Liar's Lips Fall Apart in Love - Volume 1 Chapter 1.4

The Spring When I Met You 4

I left her room. Immediately returning to my own, I let out a small sigh.

If Nanase wants to keep her high school past a secret from those around her, then she should stop talking to me from now on. It’s a given that she wouldn’t want to associate with someone who knows about her past.

For someone like me who desires solitude, this is a more convenient outcome.

Despite today’s unexpected event, I’m sure tomorrow will bring back the peaceful days. Relieved, I filled a pot with water and set it on the stove to boil some udon.

◇ ◇ ◇

I love putting on makeup.

When I apply foundation over my makeup base and add blush, my skin becomes beautifully white and clear, with healthy-looking cheeks. Using double eyelid tape and fake lashes, and drawing on eyeliner transforms me into having big, captivating eyes like an idol.

It’s fun to see my plain and unremarkable face change into something glamorous, like painting on a blank canvas.

Lastly, I apply lipstick and smile brightly at myself in the mirror. Strangely enough, doing this seems to well up a sense of confidence within me.

At that moment, I heard the sound of the door next door closing.

It’s eight in the morning now. He came home at dawn, and it seems he’s already leaving for campus. I wonder when he sleeps; it’s worrying.

…To think that the boy from the same seminar lives next door. And to think he was a classmate from my high school…

I had my first conversation with him— Souhei Sagara-kun—just yesterday. He doesn’t try to mingle with anyone.

He’s always seated at the front of the lecture hall, listening intently to the professor.

Everyone says, “That guy is seriously serious,” but I felt a sense of kinship and positive regard for him.

Seriousness is a virtue. At least, that’s what I believe.

Up until high school, I was a girl whose only redeeming feature was being serious.

I never wore my uniform sloppily, never dyed my hair, and makeup was absolutely out of the question.

I was always punctual and never missed a class, spending my breaks glued to my desk, studying. Thanks to that, my grades were good, but that was all.

It’s not that I was hiding things or being ignored or gossiped about.

However, my classmates were somewhat distant towards me, and during pair work in class, I was always the one left over.

“Nanase-san is serious, so she’s a bit different from us, right?”

The girls in the group I was pityingly included in for the school trip said so without any malice. I, pretending not to be hurt, replied with a smile, “That’s right.” Then, I tried not to be a nuisance, quietly following from a little distance behind.

My memory of the school trip is nothing but the backs of my classmates.

My high school life was empty.

I don’t have a single memory. I just went to school and breathed every day.

I didn’t have anyone I could call a friend. Not to mention a boyfriend, I didn’t even have someone I liked.

I wanted to have a sparkling high school life just like everyone else.

I wanted to dress up, hang out with friends, experience a romance like in shoujo manga, and go on dates with a boyfriend.

“Isn’t it not too late to start now?”

“You still have plenty of time,” she said, giving me a push on the back.

It was my cousin whom I admired. I called her “Onee-chan” and was as close to her as if she were my real sister.

“But I’m not cute like Onee-chan.”

“Don’t worry. Haruko can become cute from now on.”

My cousin said so and gave me a lipstick as a gift. That was the first cosmetic I had ever received in my life.

After that, I applied to the same university in Kyoto that my cousin had attended. I wanted to start over, away from home, in a place where no one knew about me.

As soon as I received the acceptance notice, I bought a full set of cosmetics, clothes, and accessories.

I went to the hairdresser to change my hairstyle and got my ears pierced.

The New Year’s money I had been saving since elementary school was gone in no time, but I felt refreshed.

I will change. I can definitely change. I will show that I can change!

With that determination, I came to Kyoto, dreaming of a rosy college life.

After applying makeup and zoning out for a while, I realized that five precious minutes of the morning had passed. I had wasted five valuable minutes of the morning.

After choosing clothes from my closet and changing, I tie my hair up high and curl the ends lightly.

Since I’m styling my hair up, I choose larger earrings. I decide to wear the open-toe pumps I bought the other day.

Just thinking about it makes my heart flutter with excitement. It’s fun to think about fashion that suits me.

After applying sunscreen carefully, I step outside my room. The landlord, who is about the age of my grandmother, was watering the flower bed. “Good morning!” I call out to her, and the landlord squints her eyes and replies, “Good mornin’. It’s gonna be hot today, take care.”

“Yes, I’m off,” I reply, bowing my head before straddling my bicycle.

The landlord, with her back hunched, sends me off with a gentle smile. I wave back at her as she waves to me.

If it were the old me, I would have mumbled a greeting in a mosquito-like voice, then passed by looking down. I take a deep breath and start pedaling with all my might.

It takes about thirty minutes by bike from my apartment to the university.

It’s early in the morning and there aren’t many people, so I park my bike at the bike rack closest to the campus building.

While walking on campus, someone taps me on the shoulder. “Haruko! Good morning!”

It was a beautiful girl in a white shirt and slim, damaged denim who called out to me. With slightly upturned eyes, she had a feline-like appearance. “Ah, Sacchan. Good morning!”

She is Sacchan—Sudo Saki-chan. She was my first friend I made since entering university.

We became friends during a seminar orientation. In the middle of the lecture, Satchan said to me,

“Doesn’t that professor look like a Tibetan sand fox?”

I couldn’t help but burst out laughing after looking at the professor’s face.

Afterward, we went for tea at a cafe inside the university campus.