「Sendai-san, you liar.」

         I grumbled at the person walking beside me beneath the streetlights.

         「Sorry.」

         「I don’t want an apology. Noto-san ended up coming over to me again.」

         「I managed to stop Mio, but senpai was a customer, so there was only so much I could do. Still, I’m glad you didn’t leave without me. Thanks.」

         Sendai-san replied in a gentle voice, and I shoved her by the arm.

         She was off work now, and for some reason, she seemed to be in a good mood.

         But I was a little annoyed.

         Things weren’t supposed to turn out like this.

         I was supposed to leave the moment either Mio or Noto-san came over to my table and make Sendai-san go home without me. Instead, things had gone completely differently.

         「It’s not like I could’ve left even if I’d wanted to. Noto-san said she’d keep me company until you got off work, so she wouldn’t let me leave… Even after I told her I wasn’t actually waiting for you, she just kept trying to make conversation with me. She talks way too much.」

         Sendai-san’s promise hadn’t been sworn on my earrings, so Noto-san had managed to slip through and make her way over to my table.

         I gripped the end of my scarf tightly.

         Nights came early during winter.

         The sun had already set, leaving the sky dark, and it was even colder now than when I’d left the apartment. My shoulders trembled, and it felt as though my breath might freeze into ice midair and shatter as it hit the ground.

         「Isn’t it better that she talked so much? If she’d just sat there in silence, you’d probably have been even more uncomfortable.」

         「That’s not the point.」

         Despite her intimidating appearance, Noto-san was actually quite friendly. But every question she asked was hard to answer, and she seemed to be enjoying herself the whole time. At that point, I almost felt like it would’ve been better if we’d just sat there in silence, no matter how awkward it might’ve been.

         Well, to begin with, I hadn’t expected to be approached by Sendai-san’s upperclassman at the café at all.

         And I certainly hadn’t expected Mio-san to be the way she was either.

         I knew I’d end up talking to one of Sendai-san’s friends at the café, but I never imagined she’d be someone so cheerful and completely oblivious to social boundaries. I’d expected someone flashier, someone like Ibaraki-san—the type who stood at the top of the school hierarchy—but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

         「I’m sorry those two were so rowdy.」

         「I’m never going back to that café again.」

         I muttered as I walked a few steps ahead of Sendai-san.

         But I couldn’t bring myself to leave her behind.

         She caught up to me in no time and said in a gentle voice,

         「Don’t say that. You should come by again sometime. I was really happy you came today.」

         「No. I’m not going back. I only went because I happened to feel like eating cake today. That’s all.」

         「Even if that’s the only reason, I’m still glad you came.」

         「Sendai-san, you don’t feel even a little guilty about breaking your promise, do you?」

         I sighed.

         Today hadn’t been a good day.

         I’d learned a lot of things I hadn’t wanted to know.

         I didn’t want to learn anything else about Sendai-san, yet at the same time, there was still a part of me that wanted to know even more about her.

         I kept walking without looking at her as she walked beside me.

         I’d heard winter was the best season for stargazing, but I wasn’t in the mood to look at the stars. If I had time to look up at the sky, I’d rather spend it getting home sooner.

         「I do. I’m sorry I couldn’t keep my promise.」

         Sendai-san said, her voice turning serious. I let go of the end of my scarf and pushed her away, but she nudged me back with her shoulder, closing the distance between us.

         「So, Miyagi… What were you talking about with Noto-senpai?」

         Sendai-san asked, gently tugging at my coat until I slowed down.

         「We were just talking about you… She said that if you really needed the money, private tutoring pays better, so you’d be better off taking on more students than picking up shifts at the café.」

         Even though I was only repeating what Noto-san had said, a sharp pain pierced my chest.

         「… Sendai-san, are you planning to work even more?」

         「Hmm, I’m not sure. Let’s discuss that another time.」

         「I don’t want to discuss it.」

         If she wanted to work more, she could.

         That was what I’d told Sendai-san when she’d first mentioned wanting to work at the café over the break, and the same went for taking on more tutoring students.

         Even though she usually did whatever I asked, work was the one thing she would never budge on. Talking about it would be pointless. It frustrated me that, despite belonging to me, this was the one thing she refused to listen to me about.

         I should’ve gone home earlier.

         If I had, I wouldn’t have had to ask her something like that.

         I never liked it whenever Sendai-san took on more work, but how I felt about it wasn’t her problem.

         I knew that perfectly well, and yet I couldn’t help but keep asking her about it anyway.

         「Alright. How about we talk about something more fun instead, Shiori-chan?」

         Sendai-san said playfully, tugging at my coat.

         Her unusually cheerful voice made it obvious she was just trying to change the subject.

         Talking about her part-time jobs wasn’t going to do either of us any good anyway.

         I pulled her hand away from my coat and decided to go along with it.

         「Cut it out. It’s creepy when you call me that.」

         「Then how about just ‘Shiori’?」

         「I don’t like that either.」

         Hearing Sendai-san call me “Shiori” only reminded me of what we’d done on Christmas.

         That night, she had whispered my name into my ear over and over again until my thoughts became a jumbled mess and my sense of reason melted away.

         It wasn’t that I wanted to forget that night, but I didn’t want to keep reliving it either. If I kept replaying it in my head, I’d end up associating her calling me “Shiori” with what we’d done that night, and I’d never be able to separate the two.

         Every time Sendai-san called me “Shiori,” I remembered what she’d done to me that night. It made me painfully aware of her, and I’d find myself overwhelmed by the urge to touch her.

         It was awful.

         If only I could bury the memories of that night deep inside my heart.

         「But I want to call you ‘Shiori.’」

         She said in a pleading tone that was unusual for her, and I shoved her arm away.

         「No. More importantly, thanks to you, my New Year’s Eve has been ruined. You need to make it up to me.」

         「You’re blaming me?」

         「Yes. It was definitely your fault, Sendai-san.」

         「Alright, then. What can I do to make you happy?」

         “I want you to answer all of my questions.”

         The words nearly slipped out, but I managed to stop myself.

         Mio-san had asked me if Sendai-san had been just as popular in high school as she was now, so I wanted to know if she’d been confessed to at university.

         And Noto-san had asked if I was cohabiting with Sendai-san, so I wanted to know why she’d asked that or what had made her think that in the first place.

         But even if I asked Sendai-san about these things, I had a feeling I’d only hear answers I didn’t want to hear. Besides, asking those questions would only make it seem like I was more interested in Sendai-san than I actually was.

         「… I don’t know, and I never said you had to make me happy.」

         New Year’s Eve was just another day.

         It wasn’t anything special, and I’d never thought of it as a day worth getting excited about. Having it end as just another ordinary day suited me just fine.

         It was better to let all those unnecessary questions fade away into the night sky than to say something I shouldn’t and end up feeling even worse.

         「Well, since we’re spending time together anyway, let’s do something fun. We could stay up and watch the countdown together. That’d make it feel like New Year’s Eve, don’t you think?」

         Sendai-san said in a bright voice, as if pulling me back from being swallowed by the night sky.

         「I don’t really get what’s so fun about doing the countdown.」

         「Hmm, then how about we stay up all night and watch the first sunrise of the year together?」

         「I already know I’ll get sleepy halfway through, so no.」

         「Then you can just go to sleep when you get tired. Let’s stop by a convenience store, buy some snacks, and see how long we can stay up together. It’s not like you have anything else to do anyway, right?」

         As if the decision had already been made for me, she grabbed my arm and quickened her pace, pulling me along with her. It would get us home sooner, just as I’d wanted, but I didn’t want to be dragged around like this.

         It irritated me.

         It was true that I didn’t have anything else to do, but I didn’t like her deciding our plans without asking me first, and I wished she’d let me walk at my own pace.

         「Miyagi, if there’s something else you’d rather do, just tell me. I’ll do whatever you want.」

         「… No, I can’t think of anything.」

         「Then it’s settled. We’ll spend New Year’s Eve together in my room.」

         Sendai-san’s cheerful voice echoed through the night, and somehow, I felt just a little warmer than before.

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Chapter debt: 88

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