A boy sat alone on a park bench, eating an ice cream. He seemed to be unaware of the people surrounding him, keeping all to himself.
"Hey, are you okay? You look depressed."
The boy looked up to see a woman carrying some grocery bags. She seemed to have been on the way home and caught sight of him.
"I'm fine. I'm just spending time here...my friends are all busy today."
"Ah, I see. So you're lonely for the time being?" The woman sat down next to him on the bench. "Where's your Digimon partner?"
The boy looked down; people constantly asking him where his Digimon partner was had turned into a somewhat sore subject for him, since he was the only one in his circle of friends who rarely kept his Digimon along with him.
"...Kapurimon's at home. He doesn't like to come out much..."
"Ah, I see," said the woman, smiling with a little understanding. "But wouldn't you prefer to go home and hang out with Kapurimon than to sit around and do nothing here?"
"I wouldn't mind going home, but..."
He took another lick of the ice cream cone and sighed. The woman could tell that this was an issue he'd been dealing with for a while.
"But what?"
The boy looked at the woman. "Say, miss...you have a Digimon partner, right?"
"Yeah, I do." She smiled. "Well, my husband's and my Digimon partners are usually home helping to take care of my baby nowadays...she requires a lot of attention, so I appreciate their help."
"So do you and your husband hang out with your Digimon? Do you talk to them a lot?"
"Yeah, we do! Our Digimon are very important to us and always have been..."
"I see. Because..." He finished the ice cream in his cone and started nibbling off the edge of it forlornly. "...I don't think I have a good enough relationship with Kapurimon."
The woman looked at him quizzically. "What do you mean by that? Do you fight a lot?"
"...I'd rather we fight a lot than go through what we're doing now. I've had Kapurimon since before I can even remember, but...we don't talk much, and he's very quiet and I don't know if I can be very open with him sometimes..."
"Hm, I see." The woman smiled and folded her hands. "Well, I think you're overthinking things a bit."
"Overthinking things?"
"I met my Digimon partner years ago, when I probably wasn't much older than you are now. And initially, I wasn't sure what to do either, because having Digimon wasn't normal for society at the time, so I wasn't sure how to react to suddenly having a partner whom I'd have to fight alongside and share a bond with. You understand?"
The boy nodded.
"But I think you can have a close relationship with your Digimon even if you don't talk all the time. My Digimon and I are always able to understand each other even without conversation. It's even like that with humans too - my husband and I are very close, but some things he feels awkward talking about. Yet when I told him I wanted to quit my job in order to stay home and raise the baby, he understood completely. Raising a child at home isn't as easy as it sounds, you know."
"So you're saying that it's possible to have a close relationship with someone even if you're not talking with them much?"
"Well, my Digimon partner knows and accepts everything about me, how I worry over all the little things and sometimes say things I shouldn't. And I'm sure even if Kapurimon stays home most of the time, he understands everything about you. If something important and secret happened to you and you wanted to tell someone about it but couldn't - you'd still tell him about it, right? If so, I think you can still be said to have a good relationship with your Digimon."
The boy nodded, though he still looked a little worried. "All right then..."
"I'm sorry if that came out weird. I have a friend who'd explain it better, she does this kind of thing for a living..." She laughed softly. "But there's also the factor of time too. Maybe you and Kapurimon have a silent relationship now but will be talking nonstop in years to come. It all depends on how much he understands you and how much you want to understand him. So hang in there."
"Yeah."
The woman looked at the time on her phone. "Ah, I really should be getting back to my family now...please excuse me. Good luck with everything!" She picked up her grocery bags and started to walk off.
"Ah, miss - "
The woman turned around and looked at him, still smiling. "Yes?"
"...thank you. I'll definitely keep what you said in mind."
The woman winked at him. "Bingo!"
And she walked off.