Mitsumi really is such a liar though... She ends up being a bit of an unreliable narrator because the person she lies the most to is herself. She lies to protect herself and others from her own doubts, misgivings, and struggles. This is especially noticeable at the beginning of the manga, in which she is struggling more with the transition to high school, but the lies she tells later in the manga are more abstruse and denotative of her character, imo.
For instance, in chapter one, she lies to her family about how her first day went, saying, "there were no big issues." And then in chapter two, she lies straight to Fumi's face while at karaoke. If Fumi didn't know Mitsumi so well, she would have been fooled. Both of these instances were to keep her family and friends from worrying about her, as we know Mitsumi has placed a lot of pressure on herself to do well in Tokyo because this is such a rare opportunity for people from her town. She cannot bear the thought of disappointing the people back home.
But as the story goes on, Mitsumi's lies become more subtle that I think a lot of people end up overlooking her struggle. Especially when Shima's internal monologue is much more straightforward than Mitsumi's, so his angst is more apparent.
The most notable example of Mitsumi doing this is the entirety of Mitsumi and Shima's short-lived relationship. Mitsumi doesn't tell her friends that they are dating, which is a lie in itself, because she "wants to wait until they're more settled." But its only after they break up that Mitsumi admits that she never thought a relationship with Shima was going to last, though she doesn't delve into why she feels that way (screenshot below is from chapter 47). She didn't lie to her friends because she wanted to wait until her and Shima's relationship was more secure; she didn't want to admit to herself that she never thought their relationship would last in the first place. (My theories on that is for another post.)
After Mitsumi tells them, she ends up downplaying her feelings until Makoto knocks some sense into her with all the panache of a literary club member. But before Makoto does that, Mitsumi says that she's okay with just being friends and denies that she has any feelings towards him. After Makoto tells her that "Whatever you feel for him is just as valid as any passionate love affair," in chapter 57, Mitsumi, in her thoughts, admits that she thought that "letting him go would prove my feelings were never that serious... I guess it's okay that I still like him."
Skip and Loafer takes place in a world in which every character is given grace and a perhaps unrealistic degree of introspection. Mitsumi stands apart from them because she is the least self-aware member of the cast. Whereas Shima, Mika, Makoto, Yuzuki, and even newer character like Ujiie and Yasaka all exhibit some level of awareness of their shortcomings, typically through personal monologues, Mitsumi doesn't demonstrate that. Her problems, on a surface level, are usually external -- deciding what club to join, or, more recently, building her friendship with Yasaka. But she doesn't dwell on how the way she is treated makes her feel (and I could elaborate on this but that would be a tangent several paragraphs long) or even what she is feeling at all. As a result, readers need to take a more proactive approach in deciphering what she is feeling, or else Mitsumi's perspective is at risk of disappearing from the conversation.
Mitsumi's conflict with her sister during her visit to her hometown exemplifies this. We, the reader, are shut out from her feelings when her sister rejects her gift. We get no internal thoughts or perspective at all. What we do get is a plastered smile and a half-hearted joke.
Anyways send my girl Mitsumi your love and well-wishes, she's an emotionally constipated perfectionistic 16 year-old girl with a crush on a self-centered boy...
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