Click.

          An electronic shutter sound went off, and Maika looked at her phone with a troubled expression.

          「Shiori, your expression is too stiff. You need to smile more!」

          「That’s what I’m trying to do.」

          「Then try harder. I’m taking another one.」

          It was no use.

          I thought I’d managed an expression that was at least presentable. Even if it looked a little stiff, I wanted her to let it slide.

          For some reason, standing next to Sendai-san made the corners of my mouth refuse to obey me. I couldn’t even keep a neutral expression, let alone smile properly. If I could make a smile that satisfied Maika, I would have done it already.

          「Come on, Shiori.」

          Maika urged me on, and I tried to force a smile. But the corners of my mouth wouldn’t lift all the way, and her phone never made the shutter sound.

          For a moment, I wanted to banish the concept of smiling from the world altogether. And if that wasn’t possible, then I wanted to change the definition of the word. Just for today, I wanted a stiff, awkward expression to count as a smile.

          I let out a quiet sigh inside and kept struggling with my expression when Sendai-san spoke up cheerfully.

          「Utsunomiya, I don’t think Miyagi can manage a smile right now.」

          She said, as if she’d read my mind, and I glanced at her without meaning to.

          「Huh? Is something wrong, Shiori?」

          「Miyagi’s stomach has been growling like crazy. It sounds like it’s begging for mercy.」

          Sendai-san said playfully, reaching over from beside me and patting my stomach.

          「My stomach isn’t growling.」

          「Yes it is.」

          「No it isn’t.」

          I pulled my arm free from where it was linked with hers and pushed away the hand she’d placed on my stomach, which hadn’t made a sound at all.

          「Hey, that’s dangerous.」

          Sendai-san said teasingly, laughing softly. When I yanked her arm, she told another lie.

          「See? It growled again.」

          She looked like she was enjoying this, which only annoyed me more.

          「Sendai-san.」

          I hadn’t thought about what I was going to say next. Just as I was about to complain, I heard another shutter sound and looked toward Maika.

          「That was a good shot, so I’ll let you off the hook for now.」

          She sounded pleased with herself, even though the photo she’d just taken definitely made me look strange. As if to prove it, she was grinning at her phone.

          I wished I could smile as naturally as Maika did, even standing next to Sendai-san.

          I didn’t want to grin. But if I couldn’t even manage a smile beside Sendai-san, it would only create more awkward moments like this. It wouldn’t have been a problem if Sendai-san and Maika never spent time together, but now that they’d become friends, situations like this were bound to happen again.

          「Maika, can I see the photo?」

          Giving up on my expression, I walked over to her. Sendai-san followed right behind me.

          「I want to see it too.」

          「Yeah, come take a look. It’s a pretty funny photo.」

          「A “funny” photo? Not a good one?」

          I complained. When I looked at her phone, I saw myself scowling as I yanked on Sendai-san’s arm.

          「Well, that too. Look, Sendai-san’s smiling really nicely. Wait… huh?」

          Maika looked up from her phone, confused.

          「What is it?」

          「Did you always have piercings, Sendai-san?」

          Maika stared intently at her ears.

          「I’ve had them for a while. I was wearing earrings the other day when you came by my workplace too.」

          「Oh, really? I guess I didn’t notice since I was too busy admiring your uniform. When did you get them pierced?」

          「A little over a month ago, I think.」

          「Those are the studs that came with the piercing kit, right? Are you planning to change them out?」

          In response to Maika’s question, Sendai-san lifted a hand to her ear and gently stroked the earring I’d put there.

          My eyes stayed fixed on her fingers, unable to look away.

          As she tugged lightly at her earlobe, Sendai-san said,

          「I’ve thought about it, but since these were my first pair, I’m kind of attached to them. It feels like a waste to change them so soon.」

          Sendai-san’s earrings had been there ever since I’d put them in on my birthday. The piercings that symbolized our promise stayed where I could always see them. Even though she could have changed them as easily as she changed her clothes, she hadn’t. More than a month later, she was still wearing the same earrings I’d put in that day.

          「That’s kind of surprising. I thought you’d be the type to switch them out sooner.」

          「Don’t worry. I’m pretty surprised myself.」

          Sendai-san smiled at Maika, then at me.

          I was surprised too.

          I’d never told her she couldn’t change her earrings. Just like how I was wearing the pair Sendai-san had bought for me, I thought it would be fine if she wanted new ones as well. As long as she didn’t change them without telling me first, or let someone I didn’t know pick them out for her, she could switch them whenever she wanted.

          「Well, I’ll probably change them if I find a really cute pair I like. But more importantly, how about we find something to eat for now? Miyagi looks like she’s about to starve to death. We can take more pictures while we eat too.」

          「Sounds good to me.」

          Maika agreed right away, and I nodded.

          「Okay.」

          「Alright, what should we eat? Anything you want in particular, Utsunomiya?」

          「Okonomiyaki.」

          「What about you, Miyagi?」

          「Yakisoba. What about you, Sendai-san?」

          「Hmm… how about we get both and share?」

          「That sounds good!」

          Maika said excitedly.

          We bought okonomiyaki, yakisoba, and juice from a few food stalls, then sat down together on a bench. We split the okonomiyaki and yakisoba evenly and started eating.

          「Come to think of it, isn’t your school festival going on right now too, Sendai-san?」

          Maika asked when she was about halfway through her okonomiyaki.

          「Yeah. It ends tomorrow. I can show you around if you want to come by.」

          「I already have plans tomorrow, but would it be okay if I went with Shiori next year?」

          I was pulled into the conversation without warning. Before I could even say that I didn’t want to go, Sendai-san smiled.

          「Of course. I’d be happy to show you both around if you come next year.」

          「Yay!」

          「Miyagi, you look like this has nothing to do with you, but you’re coming with us next year too, you know.」

          I don’t want to go.

          That was what I wanted to say, but I couldn’t. If I did, Maika would end up going alone, leaving me with only one option.

          「I know. I’ll go too.」

          I didn’t want Maika visiting Sendai-san’s university by herself. So even though I wasn’t enthusiastic about it, I had no other choice.

          「That settles it, then.」

          Sendai-san said with a smile before taking a bite of her yakisoba. We kept eating and making small talk. When we were almost done, Maika suddenly spoke up.

          「Oh right, we forgot to take a picture!」

          「Alright, Miyagi. You be the photographer.」

          Sendai-san said as she patted my shoulder. I awkwardly took my phone out of my bag and stood up. After taking a step or two away from the bench, I turned back and saw Sendai-san sitting beside Maika.

          I held up my phone.

          Sendai-san leaned closer to her.

          On the screen, the two of them looked friendly together, and instead of the shutter, all I could hear was my own heartbeat.

          I let out a quiet sigh.

          On the small phone screen was the school festival scenery in the background, and Sendai-san smiling the same way she had back in high school.

          That carefully made smile wasn’t meant for me, though. It was for Maika.

          Of course, Maika was smiling right beside her.

          That place was supposed to be mine. I was always there next to Sendai-san. Being there was natural, and there had never been anyone else besides me. I didn’t know much about Sendai-san when she was out by herself, but whenever we went out together, there was never anyone else at her side.

          And yet, right now, Maika was there, and I was the one taking the picture.

          This wasn’t fun at all.

          I didn’t find any of it amusing.

          But I still had to take the picture.

          「Come on, Shiori. Take it already.」

          Maika urged me on, and my fingers moved as if on their own, tapping the shutter.

          Click.

          The sound I’d heard so many times today rang out again, and the two people on my screen were captured as a photo.

          「I got it.」

          “Here,” I added as I walked over and held out my phone to them.

          Sendai-san and Maika were chatting happily, but I wasn’t listening. My eyes stayed fixed on the screen. Even though I didn’t want to, I kept looking at the photo of the two of them.

          Their smiles looked prettier than the awkward one I’d probably had on my face earlier.

          The phone in my hand, which should have felt light, felt heavy instead. Heavy enough that I nearly wanted to throw it away.

          I sat down on the bench and slipped the phone back into my bag.

          I squeezed the finger that had pressed the shutter with my other hand. The pain was like peeling off a scab and quietly hurting myself. It throbbed and stung. Even though it was only a small wound, it felt as if blood were about to seep out and spread everywhere without me noticing.

          I wanted to leave more marks on Sendai-san, to add to the ones already there.

          And if I couldn’t do that, then I wanted to touch her neck and show Maika the mark I’d left there earlier.

          「Should we start heading over to the talk show venue?」

          Hearing Sendai-san’s voice, I lifted my head.

          My eyes went straight to her neck, to the place where the red mark should have been. My hand moved toward it without thinking, but I stopped myself and stood up.

          If Maika saw it, she probably wouldn’t think it was me who’d left it there. Even so, I couldn’t let her see it. That mark was something only Sendai-san and I knew about. It was something just between the two of us.

          「Shiori, the venue’s in the second building, right?」

          I heard Maika ask.

          If I shifted Sendai-san’s turtleneck even a little, I could show her the red mark underneath. I could say it was something I’d done. I could even say that Sendai-san was mine and mine alone.

          — No, I can’t.

          Thinking about nothing but Sendai-san like this was driving me crazy.

          Today was supposed to be a fun day, so I should have been paying attention to more than just the person standing next to me.

          「Yeah.」

          I forced my voice to sound bright and started walking with the two of them.

---

I’ve decided to continue accepting chapter debt for the foreseeable future.

Like before, for every 5000 yen ($35 USD) that gets crowdfunded (i.e. every dollar that gets contributed is counted towards this), we’ll add one chapter to the debt. Remember that this is completely OPTIONAL. This is NOT a service or product, but a tip/donation for extra motivation to translate / catch up faster.

Current debt as of writing this is 76.

Click here for the Ko-Fi link.

---

< Previous Part | Next Part >