Volume 7 Episode 05

As I rocked on the train heading home, I let out a sigh.

Miyagi had said she had plans with her friend today and left before I headed out for my part-time job.

It wasn’t as though she had to stay home, and there was nothing wrong with her making plans with a friend.

I mean, I go out when friends invite me too, and sometimes I have work, like today. Still, something about it didn’t sit right with me, and I couldn’t help wondering who that friend was.

Who on earth was it, really?

Utsunomiya had gone back to her hometown and still hadn’t returned.

I knew Miyagi had friends besides Utsunomiya, but I’d never heard her mention anyone she was close enough to spend time with during summer break.

And of all days, today was my birthday.

I gazed out the window.

Birthdays were the sort of thing where a “Happy birthday” message arriving in the middle of the night was enough to remind me that it was the day. I didn’t care much about them, nor did I have any particular feelings about the day I was born. I hadn’t expected Miyagi to celebrate mine, either. She probably didn’t even remember it. But the thought of her being out with some friend I didn’t know, on this particular day, made my mood sink without end.

Birthdays weren’t anything good, were they?

I exhaled heavily and stepped off the train.

Under the glow of the streetlights, I made my way home.

The weather had been fine all day, and the night sky was bright.

The mark Miyagi had left on my chest the day I came home soaked from the rain had already faded. I’d wanted her to leave a new one before she went out, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask. If I pushed too far and she pulled away, I’d only end up with another wound on my birthday.

Miyagi’s friend I didn’t know.

 The mark from Miyagi that had disappeared from me.

It was better not to think too deeply about either of them right now.

Miyagi had said we’d eat dinner together before she left, so she should already be home. That meant I’d see her soon, but asking something boring like “What was the friend you met today like?” wouldn’t put either of us in a good mood. Of all days, she’d chosen today to make plans with a friend, and it pissed me off. I knew I was just taking it out on her, but I felt like complaining about a hundred different things.

On a day like this, petting Mike-chan would probably calm me down, but of course she was nowhere to be found. Actually, now that I thought about it, Mike-chan rarely wandered around at this hour.

I climbed the stairs to the third floor and opened the front door to find Miyagi’s shoes.

Looks like she’d made it home properly.

I slipped off my own shoes and headed into the shared space, where Miyagi was pacing restlessly around the dining kitchen.

“I’m home. What are you doing?”

I called out to Miyagi, who had stopped in front of the refrigerator.

“Welcome back. Nothing.”

“You’re standing there doing nothing, which is why I’m asking.”

Miyagi never came into the shared space unless she had a reason. She wasn’t cooking, and she wasn’t taking anything out of the fridge. Miyagi being in the shared space at all was unusual enough on its own.

“It’s nothing, really, so Sendai-san, just go to your roo—”

The chime rang, cutting her off, and I reflexively looked at the intercom monitor.

“Someone’s here.”

“I’ll get it, so Sendai-san, wait in your room.”

“It’s fine, I’ll get it.”

“No. I’ll get it, so Sendai-san, stay in your room.”

Miyagi hurried over and pushed my shoulder. Then she opened the door to her own room and shoved me inside.

“Huh? Ah, wait a second.”

I wasn’t ready for this.

I’d assumed that “room” meant my own room, so being shoved into Miyagi’s was far too unexpected.

“Sit and wait.”

“Sit? Miyagi!”

I called out in a fluster, but she shut the door with a forceful click and left the room.

“...Isn’t that a little rough?”

I’d wanted to enter this room for so long.

I’d wanted to know what was inside for so long.

But ever since I’d moved in, I’d never had the chance to set foot in Miyagi’s room, and for the longest time, it had remained shrouded in mystery. Now I was finally inside, yet Miyagi was being far too casual about it. It wasn’t that I’d expected some kind of elaborate ceremony, but being tossed in here on sheer momentum like this just felt wrong. If I was finally going to enter the room I’d been barred from for so long, I at least wanted a moment to prepare myself. Being handled so roughly left me more bewildered than moved.

But, well, maybe this was just like us.

Rather than a formal “Please come into my room,” somehow slipping in like this suited us better.

I walked slowly around the room and stopped in front of the bookshelf.

The atmosphere inside hadn’t changed much since high school. On a bookshelf smaller than the one from back then sat a black cat plush. On the way back from the aquarium, Miyagi had told me that the black cat had moved with her, and now that I could confirm with my own eyes that she’d been telling the truth, I nearly broke into a grin.

I picked up the black cat and stroked its head.

It had been so long since I’d last touched it that I couldn’t tell whether its texture was the same as before, but it felt nice beneath my hand.

“Good for you.”

I spoke to the plush that was probably being spoiled by its stray-cat-like Miyagi, then pressed a kiss to its nose. After stroking its head once more, I returned the black cat to its proper place, and then I heard the door open.

“Why are you standing? I told you to sit.”

“Sorry. I was looking at the black cat.”

“Forget the plush. Sit here.”

Miyagi pointed to the space opposite the bed, then set two glasses of orange juice on the table.

“Juice? What about dinner?”

I sat where she’d indicated and asked her.

“We’re eating here today. I’ll go get it now.”

“Here?”

Weird.

Letting me into the room that had been locked until now, then suddenly declaring that we’d eat dinner here, Miyagi wasn’t acting normal. The only explanations I could think of were that she’d hit her head somewhere or been brainwashed.

“Is that a problem?”

She said it in a sulky voice and fixed her eyes on me.

“It’s not a problem, but...”

“If it’s not a problem, then just sit quietly.”

Her curt tone made my back prickle. So many impossible things were happening that I couldn’t settle down, as I stopped Miyagi as she tried to leave the room.

“Hey, Miyagi. Want some cookies later?”

“Cookies?”

“Today’s my birthday, so Kikyou-chan gave me a present.”

Hanamaki Kikyou.

She was the students I tutored, and we’d grown close enough that I called her by her given name. She’d prepared homemade cookies as a birthday present for me.

“...I don’t want any. It’s a present for Sendai-san, so eat them yourself.”

Miyagi said it in a low voice and left the room.

But she came right back, set a large pizza and chicken nuggets on the small table, and sat down across from me.

“This pizza... is it from the intercom just now?”

I asked, eyeing the pizza that had appeared out of nowhere.

“Yeah.”

“...Why pizza?”

I voiced the question that had been threatening to spill out of my head.

“You said it yourself just now.”

“What did I say?”

“Birthday.”

“Birthday?”

“It’s Sendai-san’s birthday today, right? So I ordered pizza.”

“Huh. Huh!?”

Miyagi said something I never would’ve expected, and the words simply wouldn’t come.

“...Happy birthday.”

Miyagi murmured it, and I answered mechanically.

“...Thanks.”

The room suddenly fell quiet, and without either of us prompting the other, we both muttered “Thanks for the meals” and reached for the pizza.

No, what? Why?

Why would Miyagi prepare pizza for my birthday and say “Happy birthdayy”?

It made no sense.

I’d told her when my birthday was, so something like this shouldn’t have been strange, yet when Miyagi went and celebrated me with a surprise, everything became impossible to believe, and it was honestly troublesome. I didn’t know what face to make. I was happy, but I couldn’t smile.

I took a bite of the pizza loaded with cheese.

It was delicious.

—Or so it seemed. Something I’d never even imagined had happened, and I couldn’t quite make out the taste.

“There’s cake too.”

Miyagi said something else that hadn’t even crossed my mind.

No way. Summer-break Miyagi wasn’t merely being generous. This was on an entirely different level.

I wondered if someone had slipped her some kind of “be nice to me” medicine.

“Did you buy it?”

Everything had happened so suddenly that my head and my feelings were in complete disarray, so I ended up asking the obvious.

“It’s your birthday.”

“...Don’t tell me the reason you went out today was to buy cake?”

“...Yeah.”

“You could’ve just said so.”

“I didn’t want to.”

“Why not?”

“I just wanted to go without saying anything. But Sendai-san wouldn’t leave the house, and your shift didn’t start until evening.”

Miyagi spoke as though blaming me, then took another bite of pizza.

“Then what about the ‘plans with a friend’?”

“I just said ‘friend’ because it makes it easier to go out if there’s a reason. I went by myself.”

Learning that she hadn’t gone out with some friend I’d never heard of, I felt relieved.

“...So you even made up an excuse to go out... for me?”

“...If we’re roommates, shouldn’t we at least celebrate a birthday?”

“Well, yeah, but it’s surprising.”

“We’re roommates. It’s not weird.”

“Aren’t you emphasizing ‘roommates’ a little too much?”

I knew Miyagi needed the word “roommates.” But when she emphasized it that much, the part of me that wanted to move beyond our roommate relationship threatened to show its face.

“Sendai-san, you’re noisy. Stop fussing over the details and just eat.”

Miyagi said it in a flat voice, then picked up another slice of pizza and took a big bite. Her expression remained as sulky as ever; she didn’t smile.

I wasn’t a penguin, so maybe I wasn’t that interesting to Miyagi, but if she was going to celebrate my birthday, I wished I could see a slightly softer expression on her face.

“I’ll eat, but if possible, I’d like you to look a little happier.”

When I voiced that modest hope, Miyagi furrowed her brow.

“Impossible. If I could do it just because someone told me to, I’d already be doing it.”

“Well, true.”

I looked at Miyagi, who didn’t have a shred of charm.

At times like this, a Miyagi who smiled brightly and told me “Happy birthday” wouldn’t feel like Miyagi at all, so perhaps this was just the right amount. She’d remembered my birthday, gone out of her way to order pizza, and even bought cake to celebrate me. Wanting anything more than that would be greedy.

Birthdays would come again and again in the future.

It was fine to save some enjoyment for later.

I took another bite of pizza while looking at the unsmiling Miyagi.

“Thanks, Miyagi. It’s delicious.”

Unlike a few minutes ago, when I’d been completely lost in my thoughts, I could taste it now.

Just knowing that Miyagi had prepared it made an ordinary delivery pizza feel like a dish cooked by a famous chef.

“I think it’s normal.”

“It’s delicious.”

“Then eat plenty.”

The conversation ended there, and we continued eating in silence as one slice of pizza after another disappeared.

I still didn’t understand what had prompted the perpetually unfriendly Miyagi to celebrate my birthday, but I was happy. I savored each bite until Miyagi, who had finished her pizza and chicken nuggets, called my name.

“Sendai-san.”

“I’ll go get the cake and some tea.”

With that, she left the room, leaving me alone.

Once I’d calmed down enough to take in my surroundings, I noticed that the bed across from me was different from the one in her high school room. The bedding was different, too. Other things that hadn’t been there back then had found their way into the room, while some familiar things had come with her, like the alligator tissue cover. Even though this was my first time inside, it unmistakably felt like Miyagi’s room, and I found it strangely comfortable.

I’d be happy if she kept letting me in like this from now on, but Miyagi always did things I never expected, so there was no telling what would happen next.

Even today, I’d never imagined she’d celebrate my birthday.

I pulled the alligator, friend of the black cat, closer to me.

As I stroked its head and toyed with it in my soft hands, I heard a voice from outside the room.

“Sendai-san, open up.”

I opened the door as instructed. Miyagi immediately stepped inside carrying a tray and placed the cake and tea on the table.

“Is this rare cheesecake?”

[T/N- “Rare cheesecake” is a Japanese term for a no-bake cheesecake. Despite the name, it isn't “rare” in the steak sense; rare here refers to the fact that the cheesecake isn't baked., applied here in Japanese-English (wasei-eigo) to mean uncooked or unbaked.]

On the plate sat a cake with a perfectly clean cut surface. Its neat, isosceles-triangle shape made it obvious that Miyagi hadn’t cut an entire cake herself.

“Yeah. You liked it, right, Sendai-san?”

Miyagi sat across from me and asked somewhat uncertainly, so I answered without hesitation.

“Yeah.”

She had probably remembered the time I’d bought rare cheesecake under the pretext of celebrating the end of exams.

It was a small thing, but it made me happy.

To tell the truth, I’d bought rare cheesecake on the day the exams ended because I’d thought Miyagi liked it. I didn’t particularly care for cheesecake myself. Before that, I’d bought shortcake, strawberry tart, rare cheesecake, and baked cheesecake, and I’d been perfectly happy with any of them.

But because Miyagi had gone out and bought rare cheesecake thinking it was something I liked, at this very moment, I liked rare cheesecake a little more.

“Can I eat?”

I picked up my fork and asked Miyagi.

“You don’t have to ask. Just eat.”

I answered her curt voice with “Thanks for the meal” and took a bite of the rare cheesecake.

The cream, combining the tartness of lemon with the mellow richness of cream cheese, spread across my tongue. The crisp cookie base paired perfectly with the cream, which wasn’t overly sweet.

“It’s delicious. Thank you.”

Miyagi furrowed her brows slightly, as though troubled, and said nothing.

After I’d eaten about half the cake, I looked at her. At last, she murmured a quiet “Thanks for the meal” and began bringing her own slice of rare cheesecake to her mouth.

Thinking of it as proof that Miyagi chose this cake makes it feel too precious to finish.

I wanted to keep this little piece of cake forever, as evidence that she’d remembered what she thought I liked and had gone out of her way to buy it for me.

I wanted to gradually fill up the space inside Miyagi with myself, little by little, until I occupied all the room in her memories.

I want her to think only about me.

I want her to know more and more about me, and I want to know more about Miyagi than anyone else.

“Miyagi, don’t you eat whole cakes on your birthday? The round ones?”

I said something that didn’t seem strange to ask at a time like this.

“I don’t really like round cakes.”

“Why not? Birthdays kind of feel like round cakes, don’t they?”

“I don’t have any good memories of them.”

Miyagi spoke in a low, quiet voice and took another bite of cake.

She didn't seem to be in a particularly good mood, but neither did she look unhappy.

Miyagi rarely talked about herself, and even when I asked her something, she often gave me no clear answer. I didn't know whether she'd tell me, but I wanted to understand why she disliked whole cakes so much.

“Can I hear that story?”

I asked slowly, in the gentlest voice I could manage. Miyagi looked at me, then lowered her eyes to the cake. She prodded it with her fork and stopped.

I could tell she was hesitating over whether to speak of a not so pleasant memory.

It's fine if she don't want to talk about it.

I was about to say that. My lips had just parted when Miyagi quietly began to speak.

“...When I was a kid, Dad used to buy me a whole cake for my birthday, but he'd always end up stuck at work and couldn't come home, so I had to eat it alone.”

Miyagi paused, took another bite of cake, and drank some tea. Then, without lifting her eyes, she let out a small breath and continued in the same low, murmuring voice, as though she were forcing the words up from the back of her throat.

“A whole cake... you can't finish one by yourself, right? So more than half would be left over and put in the fridge, and then the next day, when it wasn't my birthday anymore, it would still be sitting there. ...Seeing that somehow made me feel lonely, so I don't like them.”

The story she had probably never told anyone came to an end, and Miyagi drank her tea.

Memories from our high school days came flooding back.

After school, during summer break, during winter break, I had never once met her family at her house. Miyagi, who felt lonely just from seeing a leftover whole cake sitting in the fridge, had always been alone.

But things were different now.

“On your birthday, I'll prepare a whole cake.”

“...What's that supposed to mean? Are you trying to mess with me?”

Miyagi, who had been looking down, lifted her face and spoke in a sulky tone.

“No. Let's eat the whole cake together, just the two of us. Even if it's a whole cake, if it's a small one, we'll finish it right away if we eat it together.”

“...Will you even be home on my birthday, Sendai-san?”

Miyagi asked with an expression that made it clear she couldn't believe something so obvious, so I answered firmly.

“I will. Of course I will.”

“What if something comes up? Like your shift running late, or a friend suddenly calling you out?”

“Kikyou-chan is a middle schooler, you know? If I kept tutoring her until the middle of the night, her parents would get mad at me. And even if a friend suddenly called me out, I'd prioritize your birthday. So on your birthday, let's eat a whole cake together.”

I smiled and looked at Miyagi.

But she didn't answer.

“I promise.”

There was no way I wouldn't be in this house on Miyagi's birthday.

The future was uncertain, but I wouldn't make this promise a lie.

So, to make the promise absolute, I reached toward Miyagi's ear to touch her earring, but she startled and pulled away from my hand.

“...I don't want the promise broken, so you don't have to make one.”

The earring was meant to make me keep my promises, and I'd never broken a promise sworn on that earring.

Miyagi had made me that way.

She should've known that too. We'd made promises over and over again. By continuing to swear them, I should've earned at least a little of her trust. Yet right now, Miyagi was afraid to make a promise with me at all.

I stared at her.

If I let her escape like this, I'd regret it.

“It's fine. Whether I swear on the earring or not, I won't break the promise. On your birthday, we'll eat cake together.”

This was surely a promise I had to make even if Miyagi disliked it, a promise I had to keep no matter what.

“...Really?”

Her small voice sounded as though she wanted to believe me.

“Really. I'll pick out a delicious cake, so let's eat it together.”

I didn't know how to make her believe me, but I answered Miyagi in the gentlest voice I could manage and asked, “Can I come sit next to you?”

“You don't normally ask that kind of thing.”

Miyagi muttered and lowered her gaze.

“I thought it might be better to ask today.”

“Don't say things that are different from usual.”

Her slightly lowered voice didn’t sound like a rejection, so I sat down beside Miyagi and kissed her cheek.

When I tried to touch her, her shoulder trembled just as it had before.

Instead of her ear, I gently stroked her lips.

“Thank you for today. I was happy. Can I kiss you here?”

“Why are you asking?”

“Because it seemed better to ask.”

“If you ask, I’m going to say no.”

At last, the usual Miyagi was back, and I silently pressed my lips to hers.

They weren’t softer than the cream of the rare cheesecake, but they were almost as soft.

Miyagi’s hand tightened around my clothes.

I pulled away, then lightly brushed my lips against hers again.

After the brief kiss, I stroked her cheek and was about to kiss her once more when, just before our lips met, Miyagi spoke.

“Birthday present. I didn’t know what Sendai-san wanted, so instead of giving you a present, I was planning to do something you wanted if there was anything... was that kiss just now enough?”

“Huh! wait a second. It’s not enough.”

She said something completely unexpected in a rapid rush of words. When I looked at her, her cheeks were slightly flushed. Maybe she was embarrassed.

“Then what would be good?”

Apparently, she had no intention of giving me time to think it over. Miyagi tugged at my clothes.

Even with her rushing me, though, I couldn’t get my thoughts in order.

I hummed thoughtfully and took hold of the hand tugging at my clothes.

“That means you’ll do what I say, right?”

“As long as it isn’t anything weird.”

“Weird by Miyagi’s standards?”

“If it were by Sendai-san’s standards, weird things wouldn’t be weird anymore.”

Miyagi said something rude and squeezed our joined hands with all her strength. When I squeezed back just as hard, our linked hands immediately went soft and limp.

Still holding her hand, I gathered the thoughts that hadn’t quite come together and told Miyagi.

“Then celebrate my birthday next year too.”

“Is that all you want?”

“I’ll ask for the same thing next year, and the year after that, and forever after, so keep granting it.”

If I was going to receive a birthday present, I wanted the same future as today.

One day out of the year.

I wanted to reserve Miyagi’s time in advance.

“We’re only roommates while we’re university students, you know?”

“You can celebrate someone’s birthday even if you’re not roommates, right?”

“That’s true, but there are plenty of people who’ll celebrate Sendai-san’s birthday. I don’t think I have to do it.”

“I want you to be the one who says ‘Happy Birthdays’ to me, Miyagi.”

Hearing “Happy Birthdays” from anyone would make me happy.

But hearing it from Miyagi makes me happier than anything.

“...If that’s what Sendai-san wants, then okay.”

Miyagi murmured the words, then squeezed my hand tightly, as though making sure I understood that they were a promise.

Once one wish is granted, people get greedy.

I added another hope to the list.

“Also, tell me about yourself. I want to know more about you, Miyagi.”

“I already listened to one thing Sendai-san said.”

“You didn’t say earlier that the substitute for a present was limited to one thing, so listen to a second one too.”

“That’s cheating.”

“Come on. It’s not anything difficult.”

“It might not be difficult, but what am I supposed to tell you?”

Miyagi spoke as though she’d already given up.

“Just ordinary stuff, I guess. Favorite color, favorite food, things like that. The kind of normal conversation anyone has. For example, how I went to the aquarium and ended up liking penguins.”

“That’s your story, Sendai-san?”

“Yeah. The aquarium was fun, I started liking penguins, and I’ve been thinking maybe I should’ve bought a plush. I want to have more of these pointless conversations with you, Miyagi. Little by little from now on. Easy, right?”

We’d spent so much time together, yet we were still painfully short on words.

It would be better if we had more of the pointless conversations everyone else had.

The aquarium had become a really good memory, and one small part of that memory was wishing I’d bought a plush.

Even things I could say without a second thought were things we’d never talked about.

The dull memories sleeping deep in her heart were one of the things I wanted to know, but there were plenty of other things we needed to talk about too.

“Will you tell me your stuff too, Sendai-san?”

“Of course.”

“Then I’ll talk.”

Miyagi said it in a soft voice.

✧✧✧✧✧

The happier I was, the faster time seemed to pass, and when I opened my eyes, my fun birthday was already over.

On the first morning of being nineteen, I sat up in bed and stretched my arms toward the ceiling.

I’d wanted my birthday to continue forever, today, tomorrow, the day after that, but perhaps it was precisely because there was only one day of it that Miyagi had celebrated it for me, I thought.

She must have been pushing herself.

It was hard to imagine from the Miyagi I usually knew.

Ordering pizza for me, preparing a cake, even making promises about the future.

I didn’t want her to push herself too hard, but at the same time, I was happy that I’d become someone she was willing to push herself for.

I let out a huge yawn, climbed down from the bed, and sat on the floor.

I picked up the small paper bag Kikyou-chan had given me as a birthday present from the table and opened it. The cookies she’d said were homemade were wrapped so neatly they looked like something bought from a store.

Thinking it would be a waste not to eat them, I untied the ribbon and took a bite.

“Delicious.”

Yesterday, I’d been so full from pizza and cake that I never got around to eating them. They were a little misshapen, but they tasted better than any cookies anyone had ever given me. I picked up another cookie and brought it to my mouth.

When I’d been a third-year middle schooler like Kikyou-chan, I’d done nothing but study. If I’d had enough emotional leeway back then to make sweets, maybe I could have become the person my parents expected me to be. But if I had become that person, I never would have met Miyagi.

Thinking that the third-year middle schooler version of me who never baked cookies existed, and that because she existed, the me who got to have her birthday celebrated by Miyagi exists now...

I could feel that even the version of myself who had no leeway back then had meaning.

Now I could make sweets whenever I wanted.

Baking cookies together with Miyagi didn’t sound bad either.

She’d probably say she doesn’t want to, though.

The image of Miyagi’s face, her brow furrowed, floated into my mind, and just as the corners of my mouth relaxed, my stomach gave a loud growl. Deciding to wash my face and make something to eat, I stood up. When I opened the door, a small sound reached my ears. I quietly stepped out of the room and noticed a bag hanging from the doorknob.

I took it in my hands and looked inside.

There was what appeared to be a rectangular box wrapped in paper, along with a single card.

I went back into my room and checked the card first. It bore an illustration of a cat and the words “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” printed in English.

“A birthday card?”

Yesterday, Miyagi had said something that made it sound as though she hadn’t prepared a birthday present.

For a moment, I wondered if it might be a gift from someone other than Miyagi, but then I remembered that this was inside the house. If a present from someone else had been left hanging from my doorknob, it would’ve been downright frightening. Which meant that, no matter how I looked at it, whatever was in this bag had to be a birthday present from Miyagi. I took out something that wasn’t particularly thick.

Carefully peeling away the wrapping paper, I opened the lid of the thin box underneath and found five cats sitting in a row.

“Chopstick rests, maybe?”

A calico, a black cat, a white cat, a brown tabby, and a bicolor.

The cat-shaped chopstick rests were so cute that I could’ve displayed them in my room.

I wished she’d given them to me yesterday.

If I’d received these chopstick rests yesterday, I wouldn’t have been able to have the two wishes that replaced a birthday present granted, but even so, I thought I would’ve preferred to receive them directly from Miyagi.

Even if she looked sulky, even if she had no charm whatsoever, if I could’ve received them directly from her, I would’ve hugged her, kissed her, and gone further still———.

Well, she probably wouldn’t have allowed it.

I took the calico and the black cat from among the five and placed them on my palm.

“Maybe I should rinse some rice.”

I’d planned on having toast for breakfast, but I changed the menu so I could use the chopstick rests.

I left the room and set the two cats on the table in the shared space. After washing my face and changing clothes, I rinsed the rice and set it in the rice cooker. It was still a little early to start making the side dishes, so I sat in a chair and gazed at the two cats until the door to Miyagi’s room opened. Miyagi appeared in a T-shirt she used in place of pajamas and sweatpants. When I called, “Morning,” she answered, “Morning,” in return.

“Thanks for the chopstick rests. These are a birthday present, right?”

I pointed at the cats on the table.

“You like cats, don’t you, Sendai-san.”

Miyagi neither affirmed nor denied my words. She simply spoke in her usual curt voice.

“I do like cats. So I’m happy.”

“I didn’t know what Sendai-san wanted, so I just went with something cat-related that you could use every day.”

Miyagi said it as though making an excuse, then fled toward the washroom.

I could’ve grabbed her arm to keep her from escaping, or hugged her so she couldn’t go anywhere. But she couldn’t stay in the washroom forever, and she wouldn’t leave the house without changing. If I waited, Miyagi would come back here, so I waited for her together with the cats.

Something I could use every day, huh.

I’d wondered why she’d chosen chopstick rests, but from what she’d just said, I understood that she’d worried over the choice in her own way.

Apparently, a birthday was a day that could steal Miyagi’s time and thoughts and fill them completely with me.

August 23rd, a day so easy to forget in the middle of summer break, had until now been something even I nearly forgot. But thanks to Miyagi, I was already looking forward to next year.

I couldn’t help wishing the next birthday would come soon.

I caught the calico and the black cat on the table and pressed their noses together.

“Sendai-san, what are you doing?”

After making the two cats kiss who-knows-how-many times, I heard Miyagi’s voice.

“Playing with the chopstick rests.”

When I said that and looked at her, she averted her eyes.

I put the calico and the black cat back on the table and stood up. Then, before Miyagi could run away, I grabbed her arm.

“Let go.”

Miyagi said it in a sulky voice.

“I’ll let go if you sit down.”

“I’m going to change, so let go.”

“You can go change, but talk with me a little first.”

“...Fine, but only a little.”

At the voice that sounded as though she were emphasizing the point, I released the arm I’d been holding, and Miyagi sat in the chair with a reluctant air.

“What about the rest of the chopstick rests?”

I heard her unfriendly voice and sat down across from her.

“I’m going to display the white cat, the brown tabby, and the bicolor in my room.”

“Use them.”

“One chopstick rest per person is plenty, and the ones we’re going to use are already out here, right?”

I pointed at the two cats and pushed the black one toward Miyagi. She poked it and furrowed her brow.

“That’s one too many.”

“The black cat is for you, Miyagi.”

“I gave the chopstick rests to Sendai-san, though.”

Miyagi said it in a low voice and pushed the black cat back toward me.

I understood that the fact there were five cat chopstick rests was pure coincidence, not because she’d wanted us to use matching ones. Still, since there were five of them, making one of them Miyagi’s wasn’t a bad idea.

“It’s fine. There are five, so one can be yours.”

I returned the black cat to Miyagi, but she didn’t say she’d use it.

“I’m the one who received them, and I’m the one saying I want you to use it, so just use it.”

“...Why the black cat?”

Miyagi muttered and looked at me.

“Because it feels like you, Miyagi, I guess.”

She neither denied it nor complained, but she didn’t seem to think she resembled a black cat.

“If you don’t like the black cat, I can switch it for a different one. What do you want to do?”

“This is fine.”

She muttered and stood up.

“Wait. There’s still something I want to ask.”

“What?”

“Is there anything you want for your birthday, Miyagi?”

“No.”

I hadn’t expected her to answer so honestly, but the reply was even more concise than I’d imagined and cut my question cleanly in two.

“Then tell me whether you like sunny-side-up or rolled omelet better.”

“Why do I have to answer something like that?”

“I said I wanted to have pointless conversations, remember?”

Yesterday, I’d made a promise with Miyagi to talk about ordinary, pointless things.

This was the first step, the beginning of the pointless-yet-not-pointless conversations we would keep having from now on.

“...I like both, but today I’m in the mood for sunny-side-up. What about you, Sendai-san?”

“Sunny-side-up for me too. So breakfast is sunny-side-up, then.”

When I smiled at her, a reserved voice answered, “Soft-boiled, please.”