As always, the translation to the lyrics was done by me.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gintama. It belongs to Sorachi Hideaki.
The Sweetest Lie
Chapter 4
I may have misunderstood, because I haven't felt that way before
Things may change all of a sudden
Looks like I don't hate this world anymore
Ever since that day, I couldn't stop caring about you
The more I like you, the more I can't give up on this love
"I'm torn between kicking you and punching you in the face right now."
The blunt admission that came from the Disciplinary Committee President's 'girlfriend' wasn't enough to scare Okita Sougo, who gave her his usual poker-faced expression. Until now, he found no fault in what he did, despite what nee-san said, as it was obvious that it was China who left the group out of her own volition. "Why do you keep insisting it's my fault when she was the one who left?"
The smile on her face never faltered. "Oh? So the genius can't seem to grasp how he had badly dealt with the situation, and can't even ponder on the reason why my best friend walked out on our girls' day out?" she clutched her right hand tightly, trying her best to control herself, though it lasted only for several seconds before she aimed her punch at the unsuspecting male gorilla, who howled in pain from her blow.
"I'll tell you what: no one leaves nor goes home until we find her." Before Sougo could even protest, she gave him her death glare, something he wasn't immune to. If looks could kill, he was probably a rotting corpse by now. "And you, Okita-kun," she addressed him in a sugary-sweet tone that sent chills up his spine. "You'd better say 'sorry' to her."
"Why should I? I didn't do anything—" before he could continue with his statement, Shimura Otae had grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and opened both her chocolate brown eyes, revealing the depth of her emotions.
"Didn't you hear what I just said? I told you to say 'sorry' to her after we find her."
"… Fine." Though he was half-hearted with his agreement, at least he knew he had spared himself from torture for the meantime.
Besides, he'd rather kick himself than apologize to that stupid girl.
Kagura felt just a bit better after sipping her peppermint tea, but that didn't mean she was over it. True, she probably gave all of them a bad impression with her walkout, but it was just too much. Why did he have to be an asshole all the time? Was there even a time where he acted normal towards her?
If he did, then I would've remembered it.
As far as everything was concerned about him, the moment she joined Class 3-Z, he had always been so mean to her. Everything she did, from her glasses to the way she wore her uniform, he had something nasty to comment on. As much as she wanted to just ignore him, she couldn't; not only was he her seatmate, but most of the time, they were always assigned to do after-school cleaning duties. Some deity was probably playing with her, for they were always paired together.
Hell, their names were always written beside each other!
She could remember the words clearly on the blackboard:
'After-School Cleaning Duty:
Okita | Kagura'
"Kagura-chan?"
She looked up to see Mitsuba giving her a worried look. "Are you… okay?"
"Y-Yes. I'm… feeling better." She was okay, and at least it wasn't a lie.
"I still can't believe Masato-kun did that." The sandy-haired woman shook her head. "That was really mean of him."
She nodded in agreement. "Well… he's really a jerk."
"But you like him, right?" at Mitsuba's question, her hand that was reaching out for the tea cup suddenly halted, and she pondered once more on the easy question that suddenly became difficult to answer.
She did like him… but right now, the foreign girl was having second-thoughts. 'Masato-kun', her code name for him ever since she recently played an otome game wherein one of the guys there sounded exactly like him [1], was getting pretty difficult to like, with the way he acted. "I'm… not too sure about that. M-maybe…? Or maybe… not." She let out a big sigh, slightly wanting to kick herself for getting so worked up over it.
Mitsuba patted her arm. "Try to think it through, Kagura-chan." She said. "I'd want to set you up with my brother, but I think he won't be interested. I think there's a girl he likes."
She knew Mitsuba had a younger sibling, but she had never mentioned him until now. "You have a brother?"
"Oh, did I forget to mention it?" she smiled apologetically. "Yes, I do have a brother. He's around your age too."
Kagura nodded. "I see. Well, your brother isn't him so…" she then shrugged. "I'm sorry, my head's a mess right now."
The older woman shook her head. "No, no, don't apologize; I understand what you're going through. I… kinda went like that too, some years ago. I'll tell you what; let's go to the store, okay?"
"B-but—"
"It's fine! The manager likes you, and you're gonna model my newest clothes for me!" Mitsuba slapped a five thousand yen on the table and grabbed Kagura's hand, leading her to the clothing store she worked for, which was ten minutes away from the café they were at.
It was a strange meeting, now that she thought about it. When Kagura first met Mitsuba, she had been on a personal mission to shop for cute clothing, as she had enough of everyone calling her a 'tomboy'. Even though she really didn't give a damn about the label, it had gotten worse when Okita Sougo had joined in, even going as far as to say that she was a female gorilla. It had struck a nerve, and on that very weekend, she had gone in search of cute clothing, with Gin-chan's money in her purse.
As soon as she had gotten inside the boutique of the clothing store called 'Babe, The Stars Twinkle Beautifully' [2], the vermillion-haired girl knew that it was a fateful encounter. Mitsuba, one of the lead fashion designers of the store, had taken an interest in her, and, after hearing her dilemma about her wanting to be girly, was kind enough to give the clothing to her for free. Normally, dresses from their store cost at least thirty-thousand yen, but the older woman told her she could have it, as long as she would always wear it and would always drop by at the store.
Kagura could never thank her enough, knowing that Mitsuba was working very hard to provide for herself, her brother, and for her medication. She had heard from Mitsuba's co-workers that she had tuberculosis, and the treatment that she needed was quite expensive. Her brother, Kagura was told, had tried to start working part-time, but Mitsuba had prevented him from doing so, and had forced him to continue with school. The older woman had stopped going to the private all-girls' school that was known as an elite school, and had gone through so much before the manager, Tokumori Saigou, known as 'Mademoiselle Saigou', decided to hire her as an assistant fashion designer. Now that she was a well-known fashion designer among the gyaru enthusiasts, she was earning so much that she was well on her way to recovery.
Kagura found herself at the boutique several minutes later, and Mitsuba, still dragging her by the hand, had entered the store and exclaimed, stopping by the entrance in the process. "Oh, Sou-chan, you're here!"
"… Yeah. I wanted to see how you were doing, aneue." At the familiar tone of his voice, Kagura nearly stumbled backwards in shock.
Aneue?!
Could shit get any worse than this…?!
How could a sadist guy like him have a gentle woman as his sister?!
Oh god, the ground should just swallow me whole right now… please?!
She was thankful that he hasn't seen her yet, as she was still out of the door, and was effectively hidden from the couch.
"Well, I just went out for a break. Remember the girl I was telling you about who is modeling clothes for me?" she asked.
"Yeah. The one you kept saying is 'cute' and 'adorable'."
Oh god no.
"Well, she's with me, Sou-chan. I'd like you to meet her!"
DEAR GOD NO.
"Okay."
A tug on the hand, and Kagura knew she had to face the music. It was only Okita Sougo, after all, and the best she could do was to be cordial. She wasn't required to like him, and as long as she could keep up with the façade that she was 'okay' with him, she could always play that role in front of everyone and just loathe him in secret. A second tug, and she decided to step inside the store, her eyes staring straight ahead. She stopped just in front of Mitsuba and turned to the person who was sitting at the couch who, for a split second, was in shock, but recovered almost immediately and adopted his trademark poker-faced expression.
"… Oh. So she's the one." He said. "The clothes you made are pretty, aneue, but I can't say the same for her."
The thinly-veiled insult didn't get unnoticed by her, and she ignored it, deciding to simply keep quiet and let Mitsuba handle it. As expected, the older woman tsked. "Now, now, Sou-chan, don't be mean. Kagura-chan is very cute and you know it!" she said.
He shrugged in response. "Anyway, I'm off. I just wanted to see you." He said. "Will you be working late again?"
"I might, 'cause I'm gonna stay here for a while. Kagura-chan will be fitting my clothes, and it might take some time." She said.
"Ah. In that case, I'll see you at home, aneue." He bowed at his sister after he stood up from the couch and walked past Kagura, but not before glaring at her. As soon as he exited the store, Mitsuba sighed.
"I'm so sorry if he came across as rude, Kagura-chan."
She shook her head. "It's fine, Mitsuba-san. I'm used to it."
" 'Used to it'… wait, you know Sou-chan?" Mitsuba's brown-red eyes looked very surprised. At her nod, the older woman's mouth fell open. "O-oh my… may I ask how…?"
"We're… classmates."
Okita Mitsuba suddenly felt bad at the fact that her younger brother had been mean towards her friend. Kagura may not have been vocal about it, but it was evident that he was probably treating her badly. The way she looked at him, and how she had already been resigned to his attitude gave her an idea that he had been such a bully.
Somehow, Mitsuba thought that it fell upon her to make up for the shortcomings of her brother. Right now, she was walking alongside her model and friend, as they were planning to de-stress by going to a karaoke place.
"Kagura-chan, I'm so sorry."
This startled the girl, as she stopped walking. "Huh? What for?"
"Well, Sougo hasn't been… treating you nicely—"
"It's fine. I may not look like it but… I don't usually let him treat me like that." She scratched the back of her head. "To be honest, I was holding back on the insult 'cause you were there… and I knew you could handle him."
Mitsuba shook her head. "I… haven't been the best parental figure that he has… I may have spoiled him too much." She gave out a nervous chuckle. "I was more of a mother than a sister to him, and I love him too much to refuse his whims."
"You can only do so much, Mitsuba-san." The vermillion-haired girl shrugged. "It's up to him if he wants to change."
"I… guess you're right." The older woman said, mentally trying to think up of a way to make it up to the younger girl. Before she could even think, Kagura had grabbed her arm and began running.
"Come on, time's a wasting. We need to unwind!"
Twenty minutes later, Mitsuba found herself clapping along with the beat of the song as she watched Kagura sing a song on the stage of the karaoke room they've rented out. The girl wasn't the perfect singer, but she could carry a tune. Right after the song was done, she hopped down the mini-stage, and was about to hand over the microphone when the door swung open.
"Ah, I knew it was you!"
Both girls turned their heads toward the door to see a smiling Shimura Otae waving at them. "Knew it was you, Kagura-chan. It's that song again from that girl group you love so much."
"Anego!" she squealed at the sight of her older sister figure, but not before twitching when she saw the Disciplinary Committee trio who were trailing behind her. "Errrr… they're still following you around?"
"They had to, 'cause someone ruined everything." At this, she pointed at the three boys who had at least ten shopping bags in each arm. "Mind if we join you?"
"Mitsuba-san, can they join us?" she turned to look at the sandy-haired woman, but was surprised at the sight of her in shock, her delicate hands cover her mouth, while her eyes had widened in shock.
Blinking, Kagura turned to see who her gaze was aimed at, and unexpectedly, Hijikata had a similar reaction as well, minus the jaw dropping. Behind him, Kondo looked very uncomfortable, while the male Okita was glaring at the back of Hijikata's head.
'Oh no. Did I just… invite trouble over?'
Notes:
[1] - an otome game wherein one of the guys there sounded exactly like him - Referencing Uta no Prince-sama wherein a guy named Hijirikawa Masato is voiced by (you guessed it), Suzumura Kenichi. He sounds exactly like Okita, though more gentle and more obocchama-like.
[2] - Babe, The Stars Twinkle Beautifully - obvious parody of a very popular Japanese clothing store.
