Final arc: cohabitation

{Our Morning Together 1}

Since this spring, I moved out of my parents’ house and started living together with her.

What is the most important thing in a cohabitation lifestyle?

I believe it’s “leading a healthy life.”

It’s the first time for both of us to live away from our parents, so you could say this cohabitation is our first step toward independence. Well, I’m still a student, and my parents are paying for my tuition, so I’m far from being truly independent—but that’s all the more reason why I don’t want to trouble or worry my parents with how we live.

Of course, the same goes for Satou-san. If living with me makes her neglect her work or causes her to get sick, that would be a problem. I don’t want to push her too hard, and precisely because she’s away from her parents, I want her to stay healthy.

In other words, because we are living together, we need to lead a regular, disciplined life.

Even on days off, I like to wake up by 8 AM at the latest.

I’ve been seeing claims for years that sleeping in is actually bad for your body. Besides, waking up before noon and skipping breakfast just feels sloppy. I want to have three meals a day, and I want to prioritize nutritional balance, too.

So even on weekends, I set an alarm.

That said, I usually wake up before the alarm goes off.

Even with the curtains drawn tightly, the morning sunlight that creeps into the unfamiliar room gradually brightens it, and I naturally wake up, blinking in the warmth of the bed.

I guess the light bothers me because the bed is pushed right up against the window, and I sleep facing that direction. You see, Satou-san is still new to sleeping in a bed. She always slept on a futon at home, and she was worried about falling off, so I’m acting as her barrier, lying beside her.

Thanks to that, it seems she slept soundly again last night.

In fact, she’s still sleeping peacefully now.

Right in front of me is Satou-san’s sleeping face, her eyes gently closed. Her long black hair, usually tied up, had slipped down and was covering about half of her face, so I reached out and gently brushed it aside.

“Miyu.”

I called her name, not to wake her.

I’ve only been calling her that for the past six months or so, but it’s already become second nature. Sometimes, when I’m alone, her name feels like such a beautiful thing, and I end up saying it out loud without realizing it.

Satou Miyuki, so “Miyu.” It’s such a cute name.

But the person herself, rather than responding to my call, is fast asleep without so much as twitching an eyebrow. Her slightly parted lips look dry, her eyes closed peacefully, and her cheeks pressed against the pillow have a soft blush.

Her sleeping face still has the same innocence as it did back when we were students.

I knew Satou-san’s sleeping face even before we started living together—actually, even before we started dating.

Not in a weird way, though. It’s just that when we sat next to each other in class, Miyu would often lose to her drowsiness. It wasn’t just nodding off, sometimes she’d fully lay her head on the desk and fall into a deep sleep, even during class.

At times like that, I would sneak glances at her sleeping face from behind my textbook.

I knew it would distract me from the lesson, but I couldn’t look away. Yet, I didn’t have the courage to openly stare either.

Now, I can look at her sleeping face without any hesitation.

In fact, I get to see it every day, every morning.

As I gaze at Miyu, who’s peacefully and happily asleep, I feel a calm contentment. I can’t quite explain it, but I hope she can continue sleeping this peacefully every day. I’d do anything to make that happen.

But, it’s almost time for the alarm to go off. I feel a bit guilty about waking her when she looks so happy, but it’s already 8 AM—it’s probably time to get up.

At exactly 8 o’clock, I stopped the alarm in two seconds and called her more clearly this time.

“Miyu.”

“…Hmm?”

A faint voice, barely audible from this close, slipped from her lips.

Her pale brow furrowed softly, and her black eyelashes fluttered slightly. Right at the moment when her eyes were about to open, I called her again.

“Miyu, it’s morning.”

“…Morning…?”