Miyagi Shiori’s POV:

            The bathroom was a little cramped, but it wasn’t uncomfortable.

            Now that I’d washed up, both my hair and body felt clean.

            I slowly lowered myself deeper into the bathtub, the hot water nearly spilling over the edge.

            It was warm and comfortable enough that it felt like I could fall asleep the moment I closed my eyes.

            — Or at least, that was how this place was supposed to feel.

            But today, I couldn’t quite relax.

            Haah, I let out a long breath, as though emptying my lungs completely.

            I tugged lightly at my bangs.

            My damp hair looked no different from usual, but the scent clinging to it had changed.

            Right now, it smelled just like Sendai-san.

            「This feels… strange.」

            It wasn’t like I’d been particularly attached to the shampoo I used before, but I’d been perfectly satisfied with it and never had any intention of switching to something else.

            But that day, when Sendai-san told me about the dream she’d had where she was sharing bowls of salmon roe over rice with a bunch of penguins, she’d also told me to start using her shampoo. A fair amount of time had passed since then, but today I finally ran out of my own shampoo and conditioner, so I ended up using Sendai-san’s instead. And just like that, the two of us were now sharing the same ones.

            And because of that, it felt like part of me no longer belonged solely to myself anymore.

            I breathed in quietly through my nose.

            Sendai-san always smelled nice, and I liked the scent of her shampoo as well. But now that I was using it too, it felt like I’d lost a part of my usual self, and it made Sendai-san feel far too close.

            With the same hand I’d used to tug at my bangs, I slapped the surface of the water. The hot water splashed against my face, and I wiped the droplets away with my damp hand.

            「How annoying.」

            Since Sendai-san’s shampoo was my shampoo now too, this scent belonged to me as well, so it was strange that it still felt like Sendai-san was right next to me.

            Smack.

            I slapped both cheeks with my hands and glanced around the bathroom.

            Now that my shampoo was gone, the bathroom felt slightly more spacious than usual. Of course, nothing about the room had actually changed, but even the smallest difference—something most people would never notice—felt large enough to swallow me whole.

            ― This isn’t good.

            I stretched my arms up and leaned back against the bathtub.

            As I let out a sigh, the tension slowly drained from my body, and I slid lower against the tub. The moment my hair touched the bathwater, I hurriedly sat back up.

            After stepping out of the bathroom, I dried off my body and wiped my hair with a towel.

            I changed into a set of sweats to sleep in and walked out into the shared living space.

            Opening the fridge, I took out a bottle of barley tea and poured myself a glass.

            Seeing that there wasn’t much left, I thought, Maybe I should buy some more tomorrow, before putting the bottle back in the fridge. Then I took a large sip from the glass.

            The cold barley tea slid down my throat and settled in my stomach.

            Just as I’d finished about half of it, Sendai-san came out of her room.

            She walked up close enough that she could’ve pulled me into a hug, then started sniffing around me like a dog.

            「What are you doing, Sendai-san?」

            「Did you use my shampoo?」

            「You don’t need to ask to know the answer to that, do you?」

            「Well, you do smell like me, but that alone doesn’t tell me whether you actually used it or not.」

            When Sendai-san leaned in to sniff me again, I pushed her stomach to keep her from getting any closer.

            She took a step back.

            But almost immediately after, she stepped closer again and started tugging at my bangs.

            「You’re so stingy, Miyagi.」

            「No I’m not.」

            After making that rude comment while staring intently at my hair, I slapped Sendai-san on the arm.

            「… So, did you use my shampoo, Miyagi?」

            「I did. You don’t have to keep asking me.」

              「I see.」

            She replied, her expression brightening as she added,

            「Want me to dry your hair for you? You should dry it properly, you know.」

            「I’ll do it myself later.」

            「You should just let me do it now.」

            Sendai-san said before leaning closer and pressing a kiss against my freshly washed hair.

Sendai Hazuki’s POV:

            I stared at Miyagi as she held a glass of barley tea in her hands.

            Even though she’d just come out of the bath, she had a slight frown on her face.

            And that was because I’d kissed the hair she’d just washed.

            「Sendai-san, I just got out of the bath, you know.」

            Miyagi grumbled under her breath, but I ignored the complaint and kissed her hair again.

            Miyagi sounded annoyed, but the scent drifting from her was deeply familiar to me.

            We were using the same shampoo now, so naturally we smelled the same too.

            Today was the first time Miyagi used the shampoo I always used, and yet somehow, the scent smelled far nicer on her than it ever did on me. It was strange, considering she was using my shampoo.

            The more mysterious it felt, the more I wanted to keep breathing in Miyagi’s scent forever.

            「Are you not going to take a bath, Sendai-san?」

            「Yeah, I am」

            「Then hurry up and go already.」

            Sounding annoyed, Miyagi shoved me in the stomach.

            She really was stingy.

            Now that Miyagi smelled the same as me, I wanted to stay by her side a little longer, but she wouldn’t allow it. She wouldn’t even let me dry her hair for her.

            Still unwilling to give up, I spoke up again.

            「I still want to dry your hair for you before I take a bath, though.」

            「I told you I’ll do it myself later, didn’t I?」

            「You’re so stingy, Miyagi.」

            The moment I voiced that quiet complaint, Miyagi kicked me in the leg.

            「Shut up, Sendai-san. Stop saying weird things and hurry up and take a bath already.」

            「Yeah, yeah. I’m going to get ready now.」

            Letting out a sigh, I returned to my room.

            By the time I came back into the shared living space with a change of clothes and a towel, Miyagi was already gone.

            So I headed to the changing room¹, took off my clothes, and stepped into the bathroom.

            ― Our shampoo.

            That was the first thing that caught my eye, and I stepped closer to pick it up.

            It didn’t look like any had been used at all.

            Starting today, Miyagi was using the same shampoo I always used, but after just one use, there was no way to tell whether any had actually been used. It felt like even after ten uses, I still wouldn’t be able to tell.

            But surely, someday, I’d notice the amount decreasing, and eventually I’d realize it was running out faster than when I used it alone.

            I set the shampoo bottle back down and rinsed my body under the shower.

            Nothing about us had changed yesterday or today.

            And surely, nothing would change tomorrow either.

            Just like with the shampoo, a few days wasn’t enough for us to notice any differences in each other. But just like how we used to use different shampoos and somehow ended up sharing the same one, little things would keep happening as we spent our days together. And just like how the shampoo would slowly run out little by little without us even noticing, our days would keep changing in small ways too.

            The changes might not be obvious right away, like our shampoo slowly running out, but surely, we’d notice them eventually.

            Someday, carrying the same scent, the two of us would realize just how much we’d changed.

            I didn’t know what kind of changes they would be, or when that day would come, but I hoped they’d be good ones, and that the day would come soon.

            By then, we might already be using a different shampoo together.

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1. This was previously mentioned earlier in the story (when Miyagi and Sendai first moved in), but as a refresher, a lot of Japanese homes and apartments have a room for their toilet, and then a different room that contains a changing area that leads into the shower & bathtub. ↩︎

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This side story was featured as an exclusive purchase bonus if you bought volume 8 from Bookwalker.

Thank you to an anonymous reader for commissioning a translation for it!

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