Three Days of Happiness

186
around with this girl. Her name’s Miyagi.”
“Not funny,” he said, clearly displeased. “You’re such a creep.”
“Can’t stop you from thinking that,” I replied. “I’m sure I’d say the
same thing in your position. But Miyagi’s here, all right. And she’s
real cute. I’ll respect that you don’t believe it, so I want you to
respect that I do.”
“...I always knew it, but man, you really are deranged, Kusunoki.
You’re always hiding in your husk instead of interacting with
people, huh? How about a peek at the outside world?”
Then he left, fed up with me and stunned.
I sat on the bench and watched the raindrops. It soon started to
clear up, seemingly only a brief shower. We squinted at the light off
the wet ground.
“Um... Thank you for that,” Miyagi said, leaning on my shoulder.
I put my hand on her head and ran my fingers through her smooth
hair.
Be “reliable,” huh?
I mouthed the advice of the old man at the bookstore. Though he’d
told me I shouldn’t trust him, the words seemed to have meaning
to me now.
Maybe the idea of paying back her debt was too much of a stretch.
Thinking about it, there was something I could do that would make
Miyagi happy in a very real way.
It was like she’d told me herself - to “pay attention to her.” Simply
being treated like an oddity by those around me gave her