Chapter Text
Hot. So hot. Why was it so hot? And why did I feel so tired?
I knew I woke up in my room, but for some reason, my bed felt a lot stiffer. There was hair in my mouth, and it felt like I had been left in an oven overnight. Blearily, I blinked open my eyes to find that I’d somehow tucked myself into Sendai-san’s arms in my sleep.
…What?
It was strange enough to not wake up in my bed, but how did Sendai-san end up sleeping over too?
Carefully, I extricated myself from her embrace as I tried to put some space between us and regain my bearings. Even after rolling onto my back, there lingered a sense of wrongness in my body. But I absolutely was not coming down with a sickness, because that meant that Sendai-san would probably be fussing over me again.
Today…today is that day isn’t it?
My head throbbed faintly. I didn’t remember allowing Sendai-san to come to my room yesterday, nor did I remember feeling anything strongly enough to warrant my crawling into the spare futon with her.
Why, of all days, did today have to start so strangely?
Finally, I felt some movement to my left as Sendai-san slowly shifted awake as well.
“Mmf…Shiori?”
“Don’t call me that.”
Suddenly, Sendai-san shot up to her side, her eyes snapping open to meet mine.
“Shiori, you’re back?” she said, incredulously.
“Huh? Where would I go? More importantly, why are you here?”
Annoyingly, Sendai-san only stared at me instead of responding. She stared, and stared some more, then,
“How old are you?”
“Twenty…?”
She replied with a muffled “Thank god,” before promptly flopping back facedown into her pillow. However, one of her arms seemingly decided to rest right back over my stomach.
What???
I frowned. Is that all Sendai-san had to say to me this morning?
Did she forget?
No, I didn’t want to think of that right now.
I sat up, groggily.
Nudging her side, I asked, “Hey, Sendai-san, what did you do?”
Aren’t you going to say something more?
Sluggishly, Sendai-san got up to sit next to me, rubbing her eyes. With her other hand, she felt around for her phone. Without looking at me, she fiddled around with it first, checking something and ignoring my question. I heard her faintly mutter,
“All the photos with her really disappeared.”
Who?
Annoying. Sendai-san was being so annoying, so early in the morning.
I spotted my phone next to where my pillow should’ve been on my bed, and grabbed it.
…
Again, what?
Surely this was some sort of technical malfunction. There, on the lockscreen of my phone, displayed the date today – a whole day after my birthday. I clearly remember going to sleep yesterday, but if I was to believe my phone, then that would mean that I’d somehow slept through an entire day without raising Sendai-san’s concern.
Sendai-san wouldn’t know how to pull a prank like this.
I turned to look at Sendai-san again, only to find that she had already been looking at me.
“Miyagi, do you feel alright?”
“Sendai-san, explain it all to me right now. What happened yesterday?”
☾~𑄝੭~☽
So I just don’t remember a whole day?
“That’s a really scary story to make up, Sendai-san,” I deadpanned, “if I spent an entire day sick and barely awake, troubling you again, then you can just tel–”
The rest of what I was about to say was swallowed by Sendai-san’s lips, her arms quickly snaking around my waist to hold me closer to her. Her kiss deepened quickly, stealing my breath away. Only a few seconds passed before she drew back ever so slightly, still so close that the ghost of her words fluttered onto my mouth.
“Shiori, I really missed you,” she whispered, before leaning back in once more. I felt her restless arms tighten around me, then loosen, her hands snaking up my sides while her tongue entwined with mine.
I know that I should try to push her back, ask more questions, but somehow, that also felt wrong. If I were to believe Sendai-san, then that meant she spent my birthday with people other than me.
But when I felt her hands gently cup my face, all other questions were pushed out of my head. Instead, I thought,
I needed this.
For some reason, it felt as though I had been waiting for too long to see Sendai-san again, even though only one night had really passed since I last saw her. Or was it two? No matter what, right now, I just wanted to be close to her.
I felt her fingertips graze one of my earrings as if she were confirming its presence. In her kiss, I could sense a feeling that I very rarely felt from Sendai-san.
Desperation.
When we finally parted for good, Sendai-san took a long look at me and said the words I unknowingly had been anxiously waiting to hear,
“I love you, Shiori…Happy birthday. I’m glad you’re back.”
At that moment, my foolish stomach growled. So, she reluctantly let go of me before I could get a word out and said, “I’ll make us something to eat.”
Hey, don’t just go so suddenly.
I didn’t like this at all. The day had barely started and already, my own body felt like it hadn’t belonged to me.
I wanted today to be over soon.
Dazedly, I looked around.
There was a piece of paper on my desk that I didn’t remember leaving. I picked it up only to be met with handwriting that was vaguely familiar and, frankly, quite closer to chicken scratch than anything Sendai-san could possibly forge.
The future me,
Happy birthday, I’m sorry you won’t remember it. Maybe. I don’t know, I haven’t read a story like this yet. Sendai-san hasn’t said anything, but I’m sure she doesn’t think that I’ll still be here tomorrow. Because if you don’t come back, then I think she’ll be quite sad.
I met your friends, a whole lot of them. Utsunomiya-san and Shirakawa-san were very kind, it sounded like high school would be a lot of fun with them. Komatsu-san was a little weird, but she gave me a lot of sweets. She’s also a good person. I think she mentioned a Noto-senpai, but Sendai-san didn’t tell me anything about her. And I played with Cali-chan…
There were two more paragraphs detailing how I had apparently spent the entire afternoon out and about with my friends as a ten-year old child.
…We finished a whole round cake, so there won’t be anything left in the refrigerator for you. Sorry. But don’t worry, I think Sendai-san still has a gift for you that she didn’t show me. She’s in the bath now, but she said she’d stay with me until I fell asleep. Sendai-san’s way too nice.
I’m you, but I’m a little jealous. It’s going to take me forever to grow up and meet everyone.
I don’t want this day to end yet, but I have to go back, don’t I? Your friends will be too sad if I don't.
This year, I didn’t feel lonely at all.
Hurry up and grow up already,
Miyagi Shiori
That’s way too scary, what the heck?
…
Well. It seemed like I really did cause a lot of trouble for Maika, Ami, Mio-san and Sendai-san all at once.
There was a tight feeling in my chest. The wrongness I felt when I woke up had turned into dread. I didn’t like this at all.
I had started to believe that my birthday could become a day where I didn’t have to think about things that would only make my chest feel tight, but was I wrong?
Could my time with Sendai-san be taken so suddenly like that again?
Sendai-san did all those things for me, but it wasn’t really me, but it was me. For my birthday this year, she hung out with other people, but she hung out with me that whole time too. I didn’t get to eat cake with Sendai-san, yet I did, apparently.
I read the letter again, I’m you, but I’m a little jealous.
It’s so stupid.
Even though Sendai-san was probably even more confused about what happened, she missed her classes for me, and didn’t break her promise.
I wasn’t jealous, not over myself…but…
What did I tell her? How much does she know? Of the me who spent her birthdays waiting for a Dad who never came home.
Memories of cake, of text messages, of curling up in bed wishing for the day to end soon shuttered through my mind’s eye.
What would Sendai-san have done if I…
My thoughts are interrupted by a knocking on my door.
“Miyagi, I made French toast. We can have a do-over from yesterday, so come out.”
I quickly shuffled towards the entrance of my room, opening the door to a Sendai-san who looked far too energetic this early in the morning. Rather than respond, I tugged at the end of her shirt. There was no point in trying to understand what happened yesterday.
For a moment in time, the me before meeting Sendai-san, the one that had nothing to look forward to on my birthday, didn’t go to sleep with leftover cake in the refrigerator.
Hazuki kept, would keep, her promise.
Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, Sendai-san would be here even if I’m not. If I get lost, she’ll probably track me down with her nose like a big dog.
That’s why I just needed to keep moving forward, as long as Sendai-san is here.
“I don’t care about yesterday anymore.”
“Hm?”
“Hazuki, let’s just spend today at home.”
Then, I finally looked up and saw a truly stupid, beautiful grin on Sendai-san’s face.
“Anything for you, Shiori. Let’s keep having fun and weird days together.”
