I grabbed a bowl and a rubber spatula, then pulled a stick of butter from the fridge. As I handed Miyagi the flour sifter and told her to sift the flour, she replied in a grumpy voice.

         「Why can’t we just use the flour as it is?」

         「It seems like we can’t do that.」

         The recipe I’d looked up on my phone said to soften the butter at room temperature and to sift the flour.

         「Why not?」

         「Who knows? Maybe it makes it taste better?」

         I answered as I cracked the eggs and began mixing them.

         「You’re so carefree, Sendai-san.」

         「I’ll look up the reason later, but for now, just sift the flour. If it helps the cookies taste better, then we should just do it. But if it feels like too much trouble, leave it there and I’ll do it after.」

         The recipe hadn’t explained why the flour needed to be sifted, but it must’ve been written in the instructions for a reason, and I’d rather follow them properly than skip a step.

         「… No, I’ll do it.」

         Miyagi said, sounding unmotivated as she began sifting the flour.

         We were standing together in the shared living space. As I watched the flour fall softly into the bowl, my thoughts started drifting.

         When I’d eaten the cookies Kikyou-chan made for me the day after my birthday, I’d imagined how nice it would be to make cookies like that with Miyagi someday—and now it was actually happening.

         This year’s long summer break had been filled with nothing but good memories, so much so that it felt like I was borrowing luck from next year. On the day we went to the aquarium, I’d thought there’d be more good things ahead, but so many fun moments had piled up that I felt almost uneasy about what next year would be like.

         I didn’t believe luck balanced itself out—that good things required an equal share of bad ones—but when good things kept happening one after another, it made me nervous. Maybe that was because Miyagi had treated me so coldly until recently.

         「Sendai-san, stop staring at me and concentrate on your own task.」

         Miyagi paused her sifting and glared at me. She looked annoyed, and I could tell she had more complaints lined up in her head, but the fact that she was here making cookies with me was already a big step forward compared to before.

         I didn’t know what Miyagi would be like tomorrow, but I wanted her to keep choosing to stay with me like she was now—even if she was a little moody. I wanted to believe these good moments would keep going, even after summer break ended.

         「Don’t worry, I’m following the steps properly. Can you do the sugar next?」

         I said, instructing Miyagi to sift the sugar as well. Then I put the butter into a bowl and began creaming it with a whisk. I didn’t really know why it needed to be creamed, but I kept stirring anyway and added the sifted sugar. I wasn’t as curious as Miyagi, but I still wanted to look up the reason later. Slowly, I poured in the beaten egg and mixed it well.

         Once the mixture turned fluffy, I added the flour Miyagi had sifted and gently folded it with a spatula. Then I wrapped the dough in plastic and set it in the fridge.

         「How long do we have to let it sit for?」

         Miyagi asked as she stared at the refrigerator.

         「The recipe says between thirty to sixty minutes, so it’ll probably be ready in thirty.」

         「Even thirty minutes is too long.」

         She muttered, and I grabbed her hand before she could head back to her room.

         「What are you grabbing my hand for?」

         Miyagi asked, looking down at our joined hands.

         「I thought you were going back to your room.」

         「I’m not, so let go.」

         She said, trying to shake my hand off, so I did as I was told and let go. Miyagi sat down in her chair. It seemed like she was willing to stay in the shared living space while the dough rested.

         I turned away from Miyagi and began cleaning up. I set the containers and tools we’d used into the sink, and as I poured dish soap onto a sponge, I heard Miyagi call out from behind me.

         「Sendai-san.」

         「What is it?」

         I replied while washing the rubber spatula, and then she quietly asked,

         「Were you planning on making cookies today?」

         「No, not really. Why do you ask?」

         「You had all the ingredients ready.」

         「We just happened to have them at home. Cookie ingredients aren’t exactly uncommon, you know.」

         「I guess that’s true…」

         Miyagi’s voice faded, and only the sound of running water filled the shared living space. Moments like this made it easy to tell she wasn’t saying what she actually wanted to say. I did the same sometimes, but I felt like Miyagi held back twice as much as I did.

         「If there’s something you want to say, then just say it.」

         I said, even though I knew I wouldn’t get anything out of her.

         「It’s nothing.」

         As expected, she gave me a short reply and said nothing more.

         We’d only recently gotten used to having normal conversations with each other, but I still hesitated to say the things I kept buried in my heart. There were things I couldn’t say either, so I decided not to push her any further.

         Once I finished washing up, I put everything away and took a seat next to Miyagi.

         「Why’d you go out of your way to sit over here?」

         「Because I just wanted to be closer to you.」

         If we were going to be together, I wanted to sit close enough that we could reach each other. But we had nothing to talk about, so the two of us just sat there in silence.

         The wait for the dough to rest was a little too long.

         And after that, we still had to bake it in the oven.

         Baking would take less time than letting the dough rest, but even so, we had another fifteen minutes to go.

         If we were going to make something, maybe it should’ve been something that kept us busy the whole time, so our conversations could come more naturally.

         Like the French toast Miyagi and I made together during last year’s summer break.

         I thought back to that summer.

         Back then, I’d gone out to buy ingredients for French toast just to run away from the urge to touch Miyagi.

         「Why aren’t you saying anything?」

         Miyagi asked in a dissatisfied voice, lightly stepping on my foot.

         「I was just thinking about last summer. When we made French toast together, remember?」

         「… Why did you suddenly go out to buy ingredients that day, anyway?」

         It seemed she remembered that summer too—enough to ask the one thing I didn’t want her to ask.

         「Hmm, I wonder. I don’t actually remember.」

         I said as casually as I could, taking Miyagi’s hand.

         A little over a year had passed since then, and things between us had changed.

         Now, we were roommates, and I could touch her whenever I wanted.

         「Miyagi.」

         We still weren’t close enough for me to call her “Shiori,” but she no longer got angry or pulled away when I called her “Miyagi” and held her hand like this. I tugged her hand gently and leaned in. Miyagi never closed the distance herself, but she always shut her eyes, like it was only natural.

         I pressed my lips against hers, then pulled away.

         Miyagi had changed too.

         Granted, those changes came gradually—so slowly that I only realized them in hindsight—but Miyagi had become a different person from who she was back then.

         And it didn’t feel like she was changing for the worse either.

         I wanted her to keep changing in the direction I wanted her to—and the sooner, the better.

         I knew I had to wait, but I couldn’t stop wishing for it anyway. I wanted Miyagi to change right away, even before the cookies were finished.

         「What time is it now, Sendai-san? Hasn’t it been thirty minutes already?」

         Miyagi asked, looking over at me with our hands still joined.

        I glanced at my phone and saw that we were still a few minutes short of thirty.

         「Just a few minutes left.」

         「If there’s only a few minutes left, can’t we just take it out already?」

         Miyagi stood up from her seat. Even though I hadn’t said it was okay yet, she opened the fridge, pulled out the cookie dough, and called to me.

         「What do we do next, Sendai-san?」

         She asked, and I realized we didn’t have a rolling pin.

         「We’re supposed to roll the dough out, but… hmm, hold on.」

         Standing in front of the dough, I started looking up substitutes for a rolling pin.

         「Miyagi, bring out a jar of jam.」

         「Jam?」

         「Yeah.」

         Looking confused, Miyagi took a jar of jam from the fridge. I grabbed it, wrapped it in plastic, and started rolling the dough with it.

         「Aren’t you supposed to use a rolling pin for this?」

         「Well, we can’t use what we don’t have, so it’s not like we have any other choice. Also, I just realized we don’t have any cookie cutters either.」

         Since I had originally planned on making a cake, we were missing quite a few things we needed for cookies.

         「… So what you said earlier was true.」

         Miyagi muttered.

         「What do you mean?」

         「You really weren’t planning on making cookies today.」

         「Well, yeah.」

         I decided to cut the rolled-out dough into squares with a knife. The cookies wouldn’t be cute, but they’d taste the same either way. I made a few vertical cuts and was about to cut horizontally when I noticed Miyagi’s hand in the corner of my vision.

         「Give me this part.」

         She pointed at the very edge of the dough.

         「Sure, but what are you going to do with it?」

         「I’m going to shape it.」

         I handed Miyagi a strip of the dough and then cut the rest into squares. I finished quickly and glanced over to find Miyagi rolling the dough in her hands like clay. She stuck the pieces together like a snowman and then attached small ear-like shapes to the top.

         「… Is that a cat?」

         What I wanted to say was, “Whoa, the cat is making a cat,” but I knew that would annoy her, so I kept it to myself.

         「You can think of it as a dog, too, if you want.」

         It did kind of look like a dog, but it still looked more like a cat. But that was beside the point.

         「That might come out undercooked.」

         Miyagi had done her best to shape something cute out of the cookie dough, but it was rolled too thick and didn’t look like it would bake all the way through.

         「What should I do, then?」

         「Flatten it somehow.」

         「I don’t want to.」

         「You can say that, but what’s the point if it won’t bake through? Here, pass me the cat.」

         I held out my hand, and Miyagi reluctantly placed the dough cat into it.

         「You’re so cruel, Sendai-san.」

         She grumbled.

         I pressed the cat-shaped dough together, rolled it into a ball, and split it in half. I handed one piece to Miyagi and flattened the other into a round shape before adding ears and eyes. When Miyagi saw that, she shaped her half the same way. Once we finished, we set all the pieces on the baking tray and slid them into the preheated oven.

         Then, I sat down, ready to wait the fifteen minutes.

         But Miyagi didn’t move—she just stood there, staring into the oven.

         「Having fun?」

         「It’s whatever.」

         Miyagi replied in a cold voice.

         If staring into the oven wasn’t that fun, I wished she would at least turn around and look at me instead.

         「Miyagi.」

         「What?」

         She still didn’t face me.

         I stood up and wrapped my arms around her from behind.

         「Don’t cling to me like that. It’s hot.」

         She said, slapping the hand I had around her stomach.

         「Come on. It’s fine, isn’t it?」

         「No, it’s not.」

         Miyagi pried my hand off and went to take a seat.

         Well, it’s okay.

         If good things kept happening one after another, it would only make me feel more uneasy anyway.

         Maybe this was good enough for the last day of summer break.

         I went over and sat next to Miyagi again, just like earlier.

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