Chapter 5: The Falsehood
“Should I take your silence… as a no?” Her voice quivers as tears well up in her eyes.
Every fiber within my being urges me to protect her: her misty face, her sweet voice, her trembling shoulders. But... I can’t bring myself to answer right now.
I’m a side character in this story, nothing else. This shouldn’t be happening to me.
I can't help but wonder why she'd confess to me of all people. I do have an idea about what she might be after, so let's see...
“Why me?”
“Well, you may look real scary at first, but you're actually pretty funny and chill. Plus, my brother always tells me how reliable and nice you are. That’s why I thought you’d be good enough,” she answers shyly.
Bingo—I don’t know exactly what she’s after, but it's obvious from the way she just phrased herself that she definitely wants something other than a relationship with me. She must've chosen me for her little idea because Ike said I was “reliable.”
I can already imagine what she wants…
“Let’s pretend we’re a couple! That way my beloved brother will get super jealous!”
Heh, I can already see her saying that. I mean, of course she would, right? Only, like, every little sister in a light novel does that. Read you like a book, girl.
So basically, she’s just not honest with her feelings. She pretends that she hates her brother, but in reality, she wants to hog all of his attention. I assumed that Ike would've had her in the bag at this point, considering he’s the protagonist and all, but… Now that I think about it, Ike is kind of a dumbass when it comes to taking the hint from girls, so I guess it's the same deal here.
Like, look at Kana, for example: she's obviously aiming for him, but he's totally oblivious to the fact she likes him.
“Okay. How about you tell me what you really want from me instead?”
Her smile vanishes for a split second—bullseye. She does want something else from me. It's only gone for a split second, though; her perfect smile springs right back up immediately after.
“Come on, Seeenpai. You don't need to be such a meanie. Is that any way to talk to a sweet young maiden pouring her heart out to you? You’re hurting my feelings, you know?”
Her tone and her smile are light.
“It’s okay. I can tell there’s something else you want.”
I'm not gonna tell her that I can see right through her and know she has feelings for her brother, though, just in case.
The moment I say that, her smile completely evaporates. This time, instead of springing back, it's gone for good. Her expression becomes icy, fixing me with a cold stare instead.
“Huh, okay. And here I was gonna try this the nice way so you could be useful and blissfully unaware. You’re sharp, dude.”
Of course I’m sharp—you’re in front of the side character himself. I may not interact a lot with others, but I can easily see through them when it comes to stuff like this. After all, when it comes to this whole play, I've mostly been the spectator.
She sighs, clearly annoyed, and starts ranting.
“Being asked out, being in a relationship… don’t you think it’s a frickin’ drag? It’s only been three days since I've entered this school, and eight guys have already confessed their 'love' for me. Eight! And none of them even really know me! They just did it because of my looks. What d'you think of that?”
“Well, that tells me you’re already quite popular around here. Unless you're trying to brag about your looks?"
To be honest, I’m actually pretty jealous. I mean, being confessed to eight times in the span of three days? That's impressive.
My greatest achievement so far has been two people—Ike and Makiri-sensei—talking to me because they actually like me… and that was in the span of a year. Imagine three days.
There's a huge gap between the two of us.
She replies with a huge sigh, as if tired and burdened by the whole thing.
“You think I like guys confessing to me just 'cause I'm cute? It definitely doesn't make me happy. It actually really pisses me the hell off, y'know?!”
Her attitude has done a total 180—she's gone from that cutesy act to straight up shouting and cursing.
I guess I kinda get how she feels, though.
“That’s why I figured I should try confessing to you and use you as my fake boyfriend. You're pretty infamous here on account of your resting bitch face, so I bet no other guy would even dare try to get close to me.”
She smiles, but it's definitely different than her earlier one. This time, it's laced in sadism.
“My shitty brother also called you a ‘good guy,’ so I thought that you wouldn’t really be a bad choice. I mean, the only thing that’s scary about you is your face.”
So all I took from this was that she wants to have a fake relationship with me, but I still don't know what she's really after. That’s how I feel, anyway—that she’s still hiding things from me.
“Anyways, I told you everything now. So how about you just play along and become my fake boyfriend? Actually, if you don’t, I’ll spread some nasty rumors. I'll tell everyone that you tried to do nasty, horrible things to me.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Take it as a threat, I don’t really give a crap. You’re the one who's fighting the losing battle if you refuse. Think about it—if I do spread rumors about you, would anyone even care to listen to your side of the story? I mean, for all I know, you could even get expelled for it. You wouldn’t like to get expelled, would you?”
She looks at me gently, her smooth voice as soothing as a cat’s purr. She’s completely convinced that I’ll just obey her, just like that.
But…
“You’re stupider than I thought,” I sneer.
“...What?”
“My reputation has already been dragged through the mud. You think a couple more baseless rumors will make the school expel me? No way. I would’ve been expelled a long time ago if that were the case. Your threats are worthless.”
“Oh…”
Oh man, she looks pissed. I feel for her, but she probably didn’t give this plan much thought.
“Plus, I bet your brother would listen to my side of the story and probably believe me. No need to assume things beforehand.”
He’s always tended to be on the right side of arguments, so I bet that he’d be able to see his sister's lies for what they really are. As long as he believes me, I don’t really care about the rest of the school.
She’s clearly angry. She looks down at her shoes while she clenches her teeth, trying to look for a counter-argument to what I just said. She looks completely miserable right now.
“I don’t mind faking a relationship with you, though.”
I have no idea what I can do in this situation—I mean, I can’t even communicate with other people properly. But I feel like I owe Ike one for making my life better at school. I bet he doesn’t like his sister giving him the cold shoulder at school, what with her weird aversion to him and all. I’ll try to make them get along better by doing this.
Maybe while I’m doing this, I'll learn her real intentions behind this. But, for now, I don’t count on it.
“Huh? Wait, you’re up for it?”
“Yeah.”
We glance at each other and she nods.
“...Is that some kinda threat? Like, you’ll go through with it so you can fool around with me?. Do I need to remind you that I don’t feel intimidated by you or whatever you say? I don’t feel anything for you, either, so don’t even think about getting it on with me. Not even if you want to.”
“Sure. I’m not really expecting anything out of this. I’ll be your fake boyfriend, no problem.”
“And why would you say yes, exactly? Especially now that you know what I'm really after and what I think about you.”
She looks worried, and rightfully so. It's not really a weird question to ask.
If I tell her it's because I want her and her brother to get along, she’ll just call the whole thing off for sure. I guess I’ll have to give her my other reason. It's pretty embarrassing to say out loud, but who cares at this point?
“This is the first time someone's relied on me for anything. So, that’s why.”
She looks at me, utterly dumbfounded.
“Huh?”
It doesn’t have anything to do with her being Ike’s little sister or anything like that. I’m genuinely happy because someone asked me for my help for once. It’s embarrassing, I know. Maybe I shouldn’t have told her.
“That sounds like a pretty dumb reason, Senpai,” she says and looks at me doubtfully.
“I was actually just thinking of how dumb it is as well, to be honest.”
“...Haha! And that’s it? Hahaha! That’s sooo funny! You’re totally hilarious, that’s for sure!”
Now her laugh and smile are genuine.
I look at her resolutely while she laughs, preparing myself for what I’m going to say next.
“Anyways, I guess it looks like you’re my ‘girlfriend’ now. So cut me some slack, will ya?”
“Same here, Senpai! Also, what's with the 'ya'? Could you not refer to me like that, at least? I have a name, y'know?” she protests with puffed-out cheeks.
“How about I call you Ike-san?”
“Rejected. That's what you’d call your girlfriend? You’d just be calling me what you call my brother, so please spare me,” she retorts while crossing her arms.
Okay. I’ll think of something different, then. Can’t be that hard...
“It’s Touka,” she speaks up, interrupting my thoughts.
“Huh?”
Her cheeks flush a cute rosy colour.
“I told you to call me by my name. It’s Touka. Okay?”
“Sure thing, Touka.”
The moment I call her by her name, she smiles.
So I guess now we’re a “couple”—even if just a fake one.
☆
