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Chapter 279: The world may change, but Miyagi remains the same — 279

Translated by KaiesV

Edited by KaiesV

I want it, but I don’t have to buy it.

Nail polish is about as good as it gets, and it’s not something I really need to buy today.

Even so.

Today I need the act of going to buy a manicure, and Miyagi must keep the promise she made to me.

「Sendai-san. Do you know which one you’re going to buy?」

In front of a shelf lined with nail polish, I hear a voice from next door that sounds grumpier than when we were eating French toast.

「I haven’t decided yet.」

I look at Miyagi, who looks bored.

The manicure is just a reason to take her around after dinner. It could have been clothes, a notebook, or a stuffed animal, but what came to mind at that moment was nail polish.

「Which one do you think is better, Miyagi?」

I ask the question to prolong the time that the two of us do something together.

If I left her alone, she would say,「I’m going to see something else,」and disappear somewhere.

「Whatever is fine.」

「You’re being too uncooperative.」

「Because they’re not mine.」

Miyagi, the human being, doesn’t betray expectations when she wants them to be betrayed, but betrays them when she doesn’t want them to be betrayed. Today’s Miyagi is the former, and as expected, she shows no interest in the manicure. But I’m okay with that.

If the emphasis is on choosing a manicure in the first place, it would be better to come with Mio rather than Miyagi. She must be more serious about choosing a manicure than Miyagi.

「Even if it belongs to someone else, take it a little more seriously.」

「I don’t even know what to think.」

「So, if you were me, Miyagi, which one would you choose?」

「I won’t use it, so I won’t choose it.」

Well, that’s true.

I look down at Miyagi’s fingers.

Her nails are neatly trimmed but not painted. The day she touched me deeply, she had the same plain nails as today. They were the same length. They were cut just enough not to be too deep.

It’s not good to dwell on the past.

I know, but my consciousness jumps to the day Miyagi cut my nails. I can’t help but wonder if Miyagi’s nails were cut short that day in order to do that with me.

No good.

When I think about these things, I try to take Miyagi’s actions in my favor. And in the end, I come to the uninteresting conclusion that it is not true after all.

——Miyagi’s nails are not usually long.

I remove my gaze from my fingers and look at Miyagi’s face.

「Why don’t you use nail polish once in a while? I’ll pick one out for you.」

「I won’t have to choose because I won’t use it.」

「Then, would you like to use mine?」

「I won’t use it. Can I go look elsewhere?」

There are many stores that sell nail polish, but I chose a general store today because I knew that Miyagi would want to leave immediately if I went to a store that only carried cosmetics. I also thought that I would be able to take Miyagi around even after I bought the nail polish.

So she should stay with me, I don’t want her wandering around the store alone.

「I want to see it with you later, and you should at least come with me to pick out a manicure.」

Miyagi wrinkled her brow at the sound of my voice and stared at the shelf. Then she picked up one of the nail polishes.

「What about this one?」

She handed me a manicure as if she is pushing me.

「Okay, but why this color?」

Miyagi chose this color from among many nail polishes.

Pale pink.

I stared at her face, not at the nail polish in her hands.

「You don’t like it?」

「I don’t dislike it, but I’m not sure why.」

I want a reason.

It didn’t seem like a deeply considered choice. So that’s why I want there to be a good reason.

「…Cute, I know you like it.」

Miyagi blurted out.

「I like it, but…」

「If you like it, that’s fine. I’ll go look elsewhere.」

Miyagi tries to turn her back on me, as if she is done with her business.

She really is selfish.

「I’m buying this, come with me.」

Normally, I would have told her「to wait while I went and bought some,」but not today. I grab her arm and pull her to walk.

「Why do I have to go with you?」

Behind me, I hear a voice that doesn’t sound like the kind you’d expect to hear on the road.

「I don’t want you to get lost.」

I can’t let go because I feel like if I let go of her hand, Miyagi will go home.

「I’m not a child, I wouldn’t get lost.」

「You could get lost, you know.」

「How can it be more?」

Miyagi says in a low voice.

「There are so many people, and if you’re not careful, you can get lost.」

When I say this, Miyagi goes quiet, though he doesn’t seem convinced. We follow the tail end of the line of people waiting in line at the cash register and gradually move forward.

「I’m not going anywhere, so take your arms off.」

I hear her in a bad mood and let go of her hand.

My turn comes around quickly and I pay the bill.

As we move away from the crowd, Miyagi pushes my arm.

「Annoying.」

「We’ve come all this way, and if we’re going to see something, I want to see it together.」

「Sendai-san’s shopping is done, so I’m going home.」

「Wait a minute. You said earlier that you were going to check out other places, so you must have something you want to see.」

「There’s nothing in particular.」

「Let’s look at it even if you don’t.」

There was no response, but the fact that she was silent suggests that my proposal was accepted.

Mugs and stuffed animals.

A necklace and earrings.

There are many things in the grocery store to pass the time just looking around. As the two of us slowly made our way around the store, Miyagi was not sure whether she was enjoying herself or not, but she would occasionally stop to say how「cute」or「Maika seems to like it.」

There were no shortage of uninteresting comments, but they were trivial compared to the pleasure of being with Miyagi. Besides, there is nothing wrong with Utsunomiya.

I turned a blind eye to the not-so-small jealousy and follow Miyagi around.

Maybe it’s just an ordinary day in the eyes of others.

But for me, it is an important day.

Me and Miyagi go around the store together.

Such unimportant things are fun and enjoyable, and even though I sometimes get jealous, I don’t want to leave.

「Sendai-san, it feels weird.」

Miyagi, who had been looking at the aroma oil, looks up and says.

「Eh, why?」

「You follow me from behind. You’re like a stalker.」

「Isn’t that a terrible way of putting it?」

「Just walk in front of me.」

「Because I want to see what you want to see, Miyagi.」

I smile, and later a cheerful voice calls my name.

「Sendai-sensei!」

I turned around at the familiar call and saw a high school student standing there, whom I see every week.

「Kikyō-chan.」

「I almost didn’t recognize you because you were in a ponytail.」

I don’t know where she appeared from, but Kikyō-chan, a student of my tutoring job, answers smiling.

I think she wanted me not to notice. I didn’t want to meet Miyagi where I could say that she was hostile to my part-time tutoring job. However, since she had caught my attention, I couldn’t afford not to talk to her about anything.

「I didn’t expect to see Kikyō-chan here either, so I almost didn’t recognize you. Are you here with a friend?」

「I was with a friend and we just separated.」

「Is that so?」

I made a smile and looked at Kikyō, her eyes turned next to mine. Her eyes seemed to be full of curiosity, and I had a bad feeling.

「Umm, are you the roommate of the cat’s pencil case?」

The gift I received from Miyagi at Christmas comes out of Kikyō-chan’s mouth.

Her shining eyes continue to be fixed on Miyagi.

Miyagi, who is at the other end of the line of sight, says nothing.

The only thing that comes through is an air of discomfort.

Miyagi is impulsive, but that is only to me. I know that she has common sense in dealing with others, and even now I know that there is no way she would be insane. Yet my chest is still creeping and I feel suffocated, as if my airway is being tightened with a wire.

「Yes, she’s my roommate. We just had a meal together.」

When I answered in the lightest tone possible and smiled at Kikyō-chan, Miyagi looked at me as if she was trying to say something. But without saying anything to me, she turned to Kikyō-chan and let out a voice, neither small nor loud.

「Hello.」

Not that I expected a fight to start, but I am relieved that she greeted her without incident.

「Nice to meet you. I’m Hanamaki.」

Kikyō-chan’s voice is a little higher than usual.

「I’m Miyagi.」

Her voice sounds the same as usual.

When I look at Miyagi, she looks neither in a good nor a bad mood. I’m curious what she’s thinking, but I can’t ask her now, and I know she won’t answer if I ask her later.

「I wanted to meet you once, so it was nice to meet you.」

Miyagi smiled vaguely at the sound of Kikyō-chan’s voice.