The Inevitable
AN: Lower secondary school is middle/junior high school. I will be using the Japanese ages, I'm not sure if to consider it three or four years apart. Yamato is 11, while Hikari is 8.
Hikari's POV
It seemed that it would be inevitable that we would become relatively close. Yamato and I, that is. I mean he was my brother's best friend, and my brother was never like other big brothers. I would always find it strange when other kids in my class use to say that their brothers and sisters would ignore them. Taichi would never do that. He would always include, always take such good care of me. So when he became best friends with Yamato it would also be inevitable that I would become friends with the blond boy. I remember having the biggest crush on him too. I mean who didn't? Yamato has always been an attractive guy. But that's all it was, a childhood crush. He was always the best of Taichi; he was so nice and kind to me and was always glad to play with me. He was never pushy when something was wrong, and he wasn't overprotective of me and fast to act. I guess that's what allowed us to become such close friends in the first place. Both of us kept a lot in the inside because we never wanted anybody to know or burden themselves by trying to help us.
It was something that we both knew about each other as kids, though we didn't start talking to each other about the deeper issues until Yamato entered secondary education. At that age you couldn't play anymore to distract yourself from your problems. It was seen as kiddish; they wanted you to grow up so fast in so little time. On the first day of school, Yamato walked me home from school, stating that he promised Taichi he would. Seeing as her older brother couldn't since he was too busy with soccer practice. I knew something was wrong with Yamato, he was doing his best to look happy but he wasn't. When they made it to her apartment, he did his best to say goodbye and leave, but I could tell that he did not want to go. So I asked him if he wanted to stay at our house and wait for Taichi in the mean time. His smile, that beautiful smile spread across his face like I made his day. Saved him from facing something he just wasn't quite ready for. We both helped ourselves to the snacks that my mom made just before she had to work. The silence we sat in was comfortable, but he broke it for the first time since I could remember.
He asked me if he could tell me something in private, already knowing I would say yes. I nodded my head and just let him talk. That happened everyday for the next couple of years on the days he did not have band practice. He would pick me up every day, we went to the park or to my house and he just talked. I would occasionally put in my two cents but it wasn't too often that I did that. Before I knew it, hell before he knew it, I knew everything that was to know about Yamato Ishida.
I didn't begin to open up to him until I reached the same age he started to open up to me. It was a Tuesday and the second day of my secondary education; it was also a pretty crummy day. I guess I always knew that Daisuke and Takeru had crushes on me, but at the same time I didn't. Both of them (by both I mean mainly Daisuke) made it clear that I was "off limits" and that I was supposedly taken. Funny thing was that the whole school knew I was taken before I did. So that day I decided to play hooky to escape from all the gossip and teenage drama. I was sitting all alone in the only Denny's in the district, trapped in my thoughts and guilt. I thought that I made it clear to both of them that I wasn't interested in them. After an hour of dealing with the waitress impatience of her only ordering hot chocolate, I decided to send a message someone I knew I could talk to. Twenty minutes of the waitress harassment ended when both of them saw Yamato walk thru the door and wave at me. He smiled and sat down while we exchanged pleasantries and ordered food. After a couple of minutes of silence I finally broke out in a rant. I was so angry that my secondary social career was decided by two of my supposed friends. The rage from my rant surprised him, no one, absolutely no one had ever seen her angry. After my rant, he coaxed me to talk more about things that made me upset. So I did. I told him about the dark ocean, catty girls, my grades, and everyone's image of me. I talked and talked for hours, until it was ten o'clock. I leapt out of my seat in a panic and vigorously apologized to him. He assured me that it was ok and that he was glad to help. He walked me to the outside of my apartment and gave me a hug goodbye and told me that we should do the same thing again next week after school. And that's exactly what we did. Every single week actually. Both of us would head out to Denny's every Tuesday, after school (unless we skipped it that is) and just enjoyed each other's company. We talked about our relationships, friendships, and lives. We worked on our home work or other projects. I worked on my photography and drawing while he worked on writing music. Before he knew it, he knew everything there was to know about me, Hikari Yagami.
Unfortunately, like everything else in the world, our routine ended as soon as he began attending the university. I knew that I shouldn't feel bad that I never saw him or talked to him anymore. Taichi and the rest of the older guys lived with him and hardly saw him. From what my brother told me, he spent all of his time at school, with school stuff, his band, and his job. I knew I should understand that he was growing up and busy with life, but it still hurt me. More than I ever thought anyone's absence ever could.
AN: The next chapter will be Yamato's POV, and after that chapter I will begin to write in limited third person POV for the remainder of the story.