「Using violence is a breach of contract. 」
Sendai-san was referring to the rules that we established together.
That being said, there was no way using my foot to lift up her chin could ever be considered “violent”. And since I haven’t done anything that has gone against the terms of our agreement, there was no reason for her to call me out on it either.
「This isn’t violence.」
「Yes, it is. You just kicked me.」
She replied, sounding displeased as she flicked my big toe with her fingertips.
「All I did was touch your chin.」
If she was getting this worked up over something like that, I could only assume she was just trying to act bratty.
「Hmm…」
Sendai-san mumbled under her breath. Her grip around my ankle tightened even more than before.
She didn’t seem convinced.
She glared at me.
Sensing that something bad was going to happen, I tried to pull my leg away, but Sendai-san refused to let go. Instead, she pressed her lips against the top of my foot and began to suck on it.
The sensation felt completely different from just having her tongue stroke my foot, and caused my body to tremble.
「Stop it.」
When I raised my voice, trying to get her to stop this thing I hadn’t commanded her to do, my words fell on deaf ears. Now grabbing onto the sole of my foot, she bit down on my big toe.
「That hurts.」
Her teeth were firmly planted into my toe. It felt like she was about to break skin, though just barely. My voice filled the room, but that wasn’t going to relieve me of the pain.
「Sendai-san, I told you to stop.」
When I looked down, I could see the shape of her hair whorl.
In protest, I grabbed Sendai-san’s head and shook it.
「This is an order, so stop it already!」
I said, raising my voice to a volume I’d never used with her before. She removed her teeth from my toe, then ran her tongue against it, as if checking to see if she managed to leave any bite marks behind.
My toe felt wet and sticky.
The warmth of her tongue sent chills down my spine.
As I thought, human tongues really were disgusting. That being said, I came to realize I didn’t actually dislike this. As if doing so could dismiss those feelings, I tugged on her hair.
「Stop that. 」
Upon repeating the same words that I uttered earlier, at last, Sendai-san lifted her head. Finally regaining ownership of my leg, I pulled it up towards the safety of my own bed.
「Give me your leg. I’ll put this back on for you.」
Sendai-san said with what appeared to be a satisfied smile on her face as she picked my sock up.
Why was she the one giving me orders now?
I felt nothing but dissatisfaction at this situation.
「You don’t have to put that back on. Just take this one off too.」
I said, placing my left leg on her thighs. She obeyed silently.
「Any other orders?」
「No. 」
I replied curtly as I stood up.
「Want anything to drink?」
I asked, noticing that the cup on the table was empty. She answered back with a simple, “I’m good.”
「Want something to eat for dinner then?」
“I’m going home.”
I already knew that was what she was going to reply with. I mean, I’d asked her that question many times before, and each time, I was met with the same answer, so there was no way she would respond with something different this time. Plus, it’d be such a pain if she actually accepted my offer.
Yet, for some reason, for the first time ever, I heard her answer with, “I’ll have something to eat.”
Still barefoot, I put on my slippers and led Sendai-san to the kitchen. I grabbed a couple cups of ramen from the shopping bag I got from the supermarket and started boiling water on the side.
I brought the cups of ramen over to the other side of the bar counter, where Sendai-san was seated, and placed them right in front of her with the lid flaps open. Upon seeing this, a confused look appeared on Sendai-san’s face.
「What is this?」
「Cup noodles. Can’t you tell just by looking at it? Don’t tell me you’re so rich that you’ve never seen cup noodles before?」
「If I was so rich that I’d never seen cup noodles before, I’d probably be attending some school where the students greet each other with, ‘Salutations’, instead of going to our school, wouldn’t I?」
Although Sendai-san sounded dumbfounded as she spoke, I’ve heard her family was rather well-off.
Not that she flaunted around a lot of brand-name goods or anything, but the products she did own were pretty high quality. She has probably never had ramen served to her for dinner before either. Her dinners were definitely homemade meals.
Sendai-san seemed like the type who was loved by her family.
If it weren’t for us being classmates, I’m pretty sure there was no way we’d ever have any opportunities to speak to one another.
―― I started feeling nauseous.
I stared at the electric kettle that was currently boiling enough water for the both of us.
「Besides, I’ve had cup noodles before. Oh, wait, don’t tell me, is the Miyagi family not well off?」
「I get enough allowance to afford renting you for five-thousand yen once, sometimes twice a week. But if you consider that poor, then I guess I’m poor.」
Though Sendai-san spoke teasingly, I gave her a curt answer.
Although my household was the kind that had no reservations about serving ramen for dinner, that wasn’t because of financial issues or anything. Rather, if I had to say, I’d think we were more well-off than not.
「… I guess you’re not poor, huh. So, is this all we’re having for dinner?」
「If you’d rather have a bento or something, I can go buy some. Or do you just want to go home and have dinner there? I’m fine with either.」
I didn’t have a mother.
Plus, I didn’t have any talent for cooking.
Those were the only two reasons why I sometimes had cup noodles for dinner.
While there were single fathers out there who could cook, most of them were so busy with work, it was extremely rare for them to be able to get back home before their children went to sleep. Perhaps my father felt guilty for subjecting me to that sort of home life, so he wanted to make up for it by giving me an allowance that was clearly too much for a high school student.
「I’ll just have this.」
Sendai-san fiddled around with the cup lid until the water in the electric kettle finished boiling.
We poured the water up to the fill line.
Then, we set a timer for three minutes.
After that was done, we began to slurp on our ramen.
Whether I ate cup noodles alone or with someone else, it didn’t change the fact that cup noodles were still going to taste like cup noodles. But somehow, this felt a lot better than just eating by myself.
「Thanks for the meal. It’s getting late now, so I’m going home.」
「Okay. 」
I had nothing to talk about with Sendai-san.
We didn’t belong to the same friend groups, and we didn’t have anything in common either.
Because we had nothing to talk about, the two of us had eaten in silence. Since a serving of cup noodles was only so big, we finished our meal in no time at all, and before I realized it, Sendai-san was about to head home.
「If you decide to buy the fourth volume, let me read it.」
Sendai-san, who went back to my room so she could retrieve her blazer and coat, said as she glanced over at my bookshelf.
「You’ll probably be able to read it the next time you visit.」
「Okay, guess that means next week then.」
“I’m never coming back again.”
Given what happened earlier today, I couldn’t even blame her if she said something like that, but it seemed that she was planning to visit again.
Sendai-san was such a weird person.
Even though she was normally so diligent at school.
I tried to hold back those disrespectful thoughts I was having about the girl who followed my orders as I handed over her blazer and coat.
「I’ll see you off. 」
As usual, we left through the front door together and made our way to the elevator. After getting off on the first floor, we walked towards the entrance.
「Alright, see you later then.」
Sendai-san waved without stopping.
「Bye-bye.」
I called out to her from behind as she went off into the distance.
I wondered, even when we become third-years next year and ended up in different classrooms, if Sendai-san would let me continue renting her for five-thousand yen.
While pondering that thought, I got back onto the elevator.
Credits to himi for proofreading and editing this part!
Ave Lilium Translations 