Spirit Girlfriend c6

Chapter 6: Souta Shibuya Speaks with His Friend

<Souta Shibuya’s Perspective>

“He～y, Souta. Are you free this afternoon?”

Souta: “Oh, hey Touru. I don’t have any plans.”

Class was over, and I was putting away my notebook inside my backpack when Touru called out to me.

Touru: “Then let’s go out and have some fun! I found a place I really want to go check out!”

Touru gave a huge smile, and wrapped his arms around my shoulder. Touru is the guy with the blonde dyed hair and wears a red shirt instead of the white the school requires. He’s the casual, rebellious type if you catch my drift.

ーーTouru Itabashi.

We’ve been friends since middle school, and he’s the kind that goes with the flow very cheerfully wherever he goes.

He’s loud when he talks, laughs a lot, and he gets up close and personal to anyone he meets.

He’s the embodiment of bright cheerfulness, and when Yukina passed during the Winter Break, he sent me a lot of Line messages and called me a lot.

I’m sure he must have been worried.

Since I wasn’t replying, he even contacted my little sister to check up on me.

……..now that I think about it, I don’t even know how he got her contact information in the first place but…..

…….I won’t forgive him if he tries to hook up with her.

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Souta: “And….you wanted to invite me to come check out this store?”

Touru: “What～ why not～ doesn’t it look like fun～?”

We arrived at a café that sat across the Musashino City Park. We had to walk down an alley right next to the department store near the Kichijoji Station South exit.

Apparently, it was famous for its Tetsu-Kannon {Chinese Herb Tea} Tapioca Milk Tea.

It’s a place catered to women….

Souta: “Why do you dress like that when your most favorite things are sweet desserts….”

Touru: “You got a problem with that? Eating sweets is what gives me drive and energy.”

….says the blonde punk who’s sipping his milk tea.

On his plate is a huge fruit tart.

I wasn’t in the mood for sweets so I ordered a coffee without cream or sugar.

Looking around, I see women sitting together and couples.

We’re the only customers that are sitting together with just guys.

No matter how you look at it, we’re not fitting in well here.

Souta: “You could have come here with your girlfriend, right? Weren’t you going out with that Rika from West High?”

I remember Touru showing me a pic of her with the two standing together last year before Christmas.

She was a cute girl who wore a lot of makeup and fit right in with the “gal” (gyaru) culture of High School.

Touru: “Oh yeah, about Rika…..we broke up.”

Souta: “Another breakup….?”

Touru loves going out with girls.

His hobby is asking girls out.

There is almost never a time when he doesn’t have a girlfriend.

But although he’s quick to hook up with them, he’s also equally fast at breaking up with them too.

His lecherous infamy has spread across our High School quickly, so no girls there deal with him.

Touru: “Hey now! She dumped me! Said something about finding another guy she liked! I’m the victim here!”

Touru is angrily chewing on his straw as he presents his rebuttal.

And wasn’t Touru’s most favorite phrase, “Hey, wanna seen what it’s like to go out with me?”

Doesn’t that mean the whole thing was a trial run from the start?

Besides, in truth, he enjoys asking out, going out, and even breaking up with women.

He’s that type of guy.

And as for me, I only want to date girls that I’m interested in dating.

During middle school, we got into a heated argument about that, and it ended up with our fists in each other’s faces.

In the end, we both didn’t change our opinion though.

I was remembering stuff like that from the past when Touru looked my way and chuckled.

Touru: “I’m glad you look like you’re doing okay. You didn’t answer my calls or reply at all to my messages.”

Souta: “That…….I’m really sorry about that…”

During the Winter Break, Yukina died, and I bottomed out.

But Touru kept calling and texting me.

In the end, I finally replied back to him at the very end of Winter Break.

The atmosphere softened as we both reflected on the past.

I finished my coffee, and Touru wolfed down his cake and drank up his milk tea.

Touru: “Then I’ll go look for my new love around Shinjuku.”

Souta: “You really don’t get tired of this?”

Touru’s life is centered around asking out women.

He’s been doing this since Middle School, and it’s just part of his nature and who he is now.

Before, he would say, “If it’s the two of us, we’ll have a better chance of success!” and would invite me to ask out girls with him, and Yukina would snap.

Oh yeah, Akane also didn’t appreciate Touru’s women troubles.

Those were good times.

Touru: “Oh what? Souta, you want to come with……..I MEAN, HEY! WAIT, WAIT, WAIT! I’M JOKING! I KNOW SOUTA WON’T GO IN THE FIRST PLACE!”

Souta: “?”

I haven’t said anything.

It’s true that I’ve never gone with Touru to look up with women.

But Touru was <looking into the air> as he frantically spat out his words.

In the end, we didn’t talk about much.

Even though we didn’t have any serious conversations, it was still a nice change of pace.

I’m sure this was Touru’s way of encouraging me.

We both exited the store.

When I tried to pay, Touru shoved in saying, “Don’t worry about it! I just got paid for my part-time job!” and he paid for my coffee.

That reminds me. I guess he’s still helping out with the family business.

Although I’m a little hesitant to make my friend pay, I let it go this time.

I decided to walk around the city a little more and not go directly to take the train.

Touru was heading to the Central Line to head to Shinjuku.

On the way to the station, he said something weird to me.

Touru: “Hey, um...have you felt...I dunno, tired recently? Or have you been seeing things at all?”

It was actually out of character for Touru to talk about these kind of things.

Souta: “No, not really. On the contrary, I’ve been doing really well lately. …….even though….you know….”

I accidentally let it slip.

I was trying to avoid saying things about Yukina.

But Touru just smiled warmly with a hint of sadness in his eyes.

Touru: “Hey, you let me know if you’re feeling down. We can hang out again.”

He slapped my shoulder a few times and waved his hand as he disappeared into the station.

I watched him leave and thought…

Souta: (I really must have made him worry.)

Touru might seem shallow and tends to avoid issues, but he still cares a lot about his friends.

Apparently, his parents are Church Pastors or something, and he’s used to hearing out people’s troubles.

The next time we meet, I should treat him to some Ramen at the Doukutsu Restaurant.

But honestly….

Souta: “Akane and Touru are both asking me strange things lately.”

I’m eating 3 meals a day, and I’m sleeping well.

I’m living a fairly healthy life right now.

Do I really look that disheveled or that down and depressed?

I walk around the shopping district without any destination in mind.

I walked in front of a clothes store and saw my reflection in the window.

Great, I’ll check and see if I really look that fatigued.

But my eyes catch something else.

Behind meーーstood a girl in a High School uniform.

Souta: “Huh?”

I didn’t feel anyone’s presence behind me.

I turn around quickly.

There’s no one there.

And when I looked back at the showcase window, I only saw my own reflection and no one else’s.

Was it my imagination?

I continued walking down the streets of the city.

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CHONKY Notes LiT (Lost in Translation)

Gal, gyaru (ギャル), kogyaru (コギャル) - So if you mix the attitude of Mean Girls and split it with Mexican Cholas, you kind of get the rebellious High School sub-culture of “gyaru”. Technically, if they’re high schoolers, they overlap with “ko-gyaru” (ko stemming from the Japanese word of High School "Kou-Kou"). Running against the patriarchal society, the Japanese culture of women are demanded to be modest and reserved, but the only thing these gals don’t rebel against is the hyper-feminist fashion and hyper-femininity the sub-culture still represents. Similar to how you would identify any man tatt’ed up over his entire body as Yakuza, you can identify gals when you see a girl with dyed hair and extremely/overly tanned skin, lots of makeup, and wearing a Japanese school uniform. Stereotypes can differ from talkative ones, violent ones, lazy ones, and sexually active kinds, so it’s basically like spinning a roulette on what kind of rebellious character/nature the girl wants to represent. Going through a mohawk phase myself as I scribbled Japanese Kanji characters all over my arms with a sharpie (like a fake tattoo), I honestly get why teenagers (and tweens) rebel. I’m not one to judge, and I don’t mean to sound condescending. Being much older now….it’s interesting to think about these things.

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CREDITS

Spirit Girlfriend ~ Seems Like I Am the Only One Who Doesn’t Realize That I Have Been Possessed by My Dead Girlfriend~

Written by: Isle Osaki (Twitter: https://twitter.com/Isle_Osaki)

Translated by: ChonkyTranslator

Japanese Title:

ユーレイな彼女　～どうやら死んだ恋人が取り憑いてることに、俺だけ気付いてないらしい～

作者: 大崎 アイル (オオサキ アイル)

Original Source Link:

https://ncode.syosetu.com/n4912fy/6/