Fic: Reality Check [4/5]
Title: Reality Check
[ P] [ 1] [ 2] Chapter 3: Confessions [ E]
Series: Digimon Adventure
Rating: PG
Characters: Sora, Mimi, Yamato, others appear
Pairings: Mira, some Michi, mentions of Daikari, Jyouto, and others
Word Count: 2726 / 9572
Disclaimer: Digimon belongs to Toei, Bandai, and related entities, not me; this is a not-for-profit fanwork.
Warnings: Femmeslash, slash.
Summary: Sora and Yamato pretend to date to hide the fact that they are gay. When Mimi returns, however, she throws a wrench into their charade.
Taichi pulled his shirt over his head, his hair somehow remaining intact, as he heard the buzzer sound. He was about to ask Hikari to get it, but he heard the shower running. "Hold on, I'll be there in a minute!" he called. Pulling on his pants hastily, he ran over to the door and swung it open. "Hi Mimi," he said, leaning down to give her a light kiss on the cheek.
"Hi Taichi," Mimi replied, rushing past him, pacing back and forth in his apartment.
Shutting the door, Taichi turned to Mimi. "So, what brings you here this early?"
Mimi continued her nervous pacing, clasping her hands together. "I really, really hate to do this." She sat down on his couch, and he moved to sit beside her. "I care a lot about you. But I-"
"You don't think our relationship could work?" Taichi filled in for her.
"Not exactly. I think maybe it could work... but..." Mimi sighed. "What I'm trying to say is, I think we'd make a better pair of friends, rather than lovers."
Taichi looked at the floor. "There's someone else?" he asked in a flat voice, looking up.
"In a way. I'm really confused about what I want right now, but I think this is what's best for both of us." Mimi looked into his eyes, taking his hand into hers.
"I understand," Taichi told her sullenly, averting his gaze once more.
"I really hate to hurt you like this," Mimi said helplessly, absent-mindedly tracing designs on the back of Taichi's hand with her fingers. "Everything's just so confusing now. I don't know what to think."
Taichi turned, his eyes meeting Mimi's once more. "Go to whoever it is that you're so confused about. You know I'd rather see you happy with someone else than unhappy with me."
"You mean it?" Mimi asked. Taichi nodded, without saying a word. "Thank you so much," she said as she hugged him fiercely, her words muffled as she spoke into his shirt. "That means a lot to me."
Taichi nodded silently, attempting to swallow the lump he suddenly felt at the back of his throat. "Maybe," he said, pausing to lick his spontaneously dry lips, "maybe it just wasn't meant to be."
"Maybe." Mimi sighed again. "I'm so, so sorry. I can't say much now, though. Everything will be clearer soon." Without looking back, she fled from his apartment.
Taichi sighed, placing his head in his hands. "I lose more love interests that way." A gentle touch on his shoulders startled him, and he peered up at his sister.
"Don't worry," Hikari said. "You'll find someone who's just perfect for you, and likewise, you'll be perfect for her. It might take some time, and a few mistakes, but it'll be worth it."
A tiny smile pulled on the corner of Taichi's mouth. "You say that as if you know," he said.
"I do know," Hikari replied, giving her brother a warm smile and heading back to her bedroom.
As Yamato arrived at the dance hall, he saw that some of the early risers were there already. Miyako and Iori spoke with Jyou, leaning against the side of the building next to the door. Taichi and Hikari stood near one of the building's corners, Mimi all the way down by the other.
"Yamato," Akira hissed, pulling him aside, "I wasn't aware that we were having a public practice today." The guitarist shifted uncomfortably under the weight of his guitar, slung over his back in its case.
Yamato shrugged. "Neither was I." He grinned at his bandmate and longtime friend. "I just brought everyone here to make an announcement, that's all. Though, now that you mention it, they probably will want to stay for the practice." He proceeded to the door, pushing it open. "Door's always open," he told everyone.
"We knew," Iori explained. "We just felt it would be impolite to go in without the one who invited us here."
"I just didn't know the door was open," Taichi grumbled as the group converged on the doorway. He pushed past everyone to be the first inside, and immediately stalked over to a table that hadn't been put away.
Mimi gazed at him worriedly, but sat at the other side of the room, giving him his space. Miyako cheerfully sat beside her. "You don't seem to be feeling like yourself today, Mimi," she noted.
"I had to break up with Taichi," Mimi replied simply.
Miyako's gaze softened. "I'm sorry," she said, before noticing that Koushiro had just arrived and running to meet him.
One by one, the remaining Chosen and band members arrived. Takeru came, his and Yamato's mother following. Daisuke rushed in seconds later, hurrying to take the seat beside Hikari before Takeru did. Yutaka and Takashi arrived together, followed by Sora and both her parents. Ken walked in minutes later, and, finally, Yamato's father strode into the dance hall, a few minutes after the time Yamato had asked everyone to be there.
"Got caught in traffic," Hiroaki Ishida grumbled. Yamato shrugged.
"Well, now that everyone's here," Yamato started, beckoning Sora up onto the stage, "Sora and I have something to tell you."
"You ran off together and got married?" Miyako squealed. The color drained from Natsuko Takaishi and Toshiko Takenouchi's faces simultaneously.
"Don't tell me you got her pregnant, Ishida," Takashi said. Haruhiko Takenouchi and Hiroaki's faces paled, matching those of the women.
Sora laughed. "No, nothing like that," she said. "But what we have to say is almost just as hard. You see... Yamato and I..."
Yamato picked up where Sora left off. "We're... we're... Sora and I are homosexual."
A deafening silence fell over the group. Takeru was the first to speak. "Why didn't you tell us?" he asked. "Why did you pretend to go out like that?" He locked eyes with his brother, and Yamato looked away quickly.
"Well, that was my idea, to keep away the suspicions people might have. As for why we didn't just tell you... well... I guess we weren't ready to. We were afraid of what you'd think, as irrational as it sounds." Yamato looked at the floor.
Miyako frowned, crossing her arms. "Didn't you know we'd accept you for who you are? I'm glad you spoke up now, though."
Toshiko stood, her eyes set on Sora's. "Sora, you know you can tell us anything, we could never think anything less of you. You know we'll always love you."
Tears started to form in Sora's eyes. "You don't know how much that means to me," she said, jumping down from the stage and enclosing her mother in a tearful embrace.
"Same for us, son," Hiroaki said, unconsciously placing a hand on Natsuko's shoulder.
Natsuko nodded. "We're both behind you one hundred percent in whatever you choose, Yamato."
A small smile pulled at the corner of Yamato's mouth. "Thanks," he said simply, shoving his hands into his pockets. He glanced at his bandmates, who had been behind the pair the whole time, anticipating a small announcement and then straight into the practice. "What do you guys think?" he asked them.
"Well, I say, to each his own." Yutaka grinned at him. "That is, of course, as long as you don't hit on me, as flattering as it may be..."
The entire group broke into nervous laughter, glad that something had finally cut the tension. Yamato tried to glare at him, but the look didn't hold as a grin lit up his face. Sora rejoined Yamato on the stage, looking around at the group. The parents looked sort of worried; Miyako was still grinning widely; Takeru, Jyou, Mimi, and Hikari watched the stage intently; Taichi, Ken, and Iori still looked somewhat surprised; Koushiro looked indifferent as usual; and Daisuke... he was staring at Hikari. Sora smiled at the group. "It really means a lot to both of us that you can accept this."
Hikari smiled. "We've been such close friends for so long, how could we let anything change that?" she said.
"Exactly!" Daisuke grinned. "What she said." Hikari sweatdropped, and she and half of the room rolled their eyes. Daisuke was, of course, oblivious to it all.
"Hey," Akira said, raising his eyebrows at Yamato, "Are we going to start this practice or what?"
Yamato laughed, and nodded at the band. "Let's do it," he said, quickly adding a "No, not like that" to his statement before Yutaka could comment.
Mimi emerged from the stairs as Sora was unlocking her apartment's door. She approached cautiously, figuring that she was probably the last person Sora wanted to see at the moment, or ever again for that matter, after last night. As she was about to enter her apartment, Mimi placed a hand on her shoulder. Sora whirled around in confusion. "Mimi?" she asked. "What are you doing here?"
"We need to talk," Mimi simply answered. She stared into Sora's eyes, but her expression was unreadable. Sora simply nodded, and led her into the empty apartment. Mimi felt the need to say something to break the awkward silence between them, but nothing came to mind.
"Um... do you want a drink?" Sora asked. So she had noticed the awkwardness of the situation, too.
Mimi sat down on Sora's couch. "Sure, just a glass of water is fine," she told her, and Sora hurried into the kitchen. She leaned back on the couch, exhaling a breath she hadn't known she was holding. What was she going to say? 'Oh, Sora, you know, now that I think of it, I think I like you like that too! Let's go out!' She rolled her eyes at her inner dialogue. This was one strange situation she found herself in, and she didn't even know where to begin handling it. She decided she'd have to just go with the flow and do whatever came naturally.
Sora returned with two glasses, one with iced tea and one with water, and sat on the couch beside Mimi. She bit her lip as she handed Mimi her drink. "So... what did you want to talk to me about?" she asked.
Mimi wrung her hands nervously. "Well, I've been doing a lot of thinking," she told Sora, "since you told me that you liked me. It opened up a whole bunch of new possibilities to me. I was so confused about my feelings. I had to break up with Taichi." Mimi locked eyes with Sora. "I'll have to be honest with you, I've never really considered the possibility of getting into a relationship with another girl before... until now. You really mean a lot to me, and for you, I think I'd like to try a relationship. I don't think I'll be able to figure anything out until I at least give it a try, you know? Well... I think I'm rambling on, I want to know what you think."
Sora blinked at Mimi. "I don't know what to think," she said. "I never, especially after what's happened since you moved back, thought that you could return my feelings. I tried to give up on you... but I didn't think I would have been able to. And now that you say you want to try, for me... it's overwhelming." She smiled at Mimi, the first genuine smile she had given her in a long time. "But I would still love to be your girlfriend," she said, giggling a bit.
"OK then, it's settled." Mimi returned Sora's smile, and edged over to her. Sora wrapped her arm around Mimi's shoulders and looked into her eyes.
"I know this is new for you, so if I do something that makes you uncomfortable, just tell me. We'll take it really slow, OK?" Sora told Mimi.
Mimi snuggled up against Sora. "I don't mind," she told her. "It's nice. Right now, it just... feels right, you know?"
"Mmhmm," Sora mumbled, closing her eyes. "It's perfect. Better than a dream."
Mimi peered at Sora and a mischievous smile began to appear. 'It's now or never,' she thought. She positioned herself closer to Sora until their lips touched. Sora's eyes opened slowly and she was immersed in the moment. Mimi broke the kiss and grinned as Sora looked at her expectantly. "I could get used to this," Mimi finally said, leaning in for another.
"This is why you're calling me at eleven at night?"
Daisuke's grin lessened in intensity as he heard Miyako's reaction. "Yeah," he said. "It's the best thing that has ever happened to me, at least you could pretend to be happy for me..." On the other end of the line, Miyako sighed.
"I'm very happy for you, Daisuke. It's just that I'm trying to finish my homework here, as I usually do, considering there's no interruptions this late..."
"Oh. I'm sorry, Miyako. Well, I have more people to call, so I'll talk to you tomorrow... bye!" Daisuke hung up the phone without waiting for her response. He happily danced over to the table, where he had everyone's phone numbers written down, and looked up the next number. "Yamato Ishida," Daisuke read aloud, rushing to dial his number. He was greeted by a groggy voice.
"Uh... hello?"
"Hi Yamato!" Daisuke cheerfully said.
"Daisuke!"
Daisuke laughed at how surprised Yamato sounded. "Who were you expecting? Jun?"
"Actually..." Daisuke laughed again. Yamato sighed. "So, what possessed you to call me?"
Biting his lip, Daisuke briefly wondered why Yamato seemed so anxious to know that before answering him. "I have something to tell you! You'll never guess what it is."
"You're right, I'll never guess, so just tell me."
Daisuke grinned, even though he couldn't express that over the phone. "Hikari finally agreed to go out with me!" he shouted. There was silence at the other end of the phone. After a while, Daisuke started to wonder if the phone call had gotten disconnected or something. "Um... Yamato? Hello?"
"Oh... sorry. I'm still here. That's great, Daisuke."
Daisuke frowned at the phone. Yamato seemed kind of... disappointed. But why? Oh, of course. Daisuke felt stupid for not having thought of it before. Yamato must have been hoping for Hikari to choose Takeru. Daisuke winced at his stupid decision, hoping that Hikari would break it to Takeru before his brother did. Finally, he spoke. "Oh, well that's all I wanted to say. I've still got a few more people to call, so... talk to you later!" All of the energy had returned to Daisuke's voice as he said goodbye and hung up the phone.
Of course, in all of his excitement, Daisuke couldn't have noticed the long sigh on the other end of the line.
How could I have been so stupid? I knew that Daisuke was head-over-heels in love with Hikari. It was very naive of me to think that I even had a chance in the first place.
But part of me held out for the final decision. I hoped that maybe, if Hikari ended up choosing my brother, that maybe Daisuke could love me in return somehow, even if it was some sort of rebound type of thing. I wondered sometimes if his obsession was just an illusion, to cover up the truth he was hiding, that he was secretly in love with me, too.
Those kinds of things are reserved for fairy tales, though. Things never happen like that in real life. But whenever I looked into his eyes, I'd be lost, and something in the way they sparkled when he grinned at me told me to keep on believing. That maybe, it could happen someday. You never know.
Well, a lot of good that did. All this time I could have spent falling for someone who actually had a chance of liking me back, wasted on a hopeless crush.
I started to get incredibly jealous at that point. Sora finally got who she was pining over. So did Daisuke. They got a happy ending, and I didn't even have a fake relationship to speak of anymore.
But I couldn't stay jealous of them too long. They were my friends, and I was happy for them, having found their own happiness and all.
Besides, I found out that one of those old sayings they have really is true: that when the door closes on one opportunity, another door opens.
[ P] [ 1] [ 2] Chapter 3: Confessions [ E]
Series: Digimon Adventure
Rating: PG
Characters: Sora, Mimi, Yamato, others appear
Pairings: Mira, some Michi, mentions of Daikari, Jyouto, and others
Word Count: 2726 / 9572
Disclaimer: Digimon belongs to Toei, Bandai, and related entities, not me; this is a not-for-profit fanwork.
Warnings: Femmeslash, slash.
Summary: Sora and Yamato pretend to date to hide the fact that they are gay. When Mimi returns, however, she throws a wrench into their charade.
Taichi pulled his shirt over his head, his hair somehow remaining intact, as he heard the buzzer sound. He was about to ask Hikari to get it, but he heard the shower running. "Hold on, I'll be there in a minute!" he called. Pulling on his pants hastily, he ran over to the door and swung it open. "Hi Mimi," he said, leaning down to give her a light kiss on the cheek.
"Hi Taichi," Mimi replied, rushing past him, pacing back and forth in his apartment.
Shutting the door, Taichi turned to Mimi. "So, what brings you here this early?"
Mimi continued her nervous pacing, clasping her hands together. "I really, really hate to do this." She sat down on his couch, and he moved to sit beside her. "I care a lot about you. But I-"
"You don't think our relationship could work?" Taichi filled in for her.
"Not exactly. I think maybe it could work... but..." Mimi sighed. "What I'm trying to say is, I think we'd make a better pair of friends, rather than lovers."
Taichi looked at the floor. "There's someone else?" he asked in a flat voice, looking up.
"In a way. I'm really confused about what I want right now, but I think this is what's best for both of us." Mimi looked into his eyes, taking his hand into hers.
"I understand," Taichi told her sullenly, averting his gaze once more.
"I really hate to hurt you like this," Mimi said helplessly, absent-mindedly tracing designs on the back of Taichi's hand with her fingers. "Everything's just so confusing now. I don't know what to think."
Taichi turned, his eyes meeting Mimi's once more. "Go to whoever it is that you're so confused about. You know I'd rather see you happy with someone else than unhappy with me."
"You mean it?" Mimi asked. Taichi nodded, without saying a word. "Thank you so much," she said as she hugged him fiercely, her words muffled as she spoke into his shirt. "That means a lot to me."
Taichi nodded silently, attempting to swallow the lump he suddenly felt at the back of his throat. "Maybe," he said, pausing to lick his spontaneously dry lips, "maybe it just wasn't meant to be."
"Maybe." Mimi sighed again. "I'm so, so sorry. I can't say much now, though. Everything will be clearer soon." Without looking back, she fled from his apartment.
Taichi sighed, placing his head in his hands. "I lose more love interests that way." A gentle touch on his shoulders startled him, and he peered up at his sister.
"Don't worry," Hikari said. "You'll find someone who's just perfect for you, and likewise, you'll be perfect for her. It might take some time, and a few mistakes, but it'll be worth it."
A tiny smile pulled on the corner of Taichi's mouth. "You say that as if you know," he said.
"I do know," Hikari replied, giving her brother a warm smile and heading back to her bedroom.
As Yamato arrived at the dance hall, he saw that some of the early risers were there already. Miyako and Iori spoke with Jyou, leaning against the side of the building next to the door. Taichi and Hikari stood near one of the building's corners, Mimi all the way down by the other.
"Yamato," Akira hissed, pulling him aside, "I wasn't aware that we were having a public practice today." The guitarist shifted uncomfortably under the weight of his guitar, slung over his back in its case.
Yamato shrugged. "Neither was I." He grinned at his bandmate and longtime friend. "I just brought everyone here to make an announcement, that's all. Though, now that you mention it, they probably will want to stay for the practice." He proceeded to the door, pushing it open. "Door's always open," he told everyone.
"We knew," Iori explained. "We just felt it would be impolite to go in without the one who invited us here."
"I just didn't know the door was open," Taichi grumbled as the group converged on the doorway. He pushed past everyone to be the first inside, and immediately stalked over to a table that hadn't been put away.
Mimi gazed at him worriedly, but sat at the other side of the room, giving him his space. Miyako cheerfully sat beside her. "You don't seem to be feeling like yourself today, Mimi," she noted.
"I had to break up with Taichi," Mimi replied simply.
Miyako's gaze softened. "I'm sorry," she said, before noticing that Koushiro had just arrived and running to meet him.
One by one, the remaining Chosen and band members arrived. Takeru came, his and Yamato's mother following. Daisuke rushed in seconds later, hurrying to take the seat beside Hikari before Takeru did. Yutaka and Takashi arrived together, followed by Sora and both her parents. Ken walked in minutes later, and, finally, Yamato's father strode into the dance hall, a few minutes after the time Yamato had asked everyone to be there.
"Got caught in traffic," Hiroaki Ishida grumbled. Yamato shrugged.
"Well, now that everyone's here," Yamato started, beckoning Sora up onto the stage, "Sora and I have something to tell you."
"You ran off together and got married?" Miyako squealed. The color drained from Natsuko Takaishi and Toshiko Takenouchi's faces simultaneously.
"Don't tell me you got her pregnant, Ishida," Takashi said. Haruhiko Takenouchi and Hiroaki's faces paled, matching those of the women.
Sora laughed. "No, nothing like that," she said. "But what we have to say is almost just as hard. You see... Yamato and I..."
Yamato picked up where Sora left off. "We're... we're... Sora and I are homosexual."
A deafening silence fell over the group. Takeru was the first to speak. "Why didn't you tell us?" he asked. "Why did you pretend to go out like that?" He locked eyes with his brother, and Yamato looked away quickly.
"Well, that was my idea, to keep away the suspicions people might have. As for why we didn't just tell you... well... I guess we weren't ready to. We were afraid of what you'd think, as irrational as it sounds." Yamato looked at the floor.
Miyako frowned, crossing her arms. "Didn't you know we'd accept you for who you are? I'm glad you spoke up now, though."
Toshiko stood, her eyes set on Sora's. "Sora, you know you can tell us anything, we could never think anything less of you. You know we'll always love you."
Tears started to form in Sora's eyes. "You don't know how much that means to me," she said, jumping down from the stage and enclosing her mother in a tearful embrace.
"Same for us, son," Hiroaki said, unconsciously placing a hand on Natsuko's shoulder.
Natsuko nodded. "We're both behind you one hundred percent in whatever you choose, Yamato."
A small smile pulled at the corner of Yamato's mouth. "Thanks," he said simply, shoving his hands into his pockets. He glanced at his bandmates, who had been behind the pair the whole time, anticipating a small announcement and then straight into the practice. "What do you guys think?" he asked them.
"Well, I say, to each his own." Yutaka grinned at him. "That is, of course, as long as you don't hit on me, as flattering as it may be..."
The entire group broke into nervous laughter, glad that something had finally cut the tension. Yamato tried to glare at him, but the look didn't hold as a grin lit up his face. Sora rejoined Yamato on the stage, looking around at the group. The parents looked sort of worried; Miyako was still grinning widely; Takeru, Jyou, Mimi, and Hikari watched the stage intently; Taichi, Ken, and Iori still looked somewhat surprised; Koushiro looked indifferent as usual; and Daisuke... he was staring at Hikari. Sora smiled at the group. "It really means a lot to both of us that you can accept this."
Hikari smiled. "We've been such close friends for so long, how could we let anything change that?" she said.
"Exactly!" Daisuke grinned. "What she said." Hikari sweatdropped, and she and half of the room rolled their eyes. Daisuke was, of course, oblivious to it all.
"Hey," Akira said, raising his eyebrows at Yamato, "Are we going to start this practice or what?"
Yamato laughed, and nodded at the band. "Let's do it," he said, quickly adding a "No, not like that" to his statement before Yutaka could comment.
Mimi emerged from the stairs as Sora was unlocking her apartment's door. She approached cautiously, figuring that she was probably the last person Sora wanted to see at the moment, or ever again for that matter, after last night. As she was about to enter her apartment, Mimi placed a hand on her shoulder. Sora whirled around in confusion. "Mimi?" she asked. "What are you doing here?"
"We need to talk," Mimi simply answered. She stared into Sora's eyes, but her expression was unreadable. Sora simply nodded, and led her into the empty apartment. Mimi felt the need to say something to break the awkward silence between them, but nothing came to mind.
"Um... do you want a drink?" Sora asked. So she had noticed the awkwardness of the situation, too.
Mimi sat down on Sora's couch. "Sure, just a glass of water is fine," she told her, and Sora hurried into the kitchen. She leaned back on the couch, exhaling a breath she hadn't known she was holding. What was she going to say? 'Oh, Sora, you know, now that I think of it, I think I like you like that too! Let's go out!' She rolled her eyes at her inner dialogue. This was one strange situation she found herself in, and she didn't even know where to begin handling it. She decided she'd have to just go with the flow and do whatever came naturally.
Sora returned with two glasses, one with iced tea and one with water, and sat on the couch beside Mimi. She bit her lip as she handed Mimi her drink. "So... what did you want to talk to me about?" she asked.
Mimi wrung her hands nervously. "Well, I've been doing a lot of thinking," she told Sora, "since you told me that you liked me. It opened up a whole bunch of new possibilities to me. I was so confused about my feelings. I had to break up with Taichi." Mimi locked eyes with Sora. "I'll have to be honest with you, I've never really considered the possibility of getting into a relationship with another girl before... until now. You really mean a lot to me, and for you, I think I'd like to try a relationship. I don't think I'll be able to figure anything out until I at least give it a try, you know? Well... I think I'm rambling on, I want to know what you think."
Sora blinked at Mimi. "I don't know what to think," she said. "I never, especially after what's happened since you moved back, thought that you could return my feelings. I tried to give up on you... but I didn't think I would have been able to. And now that you say you want to try, for me... it's overwhelming." She smiled at Mimi, the first genuine smile she had given her in a long time. "But I would still love to be your girlfriend," she said, giggling a bit.
"OK then, it's settled." Mimi returned Sora's smile, and edged over to her. Sora wrapped her arm around Mimi's shoulders and looked into her eyes.
"I know this is new for you, so if I do something that makes you uncomfortable, just tell me. We'll take it really slow, OK?" Sora told Mimi.
Mimi snuggled up against Sora. "I don't mind," she told her. "It's nice. Right now, it just... feels right, you know?"
"Mmhmm," Sora mumbled, closing her eyes. "It's perfect. Better than a dream."
Mimi peered at Sora and a mischievous smile began to appear. 'It's now or never,' she thought. She positioned herself closer to Sora until their lips touched. Sora's eyes opened slowly and she was immersed in the moment. Mimi broke the kiss and grinned as Sora looked at her expectantly. "I could get used to this," Mimi finally said, leaning in for another.
"This is why you're calling me at eleven at night?"
Daisuke's grin lessened in intensity as he heard Miyako's reaction. "Yeah," he said. "It's the best thing that has ever happened to me, at least you could pretend to be happy for me..." On the other end of the line, Miyako sighed.
"I'm very happy for you, Daisuke. It's just that I'm trying to finish my homework here, as I usually do, considering there's no interruptions this late..."
"Oh. I'm sorry, Miyako. Well, I have more people to call, so I'll talk to you tomorrow... bye!" Daisuke hung up the phone without waiting for her response. He happily danced over to the table, where he had everyone's phone numbers written down, and looked up the next number. "Yamato Ishida," Daisuke read aloud, rushing to dial his number. He was greeted by a groggy voice.
"Uh... hello?"
"Hi Yamato!" Daisuke cheerfully said.
"Daisuke!"
Daisuke laughed at how surprised Yamato sounded. "Who were you expecting? Jun?"
"Actually..." Daisuke laughed again. Yamato sighed. "So, what possessed you to call me?"
Biting his lip, Daisuke briefly wondered why Yamato seemed so anxious to know that before answering him. "I have something to tell you! You'll never guess what it is."
"You're right, I'll never guess, so just tell me."
Daisuke grinned, even though he couldn't express that over the phone. "Hikari finally agreed to go out with me!" he shouted. There was silence at the other end of the phone. After a while, Daisuke started to wonder if the phone call had gotten disconnected or something. "Um... Yamato? Hello?"
"Oh... sorry. I'm still here. That's great, Daisuke."
Daisuke frowned at the phone. Yamato seemed kind of... disappointed. But why? Oh, of course. Daisuke felt stupid for not having thought of it before. Yamato must have been hoping for Hikari to choose Takeru. Daisuke winced at his stupid decision, hoping that Hikari would break it to Takeru before his brother did. Finally, he spoke. "Oh, well that's all I wanted to say. I've still got a few more people to call, so... talk to you later!" All of the energy had returned to Daisuke's voice as he said goodbye and hung up the phone.
Of course, in all of his excitement, Daisuke couldn't have noticed the long sigh on the other end of the line.
How could I have been so stupid? I knew that Daisuke was head-over-heels in love with Hikari. It was very naive of me to think that I even had a chance in the first place.
But part of me held out for the final decision. I hoped that maybe, if Hikari ended up choosing my brother, that maybe Daisuke could love me in return somehow, even if it was some sort of rebound type of thing. I wondered sometimes if his obsession was just an illusion, to cover up the truth he was hiding, that he was secretly in love with me, too.
Those kinds of things are reserved for fairy tales, though. Things never happen like that in real life. But whenever I looked into his eyes, I'd be lost, and something in the way they sparkled when he grinned at me told me to keep on believing. That maybe, it could happen someday. You never know.
Well, a lot of good that did. All this time I could have spent falling for someone who actually had a chance of liking me back, wasted on a hopeless crush.
I started to get incredibly jealous at that point. Sora finally got who she was pining over. So did Daisuke. They got a happy ending, and I didn't even have a fake relationship to speak of anymore.
But I couldn't stay jealous of them too long. They were my friends, and I was happy for them, having found their own happiness and all.
Besides, I found out that one of those old sayings they have really is true: that when the door closes on one opportunity, another door opens.