No matter how many times I look at it, the nails are short.
The nails, which have been cut so that the white part is gone, hold this day together, even if only for a short time.
So I wish my nails would stay short forever.
I let out a small breath and then close the cap of the nail oil I was about to remove. Place it on the table and pull the crocodile stretched out on the floor to back the bed.
The room feels bigger without Miyagi.
She will probably not be in this room again today.
She made a terrible effort, as Miyagi invited me, we did such and such, and we even had dinner together in a reasonably awkward atmosphere.
I donât want any more.
I want to spend more time together, or sleep together.
I swallowed those words and said good night.
I exhale with a huff.
I look at the nail oil on the table.
I like it because it was given to me by Utsunomiya, and it is something that can elicit feelings of what I can only assume is jealousy from Miyagi.
But I donât see the point in using it for that purpose today, and I donât think itâs the right way to use it either. I donât think I would want to use it even if it was nail oil I bought myself. It would be a shame to paint todayâs Miyagi with something else.
I pop the crocodile on the head and look at the fingers.
I drop a kiss on the tip of the nail that Miyagi cut for me.
I turn up the temperature of the air conditioner once to a temperature that Miyagi seems to prefer.
Itâs mid-March, it is getting warmer outside, and the days of using the air conditioner should decrease from now on. Maybe still Miyagi will warm the room more and therefore I will complain that it is hot. I hope those days continue.
Even if the shortened nails grow back to their usual length, and the days return like they never happened today, if the days continue to be normal, I can see how days like today might come again.
I hope this time itâll be a day when I can get to know Miyagi more deeply, but I donât mind if it is a day like today, a day from Miyagi. I hope the day will come when she will âwantâ to do it again and will be able to express it in words.
ãâ¦I guess itâs a pretty difficult problem.ã
Even if she thought it, sheâs not likely to say it out loud. It seems easier to get a cat to speak the same thing than to get Miyagi to sayãI want to.ã
I lay down on the floor.
I place the crocodile on my stomach and exhale slowly.
The cut and sewn blouse I got instead of the blouse that got soaked by the cider.
The blouse I exchanged at the festival.
A pendant representing ownership.
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To the earrings I got after I started collegeââ
What I received from Miyagi is not just a âthingâ but something special. The same is true of the stuffed penguin. Miyagi took it from a crane game and gave it to me as a âspecial item.â
I traded it for the crocodile.
And it was not returned despite my asking for itãback.ãMiyagiâs hand grabbed the penguin and didnât let go.
That kind of thing is unfair.
Miyagi, who wonât let go of my âspecial,â thinks Iâm âspecial.â
Thatâs how my mind tries to understand Miyagiâs behavior.
ãNot that Iâm wrong, butâ¦ã
I have a special place in my heart as a roommate at Miyagi.
This is right and not wrong.
And our relationship is more special than roommates.
Miyagi would never admit it, but that is what we are doing. I just keep misrepresenting it for Miyagiâs sake and my own.
Sometimes the word roommate almost crumbles or tries to be replaced by another word, but we repair the enclosure that is about to break and fit into it so that we can live within the enclosure of roommates.
As long as we stay within the confines of our enclosure, we can replace the word âroommateâ with our âspecialnessâ as it changes form time to time.
I let out a deep breath and put the alligator back on the floor.
ââI wish I could quantify the specials.
If it exceeds a certain number, it becomes something thatâs not a roommate.
Such a system would make the world a cleaner place. No need to muster up the courage to change the relationship.
ãâ¦Would it be easier to teach a cat to speak?ã
No matter how long we wait for a world with some kind of meter on top of our heads that quantifies specialness, itâs not coming. College is still three years away, and thereâs no need to rush into changing relationships. There is no point in thinking nonsense about being roommates because there is no inconvenience, even if there is dissatisfaction.
In the first place, excessive expectations lead to unhappiness.
I experienced that.
I expected too much from my family and they betrayed me; they expected too much from me and they betrayed me. It is better not to expect too much.
I stand up and ruffle my hair.
I should let my head cool down a bit.
Itâs not that Iâm out of shape, but thereâs too much Miyagi left in me today.
I switch off the air conditioner. After putting the crocodile on the bed, I opened the door of the room and Miyagi was standing there.
ãEh?ã
The lights in the common areas are not on.
In the pitch dark, a ghostly Miyagi tries to escape. I grab her arm and call out to her.
ãWhatâs wrong? Didnât you say you were going to bed?ã
ãâ¦I was thirsty.ã
Miyagi blurts out an excuse and tries to shake my hand away.
Thatâs strange.
Her words and actions do not match.
If sheâs thirsty, she should be standing in front of the refrigerator with a drink in it. I hear a gruff voice as I strain my hand to grab Miyagiâs arm, who I can only assume has come to see me.
ãWhat is it with you, Sendai-san, coming out of nowhere?ã
ãI thought Iâd have some barley tea.ã
Iâm not thirsty, but I need a cold drink to change my mind. But now I want to know why she was standing in front of the room,ãIsnât there something you want to talk about?ãI ask.
ãâ¦Itâs cancelled tomorrow.ã
Miyagiâs arm escapes my hand.
ãCancelled?ã
ãWhite Day is cancelled.ã
ãYou mean youâre not going to do anything?ã
ãYes.ã
Before boiling the pasta, she went out of her way to ask me about my White Day plans, and I thought she was planning to enjoy White Day with me, but she changed her mind.
ãWhat are you going to do if itâs cancelled?ã
Nothing.
Miyagi would have said so, but she didnât say anything.
Instead, she grab my sweatshirt as if to fill the silence.
ãIâll be sleeping all tomorrow.ã
When she said this, she pulls me toward the darkness.
ãIsnât it too unhealthy?ã
ãâ¦I canât sleep right now.ã
With a small voice, something warm and raw sticks to my neck and loosely bristles. Miyagi bites my skin softly and lets go. She attaches her lips to mine again and sucks hard.
The marks on me before I ate the pasta and the many marks on me after I ate the pasta. New marks are added to me.
ãHow can I sleep with this?ã
The light in my room illuminates Miyagi in the dark.
ãI donât know.ã
Miyagi is definitely changing.
But sheâs trying to get through the day by pretending not to understand. I donât think that is a bad thing, but I would like to see an alternative to cancelling White Day.
ãYou can sleep tomorrow. Let me do what I want to do now.ã
I know she wonât say, âOkay,â so I pull my face to Miyagi without hearing a response. I kiss her and bite her lip as she tries to shut herself away in the enclosure of being a roommate.
Miyagiâs hand pushes me.
I grab her hand and suck hard on her neck.
One, two.
I bite her with the same markings she made.
ãIt hurts.ã
I made another mark and backed away from her as Miyagi pushed with all her might in a low voice.
Iâm not lying when I say that I want to wait for the day when sheâll express her desire to do it again. Itâs not that I donât want Miyagi to do it.
But I canât ignore my desire to do it with Miyagi.
This is like a reservation.
I will do to Miyagi the same thing that was done to me today.
I donât know when that will be, but I will mark that day on Miyagi.
ãLet me cut your nails again, Miyagi.ã
Iâm not going to rush.
The day Miyagi wants to do something like that is fine.
I may make an effort to loosen her reason, but I want Miyagi and I to be the same.