Kobayashi ga Kawai Sugite Tsurai [Chapter 50]

By the newspaper stand, Mitsuru reads a magazine and wonders what’s up with this report regarding Azusa’s parents. Recalling how Azusa looked when she asked if he thinks that her mother is some amazing person, he wonders if she knew about it earlier on. Then, Aoi passes by and asks what’s with that perplexed expression. Just when Mitsuru is saying that it is nothing, Aoi gets a glimpse of the report and mutters, ‘Tokugawa Shuuichi’, the chairman of Toushou High. Mitsuru asks him if he knows Azusa’s father. Aoi just looks surprised and tense. At Toushou High’s courtyard, some girls splash water on Azusa. They laugh and apologize for that careless accident. “Didn’t you also do this kind of thing before, Azusa-chan? But because you are the chairman’s daughter, we all just kept silent about it. With that breaking news, he’ll definitely resign, right? Afterwards, there’s no need to see your face anymore. That’s really refreshing. *grabs Azusa’s hair* You’re not going to object?” Azusa says, “..so it is like this, to be bullied is such a miserable, pitiful feeling. Even if she is quite hateful, but Shino before is really amazing to have kept a straight face and be unmoved [by it].”

The girls ask what she is muttering about. Azusa calls out to them, “Super uglies *smirking* It turns out that when bullying others, one would have such an utterly repulsive expression. The past me and the current you [guys] are the same. Really makes one feel quite ashamed. This kind of ugly can make the person you like, curse [you] upon seeing it.” The girls were ashamed into anger that one of them slaps Azusa and shouts that obviously, she is also like that. Eye for an eye, Azusa angrily slaps the girl back and shouts that’s right, they and she are super awful. Azusa thinks that it is only because she is the chairman’s daughter, her classmates would do sweet-talk to her face and it is a boring ‘friendship game’. “When my parents’ scandal got exposed to the public, they turned against me. I basically couldn’t believe that I don’t have a single true friend. Not a single--” She is surprised when Shino suddenly comes in between her and her bullies. Holding a water hose, Mego tells the girls to stop and they’re quite mean to gang up on Azusa. Mego helps them out by splashing the bullies with water.

After driving them away, Mego asks the two girls if they are okay. Bending on the floor, Azusa asks why Shino came to save her. “Do you think that I’m very pitiful?” Azusa gets angry over Shino’s expression. She grabs Shino’s collar and shouts those eyes are sympathizing her, and she always really hate them. “I acknowledge that THAT PERSON loves you more. Compared to me, you can be more at ease. Does that mean you should pity me!!” Puzzled Mego calls to Azusa to ask what’s going on. Just then, calling out to Azusa, Mitsuru, together with Aoi arrive. After Mego calls out to her twin, Azusa knows that voice. She turns around and becomes flustered upon seeing Mitsuru. Seeing Azusa grabbing Shino’s collar, Mitsuru asks Azusa what she is doing, and is Shino alright. He tells Azusa not to be cruel. He asks Shino if she isn’t hurt. Shino shakes her head. Azusa calls out to Mitsuru over why he would suddenly appear here, is he still more worried about Shino than her. Trying to explain, Mitsuru thinks that just by looking at that frightening expression of Azusa as if she is going to hit Shino, anyone would first be worried about the one being bullied.

Looking as if she is about to cry, Azusa says, “In the end, you ALSO stand at Shino’s side... It isn’t at all because you came to save me..” Mitsuru looks surprised but Azusa had already turned away to leave. Mitsuru is about to go after her but Aoi stops him. Mitsuru asks what is it, he must quickly go. Aoi says that before he goes, he hopes that he [Mitsuru] would first listen to what he has to say. “Only an extremely few people know about Shino and Tokugawa Azusa’s secret. “Shino and Tokugawa Azusa, the two of them are blood related sisters.” This freaks out the twins. Aoi thinks that they are really twins for their reaction is the same. Mego recalls that Shino mentioned before that she and Aoi do not have the same father so..the ‘father’, could it be.. Aoi says that it is Toushou High’s chairman, Tokugawa Shuuichi. “He is both Shino and Tokugawa Azusa’s biological father. He is my mother’s former lover.” The twins chart out the family tree from what they learned so far. Narration: “As time moves per minute and per second, Aoi and Shino-chan slowly told us the past which is hard-to-talk about.”

Aoi tells them that the two [Azusa’s father and Aoi’s mother] were opposed from getting married so they separated and established a family with a different partner. Even if they have a child, they still couldn’t forget each other. The fruitless love continued on and in the end, Shino was born. Shino ‘tells’ them that upon entering high school, she is very happy that she was invited by her father to go to Toushou High. Her father showed care and concern for her in every possible way since she looks like her mother. There is a scene of her father patting her head, when Shino noticed that Azusa has seen them and turned away to leave. Shino says that she is obviously already aware of it, that for Azusa, that is the greatest hurt. “But, I’m glad to be able to monopolize father’s love. *cries* I’m the most awful..” This surprises everyone. Narration: “The current me finally understands Shino-chan’s pain and confusion. That that time, and also, that other time. *flashbacks to his encounters with Shino* as well as, Tokugawa’s loneliness. *flashbacks to Azusa’s flustered and sad looks*”

Mitsuru holds surprised Shino’s shoulders and says, “It is alright, you mustn’t blame yourself that way, Shino-chan. Because from today on, Tokugawa will become incomparably happy. Because I’ll give her a thousand hundred times of love that she hasn’t obtained until now. *smiles* I like Tokugawa Azusa!! So, I’ll absolutely make her happy!! (Do you hear that, Tokugawa? ..I’m finally aware of it.) So don’t cry again *pats Shino’s head* I’ll totally get rid of Shino-chan and Tokugawa’s sad memories.” Mego and Aoi blush over that. Mitsuru turns around and leaves. Narration: “Right now, I’m going to go and make my feelings known. Won’t make Shino-chan and Tokugawa cry again.” Holding her head where Mitsuru patted her, Shino ‘tells’ her brother that it is really baffling, for it has only been twice since she met Mitsuru. “Yet it seems as if he has been a longtime friend. *smiling and teary-eyed* He definitely can heal our pain.” Narration: “I will go and protect the heart of the girl whom I first love [/liked]. And also, the heart of the girl whom I currently like, compared to anyone else.” And, the last scene is determined Mitsuru going to find Azusa. Blurb: “Mitsuru is going to make his feelings known to Azusa, the two will finally..!?”

Comment: And, another character who is confessing his love about someone to someone else. ^^; In cases like that, it really makes me hope that the real confession would be more awesome rather than well, there is no element of surprise anymore. So, because of this, Mitsuru is now going to confess and probably eat his pride to make Azusa happy. It is nice that the mangaka made him help out his first love and current love and not make it some sort of love triangle mess. I’m not too sure if I like Azusa going about this ‘save me’ thing. Even if it is nice to be a damsel in distress with a prince going to save her, but somehow with her personality, it doesn’t seem right but I guess she is in an emotional low so she is acting that way. Honestly, after being able to beat up stalkers before, I’m sure she can do more with those girl bullies. And well, this is something very hurtful and traumatic for Azusa so I guess it is inevitable that she isn’t in top fighting form. We also have to assume that those reporters earlier ask some personal yet somewhat insensitive questions which could have worn her down. Well, in this chapter, she got helped by Shino and her future sis-in-law =P It turns out that Azusa does hate being pitied by Shino. In a way, Shino is quite tough to be unfazed by Azusa. I’m thinking that she let Azusa bullied her as some sort of punishment for taking their father’s love but then, not to the point of totally submitting to her. I cannot blame Shino for being happy to be loved.

I think that Aoi’s father probably knows that she isn’t his daughter so he might have treated her coldly. Then, probably like what I thought, the mother thinks that Shino is her punishment for the forbidden love. And most probably, when that fire disaster happened, their mother went to see her lover = everything is her fault/punishment so she gone hysterical. Shino is lucky though to have Aoi for her brother who loved her despite her deafness and true identity. Based on what Azusa tends to say, she seems to have no one. The father might not really love her because the mother isn’t the one he loves. But for the mother, is it the same? She also doesn’t love him and this is just a marriage out of convenience? Most probably, so either she tried but later on, decided to find someone else, or she is also in love with someone else like him. Basically, both parents didn’t seem to have given Azusa the love that she needs. Thinking about it, it seems that the twins had fallen in love with the kids of couples who are in a loveless marriage. ^^; I guess unlike Azusa, Aoi is loved by his father. In a way, I guess their complicated family tree is the result of marrying people whom the two didn’t love but still continued their affair. ^^;; The result is traumatized kids though in this case, they are still quite strong enough to move on with their lives in the best way they possibly can. Anyway, it seems that we’ll have a confession in the next chapter. Ah, based on the official webpage, I couldn’t find this series in the next magazine issue’s preview so it might be on a break. ^^; Scans by 夜莺工作室

Quote of the day:

In prosperity, our friends know us; in adversity, we know our friends. ~ John Churton Collins