Story About Buying My Classmate Once A Week

Denial is easy.

Just say “I don’t want to” or “You can’t” or something like that.

There are many simple things like that in the world.

Like saying hello, or playing rock-paper-scissors. Even knocking on a door is something that can be done easily. But today, such a simple thing seems awfully difficult, and I am unable to knock on Sendai-san’s door.

On this morning, so quiet that I can almost hear the sound of a scene, I sigh in my heart.

I happened to wake up early.

It was the first day of Golden Week, the weather looked nice, and it seemed like a good time to go for a walk to reduce the fat I had gained. That’s all.

So I don’t have to knock on Sendai-san’s door.

Sendai-san is probably still sleeping, and it would be pitiful if I cut off her sleeping time, as she will be working part-time during the Golden Week holidays. In the first place, a walk is something that doesn’t require waking up a sleeping person to do it with me.

What I can do alone, I can do alone.

I go back to my room, shove one 500 yen coin into my denim pocket in case something happens, and grab my phone. I reposition the black cat, the keeper of the bookshelf, to look straight ahead.

As I walked out into the common area, my eyes took it upon themselves to look at the next door.

I gently approached it and put my ear to the door.

——I can’t hear anything.

She doesn’t stay up past six o’clock in the morning on consecutive holidays.

Leaving the common space behind, I slip on my sneakers at the front door and head outside. I’m wearing a hoodie, but it’s chilly, probably because it’s early in the morning.

I move my feet forward, wondering if I should go back to my room.

One step, two steps, and on and on I walk down the stairs and down the sidewalk.

Occasionally, I pass someone.

Walkers and runners.

I don’t know if they enjoy it, but they seem to be in good spirits. What I do is neither walking nor running, but every time I put my feet forward my body warms up.

I pass small dogs and big dogs.

But the only dogs that the walkers have with them are the ones you see often, like Shiba Inus and Labradors, and no Borzois. Of course, there is no tortoiseshell cat that Sendai-san often sees. Just the soft morning sun shining on me.

It is a pleasant morning, if I can tell anyone.

There are hardly any cars on the road, which are usually plentiful, and the slightly cool breeze that caresses my cheeks is pleasant. The bright world created by the sun brightens my heart. But if I have to choose between strange and not strange, I choose not strange.

Being alone is boring.

——What if there were two of us?

I don’t know.

I move my legs mechanically.

My body is moving forward, but it is moving so slowly that I don’t feel like I am burning fat. Thanks to the leisurely pace, I don’t get tired, but I’m not sure why I’m taking a walk. I feel like buying a pudding with the 500-yen coin in my pocket and going home.

It must not be the hamburgers.

Sendai-san who has been making hamburgers to the point of putting a curse of fat on me, seems to care about me, which I like, but it also makes me uneasy. I wonder what Sendai-san, who always puts me first and tries to take care of only what is important to me, is thinking about, like fat that won’t come off.

I exhale and take a big step forward with my feet.

But my speed doesn’t increase.

Someone from behind me passes me.

The speed at which my foot moves forward is reduced.

Now the brown dog walks as if running, and its owner comes along later. People, dogs, and everything else are passing me by, and I feel like I am the only one not moving forward.

「I think I should go home after all.」

I mumbled a few words and turned around.

I look around, but the tortoiseshell cat is gone.

I think that cat is not a good cat that only shows herself to Sendai-san.

I move my stopped leg.

Why does this happen?

Even when I’m away from Sendai-san, all I can think about is her.

For example, I think about the fact that the house I am going back to now is an important place for Sendai-san, and so on.

It’s surprising that Sendai-san, who seems to have nothing she likes or dislikes, has a place that is important to her, but since she is working part-time because she doesn’t want to go home to her parents, it isn’t surprising that she values such a place where she can be without going home.

But there is something I find strange.

In order to continue to live in that house that she says is so important to her, she could’ve used the 5,000 yen that I, as a high school student, had given her as compensation for the order, but she didn’t. What is going on in her head that she doesn’t do so, even though it is one of the ways she can protect what is important to her?

She could graduate from college and still keep what she thinks is important.

「Stupid.」

I mumbled quietly and kicked the sidewalk.

I’ll never know what I don’t know, even if she take the walk alone that she said she was going to do. So I think it’s no surprise that I don’t understand Sendai-san, who called our little outing a date.

She has never been one to say such things to me.

I couldn’t understand why she would suddenly start talking about a date.

I wish Sendai-san was a dog.

She would be happy if she was wagging her tail.

If she is hiding her tail, she is frightened.

If it were as clear as this, I wouldn’t have to take a walk alone. But if she had been a dog, she couldn’t have lived in that house with me, and I would still be alone in an empty house, just as I was in high school.

「Stupid.」

I mutter to myself without saying a word to anyone and speed up my steps. I headed home faster than I had walked so far. But before I reach home, my phone rings.

「Miyagi, where are you?」

When I answer the phone, I hear Sendai-san’s gruff voice.

「Outside.」

「No, not that. I’m asking where you are out there.」

「Neighborhood. Looking for a cat.」

I don’t want to say I was taking a walk, though I think it’s a lie I can tell in an instant, so I’ll just say the appropriate reason.

「Cat?」

A dubious voice echoed in my ears.

「Sendai-san’s favorite tortoiseshell cat」

「Are you taking a walk by any chance?」

「That’s not what we’re talking about.」

「Tortoiseshell cat is Mike-chan, right? If you’re going for a walk, I’ll go with you, so just wait around there. I’ll change in a minute.」

Ignoring my denial, Sendai-san said quickly. Moreover, she sounded as if she would change her clothes and run out of the house in five seconds if I left her alone, so I hurriedly uttered the words to stop her.

「She wasn’t there, and I’m going back to buy pudding.」

「Pudding?」

「For the calories consumed. Do you want some pudding, Sendai-san?」

「I’d love to eat it, but won’t you walk with me?」

「I’m tired, I’m going home and eating breakfast.」

Sendai-san is mine, but she is not my dog.

Therefore, I won’t walk with her like people I pass by. It would be better to go home early and have dinner together. I have refused to take her for a walk in the first place.

Golden Week has just begun.

There are days when Sendai-san is away because she has a part-time job, but that house is very important to her, so if I wait for her, she will come back. Besides, we have an appointment to go see the penguins, so I won’t be alone that day.

「Well, I’ll get breakfast ready for you, so come home early.」

A slightly disgruntled, but kind voice comes from my phone.

「I’ll go home early even if you don’t tell me to.」

「Don’t forget the pudding.」

I answer, “I know,” and hang up the phone.

In my pocket is a single 500 yen coin.

I headed for the convenience store, thinking about what kind of pudding I should buy.