Keeping the promise I’d made with Miyagi was easy.
Making dinner wasn’t all that hard.
But figuring out what to make was another story.
I wandered around the supermarket, eyes scanning the shelves.
Miyagi had told me to make something I liked, but nothing came to mind.
「What should I do…」
I muttered to myself as I stood in front of the meat section, staring blankly at rows of pork, beef, and chicken.
It wasn’t something I needed to overthink.
She’d said to make whatever I liked, which probably meant anything would be fine.
Still, it didn’t sit right to cook something she wouldn’t enjoy. That was the part I kept getting stuck on.
Even though we’d spent a lot of time together, I still didn’t know much about what Miyagi liked or disliked when it came to food.
The first time I made something at her place, I’d gone with karaage.
Back then, I hadn’t been too concerned about her preferences, so choosing had been simple.
「Karaage, huh…」
She’d said it was good, so going with that felt like a safe choice.
I thought back to that day a little more.
I’d asked Miyagi to cut up some cabbage, but she ended up cutting her own finger instead. Then she made me lick her blood. She was always ordering me to do weird things like that. No one else would ever ask me to do something like that.
Only Miyagi would.
I let out a quiet sigh and tried to return my thoughts to what to make for dinner.
Come to think of it, she’d served me frozen Hamburg steaks a few times.
Since it wasn’t just once, maybe she liked them.
I picked up a pack of ground beef and placed it in my basket.
As I walked through the supermarket, I grabbed onions and breadcrumbs too, then pulled out my phone.
I had a feeling I was missing something. A quick recipe search proved me right.
I added milk and nutmeg to the basket—skipping the eggs since I remembered we had some at home—and headed to the register.
When I got back home, I saw Miyagi’s shoes at the entrance, but she wasn’t anywhere in the common space.
I walked over to her door and let her know I was starting dinner.
I put everything away in the fridge, except for the onion, then took out a knife and cutting board.
After dicing the onion, I started frying it.
I placed the ground meat in a bowl and cooled the bottom with ice water before kneading. I added salt, pepper, and nutmeg, then kneaded some more. I mixed in the fried onion, milk-soaked breadcrumbs, and eggs, and kept kneading.
I spent so long just working the mixture with my hands that I almost forgot what I was even making.
Making Hamburg steaks was more time-consuming than I’d expected, even though it looked like all you had to do was shape some ground meat and fry it.
I started to regret not just buying premade patties.
But I was too far in to stop now.
I shaped the mixture into thick patties, tossing them between my hands to press out any air, just like I’d seen chefs do on TV.
Once they were ready, I heated up a frying pan and laid the patties on it.
They sizzled as they hit the pan.
While they cooked, I began throwing together a salad and called out for Miyagi.
I waited for the Hamburg steaks to cook under the lid of the frying pan when Miyagi came out of her room. She muttered a quiet, “Welcome back,” then silently began scooping rice onto some plates.
Yesterday, Miyagi had suddenly asked me to make her a promise. She’d sounded like she wanted something serious from me, but it had turned out to be nothing major.
Just making dinner didn’t feel like something worth swearing on her earrings over.
I placed the Hamburg steaks onto the plates Miyagi had set out, then glanced over at her. She didn’t look happy or even mildly pleased. I had no idea what had been going through her head when she asked me to cook for us tonight.
「What about the sauce?」
Miyagi asked, eyeing the Hamburg steaks.
「I’m going to make it now.」
I poured some ketchup and sauce into the frying pan and brought it to a light simmer. Once it was ready, I poured it over our Hamburg steaks and brought the plates to the table.
「Let’s eat.」
We said in unison.
Since we didn’t have any dining knives, I cut my steak with chopsticks. The patty was soft and fluffy. When I sliced into the edge, the juices spilled out—it had cooked better than I expected. I took a bite and was honestly tempted to praise myself; it tasted like something you could get at a restaurant. But Miyagi said nothing.
「Is it good?」
I asked, watching her silently eat across from me.
「It is. Do you like Hamburg steaks, Sendai-san?」
「They’re okay, I guess?」
If someone had asked whether I liked them or not, I’d probably lean toward saying I did. But since I hadn’t made them because I liked them, I gave a vague answer.
「Why’d you answer like that? Didn’t you cook them because you liked them?」
「Well, yeah, I guess so. Do you like Hamburg steaks, Miyagi?」
I stared at her, wondering if it’d be fine to start calling Hamburg steaks one of my favorite foods from now on.
「I think they’re okay, too.」
Miyagi gave an answer I couldn’t tell was true or not, and popped another bite into her mouth. I continued cutting mine into pieces and ate as well.
The conversation trailed off, and we finished our meal in silence.
The Hamburg steaks that had taken so much time to make were gone in less than half the time it took to prepare.
「What are you going to do after this, Sendai-san?」
Miyagi asked, setting down her chopsticks without looking at me.
「I have to prepare for my next tutoring session. Or I guess I mean I need to review for it. The student I’m teaching is in middle school, and I barely remember the material from back then, so I feel a little uneasy if I don’t brush up.」
「You’re taking this really seriously, even though it’s just a part-time job.」
「Hey, even part-time jobs need to be taken seriously, you know?」
「Hmm.」
Miyagi sounded completely uninterested. She walked over to the fridge, pulled out a bottle of barley tea, and brought it—along with a cup—back to the table. She set it down louder than she normally would. That alone was enough to tell me she was in a bad mood.
「Thanks.」
I said, but she didn’t respond.
She sat back down across from me without a word.
「Why don’t you get a part-time job too, Miyagi?」
「No.」
She replied coldly, and the conversation came to a stop again.
Judging by how the conversation had gone, I could guess what was putting her in such a bad mood.
Bringing up my part-time job had been a bad idea.
Miyagi had started acting strange after I mentioned it yesterday, too.
「… Can I come to your room after I finish cleaning up the dishes?」
Miyagi asked suddenly.
It came completely out of left field.
Honestly, it wasn’t even something she should’ve been asking.
I thought I’d made it pretty clear that I needed to review for work.
So if she came to my room, she’d only get in the way.
「Okay.」
But for some reason, the word left my mouth without hesitation—something I hadn’t meant to say at all.
「I’ll start cleaning up, then.」
Miyagi said, getting up and picking up our empty plates and cups.
Everything about this felt off.
Even so, I couldn’t bring myself to turn her down.
I could study after she went back to her room.
Or I could do it on the train.
The sound of dishes being washed echoed from the kitchen.
I couldn’t bring myself to offer to help.
Even though this wasn’t the first time Miyagi had come to my room, I felt nervous.
When I stood up, my chair scraped against the floor with an unusually loud clatter.
Miyagi walked over to me.
「I’m done.」
「So, you’re coming over to my room?」
「Yeah.」
Normally, she would’ve said something like, “If you don’t want me to come, then I won’t,” but not today.
She followed me back to my room and took a seat beside me like it was the most natural thing in the world. But once she sat down, she went quiet.
She didn’t even try to make conversation.
With a stern look on her face, she flipped through a dictionary that had been left out on my table and rested it on her lap.
「Is something wrong?」
I asked Miyagi, who’d asked to come here herself yet hadn’t said a word since.
「What do you mean?」
She replied, looking up from the dictionary.
「Why are you in such a bad mood?」
「I’m not in a bad mood.」
She was definitely in a bad mood.
Her voice was low, and she wouldn’t even look at me.
She’d been off during dinner, too, but now she seemed even worse.
It was hard to believe she’d wanted to come to my room in the first place.
「Was there something you wanted to do here?」
「What, am I not allowed to be here unless I do?」
「You’re allowed to be here. But if you’re going to stay, you better lighten up.」
「I told you, I’m not in a bad mood or anything.」
Miyagi was always stubborn about stuff like this.
Even if she was in a bad mood, she’d never admit it, and the whole conversation would just go in circles.
Her mood turning sour out of nowhere wasn’t exactly unusual, but since she’d come to my room of her own accord, I really wished she’d loosen up at least a little.
「If you want to prove you’re not in a bad mood, you’re going to have to smile every now and then.」
I wasn’t saying she needed to be like Hanamaki-san or anything, but it wouldn’t hurt if she smiled once in a while.
I’d kept my promise and made dinner for us tonight—something Miyagi had arbitrarily decided on her own yesterday—and I’d even changed my plans just to be with her right now.
So I felt like I was entitled to at least this much.
「I do smile.」
Miyagi said, though her face was as sullen as ever.
「No, you don’t.」
「I do. Just at school, though.」
Of course.
I already knew that.
Miyagi smiled when she was with other people, in other places.
Even back in high school, I’d seen her smiling at school plenty of times.
When we were in the same class during our second year, she’d laugh in front of Utsunomiya, and in our third year, I’d seen her smile in the hallway.
Miyagi always smiled whenever I wasn’t around.
And the thought that she was probably still smiling around Utsunomiya, just like she used to, annoyed me.
「I want to see you smile right here, right now.」
We went to different universities now.
If I didn’t ask her to smile here, I might never get to see it at all.
I’d rather see her in a good mood than a bad one, so if possible, I wanted her to smile.
「There’s nothing that I find amusing right now, so I can’t do it.」
「Smiling is so easy, though. All you have to do is lift the corners of your mouth.」
I pressed my fingers against the corners of Miyagi’s lips and pushed them upward.
The dictionary on her lap slipped off and hit the floor with a dull thud.
I knew this was only going to make her more irritated, but I didn’t really care. Nothing I said or did was going to improve her mood anyway.
I forced her mouth into a smile, and although her lips curved up, her brows drew together.
It didn’t look like a smile—it looked kind of funny, actually.
Then she grabbed my wrists.
She pulled my hands away from her face and sank her teeth into one of my fingers.
She bit down hard—hard enough that I could feel her teeth pressing right into the bone.
I tried to pull back on reflex, but I couldn’t.
Instead, her teeth dug even deeper into my skin than before.
Ave Lilium Translations 