「It’s already September, but it still feels like summer,」

         Maika remarked with a deep sigh. It had been a while since I last saw her.

         After spending about a month at her parents’ house, she’d come back slightly tanned and in great shape.

         「Summer vacation’s a lot longer now that we’re in university, huh.」

         「It is, but I pretty much spent the whole time back home at my parents’ house, so I didn’t get to do any of the typical university student things. And even though I’m living alone now, I didn’t get to enjoy that freedom at all.」

         She flopped onto the floor like a seal basking on a beach, which made it impossible to feel even a hint of grief. If anything, she looked like she was enjoying herself.

         I shifted my gaze from Maika to the table, where two cups of barley tea and a bag of chips sat.

         I picked up a cup beaded with condensation and took a sip.

         Maika had told me to come over to her place because she had souvenirs for me. The room’s temperature was comfortable—neither too warm nor too cool.

         「Well, summer vacation’s not over yet, so you still have time to do those typical university student things.」

         「What exactly do typical university students do, anyway?」

         Maika asked immediately.

         「Hmm… I don’t really know.」

         I’d been a university student for six months now, but I wasn’t much different from how I was in high school, so a question like that was hard to answer. Honestly, it felt like something Sendai-san could explain better than I ever could—but if Maika actually contacted her to ask, I knew that would put me in a bad mood, so I kept that thought to myself.

         We tossed ideas back and forth for a while, trying to figure out what typical university students were supposed to do.

         「Shiori, what if we went on a trip?」

         「That sounds like a hassle.」

         I gave the same answer I always did whenever I was asked that.

         Maika, who’d been lying flat like a seal, lifted herself up and turned back into a human.

         「Oh yeah. Ami said I should tell you to go home for winter break.」

         「I already told Ami the other day that I wasn’t going home for winter break, though.」

         Ami had asked about my winter break plans near the end of August, and I’d already said I had no intention of going back. It was still months away, but that wasn’t going to change.

         「She asked me to try persuading you. Are you not going home for New Year’s either?」

         「Nope.」

         「And your parents don’t hassle you about that?」

         「My family’s pretty hands-off.」

         My father was the type to put work above everything else, and he never paid enough attention to bother with me.

         Honestly, the reason I didn’t go home during summer break was because he was hardly ever around in the first place.

         「I’m so jealous. I want to stay here during winter break too, but I have to go back. At least I get New Year’s money, though.」

         「Getting New Year’s money… that sounds nice.」

         「Why don’t you go back too, Shiori? Ami would love it.」

         「Well, I do want to see Ami, but…」

         That really was how I felt, but I couldn’t imagine returning to an empty apartment again.

         「Everyone’s probably going home for New Year’s anyway, so won’t you feel lonely staying here by yourself?」

         Maika hadn’t said the words, “Let’s go home together,” outright, but I could tell she was clearly hinting at it.

         「I don’t think Sendai-san’s going home for the winter either, so I probably won’t be alone.」

         I hadn’t actually asked Sendai-san about her plans yet, but I couldn’t imagine her going home just for New Year’s, and I’d rather stay here than return to an empty apartment.

         「So Sendai-san’s not going home either, huh. Now that you mention it, she stayed here over the summer too, didn’t she?」

         「Yep.」

         「Did you two go anywhere together?」

         「Yeah, we did.」

         I knew she’d ask.

         If I were in Maika’s shoes, I’d be asking the same thing.

         But it was hard to answer.

         Even though I hadn’t done anything wrong, I still felt strangely guilty.

         「Where’d you guys go?」

         Maika asked brightly.

         I knew there wasn’t any deeper meaning to it, and it was natural for the topic to go this way after I’d mentioned we hung out.

         「We went to the aquarium.」

         I said, taking another sip of barley tea.

         「Whoa, that’s unexpected. I didn’t think Sendai-san was the type to go to places like that. The aquarium though… isn’t that kind of a date spot?」

         「It wasn’t a date.」

         There was nothing strange about hanging out with your roommate, even if the place happened to be an aquarium.

         It was somewhere you could go with friends, so it wasn’t odd to go there with your roommate either.

         Maika was the weird one for thinking it was a date.

         I knew I was a little weird too for getting self-conscious whenever Sendai-san came up, but that was only because she was always doing things roommates usually wouldn’t do.

         「Well, I was just kidding about the date thing. But that sounds nice. I wish I could’ve gone somewhere too.」

         「How about we go somewhere together, then?」

         「That sounds good. Where do you want to go? ― Oh wait, Shiori, your birthday’s this month, right? Why don’t we do something that day?」

         「On my birthday? Um…」

         Hearing the word “birthday” thrown in so suddenly left me at a loss for words.

         Up until last year, only Maika and Ami had ever celebrated my birthday with me.

         But that wasn’t how things were going to be this year.

         「Hm? Oh, did you already make plans with someone else?」

         Maika asked, looking puzzled.

         「… Yeah.」

         「Oh, you did?」

         「Mhm. With Sendai-san.」

         「Is it just going to be the two of you?」

         「… Something like that.」

         「Aww, but I wanted to celebrate it with just the two of us this year.」

         Maika said dramatically, then she smiled and continued.

         「… Well, that’s what I would’ve liked to say, but it’s not like we really did much last year either. I’ll leave your birthday celebration in Sendai-san’s hands, then.」

         「Sorry.」

         Maika was only being considerate, so I felt bad.

         The right thing to do would probably be to invite her so the three of us could celebrate together, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that.

         「It’s fine. It’s not like we made any plans, so you don’t have to apologize. By the way, when’s Sendai-san’s birthday?」

         「It was in August.」

         「Oh, it already passed, huh. Did you two do anything for her birthday?」

         「Yeah, sort of.」

         We hadn’t really done anything special for her birthday, but it was true that we had done something to celebrate it.

         Still, I wasn’t sure whether the birthday present I’d agonized over giving her was actually good. She seemed to like it, but she also wasn’t the type to turn down people’s gifts either, so I couldn’t tell if she really meant it when she said it made her happy.

         I wanted to repay her kindness somehow, so I celebrated her birthday with her—but I wasn’t sure if I’d done a good job of it.

         「It sounds like you had a lot of fun over summer break. That’s so not fair.」

         「You hung out with Ami a lot, didn’t you?」

         「I did, but I wanted to do fun things here, too.」

         Maika complained in a childish tone that she didn’t show very often, then flopped onto the floor again—turning back into a seal basking on the beach.

         As I thought back to the time Sendai-san taught me the differences between seals and sea lions, Maika and I kept talking about what we’d done over summer vacation—which still hadn’t ended yet. In the end, we decided we’d hang out again and go somewhere fun before classes started back up. After having dinner together, I took the train home.

         I climbed the stairs to the third floor and opened the front door. Sendai-san’s shoes were sitting by the entrance. She’d said she wasn’t going anywhere today, and although I couldn’t tell if she’d gone out at some point or not, it seemed she was home at the moment.

         As I walked into the shared living space, Sendai-san stepped out of her room and greeted me.

         「Welcome home.」

         「I’m back.」

         I replied.

         「How’s Utsunomiya doing?」

         Sendai-san—who had been in a good mood ever since summer vacation started—asked with a slightly gloomy expression.

         「She’s doing well. She got a little tanned, and she looks like she’s in good spirits overall.」

         「That’s good.」

         「Here, she brought us a souvenir. She said we should eat it together.」

         I said, handing her the souvenir.

         「Do you want to eat it now?」

         She asked. Since I was still a little full from dinner, I answered with,

         「Let’s save it for tomorrow.」

         After that, Sendai-san took a seat in her chair, as though she wanted the conversation to last a little longer.

         「Did you have fun today?」

         「Yeah, it’s been a while since we last saw each other. We’re planning to hang out again before summer vacation ends, though.」

         「When’s that going to be?」

         「We’re not sure yet.」

         「I see.」

         Sendai-san murmured, then stood up from the chair she’d just sat down in. I didn’t have anything in particular to say, but I didn’t want her to go back to her room so quickly either, so I brought up something else.

         「Are you planning to go home for winter break, Sendai-san?」

         「No. I’m thinking of taking another temporary job over winter break, though.」

         I clenched my fist. I’d expected the first part of her answer—but not the second.

         「What about your tutoring job?」

         「I’m still going to be doing that too.」

         「… So you’re taking on a second job?」

         I asked, staring at Sendai-san. I still hadn’t fully accepted her tutoring job as it was, and now she was saying she wanted to take on another part-time job on top of that.

         Her being a private tutor reminded me too much of when she used to tutor me.

         Even though I knew she’d never do what she did to me to her current student, I still felt depressed knowing she’d become a tutor at all. Plus, it took up so much of her time, and even now, I wished she’d quit.

         At first, I thought I’d be fine with her working anywhere else—as long as she wasn’t a private tutor—but now, I felt like I didn’t want to accept her working any job at all.

         「Yep, that’s the plan. Are you going back home for winter break, Miyagi?」

         Sendai-san asked, staring back at me.

         「No.」

         「Then how about we go somewhere together over winter break?」

         「You won’t even have time for that if you’re getting a second job.」

         「It’s not like I’m going to be so busy that I can’t go anywhere.」

         Sendai-san said with a smile—and for some reason I couldn’t explain, I suddenly felt the urge to kiss her.

         Why?

         What was it that made Sendai-san so different from everyone else?

         I didn’t want her to become someone special to me, but no one else could replace her. I didn’t want her presence in my heart to grow, but it kept expanding anyway. Whenever we were together, I’d get these inexplicable urges—things I’d never do with anyone else.

         I reached out and touched her lips.

         As my fingertips pressed against them, Sendai-san closed her eyes like she already knew what would come next.

         When I leaned in, I could feel her warmth before our lips even met.

         And as if trying to avoid confronting my own feelings, I closed my eyes and bit her lip.

         Sendai-san tried to pull away at first, but then grabbed my arm.

         As my teeth sank in, her grip tightened.

         I didn’t intend to hurt her, but I wanted to leave a mark—something anyone would notice, no matter where she went or what she was doing. She didn’t belong to me, but I still wanted to leave a mark anyone could recognize at a glance.

         I bit her soft lips hard—hard enough that they felt like they might bleed—then let her go.

         「… That really hurt, you know.」

         Sendai-san sounded dissatisfied as she brushed her fingers over her lips. Once she confirmed there was no blood, she let out a quiet sigh.

         「Then why don’t you get mad at me?」

         I was being unfair—I’d said that knowing she wouldn’t actually get angry at me.

         「I’m already used to you doing things I don’t understand,」

         Sendai-san said with an exasperated sigh as she stood up.

         But she didn’t go back to her room.

         「Hey, are you in a bad mood?」

         She asked, gently tugging on my bangs.

         「I’m not.」

         And I wasn’t lying either.

         As if to prove it, I leaned in and kissed her again.

---

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