It was the glimpse of a yellow ribbon that stopped him dead in his tracks.
He hadn't thought about her in years. Life had been too crazy and filled with staggering stakes to think of an old crush. But the brief glimpse of a yellow ribbon across the street had been enough for him to stop dead and gawk at the girl as she moved further out of sight. All at once he was fifteen again and thoughts of Ribbon and that time consumed him. Which was ridiculous as he hadn't seen her since they had shared a class together four years ago and he'd come up with the most convoluted way to confess his love for her. It hadn't even been his idea but he'd leapt at the chance. What can he say, he's a hopeless romantic at heart.
Of course much of that year had been filled with even crazier occurrences as he hadn't known the Pharaoh or even Yugi that well at that point. And at that even if nothing had worked out with Ribbon that at least was the catalyst that cemented his friendship with Yugi. But he couldn't deny that before Duellist Kingdom school had been nuts and it was certainly connected to Yugi, and of course Atem. No one ever mention Ushio or Ms Chono or any of the crazy challenges and situations they'd gotten into before Duel Monsters had become a huge part of their lives.
Which made him think of how things could have been different. What if Death T had never happened. What if Duel Monsters hadn't become as big as they did? Maybe he should have tried to become friends with her; maybe they could have worked together or become closer. But things hadn't turned out that way and with all the power of the Millennium Items and what not it couldn't have and the girl, if it was Ribbon, was long gone by now and the moment was passing. He had places to be and people to see and this was not the time to focus on the past.
"What's wrong Honda?" his present cut in. He turned to look at Shizuka and smiled at her.
"Nothing. I just thought I saw someone I knew."
"Oh. Well should we go say hi then?" she asked as she scanned the street. Honda looked around and the girl was gone. He took Shizuka's hand and continued down the street.
"Nah. Let's go mess with your brother some more," he replied with a smirk.