The ozōni we ate was delicious.
So was the pasta we had for lunch.
But I couldn’t forgive Sendai-san for putting broccoli in our salad.
「I didn’t know you hated broccoli, so what was I supposed to do? Besides, if you hated it, why didn’t you tell me before I put it in?」
Sendai-san asked with a sigh, sounding exasperated.
「It’s your fault for not telling me you were going to put broccoli in. If you had, I would’ve told you I didn’t like it.」
「Weren’t you the one who told me I could make whatever I wanted for lunch? And we ended up replacing your salad with a tomato, didn’t we?」
Sendai-san replied from beside me, sounding unamused, so I smacked her leg with the platypus tissue box.
If she’d only put one or two pieces of broccoli in, maybe I could’ve tolerated it. But she’d put a ridiculous amount in the salad. And yes, she’d eventually given me a tomato to replace it after I complained.
But before that, she’d said things like, “You should eat the broccoli. It’s healthy for you,” and “Come on, you’re not a kid anymore.”
So I’d ended up eating about half of the broccoli in my salad, which had been awful. I didn’t want to be forced to eat things I hated on the first day of the new year.
「Tell me what foods you don’t like, Sendai-san. Next time, I’ll make sure to put plenty of them in whatever I make.」
I picked up my cup of soda and took a sip.
To be honest, I’d been so angry that I’d changed my mind about hanging out with Sendai-san in her room after lunch, but she’d dragged me in against my will. I knew that no matter how much I complained, she wouldn’t take it to heart, and that only made me feel like I still had more to complain about. She’d given me an extra half of her cream puff that she’d bought yesterday, but I still didn’t feel like it was enough to forgive her.
And then there was the fact that she’d made me change into different clothes today just because it was New Year’s. I would’ve much rather stayed in my sweats.
「There’s not really anything I dislike.」
Sendai-san lied without batting an eye.
But whether she was lying or not didn’t really matter. Even if there were foods she hated, she’d eat them if I told her to. And even when it came to foods she liked, she’d stop eating them if I told her not to.
Usually, I liked that about her.
But not today.
Right now, I was angry and irritated.
「Drink this.」
I held out the cup in my hand.
It was half full of soda, and Sendai-san had once told me she wasn’t particularly fond of carbonated drinks.
「Okay. How much should I drink?」
「All of it.」
I answered curtly. Sendai-san drank the entire thing without hesitation, then set the empty cup back on the table.
「Come on, Miyagi. Isn’t it about time you cheered up?」
She reached her hand out toward me with a gentle smile, but I slapped it away.
「If you keep your promise to follow an order I give you, maybe I’ll feel a little better.」
「What kind of a condition is that?」
「You said it yourself this morning, didn’t you? That you’d follow any order I gave you. Even if you don’t remember saying it, I’m going to hold you to it.」
This morning, just as I was about to return to my room, Sendai-san had offered me a deal: if I stayed in her room, she’d follow any one order I gave her, no matter what it was. I remembered her words clearly.
「I don’t mind keeping that promise, but wasn’t telling me to drink the soda just now an order?」
Sendai-san asked, as eager as ever to be ordered around.
「No, it wasn’t.」
If I was going to give her an order, I wanted it to be something she absolutely hated the idea of doing. Something I’d have to force her to do.
Sendai-san would probably do whatever I told her without batting an eye, but I wanted to give her an order that would at least make her a little uncomfortable.
「Well, okay. I’ll leave it up to you when you want to order me around, then. But if you’re not going to order me to do anything right now, can you give me your hand?」
「Why?」
「I just wanted to do some nail trimming.」
「For who? Me?」
「Yep, for you.」
It wasn’t unusual for Sendai-san to suddenly say something strange, but wanting to cut my nails out of nowhere was a little too random.
There had to be some reason behind it, so I didn’t want to let her do it.
「… Why do you suddenly want to cut my nails?」
「When I was looking at your hands this morning, I noticed your nails were getting a little long.」
She answered, and before I’d even agreed, she stood up, grabbed some kind of case, and set it on the table.
「What’s in there?」
「Nail clippers, emery boards, nail buffers, and things like that.」
Sendai-san opened the case and began explaining what each of the tools inside was for. Some of the names were unfamiliar to me, but I could tell they were all more or less for trimming, shaping, or polishing nails.
「Are you planning to use all of those?」
It didn’t matter what was inside the case. The problem was that there were too many things in it. I’d thought she just wanted to trim my nails, but apparently that wasn’t all she had in mind.
「I don’t think we’ll need everything in here, but I brought it all out just in case. Anyway, give me your hand.」
「This sounds like too much of a hassle.」
I didn’t have anything else planned for today, but I didn’t want to spend the entire day playing the role of Sendai-san’s doll.
「Look, I’m just going to trim your nails for you for now, okay?」
「This feels like it’s going to take a while.」
「It might, but that’s fine, isn’t it? It’s not like we’re going anywhere today.」
「Then why don’t we go somewhere?」
「Well, I want to, but you don’t want to go anywhere, right, Miyagi?」
「No, not really.」
「Then give me your hand. If you really don’t want to do this, then at least pick something else we can do together.」
The only things Sendai-san and I usually did together at home were watch movies, play games, or read manga and light novels, but none of those were really things she wanted to do on New Year’s Day. I didn’t particularly want to have my nails trimmed, but since I was the one keeping Sendai-san at home when she wanted to go out, I figured the least I could do was indulge her.
「Fine, as long as it doesn’t take too long.」
I muttered as I held out my hand, and Sendai-san took hold of my wrist.
She ran her fingers over the back of my hand, then gently stroked each of my fingers before stopping to stare intently at my fingertips. She continued staring at my hand, even though she was supposed to trim my nails.
「What?」
I asked, but she simply replied, “Nothing,” before picking up the nail clippers.
「I’ll start with your thumb.」
Clip, clip.
My nails, which had grown a little longer than usual, gradually became shorter.
She started with my thumb, then moved on to my index finger, followed by my middle finger.
One by one, she clipped my nails down to a comfortable length.
I couldn’t remember ever having someone cut my nails for me before. The unfamiliar feeling made me a little uneasy, so I tried to fill the silence between the clicks of the nail clippers.
「Why aren’t you using one of those fancy-looking nail clippers?」
「What do you mean by “fancy-looking” nail clippers?」
「You know, the kind they use to cut bomb wires in movies and TV shows.」
「Bomb wires? … Oh, I know what you’re talking about. The plier-type nail clippers, right? I’ve never used those. I’m always afraid I’ll cut my nails too short with them.」
Sendai-san said quietly as she continued trimming my nails, then grabbed my left hand.
「Now for this hand.」
Clip, clip.
Once again, she started with my thumb, trimming my nails down to a comfortable length. Before long, she’d finished clipping all the nails on both of my hands.
「I’ll file them for you, too.」
Sendai-san picked up an emery board that looked like an oversized wooden popsicle stick and began filing my freshly trimmed nails. She worked on them one by one, smoothing down the edges and giving them a neat shape.
「Sendai-san, do you actually enjoy cutting and filing other people’s nails?」
「Sort of. Should I do this for you again once your nails grow back out?」
「It’s alright.」
「By that, do you mean it like, “That was alright. Please do it for me again”?」
「No. You know what I meant.」
「Aw, what a shame.」
Sendai-san said, sounding not particularly disappointed, before following up with, “Hmm, should we do something about your cuticles?”
「Let’s just stop here.」
「Wait, no, not yet.」
Sendai-san took out what she’d called a buffer earlier and began polishing my nails.
「This is taking way too long.」
「Come on, it’s fine, isn’t it? It’s not like we have anything else to do.」
It wasn’t fine, but I wasn’t bothered enough to argue with her, so I let it go.
My nails were becoming so glossy that I could hardly believe they were mine. Then, Sendai-san picked up a bottle of nail oil that was almost empty.
If it had been the bottle Maika had given her, I definitely would’ve refused. But I’d never seen this bottle before, so I let her use it, and she began applying the oil to my nails.
She worked it in slowly and carefully, rubbing it not only into my nails but into the surrounding skin as well. Little by little, the small amount left in the nearly empty bottle disappeared.
Every now and then, her hand would wander down to the base of my fingers where there was no reason to apply any oil, and she’d press her lips against my knuckles.
It felt like I was under some kind of spell, and I couldn’t bring myself to stop her.
After what felt like forever, Sendai-san finally lifted her head.
「Your nails look pretty.」
She sounded quite pleased with herself.
Then, as if to put the finishing touch on her work, she pressed a kiss to my fingernails.
「That took forever.」
「We’re not done yet. I’m going to do your toenails next, so sit over there.」
Sendai-san pointed to her bed as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
「No. I’ve had enough.」
「Come on, your toenails are nails too, you know. Just sit over there.」
「Even if I let you trim them, that doesn’t mean I have to sit over there, does it?」
「But it’s easier for me if you do.」
Sendai-san said with her usual smile.
All she wanted to do was cut my toenails. There was no other reason she would be asking me to sit on the bed.
And yet, I couldn’t help but associate sitting on the bed with having my feet licked. A normal person wouldn’t lick someone else’s feet without being ordered to. No — even if they were ordered to, no sane person would do it.
「Miyagi.」
Sendai-san urged me on, glancing toward her bed.
If I kept hesitating like this, she might start to think I was being overly conscious of the situation, so I did as she said and sat down on her bed.
From there, I found myself looking down at Sendai-san.
It was a scene I’d seen many times before.
I didn’t see it as often anymore, but there had been a time when this happened quite frequently, and just being in this position was enough to make my heart race.
For some reason, Sendai-san ran her hand over my heel before gently stroking the sole of my foot.
She used to do this right before licking my feet.
My heart began pounding even harder.
「Don’t do anything weird. Just hurry up and trim my nails already.」
I said, kicking Sendai-san in the knee to free my foot from her grasp. Without saying a word, she started trimming my toenails, beginning with my big toe.
Clip, clip.
The sound I’d heard earlier echoed through the room again and again. Once she’d finished trimming all the nails on both feet, Sendai-san kissed my toes without me even telling her to.
I couldn’t see her face clearly enough to tell what she was thinking or why she’d done it.
「I didn’t say you could do that.」
Even though Sendai-san had definitely heard me, the tip of her tongue brushed over the top of my foot. She rolled up the hem of my jeans and caressed my ankle before running her warm, damp tongue over it.
The soft, gentle sensation sent a shiver down my spine, and my leg tensed up. Her lips pressed against my ankle, and the spot grew warm.
Something was up.
This was getting weird.
「Sendai-san!」
I called her name loudly. She lifted her lips from my ankle, only to press them against my toes instead.
「What’s gotten into you? I didn’t tell you to do any of that.」
「Hey, Miyagi. Let’s make another promise.」
Sendai-san said, ignoring my question.
「A promise?」
「Yeah.」
「… No.」
「Don’t you want to know what kind of promise I’m talking about?」
「I don’t need to ask. I already know it’s going to be something weird, so I don’t want to hear it.」
She’d been acting strange all day, and I couldn’t just chalk it up to it being New Year’s anymore. Whatever kind of promise she wanted to make, I was sure it wouldn’t be anything good.
「You’re so stingy.」
「No, I’m not.」
I kicked Sendai-san in the shoulder.
「Fine. Then let’s make a normal promise. Are you free to go to the zoo on the fourth? I don’t have work that day.」
「Sure, but that means you really were going to ask me for something weird, weren’t you?」
「Well, forget about that. Anyway, it’s settled. We’re going to the zoo on the fourth, okay? It’s a promise.」
Sendai-san said in her usual cheerful tone before kissing the top of my foot again.
If you wish to continue supporting me just for the hell of it, feel free to throw a few dollars my way by clicking here (this takes you to my Ko-Fi). I will also continue to be open to commissions.
Chapter debt: 82
Happy birthday, Sendai!
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