{Our Monday Morning 1}

On Monday mornings, I always wake up at six.

That said, even as a third-year university student, I don’t take early classes on Monday. I made that mistake when I first enrolled, and I ended up regretting it every time Monday morning rolled around. Fortunately, I never actually failed any courses, but I do know a few people who lost credits because of Mondays.

Since I start classes at third period today, I can take my time in the morning and even manage to do laundry and clean up. I even have the luxury of thinking about going out a bit early for lunch.

However, that only applies after I’ve properly sent her off to work.

After getting ready, I made my usual fried eggs in the kitchen, tore some lettuce, and set the bread in the toaster.

When the eggs were done cooking and the toaster timer went off, I headed to my room, which also serves as my bedroom.

In the dimly lit room, where the curtains were still tightly drawn, I approached the bed.

There was a single indentation in the bed, leaving an empty space where I had gotten out. It seemed she was still fast asleep. It was cute how she reached out toward where I had been and clutched the edge of the blanket as if seeking comfort.

When I peered in quietly, I could see her blissful sleeping face, which made me hesitate to wake her up as usual. But if I hesitated here, Miyu would be late for work.

So, I steeled myself and called out.

“Miyu, it’s morning.”

“Mm…”

Miyu let out a small murmur.

I gently shook her shoulder, wrapped in the blanket.

“Breakfast is ready. Time to get up.”

Then she squeezed her eyelids tightly before opening her eyes cautiously. After blinking a few times, she looked up at me with a slightly sad expression.

“Atsushi-kun… Is today Monday?”

“Yeah, since yesterday was Sunday.”

“Wow…”

When I answered honestly, Miyu let out a scream-like voice and buried herself deeper under the blanket.

Then, in a frail voice that seemed to lament the world, she said,
“Monday has come… I wonder why there’s a Monday.”

Even if there were no Mondays, Tuesday would just come next after the weekend. And then I would start feeling gloomy about Tuesday instead, thinking, “Why does Tuesday even exist?”—it wouldn’t be good to burden her with my uninteresting theory about that on a Monday morning. She wouldn’t feel any better.

I swallowed those thoughts and shrugged instead.

“I made fried eggs, and the bread is toasted. You should eat while it’s still warm.”

At that, she sluggishly, but properly sat up and responded with her sleepy face.

“I’ll eat.”

“You’re doing great for getting up, Miyu.”

Miyu, still in her pajamas, smiled while rubbing her eyes.

“Yeah. Good morning, Atsushi-kun.”

“Good morning, Miyu.”

I smiled back in response.

It’s nice to greet each other with smiles in the morning. Especially on a Monday morning after a break, I want to see smiles more than sad faces.

Until we started living together, I didn’t know that Miyu wasn’t a morning person.

Of course, high school trips and overnight training sessions were separated by gender, and it was too common to hear stories about who was bad at waking up for them to become rumors. Before we lived together, we both lived with our parents, so there weren’t any chances for either of us to stay over at each other’s place. We hadn’t even gone on an overnight trip together—we had thought about it a little, but we started living together before we could realize that plan.

In any case, there are many things you learn once you start living together. I’ve recently realized that compared to her, I seem to be better at waking up. This was probably because my parents had to leave early for work while I was living at home, often leaving without waking me up. It seems you naturally learn to get up when you don’t have someone you can rely on.

In other words, maybe she has trouble waking up because she knows she has someone to rely on.

I’m happy that she can depend on me, so for now, it’s fine with me if things stay this way while I’m still a student. I might need to think about it a bit once I start working.