Chaptre One:
"Like time suspended,
a wound unmended-
you and I.
We had no ending,
no said goodbye;
For all my life,
I'll wonder why."
_ Lang Leav, Love & Misadventure
"He what!" She shrieked in the middle of a crowded street. As she said that, she felt her legs give away and she slid down to the pavement dropping everything in her hands while tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Miss are you alright?" she distantly heard someone ask, it all seemed so far away to her. She vaguely remembered someone helping her up and someone handing her phone back.
Mimi Tachikawa, was visiting her parents in Odaiba for the holidays. It had been 5 years now since she had moved to New York and 2 years since her last visit to her hometown. This particular morning she woke up with a heavy feeling in her stomach, like something bad was going to happen. She decided to shrug it off and go about her day, as she wasn't able to put her finger around it.
Just as she was done with her shopping, her phone rang showing Izzy, her close friend.
"Hey! Sorry I didn't call sooner, we're still on for dinner, right?" Mimi said as she answered her phone.
"Mimi" Izzy said sounding gloom.
"What is it?" she asked, the feeling from morning rushing over her.
"It's Tai" Izzy spoke softly
Mimi felt her heart stop
"He met with an accident and.."
"and what!" she replied trying to musk of the horrid feeling in her stomach
"and..." Izzy said hesitating
"Izzy! And what!"
"And, he didn't make it"
Mimi didn't hear the rest of the sentence as her phone slipped from her hands.
He was her first love. Sure she had crushes before, sure she was convinced she was in love before, but he was her everything real. She saw him on the first day of high school. He stood out to her among everyone else in the crowd. She remembered him looking at her over the crowd and then back to his friends. For some reason he was stuck on her mind after that.
She didn't see him for a while in school, until the football match, when she saw him play. Taichi, she heard her friends cheering him on. He looked up after scoring a goal and saw her among the cheering crowd, giving a slight grin before heading off to play. She wouldn't dare let her emotions show, but her eyes often gave her away.
They weren't in the same class but they crossed paths in many times in the corridors, always giving the other "a look" as they walked by. When either of them was absent, both of them would try to look for the other in a casual, non suspecting way, while finding excuses to visit the absentees' class or try to hear some news about the other from people around. They couldn't let anyone know either of them was interested in the other. Afterall, he was too cool for everything, while she was naturally the diva.
They did manage to connect on social media after a few months though, talking only there and never in front of their friends. Girls who were jealous tried to embarrass her, by convincing her, the Rose she received for Rose day was indeed by him and in return forcing her to give a Rose back to him in front of everyone. They made her believe that later he destroyed and threw away the Rose she gave him, thus breaking her heart. Little did they know, these two had already moved on from social media chats, to exchanging numbers and chatting on texts. She asked him at night, during their daily messaging if he had thrown away the rose, and much to her delight, he hadn't. He took it home and kept it in a vase in his room.
It became a daily routine for both of them, to have long calls or chats till late nights. Yet neither of them had confessed their feeling for the other. Valentine's Day was coming up as they teased the other with their celebrity crush. When finally he couldn't take it anymore, he called her at 4 in the morning pouring out his feeling to her. And finally after months of giving the look and talking and teasing the other they confessed their feelings.
After that they became the power couple of the school, being always together. They continued to date through third year of graduation, and just two months before their 5 year anniversary, suddenly it was over. No one knew what happened. They soon graduated and then she was gone. Only Izzy from the gang was in touch with her over the years.
With the help of people around her, Mimi was finally able to get into a cab and get home. She wept in her mother's arms till evening when Izzy came to visit her.
"How?" Is all she managed to asked Izzy.
"It was an accident." He said taking a deep breath.
"A child ran onto a road while a truck was coming, in order to avoid hitting the child, the truck made a sudden turn, almost colliding with the bus coming from the other side. The bus driver, to avoid a collision, steered towards the pavement, where Tai was standing."
"He was declared dead on arrival at the hospital" Izzy said after a moment.
Silent tears poured down Mimi's cheek as she heard Izzy.
"He is going to be cremated tomorrow; you have to go see him"
"I can't" Mimi said closing her eyes.
"Mimi, please, you will regret it"
The room was silent, except some soft sobs from Mimi
"What would you do if I ever lost my memories and forgot about you?" Mimi asked Tai, during one of their late night conversations.
"I would constantly tell you how much I love you and try to convince you that you love me" Tai said smiling into the phone.
"But, what if I am not convinced, what if I refuse to believe you."
"In that case princess, I would recreate every memory we've had once again. I would remind you of our love every moment. I wouldn't give up till your back in my arms again, telling me you love me. And I am sure our love will bring you back to me"
"Tai, I love you so much! I don't think I can ever forget anything. I can never forget you"
"I know princess, I love you too"
"Can we go together tomorrow please?" Mimi asked opening her eyes.
"Yes, of course."
"Thank you for staying with me Izzy"
"Hey, he was my friend too, and I know what he meant to you" Izzy said giving Mimi a hug.
"So did you guys see the match night?" Izzy asked after an hour of being on a conference call with Tai and Mimi.
"Yeah, I thought Manchester United was going to lose!" Tai replied back excited.
"I was out for dinner with my family, so I missed it" Mimi said.
Often three of them would have conference calls in the night. Even from the group; Izzy was closest to Tai and Mimi. They lived near each other and often travelled to university together.
"Did you see Roony score" Tai added
"Yeah, he totally won them the game". Izzy continued.
"...and the conversation continued between the guys..."
After a short while, Mimi felt her phone vibrate, apparently she had fallen asleep as Tai and Izzy continued to talk about football.
"Hey! Sorry I slept off" Mimi said sleepily to Tai.
"Yeah I thought so, you were silent for a while, you didn't say anything even when we called out to you" Tai replied.
"Sorry, I am just tired, love"
"Go to sleep Princess, I will see you tomorrow"
"Good night my prince charming, I love you"
"I love you too Princess"
After keeping the phone, Mimi saw a text message from Izzy;
"I guess you slept off, I told that dum dum not to call you and disturb you, but I am sure he will call you anyway. Good night, see you tomorrow." Izzy wrote
Mimi just smiled at the text and went back to sleep.
"Mimi" Tai's mother exclaimed as she rushed to hug Mimi.
"I am so sorry" Mimi managed to say, as she broke down crying.
"Thank you" Mrs Yagami said as she hugged Mimi tighter, while crying along with the brunette.
They walked to the body together, holding each other for support, as Mrs Yagami led Mimi to see Tai, one last time.
Seeing Tai lying there motionless, Mimi sank to the floor. Mrs Yagami lost in grief could only look on as Mimi cried.
"Mimi" her former friend, Sora called to her as she knelt next to Mimi putting her hand around her shoulders.
The rest of the funereal was a blur to Mimi. She just stood still and watched as Tai's body was cremated.
"Tai listen to me please, he's lying" Mimi pleaded as Tai was walking away from her.
"I don't know Mimi. You wanted a break, I didn't. I gave you your space and then this happens" Tai said, looking hurt.
"Tai he's lying, why can't you trust me?" Mimi pleaded again,
"I can't Mimi. I need time" He said, as he walked away from her.
"I love you Tai"
He just walked away without looking back at her.
"I didn't know you were back" Sora said trying to make small talk.
"Yeah, it's been 2 years. My parents couldn't make a trip this year because of dad's work so I came to visit them" Mimi answered.
"How long will you stay?" Joe asked.
"10 more days" Mimi said.
"It would be nice if maybe we could meet for dinner one evening?" Sora asked hopefully.
"Yeah, let's go to our usual place where we used to go. To honour Tai" Davis put in.
"The old gang back at Anon" Izzy said smiling.
Mimi couldn't help but smile as she saw her former gang; Sora, Joe, Davis, Izzy, Tai and her. They really did have the best of times together. After graduation everyone had gone their separate ways.
Mimi, Sora and Joe knew each other since school. Mimi and Sora were best friends. Tai, Izzy and Joe were classmates in high school and Davis played football with Tai for the school. When Mimi and Tai started dating, these 6 people started hanging out.
Mimi and Sora were invited by their former school friends along with Mimi's ex boyfriend to hang out at an arcade. He wanted to get back together with Mimi. When Mimi told Tai about the plan, he along with Joe, Izzie and Davis tuned up at the arcade. Mimi's ex was not happy and challenged Tai for bowling. Tai won against Mimi's ex. Her ex sulked as he saw her cheering on for Tai. From that day, 6 of these guys were as tight as they could be.
That night Mimi couldn't sleep. She lay in bed holding the pink bunny Tai had given to her as a gift. She smiled at the memory when she and Sora had nicknamed Tai as Rabbit so no one would figure it out when she and Sora would talk about her crush. She told this to Tai when they started dating so on one of her birthday naturally he had gotten her the big pink bunny.
Finally after what seemed like hours, Mimi finally managed to exhaust herself and fall asleep.
"Mimi?" she faintly heard someone call her.
She was too tired to register if she was dreaming or not.
"Mimi!" this time the voice was a little more urgent.
She finally opened her eyes a little
"hmm" she managed to mummer. Still being half asleep, she just turned and went back to sleep.
"Mimi" this time she heard the voice loud and clear
Trembling, she turned and opened her eyes slowly to see Tai standing by her bed, staring right at her.
"Finally, the princess awakens" Tai said sarcastically.
Mimi did the only thing she could at that point, she screamed her lungs out.
Her parents rushed into her room, switching on the lights. She was still screaming as her father holding a bat looked around the room while her mother sat next to her.
"Mimi honey, what happened?" Her mother asked.
"Are you alright?" Her father asked her, still searching for any threat.
"Tai! He was here." Mimi said trembling, while her mother tried to calm her down.
Her parents exchanged a look, while Mimi was looking around the room frantically.
"He was right here! I saw him, he called out to me!" She said still trembling.
"It was just a nightmare sweetheart" Her father said, sitting beside her.
"Why don't you come and sleep next to me tonight dear?" her mother offered.
Mimi nodded and after looking at her room one more time, she went with her mother.
"Dammit!" Tai cursed angrily as he looked at her empty bed. "Of all the people on this Earth, it had to be her! The only person who could see me!" he said as he disappeared into the walls.
Authors Note: Mimi, Tai, Izzy, Joe, Sora and Davis all studied together and are 26 now. The story follows in present day as well as in flashbacks mainly from Mimi and Tais's point of view. I have divided the scenes by adding a line in between.
Matt will come later in the story. He does not know the others.
Hope you enjoy the story :)