"Where is she?" Takeru thought as he looked around the parking lot on campus. "Oh, there she is!"
Hikari was walking towards the campus with her headphones in her ears, unaware of Takeru's attempts to grab her attention. He ran up to her and touched her arm.
"What the- oh, it's you. Ha, you scared me." Hikari said as she pulled her headphones out of her ears.
"I'm sorry, my bad." Takeru said. "So how did that interview go yesterday? You never called me back."
"Ugh, I know, I'm sorry." Hikari sighed. "It went horrible. I just want this internship so bad but I really don't think I'm the right candidate."
"Why, what happened?" Takeru asked.
"It was like everyone there had already been to America! Almost all of them knew the language perfectly and had family or friends or some kind of connection. Plus they all were in really nice suits. I had no chance."
"Oh c'mon, I'm sure it went great! You just worry to much." Takeru reassured. It was kind of cute, they way she worried. Sometimes Takeru would just stare at her, watching her expressions flow so fluidly, she was just so pretty. He just couldn't understand why she turned down so many men.
"Anyway, I'm going to drown in my sorrows over that interview later, want to join me?" Hikari said as she interrupted Takeru's train of thought.
"Ha, I suppose I could. Just make sure to call me later, ok?" Takeru responded. Hikari agreed, and at the sight of Daisuke coming towards her, she hugged Takeru good-bye and joined her classmate in the walk to class.
"So Daisuke-kun might come over later and join us tonight to hang out," Hikari told Takeru as she unlocked the door to her apartment. "Oh, hey Onii-chan. I thought you had a date tonight?" She said to her brother as she walked into the door and closed it behind Takeru.
"Hey Takeru-kun, nice to see you again. And I do, I'm just waiting for Sora to hurry up and get out of work." Taichi said as he shook hands with Takeru and responded to Hikari's question.
"Ooooooh, Sora, huh? Does Sora-san know you call her by her name only?" Takeru jokingly commented.
"Psh of course. She calls me Taichi all the time. You guys are just never around to hear it. It only makes sense, we've been together for like, 5 years now."
"Try seven," Hikari laughed.
Taichi rolled his eyes as he checked his cell phone messages and saw that Sora was out of work. He said good-bye to Takeru and Hikari, who kindly reminded him of her small get-together with her close friends that evening. He nodded in remembrance and went on with his evening.
Hikari offered Takeru something cold to drink from her refrigerator and proceeded to lead him into her bedroom where all her supplies for the evening were. Every time Hikari let Takeru into her room she felt a small sense of embarrassment.
Everyone in Hikari's life knew how she felt towards people in her bedroom. It was her place of solace and refuge. She kept it clean and tidy, with drawings that she and her closest friends drew throughout their lives posted all over the walls. Gatomon's bed sat beside her bed, matching polka-dot colors. Her computer sat on a stained wooden desk, a few papers from school beside it, and one framed picture of her and Takeru laughing together in the snow. That day was very special for Hikari, and she never removed that photo from her desk. While others came and went, switching between frame after frame, that photo never changed.
Takeru knew how Hikari felt about people in her room and every time she invited him in he felt so honored. It was almost as if she invited him to know her deepest secrets, her most memorable dreams, and her greatest fears. He too loved that picture of him and Hikari, for it represented to him a time of great happiness between two people where the world stopped, and all that was around them was love and joy. Every time Takeru saw that photo he remembered the look in Hikari's eyes as she was laughing over his failed attempts to capture snowflakes on his tongue, and when he finally caught one on his mitten and gave it to her. That moment, the look in his eyes when he looked at her smile, was forever frozen in time on her desk.
Hikari showed Takeru her assortment of chips and sodas and beer that she hid in her room from her brother, who she frequently finds eating her food and giving his friends her snacks. Hikari grabbed the bag of chip assortments and Takeru grabbed the drinks and they both returned to the kitchen and began to prepare for the evening's festivities. While Hikari cooked, she enjoyed watching Takeru struggle with her Wii system and getting four controllers hooked up to game. "He's so cute," she thought to herself with a mild blush across her face. "I don't understand why never asks anybody out for dates."
A few hours passed and Hikari's friends began to show up. Everyone was having a great time talking about the old adventures of the Digital World, watching Daisuke struggle horribly to keep up with the tennis game on the Wii, and continue to congratulate and taunt the relationship between Miyako and Ken.
Takeru looked around the apartment for the host of the party only to find her outside on the balcony, just staring off into the distance. He stepped outside to join her and closed the sliding glass door behind him to give them a small sense of privacy.
"It's so nice out, isn't it?" Hikari said as Takeru approached the fenced ledge with her, looking out into the distance of the city from her 7th floor balcony.
Takeru looked over at her, and she dropped her gaze down to her shoes. "What's wrong, Hikari-chan," He asked her in a warm, soft tone. Hikari fussed with her fingernails and she looked back up and out into the city.
"I'm just nervous." She responded. "I know my chances of that internship are so slim, but I want it so bad. It's just I'm scared. What if I do get it? I don't know how I'm going to handle being away from this, from here, from all of this for who knows how long." She looked over at him. "Away from all you, especially you. I just don't know if I can handle being alone without you there to talk to."
"It's going to be ok, Hikari-chan." Takeru said softly as he placed his hand on her arm, rubbing his thumb back and forth across her soft skin. "Most internships don't last that long, for at most six months. And right now it seems so long but it will go by so fast, I promise. We'll talk on the phone, I'll even handwrite you letters." Takeru said as he nudged her into breaking a smile.
Hikari chucked. "You're right. I just need to relax. I've just been so frustrated over how bad that interview went. It's difficult. I feel like I've been bombarded lately with so much."
All of a sudden a loud noise and a screaming Daisuke rang through the door. "We should probably go check that out. Daisuke-kun may need another trip to the hospital," Takeru chuckled as he ushered Hikari back into the apartment.