Lie 9:

"Just Another Day at School"

Megumi's Point of View

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Rain and storm arrive in the early September like the long-awaited lovers who finally comes back to you after months of separation. They hug me in complete darkness of my room, kissing me with the cold drizzle on my face and sing me lullaby of majestic thunders and sacred rainfall. They accompany me as I write the last sentences of my script play; on the table before an open window, with the soft blue light of my laptop being the only source of illumination save from the occasional lightning that feels close to my reach.

I have locked myself in since I came back from school. Lady Macbeth, her husband, and the three witches visit me in turns. They grace me with dramatic conversation of their lives and dictated me how to write it down so I could do them justice. Especially Lady Macbeth. She makes sure that I left no stone unturned, no revenge unpaid. She brings forward with her the years' worth of trauma and suffering, full of mud and blood and tears. She told me to put them all on the paper, so that many could read and thousands more could see.

When the script is done, I sit back in a daze, unable to move, void of any thought. I can't believe what I just made. The characters, the story, even the breathes and the howling of pain that break them to pieces—it all felt so real to me. The euphoria left me dizzy. I look past the window and let my mind wonder under the heavy rainstorm to the horizon.

Then I take a deep breath—I remind myself to breathe every now and then, a real, deep, meaningful breath, or else I might stuck in the moment forever. I gasp for air like a fish on land, filling my lungs with as much fresh air as the cold night can offer. Then I turn to my side. A yakisoba bread and a can of coffee await me patiently right to my left hand. A piece of paper with his handwriting lays feebly under the weight of the can.

I stare at them for minutes. Wondering what was crossing his mind when he decided to buy me these. Did Yuuji tells him that I like black coffee? And why yakisoba bread? Did he just randomly pick it up because it's the most popular bread in school? Or because he simply doesn't know what kind of bread I would like because, frankly, I'm not really a picky eater either?

It still a nice gesture, thought. But kinda creepy, I must say. Or kind? Which is it?

Is he really not as bad as I thought he was?

'Wait. What if he put some curses on these?' Now my paranoia is the one talking. I shake my head, trying to push that part of me away. I decide to give him a slight benefit of the doubt, and just enjoy what he had given me.

-:-

The next day, I come down to the kitchen to find my dad gleefully cook for our breakfasts. It has been days in a row and actually it's very, very suspicious at this point. But I also don't want to ruin my good mood by bantering insults with him, so I just let it slide. And besides, he could use some household responsibilities back into his routine like a proper father should. Tsumiki is helping him with the plates and the drinks. I absent-mindedly just sit nicely on the dinner table while snacking the pretty little scones probably given by one of my dad's admirers again.

Minutes later, the breakfast is served. Simple, ordinary, classic Japanese breakfast of rice, fish, fried egg, and some soup. Then the conversation happens, about the moving of my sister to her college dorm in Kyoto. We have been planning about the move that entails sending my sister's things via the moving company while she embarks on the hundred kilometers journey by the Shinkansen alone, because we are too poor to afford another two tickets from and back to Tokyo. But yesterday my dad suddenly revealed that he will rent a car so the three of us can go together via the highway.

At first, neither of us could believe it. Our dad is notorious of being reckless in handling money. No way he could magically afford to rent a car for two days plus the additional cost of gas, food, and any sort of entertainment while we're in Kyoto and on the road. But now he brings it up again with such proud expression on his face. The diagonal scar on one side of his lips even curves in a way that seems like it also smiling. I become more and more suspicious. But it's been months if not years since I see my dad this high-spirited, so I just let it slide again.

But, enough about my life. Now is the time of daily live report of Itadori Yuui.

I was just walking out of the Chemistry class with Nobara—taught by the amazing our first and only non-binary teacher, Hange Zoe—talking about everything from the script, the theater competition, even the fact that I scored the same as Nobara in today's pop quiz even thought I don't particularly excel in any STEM subjects, which kind of irritated him.

We are walking down the corridor full of students when I got a text from Yuuji, telling me to 'help' her in the cafeteria. I exchange glances with Nobara. We immediately understand what is happening and rush there without any second thought.

One word to describe the situation once we get there is: chaotic. Everybody is yelling at each other's faces, pointing fingers and yelling accusations in a deafening volume that I bet nobody even listen. In the eye of the storm is no other than the pink-haired girl that I also bet is the sole and main reason of the situation.

Yuuji seems to be stuck between a group of boys I immediately recognize as her fanatics, and the senior mean girls from Kyoto. Being the leaders of the groups are Todo Aoi and Porco Galliard from the boys' side, and Zenin Mai with Nishimiya Momo from the girls'. They banter excuses and reasons that now sounds like nothing more than insults. And Yuuji is in a frenzy of separating the two groups, obviously to no avail.

Nobara and I just got seconds to brace ourselves before we voluntarily jump into the ruckus; with me holding off the girls, while Nobara trying to barricade the boys. We leave Yuuji some open spaces in the middle as we try to reason with the two factions. And once the situation died down a little, Nobara takes it upon himself to be the reverie and the judge of the situation.

"Okay, somebody better tell me what happened!" The orange-haired boy raises both his hands to attract everybody's attention to him. Yuuji squirms a little as she hides behind me.

"Those bitches don't let us buy our lunch!" Porco shouts, throwing his index finger at Mai's face.

"Yeah, because why should we?!" Mai retorts back, leaning her torso forward in an aggressively angry move. I need to hold her shoulders for a second for her not to launch to the boys' side. She skims off my hands without even looking at me. "We've been queueing here for ages, definitely not for your entitled ass to cut the line!"

"But we got all the reasons to do so!" shouts Porco again, "Because there's only one portion of yakiniku katsudon left and you were about to buy it, right?"

I could see Mai physically trembles and burning up from inside out. She looks like a volcano about to erupt, and to be honest, I'm scared to be in this proximity with her. "I wasn't the one who wanna eat that gluttonous food. It's Miwa!" She points to a girl with blue hair and uneven bangs behind her, who sadly is looking as shocked and terrified to suddenly get all the attention. "And even if it was me who wants the food, so what? Why should I give it to you!?"

"Yuu-chan also wants that katsudon! We're getting it for her!"

And everyone falls silent to what Porco just said. I turn my gaze to Yuuji in horror.

The girl in question shakes her head frantically. "No—no! That's not—"

"So you don't want the katsudon?" I ask her, eyebrows knitted together.

"No—I mean, yes! I do! They asked me what I want for lunch, and I just said that I wanted yakiniku katsudon. But I didn't know if it's gonna turned out like this!"

"You don't have to give in right now, Yuu-chan," says Aoi, with his comically solemn voice and expression that somehow makes me irritated instead. "What you wish, you shall receive. We're getting it for you, Yuu-chan."

"Aoi! You fucking traitor!" Mai screams to his face. "I always knew you were such a simp for foolish girls, but I never thought you'd betray me like this! We're friends since middle school!"

"Hey, watch your mouth, Mai!" Aoi shouts back. "Yuu-chan is not foolish!"

"Oh, yeah? Then why can't she get her own meal, then?" Mai jabs her index finger on Aoi's broad chest. "Why should she deploy an army of stupid, horny boys to buy her a goddamn katsudon? Is she afraid she would get molested lining up with the other peasant students in this cafeteria? If she's not some foolish, pampered princess, then what else?"

Porco take a step forward. "Yuu-chan never asked us anything. We do it because we want to!"

"Oh! I bet she sucks all your dicks too!"

My breath literally stuck in my throat. Yuuji's eyes widen twice fold. Ruckus erupts once again as both sides bicker senselessly with each other.

"Woah, woah!" Nobara immediately put himself in the middle again, spreading his hands to make some distances between both sides. "Okay, that's enough! This is just a stupid problem. No need to slander other girl here."

"Really? You too, Kugisaki?" Mai eyes him sinisterly. "I thought you were different than these dicks-for-brains idiots!"

"Mai, your problem is not with me." Nobara tries to be as calm as possible. "Don't bring your personal grudge right now."

"I should've known every guy is the same!" Mai roars. "You all fall for innocent, stupid girls in pastels that can't defends herself because she would make you feel safe in your fragile masculinity! So very fucking authentic!"

I try to cut in too. "None of these is Yuuji's fault! You can't use degrading stereotypes to—"

"Right! Of course, EVERYBODY loves Itadori Yuui!" Mai throws her hands in the air, laughing mockingly like a villain. "Nobody is worth all the defend and adoration than her angelic little self!" Then she turns to Yuuji, hissing, "You should be ashamed. You should be very fucking ashamed. Women solidarity my ass. You set feminism one hundred years back, you whore. Congratulation."

Then she turns on her heels and strides off. The other girls immediately follow on her footsteps without turning back—except for Miwa who loudly whispers to Yuuji, "Sorry for all this! You can have the katsudon!" But apparently the last bowl of yakiniku katsudon has been purchased by an international girl named Sasha Blouse. The commotion disperses itself gradually and Nobara, Yuuji, and I decided to take a pilgrimage to the forest in the back of the school.

I take them to the opposite direction from the tree I store my cauldrons and witchcraft stuffs. There is an open clearing filled with green grasses and yellow maple leaves on the ground. We lay down there after making sure there are no snakes or bugs. The autumn colors the forest golden, raining us with fallen leaves under the warm sunlight. The clear blue sky makes us believe that the storm last night never happened. And the serenity of birds calling each other seems like a lifetime away from the messy drama we just witnessed back in the cafeteria.

I thought we are going to stay silent forever, pretending that none of that ever happened. But then Yuuji opens her mouth. "I know what I'm gonna say to you is probably sounds like excuse, but I just want you guys to know. Take it or leave it. Up to you."

I turn my head to Yuuji, then stare at Nobara to look for his reaction. He just looks at me back.

Yuuji continues, "You know Sukuna and I are twins, right? He's five minutes older than me, and yet, I always look up to him like he's five years older. Because he is. In a sense." She laughs. "I mean, everything about him feels very grown-up. He was always like that. Always. Even ever since we were little. I guess he took the role of a big brother very seriously."

She takes a deep breath. She sighs. Her voice cracks a little as she says, "And I also took the role of a little sister too seriously." She sobs. "I always see myself as a cute little girl who needs to be saved and protected by him. And I get carried away. I expected him to stay like that forever. But, of course, not everything go as I wanted. We grew distant for some reasons. Ever since then, our only interaction is when we fight and hurt each other."

She wipes her tears with the hem of her clothes. "I guess that was when I realized that other people—especially boys that are older and bigger than me—were seeing me as special, that they could give me what I wanted that my brother couldn't. They don't ask much. They don't want to change me in any way. I just merely show up as myself, as childish and innocent and sweet as I want, and they still celebrate me anyway. And I like the attention."

She turns her head to Nobara and my directions consecutively. Her honey-colored eyes are gleaming with tears. And at this point, I try to be as nonjudgmental as possible even though I do initially question some of her behaviors.

But she looks incredibly sincere when she says, "It was long before I even know you guys. I realized now that I don't need other people's attention or validation to be myself. I have you guys. But what can I say? I guess old habit dies hard." She shrugs. "Without I even realized, I attract the same type of crowd that fetishizes me. Now I'm a slut and every girl hate me." She pulls a sad smile, eyes staring far away into the sky.

I look up at the sky too before closing my eyes slowly. "I don't hate you." Still, I'm thinking of what my opinion about this entire situation should be. "I just hope you don't ever feel like you need people's recognition to give you permission to be yourself. Even from us. Just do what you feel right even if nobody knows or understands you." I sigh deeply. I feel like saying it to myself.

"But then again, I guess it's not always that easy if you're a girl in Asian patriarchal society." I can feel my body retracted inward, uncomfortable about the vulnerability that I have to admit. "There's always societal expectation on your back, like you have to be a certain way to be accepted. I'm not saying acting cute and innocent is bad, it just that…" I pause, thinking about my next sentence. I sigh. "…make sure that you do it for yourself, not others."

Yuuji looks at me with her doe eyes, I turn my head to return her favor. She smiles, and so do I.

Nobara says flatly, "God, glad I'm a guy."

"The one with all the rich Asian men privilege, shut up please."

Yuuji just giggles as Nobara and I banter comical insults with her between us. But as the ice-breaking dies down, the atmosphere back serious when Nobara asks, "Does your brother know?" And it immediately intrigues me.

Yuuji shrugs again. "I don't know. I guess he got the gist. I mean, he knows everything."

"Yet he doesn't do anything about it?"

And Yuuji looks at him funny. "Like what? Asking her twin sister why she becomes every guy's manic pixie wet-dream girl?"

Nobara knitted his brows. "No, I mean like, confront the other boys or something."

Now Yuuji is sitting up. Her head hangs low as she picks up a maple leave from the ground and twirls it between her fingers. "He would've done something if he still cares about me. The fact that he isn't mean that he really doesn't."

I raise my body slowly and sit while hugging my legs. "If you don't mind me asking, what was the reason you grew apart?"

It took some time before Yuuji finally answer with mysterious smile, "Some family drama. Sorry, I can't tell."

I just nod in fake understanding even though I'm really dying to know.

Nobara lets out a big sigh. He stretches his arms above his head before folding it under his head. He yawns. "Who can believe that a single bowl of rice can unlock a childhood trauma and a fight with the Drama Queen."

"It's not rice, it's yakiniku katsudon!" Yuuji pouts. Traces of sadness has vanished. "Ya-ki-ni-ku! "

Nobara looks at her like she's crazy. "It's just rice."

Now they bicker about rice. I know this dumb conversation will drags on for ages if I don't change the subject quickly. "Anyway, what is your business with Mai?"

And Nobara freezes. It took him a hot ten seconds before he answers hesitantly, "We're…" He fakes cough. "…exes."

Yuuji and I turn our heads to him faster than lightning. "WHAT?"

"I thought she was her twin sister, okay!" defends the orange-haired boy, completely panic because he's now moving his hands like Italians do. "You know, the cooler, more badass one? The Presidente?" There's some Italian accent slipped up in the last sentence.

"So, you confessed to a wrong girl, and you just kept dating her?" Yuuji's face is completely perplexed.

"I just realized she's not Maki-san minutes before we broke up."

I shake my head slowly, probably scrutinizing him with my most disgusted look. "And here I thought I wouldn't hear something more stupid than a fight over rice."

Nobara looks visibly insulted, but he doesn't say anything back.

Minutes go by as we leisurely watch the clouds moving in the sky. Then suddenly Yuuji says, full of hesitation, "So… you like Maki-san?"

Maki Zenin, Mai's older twin sister, is the captain of the kendo club and also the Student Council President. Capable, smart, fierce, strong. Everybody has heard her name once or twice if they go into this school, but rarely ever sees her in person. She mostly spends her days in the kendo club room, practicing, or in the Council room, planning her next step to world domination. It's understandable if Nobara mistook Mai as Maki-san, really. Their physical similarities make Sukuna and Yuuji look like ordinary siblings.

But still. Who is stupid enough to even confess to the wrong person? They clearly have different hairstyles and fashion aesthetics. On top of that, Maki-san wears glasses.

"And why do we never know that you dated Mai?" I ask the more puzzling questions. On top of being unbelievable because both of them are notoriously active on social medias, I still can't believe that Nobara dares to hide something this big from us.

The boy in question just shrugs. "It's just a summer fling. I confessed before the summer break and broke up before the new semester."

I knitted my brows deeper. "You dated her over the summer? This summer?"

"You met her in France?" Yuuji asks innocently.

"It's Italy!" Nobara barks. "And no! It was LDR."

"Now that explains things." I roll my eyes out.

Yuuji tilts her heads in various directions with confused face. "But I thought Mai likes girls?"

Nobara sits up so fast that his back cracks. "WHAT?"

"Yeah, everyone knows. She tried to kiss almost every girl in school," Yuuji says casually. "She almost kissed me once."

And my brain suddenly stops working. Looking back at Mai's behaviors, it should be as plain as day that she likes girls. But why did I never realize it? Is my gaydar that bad? Is it because I'm straight? Wait, am I really straight? I never thought about it. My gaydar would probably working if she even had an attempt to kiss me, thought. But she never. Why? Am I that ugly? Am I that straight?

The thought clouded my mind so bad that I unconsciously spurt out, "But she never tried to kiss me?"

Yuuji just shrugs nonchalantly. "Maybe she hates you?"

"That's very unlikely." I shake my head. "I never even talk to her."

"Well, pretty girls hate prettier girls," Nobara says coyly, as thought he was preaching some wisdom. "Anyway, Mai is probably bi. So what? I'm more interested in her twin now."

"Really?" I eye him skeptically. "You still think you have a chance? After mistakenly dated her twin sister?"

"OH!" Yuuji claps her hands. She lit up like a light bulb has been switched on inside her head. "Maki-san once said that she only like guys that can beat her in a fight. And so far, no one can."

I chuckle. Everybody knows that kendo isn't the only sport that she masters. Name every martial art known to humanity and she probably already got them up her sleeves. "So that's the reason she's still single." I nod in satisfaction. When I turn to Nobara, horror already presides in his face. I can't help but to tease him a little. "Good luck." I pat his back, stiff and full of cold sweat. Yuuji follows my move.

The boy just freezes with his eyes looking deep into nothingness. "Goddamn have mercy," he utters under his breath. Yuuji and I are laughing until we can't breathe.

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To Be Continued

Hi! It's Audrey Lea.

Teenage girls can be scary, huh. Sometimes I forget about it. Especially the popular ones. But, from personal experience, if you try to get to know them, they're usually very nice.

"But not Mai. Mai is always scary."

Eeh, not really. I will explore her character later. She was still wrong to be mad at Yuuji, but she has her reasons.

So, what do you think of this chapter? Please be kind and share your thought in the review/comment box. You can also find some cover arts I made, the wardrobes of the characters, and their 'actors' on my Twitter and Tumblr : ladyambrose2.

See you in the next chapter!