I place my chopsticks on the chopstick rests of a black cat and a tortoiseshell cat.
As I carry a plate of half-boiled fried eggs, sausage, and incidentally chopped tomatoes to the table, I hear Miyagiâs voice.
ãSendai-san, good mornââã
The word breaks off there andãhairãis added.
ãMiyagi, good morning. Whatâs wrong with my hair?ã
ãSendai-san, whatâs with your hair?ã
ãWhat do you mean, I just put it in a ponytail.ã
As soon as she came out of her room, I smiled at Miyagi, who looks at me without blinking. Naturally, she doesnât smile back at me. She just looks at me, or more precisely at the earrings she just put on yesterday.
ãWhy?ã
Miyagi says in a very serious voice and comes up to me.
ãWhy? Because thatâs the mood Iâm in. Does it suit me?ã
Since I have received a mark that I can show to anyone, I want to show it to everyone. It doesnât change anything just because I show it, but I am glad that I have something that I donât have to hide, and I donât mind wearing a ponytail at least for today.
ãâ¦Itâs kind of strange, because Iâm not used to seeing it.ã
Miyagi blurts out, and continues,ãIâll prepare the rice.ã
As I watched Miyagi take a bowl out of the cupboard, I gently touched the earring that had been placed in my ear yesterday.
Integrity, truth, charity, et cetera.
Not so bad words if you look for the meaning of the stones on the earrings Miyagi chose. But I donât think Miyagi entrusted these earrings with those feelings.
I caress the blue stone with my fingertips.
September birthstone.
Sapphire.
I looked it up when I was choosing my earrings in Miyagi, so I wonât forget it. I remember it well. This blue stone is Miyagiâs birthstone.
ââI never thought I would hear it, though.
However, only Miyagi, who bought the earrings, knows if the stone on them is really a sapphire. I have looked it up on the internet and compared it to the others, and I know Iâm not wrong, but I would like her to tell me that she is.
ãSendai-san, itâs prepared.ã
Miyagi sits in her chair with her bowl on the table, and I sit across from her and say,ãThen, letâs eat.ã
ãItadakimasu.ã
Our voices arenât matched, but we are aligned.
I take the chopsticks from the tortoiseshell catâs chopstick rest and eat the tomato.
I bite into a sausage, bring the rice to my mouth, and drop it into my stomach.
ãIs the stone in these earrings a sapphire? Wasnât it expensive?ã
When I ask as if it were nothing, I get a curt response.
ãNot really.ã
Miyagi neither denies nor affirms.
But if what is on my ear is not a sapphire, she would definitely grumble and say,ãItâs not sapphire.ã
ãOkay. Thank you. Iâll take good care of it.ã
ãThat doesnât mean what Sendai-san thinks it means.ã
ãIntegrity, truth, that kind of thing?ã
ãYes.ã
My words are affirmed and I know that what she is saying is definitely in stone language.
ãDonât worry, I didnât mean it that way.ã
If Miyagi had put some feelings into the earrings, she would never have spoken of those feelings herself. The fact that she went out of her way to tell me about the stone language herself makes me think that the earrings really donât have that kind of meaning. But I donât think the blue stones on my ears have any meaning at all.
Birthstone of the month in which Miyagi was born.
Surely, the shining blue stone is her replacement.
I can think of no other reason why Miyagiâs birthstone, not mine, was chosen for the earrings.
ãMiyagiâs birthday is in September, so why donât I give you the same thing?ã
At my words, Miyagi, who had been carving the white meat of a fried egg, stopped her hand.
ãI donât need it.ã
Her clear voice comes back to me.
ãEven though itâs Miyagiâs birthstone?ã
ãIt doesnât matter if I wear it. Itâs a sign that youâre mine. If you donât like it, give it back.ã
Miyagiâs words are what I can only assume are correct, and I strongly feel Miyagiâs body temperature in the temperatureless earrings.
ãIâll keep it on.ã
Miyagi never speaks kind words to me or shows me soft expressions. I am glad that Miyagi chose my birthstone as something to wear on my ear.
ãOh yeah, I hadnât heard. Do the earrings look good on me?ã
I know I wonât get the answer I want, but Iâm going to ask just the same.
ãâ¦Do you think it suits you, Sendai-san?ã
ãIt does.ã
ãIf so, thatâs good enough.ã
Miyagi said, and then she snapped and ate a sausage.
I wasnât told that it looked good on me, but I wasnât told that it didnât either. Thatâs not a bad idea, so I take a bite of a sausage.
We continue eating in silence, emptying our plates and bowls.
ãSendai-san, Iâll take care of the cleanup.ã
Miyagi gets up and lowers the dishes.
ãThanks. Iâll leave it to you.ã
I go back to my room and look in the mirror at my earrings.
Miyagiâs birthstone adorns the piercing hole I opened on her birthday.
My chest heats up and I exhale.
I stroke the blue stone and go to the common area to get ready for college.
ãIâll go first. I have a part-time job today, so Iâll be late.ã
After calling out to the next door, I leave the house.
Walk to the station and take the train.
I follow my usual course to the university.
We pass through the gate among the crowd of people and enter the school building.
Enter the desired lecture hall, a little behind the middle.
I found Mio and sat down next to her.
ãMorning.ã
When I call out to her, she responds with a droningãMorning.ãBut the wordãahãis attached after the reflexive word.
ãHazuki, thatâs a rare tail.ã
Mio pointed at my tied hair as if she was surprised. Then she continued,ãOkay.ã
ãYou changed your earrings, didnât you? Maybe someone gave it to you?ã
ãMy roommate gave it to me.ã
ãAll you do is lie. Itâs really your boyfriend, isnât it?ã
Mio smirks.
ãI told you, I donât have a boyfriend.ã
ãYou say that, but you go out of your way to show me your earrings in a ponytail, and youâve only got it from your boyfriend.ã
ãItâs not.ã
ãSo, did you seriously get it from your roommate? I mean, does your roommate even exist?ã
Next to doubting whether she has a boyfriend, Miyagiâs very existence is in question.
I think it is inevitable that he would react this way because I have continued to dilly-dally with Mioâs requestãto go to Hazukiâs house to visit.ãIf I had said that Mio would come to my house to visit, Miyagi wouldnât have liked it, so I had no choice but to refuse. But now, I can at least prove her existence.
ãI have a picture, butâ¦ã
I take out my phone and look at Mio.
ãYou have a picture?ã
ãI do.ã
ãThen you should have shown me sooner.ã
ãItâs a long story.ã
I made a lame excuse and showed her a shot of me and Miyagi taken yesterday.
ãThis girl is my roommate.ã
ãHazuki, what did you do to this girl?ã
Mio says something unexpected.
ãWhat do you mean?ã
ãShe doesnât seem to be in a good mood.ã
Well, sure.
In the photo, Miyagi looks anything but good-tempered.
But to me, this is the usual Miyagi Iâm used to seeing. Her expression is not linked to her mood, so her mood is not as bad as it looks in the picture.
ãI didnât do anything. She just happen to look like that.ã
It is difficult to explain Miyagiâs expression and mood.
I donât think she would believe me if I told her, and I abandon telling Mio that Miyagiâs mood is not bad.
ãBy chance, huh? But still, is she really your roommate?ã
ãWhy do you doubt it? Because this girl is from the same high school as me.ã
ãNo, because sheâs from a different group.ã
ãSure, she was in a different group.ã
ãYou were close even though she was different?ã
I hear voices of interest, and I have a feeling it will be troublesome.
Peopleâs curiosity is a tricky thing to handle.
.
If you provoke it in a strange way, a gentle breeze can quickly turn into a storm.
What can I say to deflect the conversation?
Thinking about this, I answered,ãWell, I guess,ãand then I heard a sparkling voice from next to me.
ãSounds like fun. You should let me meet her sometime.ã
ãEh?ã
ãShe doesnât seem to have any contact with Hazuki at all. I wonder what kind of girl she is. Ah, would she like to work part-time at our place with you?ã
ãIs the part-time job at the café owned by your relatives, Mio?ã
The story is too far fetched.
I canât keep up with the momentum, as if the destination of my trip goes from near to the other side of the world.
ãYeah-yeah. I have a lot of kids going home for winter break. Iâm looking for a part-time job.ã
ãMy roommate doesnât work part-time.ã
No part-time work during winter break.
Miyagi said so, and probably will not work part-time with me outside of winter break.
ãThen what about you, Hazuki?ã
I would like to have a part-time job, but there are hurdles I have to overcome to get a part-time job.
ãCan you wait two to three days for a reply?ã
ãOkayï½ã
Mio said in a voice lighter than a birdâs feather.