Warning: EXTREME OOCness and crappy drama ahead. Pardon the grammatical errors.

They Knew

By: rennomiya

The buzzing noise of the students of Gintama High School echoed throughout the hallways. A few more minutes and the bell would ring, signaling the start of first period. A lone boy sitting in the middle of the class examined his energetic classmates with boredom. He yawned and stretched his back before pulling out a red eye mask which he kept inside his pocket. While he put his eyemask over his eyes, he heard a classmate talking to him and telling him that classes were about to start and he shouldn't take a nap now.

He ignored his classmate and was about to lie down on his arms when the bell rang. He paid no attention to the bell though and just continued on lying down his desk. He heard the sound of their classroom's sliding door open and his classmates' noise began to fade away as they get back to their assigned seats.

Ginpachi-sensei entered the room casually with a book slung over his shoulder. He tapped his desk a little before facing his class with his usual dead-fish eyes. The students greeted him and he greeted back, noticing the napping boy in the middle of the room. "Souichiro-kun, wake up or I'll tell your sister you're always trying to kill Oogushi-kun," the permed silver head warned.

"It's Sougo," said the boy as he removed his red eye mask from his eyes and sat up properly. "And like I give a damn."

"Don't even try to hide it, siscon boy," the teacher teased further.

Okita Sougo simply glared at the older man a little and looked sideways, ignoring him completely.

"Anyway, we have a new student in our class," Ginpachi-sensei's words earned attention from the gradually distracted class. "She's a transfer student from China, and also the daughter of an ol' friend of mine. She's here in Japan... because of some personal reasons. Hey Kagura, get your ass in here!"

Every student's eyes focused on the girl who entered the room. She had vermillion red hair tied into two buns on either side of her head. Her eyes were pure cerulean blue that stared at them with blankness.

"Everyone, meet Kagura. Kagura, introduce yourself."

The girl, Kagura, remained looking at them with blank eyes. She finally spoke after a few seconds of silence. "I'm Kagura. I came from China. Nice to meet you," she said without emotion whatsoever, making the other students whisper to each other about her aloofness.

"Be nice to her. Remember that she's my surrogate daughter so bully her and you'll get good grades from me. Anyway, why don't you sit next to Shimura?" the teacher said and pointed towards a plain-looking boy with eyeglasses.

Kagura nodded a little and walked towards the empty seat next to glasses-boy...

... and in front of a boy with a red eye mask on top of his head.

Okita stared at her with his usual deadpanned expression and Kagura did the same. They kept staring at each other for a while before she sat on her seat. She was given a warm welcome by the Shimura-kid which she replied with a meek nod and proceeded on looking straight ahead.

Everybody on the class had one thing on their mind at that moment: She was anti-social.

Nobody dared to approach her, Okita noticed. It had been a few weeks already since she arrived and she had barely interacted with anyone. During P.E class she would sit on a corner alone whenever it was not her turn. She sat alone at class during lunch time, eating a colorful bento with lots of hearts made by who-knows-who, or she would stare outside the window alone and away from most of the students. During homeroom, when everyone was loud and talking to each other, she would sit on her chair looking uncomfortable and stiff.

But...

There was one person she would talk to. And whenever she talked to this person, he would see a genuine smile cover her face.

This person was none other than their teacher, Sakata Ginpachi-sensei.

"Maybe the class should make more effort on approaching her?" Sougo heard the president of the student council, Shimura Tae-senpai, suggested to her brother, and Kagura's seatmate, Shinpachi.

"We already did our best. She was just distancing herself from us..." Shinpachi replied to her, concerned. He tried his best on befriending his seatmate the past few weeks but he was only either ignored or glared at.

"Hmmm... I guess we should just let her do what she wants then..." Tae said and walked towards her class after saying her goodbyes to his classmate.

Okita watched as Shinpachi sighed in defeat and went back on cleaning the board.

Because of her unsociable personality, many of their classmates began to quietly gossip about her. There was already a fast-spreading rumor that she was a daughter of a Chinese Mafia boss and she ran away from home. There were also rumors that she was dating their sensei that's why she was only close to him.

No one dared to approach her to know the truth about herself. Mainly because no one was interested and they deem the rumors more interesting than the truth.

"A mafia boss's daughter? How scary~"

"Eh really? With sensei? Wow how daring hahahaha!"

"Love hotel?! If the Superintendent found out about it, both of them will be kicked out for sure, hahahaha!"

"Look, she's staring at nowhere again! She's really weird. Don't get too close to her."

Okita heard every single one of their gossips.

"Look, she's with sensei again. I bet she's going to get the highest grade among us because of their relationship!"

Okita leaned his back on his chair, his legs propped on the desk.

"How disgusting! A student-teacher relationship? EEEEWWW!"

Ginpachi-sensei and Kagura passed by their room carrying tons of school materials and Okita saw from the corner of his eyes how happy Kagura looked as she talked to sensei. She was even blushing slightly.

But he also saw that she looked sad... She knew that they were gossiping about her.

Okita couldn't help but stare at her. He sighed, covered his eyes with his eyemask, and began his daily nap time.

"Oi, China!"

Kagura was hesitant if she'd look or not.

"Oi, I said China!" Okita yelled a bit louder and pulled on one of her bun, making her screech in pain. She slapped his hand away with tears on her eyes.

"What the hell was that for!?" she screamed at him, making everyone on the class turn to watch them.

Okita wiped the wet mop on her face.

She angrily grabbed the mop from him and smacked his head with it. "That's disgusting! Do that again and I'll crush your skull into pieces!"

She grabbed his collar and slapped him continuously. Their classmates looked at each other and began chuckling.

"China!"

He had a sadistic smile plastered on his face as he lifted her skirt up, making every boy in their class blush.

Kagura's eyes widened and punched him straight on the face.

It hurt.

Then, Kagura heard several amused laughs in their class. The girls were cheering her on. She smiled a bit.

"Hah! You can't do what you did to me anymore!" Kagura said to him and proudly lifted her skirt, revealing gym shorts underneath.

"Who said I'd do it again. I don't want to see your disgusting underwear anymore!" Okita countered back.

"What was that?!"

"Kagura-chan, show him what you can do!" the girls cheered for Kagura and even gave encouraging pats on her back. Kagura grinned cheerfully at them. "I sure will!"

Okita slightly smiled, feeling somewhat accomplished. China-girl had finally opened up to their class and was beginning to make lots of friends.

"Oi, you damn Sadist," she approached him one day.

"What the hell do you want? Stop bothering me. Go away, you stupid China," he said.

"... Thanks," Kagura said in a low voice out of the blue making Okita stop in his tracks. He stared at her with disbelief.

"I never knew you were capable of gratitude," he mocked.

"Shut up. I know you did that on purpose. You helped me make friends with the class."

Okita turned his head away from her. "No, I didn't. Stop with your daydreams."

"You knew that some of our classmates were spreading false rumors about me, and tried to make them forget by making me open myself up to the whole class," she said with her usual innocent expression. "The rumors began to fade away."

"I told you. I have no idea of what you're talking about."

Then, she suddenly burst out laughing. "Yeah, you're right. You're not they type of person who'd do that."

As days went by, Okita's closest friends began to see changes on him.

Hijikata and Kondo both noticed that Sougo and the China girl were getting closer and their friend was becoming more carefree and open towards her. The two would go home together and chat with each other more frequently than their other classmates. But of course, their brutal physical and verbal fights were always present anytime, anywhere. At gym, at the library, at lunch, even outside of school, the two looked as if the line between their rivalry and friendship was thinning.

They noticed that Okita was smiling a lot more than he used to and he wasn't as pompous as before. It was an improvement to both him and the China girl.

"Ah, young love," Kondo-san would say.

"... The weather forecaster was wrong..." Kagura said as she stared at the pouring rain and dark clouds above. She was already at the entrance of the school by the shoe lockers, ready to go home when the weather suddenly decided a downpour. She grinned to herself. "Good thing I always bring my umbrella!" she proudly said to herself and prepared her purple parasol.

Then suddenly, she felt a heavy weight on her head. Okita casually used her head as his arm rest. "Whoa, the rain suddenly appeared out of nowhere. You're such a jinx, China."

"Who said that I jinxed it, huh?" she glared at him as she tried to get his arm away from her.

"Just get me inside your freaking umbrella. I forgot mine," he said and tried to reach a hand on her umbrella.

"No way! It's your fault you didn't bring one! And this one's mine! Stop hogging it all to yourself!"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. What great timing," the two of them heard a familiar voice said, making them stop with their argument. It was Ginpachi-sensei staring at the droplets of rain and standing a few feet away from them.

Kagura's big innocent eyes suddenly shined in a different way, and her Sougo noticed it. Kagura planned on sharing her umbrella with the silver haired teacher. "Gin-cha—" she ran towards him happily but stopped when she noticed that a busty woman approached him.

"Still useless, aren't you, Gintoki?" Tsukuyo-sensei said to him as she neared the male teacher. "Here," she handed him a blue umbrella with white swirls.

"Heh? I thought you were going to ask me to share an umbrella with you, Tsukuyo," Ginpachi teased with a smirk.

Tsukki's face reddened a little bit and smacked his head with her autumn leaves patterned-umbrella."Don't be ridiculous! Who do you think I am? A high-schooler!? Just shut up and take this umbrella before I crash your head on the cemented floor!"

"You didn't have to hit me on the head with the freaking umbrella, you freaky woman!"

Kagura stared at them with wide eyes. She didn't know that Okita was watching her, though. She gritted her teeth and held her umbrella tighter. Then, she began walking towards the rain, opening her umbrella in the process. Okita watched her leave, then back at Ginpachi-sensei and Tsukuyo-sensei.

Kagura didn't know how far she had walked already. She didn't even know where she was. She was focused on the image of her precious Gin-chan and Tsukuyo-sensei together.

She knew.

She knew for quite a long time that Gin-chan is in love with Tsukuyo-sensei.

She stopped walking as tears began to cloud her vision. She hated this feeling. It hurts. Her chest hurts. Gin-chan was always with her ever since she can remember. He was always there for her and takes care of her better than her own father. She admired him most in the world. When she was really young, she dreamed of marrying the silver-haired man.

Even now, she still dreamt of marrying him.

Suddenly, the umbrella that was shielding her from the rain was tilted slightly away from her. "Damn, move it China! I'm getting soaked here!" Okita Sougo said as he tried to get the umbrella to shield him from the rain.

Kagura stared at him and pushed him away weakly. "I'm not in the mood. Go away."

Okita was silent for a moment before the rain became heavier. He pulled Kagura and ran towards a nearby convenient store to temporary shelter them from the rain.

The skies were darker than before, and only the luminosity from the inside of the convenient store served as their light source. Okita stared at the heavy rain, not bothering to look at the girl beside him knowing that it would make him feel uncomfortable.

He knew.

He knew for quite a long time that China is in love with Ginpachi-sensei.

And he knew that he was subconsciously trying to get her attention away from the teacher, and he was aware that he failed miserably.

"Tsukuyo-sensei... went home with him," he said to break the ice, but he also knew that it would only deepen the wound inside of her.

She was silent and looking down with dead eyes.

He sighed. Why was she shedding tears for that useless old man? Why does she only notice that lazy ass?

'Why won't she look at me?'

"Quit acting like that, you stupid bitch. You know that he will never look at you the same way you look at him." At this point, he didn't know if he was talking about himself or not.

"Shut up," she said in a low, tired voice.

"I don't know how or what possessed you to like him, but face reality already. He's too old for you. And he's in love with a woman that's ten times better and hotter than you."

"Shut up."

"That guy would never succumb to anything. He'd die next to piles of Jump with several grandchildren around him."

"I SAID SHUT UP!" she slapped him hard. "You don't know Gin-chan well enough to say that! Gin-chan is ten times better than you! Gin-chan is cool! He's awesome! He took care of me! He knows me better than anyone else so don't you speak ill of him!"

She was crying.

"He'll never look at you as a woman," he muttered, but clear enough for her to hear.

She punched him on his chest continuously. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! I know that!" her voice turned weaker as she sobbed, "I know... for a long time... that he'd never see me like that! E-Even if I tried my best to get him to notice me... Even though... I did my best to make him realize..."

Her punches started getting weaker and slower. "And no matter how I tried it... I can't bring myself to hate Tsukuyo-sensei. She's nice... she's cool... S-She's perfect for Gin-chan..." she hesitated yet admitted it anyway.

"You don't know the feeling of unrequited love so just shut up!" she trembled as she cried and brought her face close to his chest.

'You have no idea.'

"I was always watching him... even when he looks at her... even if it pained me, I still didn't give up... I love him... You will never know how much pain that brings to me! Seeing him happy with her... seeing him look at her differently... seeing the shine in his eyes when he's with her... It hurts..."

'You really have no idea.'

"Kagura, you're finally gaining lots of friends, huh?" Gin-chan told her one day.

"Yup! I'm happy with my friends here in Gintama Middle School!"

"You seem to be close to Souichiro-kun, too."

"Eh?"

"What's this? Is my daughter starting to fall in love?" he teased.

"... Uh, no. He's just..."

"No need to hide it. But hide it from your bald father though. I'll get in trouble if he finds out. Just tell me when he hurts you, I'll kill him."

"No, Gin-chan! Sadist is—"

"Gintoki! There you are! How many times do I have to tell you not to slack off here!?"

"Sheesh, calm down Tsukki. What are you, my mother?"

"Shut up! Just come! Kagura-chan, I have to borrow your useless caretaker for a while."

"... Huh? O-Oh... okay..."

Kagura suddenly realized. She was becoming distant with Gin-chan... all because of this Sadist. She was becoming too close with him, that Gin-chan started to think that something was going on between them.

"Let's stop this," she said tiredly.

"Because of you... Gin-chan would really... look at me no more than just a daughter... "

Okita stared at her with his eyes gradually widening.

"Don't ever talk to me again." And she ran away in the rain, leaving her umbrella behind.

Okita didn't get a chance to watch her leave. Flashes of her image with him appeared in his eyes. Her smiles. Her laughs. Her ugly expression when she looks down on someone. Her angry face. Her sour look. Her deadpanned expression.

"... China."

It was back to how it used to be.

She was anti-social again.

He was lifeless again.

But what the class noticed more was that they don't speak or look at each other anymore.

'What happened between them?'

'Gosh, I'm so curious! Maybe Okita-san crossed the line and did something horrible to her!'

It was deafening; their gossips.

Their close friends tried to get information from them, but both refused to speak of anything related to each other.

One day, during their lunch break, Gin-sensei called for Kagura and talked to her privately in his office. Okita was curious, jealous maybe, but decided to ignore them and just completely forget about their existence.

'Unrequited love sucks.' He sighed.

Okita just finished changing his school shoes to his regular ones, ready to go home, when she suddenly appeared and stood in front of his way. He stared blankly at her, her head down and her eyes glaring at the ground. It looked as if she was suppressing the urge to cry.

He didn't know how he should react or what he should say. The two of them hadn't been talking in the past few months, even the whole summer. It felt a bit awkward, but somehow, Okita was a bit, just a tiny bit, happy that she stepped up in front of him and acknowledged his existence.

He sighed deeply and adjusted his bag on his shoulder. "Are you finally going to apologize and admit that Danna is not going to acknowledge your feelings even if you ignore me?" he said in monotone.

Kagura slowly held the hem of his sleeves. Her face was red and her eyes were still glaring at the ground. Softly, she spoke. "Let's go to the arcade. Or watch a movie. Or go to the theme park. Anything. Let's just… go."

Okita was confused. Why did she suddenly ask him out? Is this supposed to be a… date? "Ch—"

Kagura heard footsteps nearing them. She tightened her grip on his sleeve and hurriedly said, "Let's go."

"Yo Kagura, Souichiro-kun! You still here? School's over for a while now. Don't tell me you two are going on a date?" Gin-sensei said as he neared the two. Sougo noticed that she stiffened, and her brows narrowed.

Okita looked back at their teacher and said, "It's Sougo. And no, we ar—"

Kagura wrapped her arms around his arm and leaned closer to him. Her back was facing Gin-sensei. "Yes. Sougo and I are going on a date," she said briefly and pulled him with her as she started walking away.

Sougo, confused with her actions, and the way she addressed his first name, turned his head to look at Danna and saw a shining thing on their sensei's ring finger. That's when he finally understood everything.

"Congratulations on your engagement, Danna," he greeted the silver-haired teacher whose cheeks turned slightly red at what he said. "Take care of Tsukuyo-sensei," he smirked. Kagura's grip on his arm tightened involuntarily.

The two were already at the gate of their school when Okita began to speak to her. "That was mean, China."

"…"

"You used me in hopes of getting your Gin-chan jealous. And failed miserably. You even called me by my name," Okita said as he looked at Kagura who was still glaring daggers at the ground. She was still holding onto his arms. Honestly though, he didn't like it when she called him by his name. It felt… wrong.

"I want to watch a sad movie," she said blankly. "I'll pay for everything. Even the food. Just… just come with me."

Okita watched her as her eyes reflected the loneliness she was feeling, despite her monotonic words. It was different than how she looks most of the time; cheerful, energetic, childish. He stared ahead, "Who am I to say 'no' to your treat?"

She kept holding his arm until they arrived at the cinema.

The two entered the cinema after buying tickets and snacks. They got there earlier than the movie schedule.

Kagura sat on her seat first before Okita. When he sat on his seat, he noticed that tears continuously flowed down the girl's cheeks. She sniffed and sobbed as she stared at the huge movie screen.

"… China… the movie hasn't started yet…"

Kagura continued to sob. "The trailer is just really sad," she said between sniffs. She cried harder.

Okita, for the first time in a while, snorted in amusement.

But he felt relieved. Because he knew, as her tears dropped on her chin, her feelings for their sensei were gradually disappearing as she finally accepted reality.

She will finally start looking at other men.

"The trailer is a comedy."

"Shut up! This Mr. Bean trailer is tragic as hell my tears won't stop!"

He wished it would be him.

A/N: I CAN'T BELIEVE I WROTE KAGURA HAVING A ONE-SIDED CRUSH ON GIN DKJFSALKFJSLDJAJSFJ AS

But I had to do that because of OkiKagu feels. I suck at drama. Originally, it was supposed to be a part of the Gintama One-shot Collection but it was too dramatic to put there. So here we go!

This fic was inspired by a video in YouTube. I believe the title is "Okita x Kagura" and the song used in the last part is "Me Me She" by RADWIMPS. Somehow, this also reminded me of Kagamine Len's song Spice! in a way.

Thanks for reading and you may leave a review if you like ^^

Gintama © Hideaki Sorachi.