Volume 7 Episode 04

Five thousand yen for three times a week.

During last summer’s break, I’d been receiving study lessons from Sendai-san, who had suddenly proposed that arrangement. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Back then, Sendai-san had come over to my house almost every other day. This year, she was by my side every single day. Even without the five thousand yen, even without the pretext of teaching me, she stayed at the house, saying good morning and good night to me. She wasn’t family, nor was she a friend, yet she had somehow become one of the things I saw every day, and today, too, she was within my field of vision.

“Miyagi, how about taking a little break?”

A little over three hours had passed since the two of us had started watching an overseas drama series.

From beside me came a voice that sounded somewhat tired, or rather, more like she’d simply grown bored of staring at the screen.

“After one more episode.”

Three hours was a long time, but we were still only in the middle of the first season, which meant there was still plenty of the drama left ahead of us. I wanted to know what would happen next, and I felt it was still too early to take a break.

“Then you watch it, Miyagi.”

Even though we’d chosen the drama together and agreed that we’d watch it as a pair, Sendai-san said something so irresponsible and flopped down onto the bed.

“‘Watch it’? If you do that, you won’t understand the story anymore.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ll just have you fill me in later, Miyagi.”

Sendai-san said it from the bed, completely relaxed as she lay there.

This was Sendai-san’s room, so it didn’t matter whether she lounged around or thrashed about as much as she wanted, but being told to watch a drama alone when we’d agreed to watch it together was another matter entirely.

“No way. I’m not telling you. Don’t stay over there. Watch it properly yourself.”

“I’m already tired.”

“You’re just bored, aren’t you?”

“I’m not bored, but sitting still for this long is tiring. I know. How about we go out for a change of pace?”

Sendai-san was always quick to suggest going outside. We’d gone to the aquarium the other day, so there was really no need to go anywhere else, was there?

Just a few days earlier, we’d already fulfilled our promise to go somewhere together. We’d also promised to go to the zoo and to the aquarium again, but we’d decided the zoo would be in autumn, and we still hadn’t settled on a date for the aquarium.

“It’s summer break, after all. Let’s do more summery things. Going out together is fun, you know.”

“No thanks. Besides, what even counts as a summery thing?”

I had no idea where she wanted to go, but it was already evening. I couldn’t imagine there was anywhere we absolutely had to visit at this hour. And just because it was summer break didn’t mean we had to go out and do something that felt particularly summery.

“Like going to the pool, or watching fireworks?”

“It’s not the time of day to go to the pool, and there aren’t any fireworks today. The other day you said you wanted to go on a hot-spring trip. You really only ever say random things. If you want to go somewhere, think about it properly.”

“Then how about going to buy ice cream?”

“You said that the other day too, and we already went.”

“Then maybe we could go out to eat?”

I thought that simply staying in this room was enough, even if we didn’t do anything particularly summer-like.

I was used to being alone, but that didn’t mean I liked being alone. I’d always hated long breaks, yet with Sendai-san here, the long break didn’t seem so bad. If anything, it even felt as though something fun might happen.

[T/N- 'something fun' hmm i know what you are.]

So there was no need to go out right now.

“I’m not going. I’m going to read manga. You can just rest there, Sendai-san.”

I rejected Sendai-san’s suggestions and paused the drama that was still playing. I picked up my phone, selected an e-book, opened it, and leaned back against the bed as I continued reading. Then someone lightly tugged at my hair from behind.

“Miyagi.”

Sendai-san’s voice drifted down from above my head.

Apparently, she’d stopped lounging around and sat up.

“What?”

I answered without taking my eyes off my phone.

“I’m bored.”

“If you’re bored, want to watch the rest of the drama?”

“No.”

Along with that half-hearted reply, my hair was tugged again. And not just once. Sendai-san gathered my hair into a bunch and tugged at it several times, quietly continuing to play with it.

“What are you doing?”

When I asked without looking away from my phone, she answered, “Braiding,” and that was when I first realized she’d been repeating the thoroughly unproductive process of braiding my hair, only to undo it again.

“Is it fun?”

“Pretty much.”

I didn’t understand what exactly was supposed to be fun about it, but it wasn’t interfering with my reading, and it seemed to be an enjoyable pastime for Sendai-san, so I left her to it. It was a manga I’d already read several times, so the next lines drifted into my mind even before I scrolled down, but I continued reading anyway.

Inside the small screen of my phone, the story moved forward.

Sendai-san’s hands touched more than just my hair. Every now and then, they brushed against my ears and the nape of my neck as well.

I kept my eyes on my phone.

As the number of pages I read increased, so did the amount of time Sendai-san’s hands spent touching my ears and the nape of my neck.

A warmth I could never feel from the tips of my hair traveled to me, and it felt pleasant. Even without looking at her, I could sense Sendai-san’s presence.

“Miyagi, why don’t you come over here too?”

Perhaps she’d grown tired of braiding. Sendai-san spoke quietly, then kissed the top of my head.

“I’m not going. You’ll probably do something weird, Sendai-san.”

“Don’t you want me to, Miyagi?”

“I don’t.”

I set my phone down on the table, but I answered while keeping my back turned toward Sendai-san.

“Today, it’s okay if things get a little confusing, right?”

She whispered the words right beside my ear, and I pushed her head away.

Bringing up what had happened the other day was against the rules.

I firmly suppressed the urge to run away.

The aquarium had been more fun than I’d expected, so I’d tried hard to convey even a little of what I was feeling, but maybe I’d tried too hard. I had the feeling that I’d said things that didn’t really need to be said.

“Of course it’s not okay.”

“Then how long do I have to wait?”

Sendai-san asked in a soft voice.

“Keep waiting forever.”

“Do you think I can wait forever, Miyagi?”

“Try hard so that you can.”

“Miyagi, it’s not that you hate doing it, right?”

Without saying that she’d try, Sendai-san hit me with another question.

I didn’t want to answer.

If I said I didn’t hate it, it would sound as though I were saying it was okay to do it; if I said I hated it, Sendai-san would probably never touch me again. I didn’t want to say either.

“Miyagi.”

Sendai-san’s hand stroked through my hair.

Her fingers slipped behind my ear and gently caressed the nape of my neck.

“Sendai-san, you’re annoying.”

When I lightly slapped away the hand that continued touching me so gently, it withdrew without resistance, and I heard a soft thud from behind me. When I turned toward the bed, Sendai-san was lying down.

“I’m waiting, so it’s fine.”

As she said that, Sendai-san smiled gently, as though trying to reassure me. But her words and actions didn’t match. The hand that should have withdrawn reached out again and touched my chin. Her fingertips slid down toward the nape of my neck and stopped at my collarbone.

“It’s not fine at all.”

I grabbed the hand that looked as though it might wander farther if I left it alone.

Sendai-san was saying, “I’m waiting,” but it was practically the same as saying, “I want to do it now.”

“I just want to touch you, Miyagi. I won’t go any further until you allow it.”

Maybe Sendai-san had no sense of shame.

She said things like this with a completely calm expression.

The other day, too, when I’d asked how good it felt, she’d said things that made it clear she was talking about something she did herself, and that she actually did it.

Normally, people didn’t say things like that.

Because of that, there were times when I found myself wondering whether she’d done it since then. Of course, it was a difficult subject to bring up, so I’d never asked, but I also wondered whether she’d answer if I did.

“Don’t touch me. I’m going to read.”

I peeled her hand away from my collarbone with a series of small tugs.

“I’ll get cold if you don’t touch me.”

Sendai-san said something completely random and tried to reach out again with the hand I’d just pulled away, so I caught that hand and held it beneath my own on top of the bed.

“You’re not cold. You’re hot, aren’t you, Sendai-san?”

On the bed, our hands were stacked together, warm with the heat of her body.

Even though she preferred rooms that felt a little cold to me, lately this room had always been kept at a temperature adjusted to suit me. Today, too, it had been set to a temperature that was comfortable for me, so there was no way Sendai-san could genuinely be feeling cold.

“You’re right. It is hot. Get the remote. Make it colder.”

“Don’t you usually say ‘cooler,’ not ‘colder’?”

“I was thinking of setting it to a temperature that would make you want to cling to me, Miyagi.”

“Stop saying stupid things and be quiet, Sendai-san.”

[T/N- Original Japanese:

「寒くじゃなくて涼しくするんじゃないの、普通」

Breakdown & difference:

寒くする (samuku suru) = “make it cold” (Used in the line)

涼しくする (suzushiku suru) = “make it cool / refreshing” (normal expression)

涼しくする is the more natural expression when talking about making a hot room comfortably cooler. 寒くする emphasizes making the room cold, so in this context Miyagi finds Sendai-san's wording slightly odd and points out what people would normally say. Sendai-san then reveals that she deliberately chose 寒くする because she actually intended to make the room cold enough for Miyagi to feel cold.]

I released Sendai-san’s hand and lightly pressed my fingertip against her lips. I hadn’t actually sealed her mouth shut, but Sendai-san fell silent anyway.

Her lips parted slightly.

I immediately pulled my hand back before the situation could become any more embarrassing.

“Miyagi.”

I heard Sendai-san’s voice.

But when I stayed silent, she got down from the bed and sat beside me.

“I’ll wipe your finger for you.”

Saying that, Sendai-san took a tissue from behind the platypus and gently wiped my finger clean.

“Miyagi, you were thinking something dirty just now, weren’t you?”

“I wasn’t.”

“Really?”

“Really. You’re the dirty one, Sendai-san.”

I picked up the platypus and lightly smacked it against Sendai-san’s thigh.

“Then what were you thinking just now, Miyagi?”

“What about you, Sendai-san? What do you mean by ‘dirty’?”

“Is it okay if I say it?”

Sendai-san smiled and looked at me.

No matter how I looked at her face, it was unmistakably the face of someone who was about to say something I didn’t want to hear, so I told her, “Shut up, you pervert,” and stood up.

“Where are you going?”

“...I’m going to get drinks.”

It wasn’t that I minded being close enough that some part of us was always touching.

As long as Sendai-san stayed quiet, I didn’t care if our shoulders, arms, or legs happened to press against each other.

But if she had no intention of staying quiet at all, that was a different matter, so I left the room, leaving behind the girl who seemed determined to keep doing unnecessary things.

I took out cider and orange juice from the refrigerator and poured them into glasses.

After taking a slow breath in and letting it out, I returned to the room to find Sendai-san sitting with her back against the bed.

“If you’re going to stay there, let’s watch the rest of the drama.”

I set the two glasses on the table and sat down beside Sendai-san.

“Okay.”

I’d expected her to say something like she still needed more rest, or that she’d watch it if I let her tease me a little longer, but she simply accepted my suggestion, said “Thanks,” and picked up the orange juice. Then, after taking one gulp, she took my hand.

The hand that squeezed mine with just the right amount of strength felt a little too warm for summer, but I didn’t dislike it.

I reached for the tablet to resume the drama. But before my hand could reach it, my phone rang, so I changed the direction of my outstretched hand and picked up the phone instead. Letting go of Sendai-san’s hand and looking at the screen, I saw a message from Ami that said, Is Sendai-san there today?

I had a bad feeling.

Ami, like Maika, was a friend from high school.

I’d told Maika that I was room-sharing with Sendai-san, so there was no way I could keep it from Ami. I’d shared with her what I could. I hadn’t really wanted to, but if Maika and Ami knew something while I was the only one left in the dark, I wouldn’t have felt very good about that either, so keeping silent hadn’t really been an option.

I hesitated over my reply and glanced at Sendai-san.

Ever since I’d told her about the room-sharing, Ami had wanted to talk with Sendai-san, so it wasn’t difficult to imagine what would happen if I answered that she was here.

What should I do?

I typed “She’s not here” and then deleted it.

Whenever possible, it was better not to lie.

Even if I managed to get through this particular moment, the same situation would come up again before long.

Steeling myself, I sent She’s here, and a new message arrived almost immediately, so I replied. After exchanging messages a few times, I learned that Ami was with Maika, who was home for the break, and that the two of them had been excitedly talking about Sendai-san. Then, when I saw the final message that came through, I let out a long, heavy sigh.

“Did something happen?”

Sendai-san tightened her grip around my hand.

“...Is it okay if we do a video call right now? My friends say they want to talk to you, Sendai-san.”

Ami had Maika with her, and Sendai-san wouldn't talk about our relationship any more than necessary, so the conversation shouldn't veer off in any strange direction.

I knew that.

I knew it, but I still couldn't shake the uneasiness.

If possible, I wanted Sendai-san to say she didn't want to talk, but she almost never refused a request from me.

“It’s fine, but your friend isn't Utsunomiya, right?”

Sendai-san let go of the hand she'd been holding.

I answered with the reply she'd already predicted, “Someone else,” and sent a message to Ami. Almost immediately, my phone began to ring. When I pressed the call button, a bright, energetic voice came through.

“Is Sendai-san really there?”

“She is. Look.”

Saying that, I turned the phone toward Sendai-san.

“It's the real one.”

“There seem to be fakes going around, so that’s why.”

Sendai-san answered with a soft chuckle.

“Ah, sorry for springing this on you all of a sudden. I heard about Sendai-san from Shiori and wanted to try talking to you, so I kind of forced the issue. Um… I should introduce myself, right?”

It was only when I heard the words “self-introduction” that I realized I’d completely forgotten to explain who Ami was to Sendai-san. But Sendai-san spoke as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

“You don’t have to. You’re Shirakawa, right? Shirakawa Ami.”

“Huh? Did you hear about me from Shiori?”

“I heard about you, and I know who you are. I’ve seen you together with Miyagi plenty of times at school.”

Speaking as though it were perfectly natural for her to know things I’d never told her, Sendai-san took the smartphone from me and calmly answered the rapid-fire questions Ami kept throwing at her.

How can this person handle everything so flawlessly?

She’d quickly become friends with Maika, and now she was talking to Ami, who hadn’t even been in the same class as her, as though the three of them had been friends since high school.

I couldn’t understand how she could possibly be the same kind of human being as me.

Maika’s cheerful voice could occasionally be heard coming through the smartphone as well. Sendai-san spoke with the two of them in such a bright, easygoing atmosphere that it was hard to believe she’d been touching my body only moments earlier. All I could do was turn into a doll, mechanically answering whenever my name was called.

I had no idea how long the four of us talked.

It might’ve been a few minutes, or it might’ve been several tens of minutes.

Before I really understood what was happening, the video call ended, and the smartphone was handed back to me.

“You all get along well.”

Sendai-san spoke in a voice that was a little lower than usual.

“We’re friends, after all.”

“…And me?”

Her tone had barely changed, but this time, her expression was serious. The answer, however, had already been decided.

“Roommates, right?”

Those were the words Sendai-san had given me on the day of our high school graduation ceremony.

They were the words meant to define the four years we’d spend living together until we graduated from university, and right now, there was no other word that could properly express what our relationship was.

“Anything else?”

“Former classmates.”

“Anything else?”

“Former schoolmates.”

“Anything else?”

“Graduates of the same high school.”

“Anything else?”

“…Is there something you want me to say?”

“No. I just asked on a whim.”

Speaking in the same bright voice she’d used while talking with Ami, Sendai-san tightly squeezed my hand.

“Sendai-san, that hurts.”

Gripped so tightly I thought she meant to crush my bones, I pulled my hand toward myself. Sendai-san loosened her grip, but she didn’t let go. She drew a little closer and kissed my cheek as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Her fingers brushed my lips, and the smartphone let out a short chime. The sound wasn’t quiet; there was no way Sendai-san hadn’t noticed it, yet she still leaned toward me again, so I pushed against her shoulder.

“Wait. The phone rang.”

“Do it later.”

Her reply was accompanied by a slightly sulky expression, and I was silenced when she leaned in close again.

The moment passed quickly, and when I reached for the smartphone, Sendai-san tried to distract me once more. There was no real need to check it in a hurry, but being deliberately obstructed only made me more determined to see what had arrived.

“Just wait a second.”

I shoved her shoulder firmly and took the phone. On the screen was a message from Ami: “Thanks for earlier. Tell Sendai-san too.” I replied, then looked at Sendai-san.

“Ami says thanks for earlier.”

“Tell her it was fun.”

“I’ll pass it on, but why did you get in the way when I was trying to check my phone?”

“Because I wanted Miyagi’s attention.”

Sendai-san answered without the slightest hesitation, then gently brushed a fingertip against my lips. When she pulled her hand away, she leaned close again, lingering for a moment before drawing back. She then took the hand that had been holding the phone and gave it a small, affectionate squeeze.

At times like this, Sendai-san became someone completely different from the person who had been talking with Ami and Maika. This was a side of Sendai-san that only I was allowed to see, and I wanted her never to show it to anyone else.

“This kind of thing can wait until later, can’t it?”

I gave a light smack to the arm of the girl who acted as though her behavior were perfectly natural.

“I didn’t get to spend any time with you earlier, so it’s fine, right?”

“Earlier? You mean while we were talking with Ami and the others?”

“Yeah.”

“Sendai-san, you’re an idiot. If you did something like that, I’d be asked for the rest of my life what exactly Sendai-san is to Shiori.”

“Just answer that we’re roommates.”

Sendai-san smiled brightly.

It was irritating.

There was a slight barb in the way she said it.

With a touch of protest, I sank my teeth into the side of her neck.

Sendai-san neither complained nor told me to stop.

Her arms immediately wrapped around my back, holding me close enough that I couldn’t easily pull away. I eventually drew my face back from her neck, but even then, she didn’t let me go.

“Sendai-san!”

When I called her name sharply, the strength in the arms around my back finally eased.

“You can be more forceful if you want?”

“That’s enough.”

I put some distance between us and leaned back against the bed.

“If you’re going to leave a mark, you should at least make it last the whole summer break.”

Sendai-san said something ridiculous, but she never got angry. No matter how much I teased her, no matter how much I tried to push her patience, she never truly became angry with me. She might dislike something, but she always seemed willing to put up with whatever I did.

She could handle everything flawlessly and should have been perfectly fine without me, yet no matter what happened, she stayed by my side.

“You’re such a pervert, Sendai-san.”

Even if she wasn’t a pervert, she was certainly a strange person.

No matter what, she was always kind to me.

I only ever consumed her kindness and spent my days unable to give anything back.

“I think so myself.”

Sendai-san let out a small breath and called my name. “Miyagi.”

“What?”

“Keep the ‘roommate’ just for me.”

“Even without you saying so, there’s no way I’d live with anyone else.”

“Promise.”

With that, Sendai-san took hold of my little finger.

✧✧✧✧✧

Today was not a very good day.

It was raining, and thunder seemed likely, yet Sendai-san was out at her part-time job. I wished she’d take the day off on days like this, at least, but she’d gone to a student’s house again today. Both the tutoring job and the student seemed to be very important to her. The fact that it was summer break made no difference at all.

I’d known she wouldn’t skip work, but being alone made me want to complain about her absence anyway.

Even if I couldn’t completely empty my mind, I thought I could at least distract myself, so I tried reading a novel, but the words refused to sink in. Games couldn’t hold my attention either. Once that happened, I started worrying about whether the weather would get any worse.

It was already around the time Sendai-san might reasonably have come home, yet I still hadn’t heard a “I’m home.”

I took the black cat plushie from the bookshelf and lay down on the bed.

The fact that I was worrying about things I didn’t need to worry about, and the bad weather itself, everything was Sendai-san’s fault.

I stroked the black cat’s back and placed it on my chest.

Even after several days, Sendai-san’s words, “And me?” still lingered in my head.

That day when we’d talked with Ami and the others.

Sendai-san had wanted a word other than “roommate.” But all I’d been able to give her were “roommate” and a few words that referred to the past.

I and Sendai-san were people who, under normal circumstances, would never have crossed paths.

Even when we’d been in the same classroom, I’d never approached the places where Sendai-san and her group gathered, as though a national border stood between us, and they’d never come near me either. We’d simply happened to end up in the same class; our relationship should’ve been neither more nor less than that. Yet we’d crossed paths, and now we were connected by the word “roommates.”

We said “I’m home” and “Welcome back,” ate meals together, and occasionally went somewhere with just the two of us.

Those things were fully covered by the word “roommates.”

I didn’t think we needed any other word.

Perhaps there was a word that fit us more neatly than “roommates,” but there was no reason to force myself to look for it. If I replaced “roommates” with something else and that word failed to fit us properly, everything might disappear.

I stroked the black cat’s head and pressed my lips briefly to the tip of its nose.

When I set the black cat on the pillow and closed my eyes, I thought I heard an unsettling rumble from outside, and my body tensed.

I didn’t want to listen carefully, yet I did.

No sound like thunder reached my ears.

I let out a breath and sat up. A noise came from beyond the door. I returned the black cat to the bookshelf and left the room, and my eyes met Sendai-san’s.

“I’m home.”

Sendai-san, who’d been about to enter her own room, spoke in a soft voice.

“Welcome back. Your hair’s wet. Was the rain bad?”

I grabbed her arm before she could go into the room, and my palm felt damp. It wasn’t only her hair; she was wet from the rain as well.

“The rain itself wasn’t that bad, but the wind was strong.”

As if to prove the accuracy of her words, her hair was a mess. Because she hadn’t braided it, the disarray stood out even more. The unsettling sound I’d heard earlier might not have been thunder at all, but the wind.

“Miyagi, did you eat?”

“Not yet.”

“I’ll change clothes, so wait a bit. Let’s eat together.”

“Why don’t you take a bath first? Dinner can wait.”

It wasn’t as though water was dripping from her hair or clothes, but there was no reason for her to stay wet.

“I’m hungry, so later is fine.”

“You’ll catch a cold if you stay like that.”

The summer before last, before summer break, Sendai-san had once come to my house soaked through. Today she wasn’t wearing her school uniform, but the sight of her in a blouse brought that day back to me, and the past seemed to overlap with the present in a subtle way.

She hadn’t caught a cold that time, but she might today. That was why Sendai-san needed to get into the bath and change quickly. If she insisted on staying in her wet clothes, I’d have to force her to change the way I had back then.

No, high-school me had never actually done anything like that.

But today I wasn’t sure what I might do.

So I wanted her to go take a bath without arguing.

“I’ll dry my hair and change clothes, so it’s fine.”

“Just take a bath.”

“I’m not that wet, and it’s not like I need to rush in.”

Sendai-san lifted the corners of her mouth into a smile, as if to reassure me.

When I tightened my grip on her arm and called “Sendai-san” firmly, she gently peeled my hand away and leaned back against the door.

“What? Are you planning to make me take a bath yourself if I don’t go immediately? Like that time?”

Apparently, she’d remembered the same thing I had.

“What if I said I would?”

“Hmm, let’s see. Maybe I’ll make Miyagi take one too.”

Sendai-san tugged lightly at the hem of my T-shirt. But she stopped after barely teasing me, as though what happened next depended entirely on how I responded. Whether she’d actually follow through on her words, however, was anyone’s guess.

I didn’t want her teasing to go any further, yet I also wanted to undo the buttons of Sendai-san’s blouse the way I had the previous year. And this time, I wanted to take things even further...

No.

Lately, the two of us had already strayed too far from the word “roommates.” Since I didn’t need a replacement word, I shouldn’t go any further than this.

“There’s no way I’d do anything like that to you.”

There was no need to strip her.

I knew that, yet my hand moved on its own and touched Sendai-san’s blouse, where the topmost button had already come undone.

“…But I will leave a mark.”

Just like that, I undid one more button.

“Where?”

Without answering the voice that reached me, I undid two more buttons and opened the front of her blouse. I hadn’t undone every button the way I had last year, but enough had come undone for me to realize I was already crossing the boundary I’d been trying to maintain.

“Miyagi. Are you calling this ‘not stripping’?”

“I only undid three buttons. I haven’t stripped you.”

I was contradicting myself.

What I was doing now, and what I was about to do, strayed beyond the ordinary meaning of “roommates.” But Sendai-san herself had expanded the range of what counted as being roommates and turned that expanded definition into our new standard. We’d been crossing those boundaries all along. Besides, there were already things between us that were far less appropriate for an ordinary pair of roommates.

There was no point in trying to make the logic consistent.

Even before we became roommates, I’d already been leaving my mark on Sendai-san.

“Miyagi. If it’s just a mark, you can leave one without undoing the buttons, right?”

“Is it okay if I put it somewhere noticeable?”

“I didn’t say it was okay.”

She didn’t deny the idea of leaving a mark itself.

So I leaned closer and left a small mark where it wouldn’t be visible when she went to work.

Sendai-san caught hold of my hair, but the force was weak and did nothing to stop me.

When I finally pulled away, a faint red mark stood out against her pale skin.

“You really do this kind of thing right away, Miyagi.”

Sendai-san spoke while touching the mark I’d left.

“You said the other day I could bite hard enough for the mark to last the whole summer break. This is pretty much the same thing, and I put it somewhere the student won’t see when you go to work.”

“I’m happy you were considerate, but won’t it be gone by the next time I have work?”

“If it disappears, I’ll put another one.”

I gently moved Sendai-san’s hand away from the mark, then fastened the undone buttons all the way back up to the top.

“Even if you say you’ll put another one if it disappears, thanks to your consideration it won’t be visible like this, so I don’t think you’d know whether the mark is gone unless you check.”

“Tell me if it disappears.”

“You should check yourself, Miyagi.”

““It works on self-reporting.”

“Then it’s gone.”

Sendai-san smiled brightly and spoke as though she were enjoying herself, then stared at me. Under that teasing gaze, I kicked her leg.

“There’s no way it would disappear that fast.”

“Why don’t you check?”

Sendai-san undid one of the buttons I’d just fastened and grabbed my arm.

She’d told me, “You really do this kind of thing right away,” but those words suited Sendai-san far better. She was the one who immediately did things just to tease me, and she was the one who kept trying to turn the word “roommates” into something increasingly ambiguous.

I pulled my captured arm free.

“I already know it hasn’t disappeared even without checking, so either take a bath or hurry up and change. It’ll be a problem if you catch a cold.”

“Yes, yes. I’ll go change.”

Sendai-san spoke in a voice lighter than tissue paper and opened the door to her own room. She still had no intention of taking a bath, and after leaving the words “I’ll eat dinner first” behind, she disappeared from the shared space.

I returned to my room and spoke to the black cat on the bookshelf.

“What even is a roommate, anyway?”

The black cat didn’t answer.

The things roommates were supposed to do.

They weren’t kissing, and they weren’t leaving marks.

They weren’t undoing each other’s clothes, and they weren’t crossing boundaries that ordinary roommates would never cross.

I didn’t particularly want to do things that felt like what roommates ought to do, but I did want to do things that felt like what people living under the same roof ought to do.

For example, something that could somehow answer the kindness of a Sendai-san who forgave me far too easily.

But I didn’t know what that something was.

I dove onto the bed together with the black cat.