A/N: Hello! I am still in that dreadful period called OT, and my boss is out of the country for the next 2 months, so work is very bad. But I got so tired of working that I thought, I'd like to take a breather.
Yukue 5
"Otae-chan? Where are you going?"
Tae airily waved to her friends as she left the classroom. "Got things to do. See ya!" She disappeared, leaving her gang - Kyuubei, Oryou, and Kagura staring blankly in her wake.
"Well, I guess that's how it is," Oryou said to nobody in particular. "If Otae-chan has a boyfriend now..."
"But we didn't even know anything about it aru," Kagura protested. "If Ane-go liked that Hijikata no yarou how come we didn't even have a clue? Don't you find it suspicious?"
Oryou shrugged. "Maybe she just didn't feel like telling anybody?"
They both looked at Kyuubei, who was the closest to Tae. Kyuubei's expression was unfathomable as she unpacked her bento.
"Let's eat." Kyuubei sat down and put her hands together. "Itadakimasu."
"H-hai."
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"Ah! There he is," Tae exclaimed to herself softly as she spied his lone figure seated near the edge of the roof, staring off into space. Just as she was about to step past the doorway onto the roof, the target of her gaze - a certain tall, lean and black-haired someone - turned to stare at a familiar-looking bento box wrapped in a pretty cherry-blossom patterned cloth.
Tae stopped in her tracks and hid behind the doorway instead, watching him watch the bento box.
He really is good-looking.
Suddenly realising what she was thinking, Tae shook her head as if to clear it. Tae! What are you thinking! He's only a pretend-boyfriend!
Still... Tae resumed pondering the cool good looks of one Hijikata Toushirou despite herself.
"What are you doing there," Hijikata drawled, still staring at the bento box.
Blushing slightly at being discovered, Tae stepped onto the roof nonetheless and stopped a little way away from him. "Found you."
"Why are you looking for me?" Hijikata picked the bento box up and started to unwrap it.
"I can't leave you friendless, can I?" Tae joined him, ignoring a happy skip in her heart as she watched him open up her bento box. "Since the whole world hates you. Except me, of course."
"Gee, I wonder whose fault that is," Hijikata muttered sarcastically as he started to eat.
Tae however, found herself more concerned about Hijikata eating her home-made bento instead of the comment he had just made. "How is it?" she asked.
Hijikata shrugged. "Terrible. But I've got this," he nodded towards his ever-present bottle of mayonnaise.
Eyebrow twitching, Tae repressed the urge to take the bottle of mayonnaise and empty it over his head. After all, I am the reason he's sitting here having lunch by himself, she reminded herself. "You have basketball practice today right?" she asked instead.
"Yeah."
"Can I come watch?"
"No."
Tae glared at him. "Why not?"
"I won't be able to concentrate. Go do something else with your friends or something."
"Heeee..." Tae leaned in close, grinning. "I distract you?"
Hijikata gave her a Look. "No. It's just that, with the whole school awash with the news we are a-" he brought his finger up to imitate quotation marks, "-'couple', the basketball team will be a riot if they see you there. So please, don't come."
"Fine." Tae folded her arms. She hadn't expected a positive answer anyway.
"Go take a cooking class or something." Hijikata deadpanned. "This seriously sucks. OW!"
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"Tadaima," Hijikata called out as he closed the front door behind him.
"Okaeri!" his mom called out.
Hijikata felt his stomach rumble as he smelt various smells wafting out of the kitchen. He dropped his bags in the hallway and followed the aroma to kitchen. "What's for -"
He froze.
Tae turned around and smiled sunnily at him. "Okaeri nasai, Hijikata-kun."
HIjikata's eyes bugged out. "W-w-what are you doing here?"
"Why didn't you tell me you have such a cute girlfriend!" his mother gushed. "And so nice too. She came and told me that she wanted to learn to make the food you like!"
Hijikata looked at her suspiciously. Tae smiled back at him.
"Go and get changed and take a bath please, Toushirou. Dinner will be ready soon."
Hijikata was still standing and twitching as he stared at Tae who had calmly turned back to help his mother.
"Toushirou! Stop standing there! Go!"
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"Itadakimasu!"
"Itadakimasu."
With some trepidation, Hijikata began to eat.
Tae watched him anxiously.
Hijikata looked at her. "It's better than your bento, but you somehow managed to make my mother's cooking taste off."
"Toushirou!" His mother glared at him, before turning to Tae, who was seated next to her. "Don't mind him. He always speaks what he thinks. Needlessly."
"It's okay!" Tae smiled and bowed her head. "I'm used to it."
She means, she's used to it because she does exactly the same thing, Hijikata said silently.
"So how long have you been going out? And why didn't you tell me about it?"
Because we're not really going out? Hijikata answered silently.
"A week!" Tae answered for him.
Yeah. Let her spin her own stories, that way she'll be satisfied.
"Ii ne, to be in high school..." his mother looked away wistfully. Hijikata sweatdropped. This is a scenario I could never have dreamed off even if you spiked my mayonnaise with tequila or something. "I wish Toushirou's brother was here. He would have loved to meet you. He's on a business trip right now...he often travels due to work."
As Tae and his mother happily chattered on, Hijikata glowered and tried his best to figure out Tae's motives.
Without arriving to any plausible conclusion.
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"I'm going for the town hall meeting now, so be good, okay? Make sure you take Otae-chan home later!"
"What?" Hijikata protested. "Why do I have to do that?"
"Well, she's a girl, isn't she?"
"Okaa-san, she's the kendo team's captain!"
"It's only good manners to make sure she reaches home safely!"
As Hijikata and his mother continued to argue about Tae's safety somewhere in the hallway, Tae idly looked around the living room. Seeing a few photo frames perched on a shelf, she got up to look at them.
"Oi. What time are you planning to go home? Aren't your parents worried?" His mother finally gone, Hijikata was now standing at the doorway to the living room.
"That is rude. Nope. My father works late. Is this you?"
Hijikata came over to join her. "No. That's my older brother."
"Oh. Okay."
"I'm adopted. All the baby pictures aren't me."
Tae looked at him, surprised. "Oh. I never knew that. Wow."
"They adopted me just before I went to elementary school."
Tae looked at the family pictures again. "Do you ever wonder about your real parents?"
"Not really. My parents did try to track my biological parents down for my sake but didn't manage to find them. But that's fine. I'm not interested. As far as I'm concerned, my real family is here."
"...I really like your mom."
"So do I."
"I mean, I don't have one."
Hijikata now stared at her. "Oh. Okay. Didn't know that. She passed away?"
"Yeah. When we were young. So I don't really remember her."
"...sorry."
"That's okay."
"By the way, why are you here? The real reason." Hijikata stared levelly at her.
"You heard your mom. I wanted to learn how to cook the things you like to eat."
"...The real reason."
"You sure are suspicious." Tae blew her bangs off her forehead. "Fine. I really needed a favour."
"Sure. Just stack them up while you're at it."
Tae ignored the slight. "Ginpachi-sensei said you topped our last Physics test."
"Yeah."
"Well...I..." Tae's voice dropped to a mumble. "Flunked."
Hijikata stared at her.
"And...you know, it's...I've never flunked anything before in my life."
Right. Shimura Tae, top of the class, best at everything. Flunking Physics.
"Why don't you just ask Ginpachi-sensei?" Hijikata deadpanned.
Tae stared at him incredulously. "No. Way. Firstly, people would find out!"
Hijikata rolled his eyes. "Why do you care so much what people think?"
"I have a reputation! If you accidentally pooped in your pants, would you want the whole world to know?"
Hijikata sweatdropped. "That kind of comparison is totally off!"
Tae ignored him (again). "So you'll do it?"
"What choice do I have?" Hijikata looked at the clock on the wall. "So what, you mean, like now?"
"Oh no," Tae also looked at the clock. "It's getting late so I better go. Maybe the weekend? I mean, I don't think either of us can do anything after kendo practice."
"Yeah, whatever." Since I don't have any friends anyway, now. "Sure. Let me get my stuff. I'll walk you home."
Tae stared at him. "Seriously?"
"Don't misunderstand. My mom will never let me off if I don't. She'd probably call you to check that I did."
Tae giggled. "Okay."
Hijikata left Tae in the living room and sped upstairs to grab his phone and keys on his desk.
"Wow! You're so neat!"
Eyebrow twitching, Hijikata turned around to look at Tae who had now entered his bedroom and was examining it with great interest.
"What are you doing here."
"That's cold, Hijikata. I'm your girlfriend. I've never seen a guy's room before."
"Fake-girlfriend. And you have a twin brother, how is that possible?"
Tae shuddered. "I don't enter his room. It's like Otsuu-land down there. He's crazy over her. You know Otsuu?"
"Vaguely. Can we go now?"
"Hai, hai." Tae took one last look, smiling a little to herself. Hijikata tried for what felt like the tenth time not to notice that Shimura Tae was actually really cute, and turning his thoughts to mayonnaise to regain his sense of self, he followed Tae out of the room, switching off the lights as he did.
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"Hijikata-kun...can I ask you something?"
Tae lived some streets away from Hijikata, a 20-minute walk. As they both lived in a residential area, the streets were lit, but deserted, with only the occasional salaryman or student hurrying home.
"Can I say no?"
Tae smacked his arm. "You only LOOK good, but your manners are terrible."
"Speak for yourself."
"Do you have someone you like?" Tae asked it casually, staring straight ahead.
Surprised, Hijikata looked at her. "What kind of a question is that?"
"I'm just curious. Since you know, I'm posing as your girlfriend...It's just something that I figure I should know, in case...I don't know...a lot of the girls like you and I bet you get chocolates or stuff like that on Valentine's Day, and a lot of love letters or something..." Tae realised that she was starting to ramble, but couldn't figure out how to end it.
"Well...yeah."
"...you sure aren't humble."
"I'm answering your question, you moron."
"Eh?" Tae stared at him in shock, completely surprised to hear an answer she had not been expecting at all.
tbc
A/N: Oh dear! Tae, how could you, HIjikata likes someone already!