ve seen you with your hair up.」

     「It’s because I haven’t been doing much housework lately. What about you, Mizuki? You used to tie up your hair all the time.」

     「Middle schoolers don’t wear twintails.」

     「What about a ponytail?」

     「…Then, could you?」

     She said, heading into her room. She rummaged through her desk before returning with something in her hand. I looked to see a white ribbon that she used to use quite a lot. It was one of the ribbons that I’d gifted to her for her birthday.

     So she still had them.

     I blinked, and she handed it to me. So that’s what she meant when she asked if I “could”. I combed through her hair with my hand and gently took hold of it. Perhaps because I used to do it all the time for her, I managed to style her hair quite nicely. I used to put her hair up in all sorts of ways.

     I giggled.

     「Now we’re matching.」

     「Well, we always are.」

     「That’s true. Did you start wearing your hair down because you wanted to match with me?」

     I suddenly blurted out something that Sorahashi-san would say. I expected her to retort back, but she just wordlessly stared at me.

     I had thought that there were no traces left of her childhood self anymore.

     But maybe, those same emotions she used to hold were hidden somewhere deep behind her eyes.

     「What if I said yes?」

     She whispered. I answered without a single moment of hesitation.

     「I’d be happy. Happy that you were thinking of me that way.」

     Her eyes widened, her mouth agape. She wore a complicated expression, as if she was both gasping in pain and trembling with joy.

     And yet, no words came out of her mouth.

     She only continued to take one breath after another. Then, she looked down and spoke.

     「There’s no way.」

     「Mizuki?」

     「Something like me wanting to match with Onee-chan. There’s no way I’d be so childish. I’m already thirteen. I’m not a kid anymore.」

     It’s not like you stopped being a kid at thirteen, though.

     I didn’t say anything because I knew she’d get mad, but she seemed to understand what I was thinking. She glared at me a little before heading to the living room. I followed along.

     What was I like when I was in my first year of middle school? That would have been when Mizuki was a fourth-grader. Now that my mind was on that, I began to recall a time when she had told me she got 100 points on a test. That day was so exciting that I had made her a Hamburg Steak with cheese on top.

     I couldn’t remember much about my own school life, but what I could immediately recall was what Mizuki looked like. Now that I thought about it, most of my memories were full of her.

     When I went to the living room, my parents were already sitting there like usual.

     Tonight’s dinner was… Hamburg Steak.

     I felt a weight drop in my stomach.

     「Alright, let’s eat.」

     As Mizuki and I sat down, Mom and Dad said that.

     She and I thanked them for the meal and then started eating.

     It was delicious. But still, it didn’t taste like the ones I made. They didn’t use the nutmeg I had stored in the cupboard, and the sauce was rather light. It must have been lacking butter — and Mizuki probably preferred it with.

     「Today’s food was delicious. Who made it?」

     「Your father cooked today. Isn’t that right?」

     「Yep. As it turns out, following a recipe to the letter makes things surprisingly delicious.」

     The conversation was calm.

     「How about you, Kurumi? Did you like it?」

     Dad asked.

     「I liked it. It was really…」

     Even though it wasn’t the way Mizuki liked it — and even though I knew I was the best at making the things she liked…

     Mizuki smiled.

     It was the same smile that she once gave me, now directed at our parents. Even though she no longer smiled at me, I’d always continued to think that I was special to her. But truthfully, that wasn’t the case. I had already come to that understanding a year ago.

     And yet…

     The food was bland.

     Without even knowing when I’d finished eating, I said my thanks and headed to the sink with my dish.

     「Ah, there’s no need to do that, Kurumi.」

     「That’s right. We won’t be causing you any more trouble!」

     Right before my eyes was my family.

     The ideal family, smiling at me as if it were the most natural thing in the world, trying their best not to cause their child any more hardship.

     The whole time, there was something spinning inside of my stomach.

     「…Okay. Then I’ll just leave it here. It tasted really good.」

     Wrong.

     I didn’t know what, exactly, but something was definitely wrong.

     I stood up and dashed into my room. Without even knowing what I was looking for, I instinctively took the treasure chest from my desk. Then, as I got Mizuki’s letter out to reread it, I realized something.

     「Huh…?」

     Where was the collar?

     That white collar that I’d put away in my treasure chest wasn’t there. I took every single item out of the chest, searching all the way through to the bottom. But still, it wasn’t there. After putting everything back in, I went through every single drawer in my desk from the bottom up.

     Not here. Nothing. Not there, either. The collar was nowhere to be found.

     I turned all my bags inside-out — the one for school, the one for outings, and my purse. Then, I looked through my bed and in the closet. Like I’d feared, I couldn’t find it.

     Had I unconsciously put it in my bag and dropped it outside?

     My blood ran cold. It was an invaluable present from Sorahashi-san. If I’d known this would happen, I would have kept it safe and sound from the start.

     「…What do I do?」

     It was the first time I’d ever lost something that someone had gifted to me. All I could do was stand in shock among the mess in my room.

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