Miyagi still hadn’t said anything.

            She had called me to her room, yet she hadn’t spoken a single word. Whenever she acted like this, it usually meant something was up, but I couldn’t tell what.

            「Didn’t you call me here because you wanted to talk?」

            I asked as she sat beside me, but there was no reply.

            She kept holding onto the crocodile tissue cover’s hands, not paying attention to me at all. She’d been like this ever since she got home. Even during dinner she barely spoke, and she was quiet enough that I wondered if she wasn’t feeling well. She wasn’t talkative to begin with, but even this was unusual for her.

            「Well, if you don’t need me here, I’m just gonna go back to my room and get ready for tomorrow.」

            I pushed myself upright from the bed frame I had been leaning against.

            I had work tomorrow, so I wanted to review what I might need to help Kikyou-chan with. Still, I wasn’t in a hurry to leave. It wasn’t that late, and I could talk with Miyagi a little longer before going back. To be honest, I wanted her to ask me to stay.

            「Aren’t you always here even when I don’t need you for anything?」

            Miyagi said, grabbing my arm.

            She was still holding the crocodile tissue cover’s hand with her other hand, but just having some part of her touching me made me feel at ease.

            「That’s true. But you went out of your way to call me over tonight, so I figured something was up.」

            I didn’t mind if she’d called me over for no reason — I just wished she’d tell me that. When she kept me in the dark like this, I couldn’t help feeling uneasy, wondering whether she wanted me here for something good or something bad.

            If anything, it felt like it would be something bad.

            Miyagi didn’t seem upset, but she barely spoke, so I couldn’t help thinking something bad was coming.

            I looked at her beside me, still holding the crocodile tissue cover’s hand.

            She wouldn’t meet my eyes.

            Then she let go of my arm.

            Miyagi fiddled with the plumeria earring in her ear, her fingertip tracing the small flower.

            Wait.

            Could it be…?

            A few possibilities crossed my mind as I watched her. I went through each and every one of them, but I could only come to one conclusion.

            「… Did you finally pick out a pair of earrings for me?」

            I asked, and Miyagi’s gaze fell to the floor.

            When she wouldn’t look at me, I could never tell what she was thinking. Miyagi grabbed my arm with the hand that had been tracing her earring and pulled me closer. She pushed the sleeve of my knit sweater up to just below my elbow, then ran her hand along my arm, pressing lightly at a point between my wrist and elbow.

            Miyagi didn’t say a word.

            She lifted her fingers, then pressed her lips to the same spot and sucked hard at my skin. It seemed like Miyagi, who was supposed to be keeping me under control, still hadn’t chosen any earrings for me.

            The hickeys that she’d kept leaving on my body were meant to be something only I could feel, a way to feel her presence, but what I wanted now was something Utsunomiya could see. Christmas was only a little over a week away. I wanted to have the earrings Miyagi chose by then so I could face Christmas Eve feeling at ease.

            I gently tugged at her hair as she continued leaving the mark on my arm.

            Her lips stayed against my skin, refusing to pull away. She was sucking hard.

            I could have accepted it if she treated the earrings as a Christmas present, but Miyagi wasn’t the type to care much about holidays or traditions.

            「Miyagi.」

            I called her name softly. She pulled her lips away, leaving a red mark on my arm. Whatever mark she left on me, I would leave one on her in the same place, so I reached for her arm.

            But she pulled it back, denying me of my right.

            「Give me your arm.」

            I rolled my sleeve back down and tried to grab her arm again.

            「I did pick something out.」

            She said, sounding displeased.

            「Huh?」

            「Wait here a second.」

            She stood up, went to her closet, and returned with a small bag before sitting beside me again.

            「I went and bought the earrings you wanted, Sendai-san.」

            Miyagi was always like this.

            I understood what she was saying, but not why she acted the way she did.

            「… Then what’s this supposed to be?」

            I pointed at the mark on my arm.

            「A mark.」

            「I know that. But if you already bought the earrings, why did you leave a mark on me?」

            「There was never any rule saying I couldn’t just because I bought them.」

            「I guess that’s true…」

            「If that’s all, hurry up and take your earrings off.」

            「You’re not going to show me what you bought?」

            「I’m putting them on you. You can see them after.」

            She demanded, tugging at my ear as if urging me to hurry up.

            It seemed she had no intention of showing me what the earrings looked like just yet.

            「… Well, whatever.」

            Miyagi was always so stubborn.

            And I was always so weak when it came to her.

            Knowing that, I understood I would eventually give in no matter what. If I kept insisting on seeing the earrings now, it would only drag things out. So instead of arguing, I decided it was easier to do as she said and take off my earrings so she could put the new ones in. It wasn’t often Miyagi offered to do it for me, and if I missed the chance, she’d probably just tell me to do it myself.

            I removed the studs I treasured and set them on the table.

            「Is this okay?」

            「Yeah.」

            She answered quietly, then used a cotton ball soaked in disinfectant to carefully wipe my ears.

            The cool touch on my earlobes made me remember the day I got them pierced.

            Back then, she’d wiped my ears with a cotton ball soaked in disinfectant just like this.

            The memory overlapped with the present, but today felt different. I had given my ears to Miyagi for her birthday, yet now it felt like that alone wasn’t enough anymore. I wanted to give her all of me, and what I was receiving now felt like proof that I belonged to her.

            She pulled the cotton away and gently brushed over my piercings. Her fingers slid behind my ear, stroking the back of it as well. It tickled, but I didn’t push her hand away. If anything, I wanted her to touch me more.

            「Miyagi.」

            I whispered her name, and she brought her lips to my earlobe.

            The tip of her tongue pressed against my ear, warm and damp now instead of cold from the disinfectant. The slow movement of her tongue heightened every nerve in my ear, making it feel more sensitive than it should’ve been.

            Feeling her breath against my skin made me forget how to breathe.

            The warmth spreading from her touch heated my whole body.

            I wanted to pull her closer. I wanted her hands on me somewhere other than just my ears.

            Miyagi could be incredibly cruel sometimes.

            Even though she knew what this did to me, she always stopped halfway — touching me like this, yet never giving me what I truly wanted.

            「Should I take this as you being willing to move our promise up to today?」

            I asked, brushing my hand along Miyagi’s cheek, and she immediately pulled back.

            The “promise” I was referring to wasn’t supposed to happen until Christmas.

            I didn’t actually intend to move it up or anything, but seeing her intense reaction hurt, like she was rejecting me.

            「If you don’t like that, then stop messing around and put the earrings on already.」

            It’s fine.

            It’s not like Miyagi hates it or anything.

            She just reacted like that because the idea of losing herself scares her. It’s not that she doesn’t want me to touch her.

            I told myself that as I looked at Miyagi.

            「I wasn’t messing around.」

            Miyagi said as she wiped my ear once more with the cotton. Then she leaned close and whispered, “Close your eyes,” and I did.

            In the darkness, I heard her rustling beside me.

            A small object brushed my ear, slipped through the piercing, and clicked softly. A moment later, the same sound came from my other ear.

            「You can open them now.」

            I did as I was told and opened my eyes.

            「Thanks for the earrings. I want to see them, so can you hand me a mirror?」

            I said, feeling along them, trying to guess their shape.

            「No.」

            「But I want to see what they look like.」

            「You can look when you go back to your room.」

            Her voice was cold, her gaze fixed on me.

            She was staring at my ears.

            If only I could see them reflected in her eyes.

            As I wondered whether I should just go back to my room, Miyagi spoke quietly.

            「Those earrings are proof you belong to me, right, Sendai-san?」

            「Yeah.」

            「… It still doesn’t feel like enough.」

            She said softly and pressed her lips to my neck. Just as she was about to suck on my skin, I pushed her away.

            「Now that we have something that other people can see, I don’t know what else you want. What exactly are you dissatisfied with?」

            「… I don’t know.」

            「Do you want me to put a sticker on my forehead saying “I belong to Miyagi” or something?」

            「That’s not what I mean.」

            Miyagi answered in a low voice, then gently bit my ear without any of her usual force. The sensation was ticklish, and I almost gave in to feelings that would only make her uncomfortable, but it was better than getting a mark on my neck, so I let her do as she wanted.

            She didn’t trace my ear with her tongue like before.

            Instead, she softly nipped my earlobe several times, then pressed a kiss to my ear and pulled back.

            「Are you satisfied now?」

            Miyagi didn’t answer, so I couldn’t tell whether she was satisfied or not.

            If she tried something like that again, though, it would cause problems for me.

            「Well, anyway, can you at least help me take a photo?」

            Before she could do anything else, I picked up my phone from the table.

            「What? No, I don’t want to.」

            「I’m not asking to take a photo with you, Miyagi. I just want you to take one of me.」

            I opened the camera and handed her the phone. Realizing she wouldn’t be in the picture, she looked relieved and quietly took it, lifting the phone and staring at the screen.

            Click.

            The electronic shutter sounded, and she handed it back.

            When I looked at the screen, I saw round blue stones attached to my ears.

            「What kind of stone is this?」

            「That’s not fair.」

            Miyagi sounded dissatisfied.

            「What’s not fair?」

            「You asked me to take a picture so you could see what the earrings looked like, didn’t you?」

            「Of course not. Anyway, what kind of stone is this?」

            「I don’t know.」

            She answered in a low voice, though there was no way she didn’t know, considering she was the one who bought them.

            I ran through the names of blue stones I knew in my head.

            Sapphire, aquamarine, lapis lazuli — those three came to mind first.

            I looked closely at the photo and compared them to what I remembered.

            The stones in my ears weren’t as pale as aquamarine. They weren’t as dark as lapis lazuli, and they didn’t have the white calcite you usually saw in it either.

            So they were probably sapphires.

            I tried looking up sapphires on my phone to make sure, but Miyagi reached over to block the screen and tried to take my phone away, keeping me from seeing the results.

            「Come on, Miyagi, stay still. I can’t see anything like this.」

            「You don’t need to see anything, so put your phone away.」

            「Fine, I will if you take a photo with me.」

            「What? Absolutely not.」

            「Come on, just one photo. If I have a picture of us together with the earrings, it’ll remind me I’m all yours.」

            「You already have a picture of yourself wearing them.」

            「Yeah, but I want one with the person keeping me under her control.」

            I said as I pressed my shoulder against hers and snapped a photo before she could pull away.

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