Birthday gift for Japiera. I hope you like it. :)
What was left unsaid
It would have been like any other day since their return. Mimi would wake up, cheerfully greet her parents, eat her breakfast and call some friends from school, asking if they wanted to hang out. But that day she saw something new.
In the middle of the table, there was a pot with a small flower in it. A flower with four pink petals and a yellow core.
"Isn't it nice? Your Father bought it for me." Her Mother informed, while serving the girl some natto.
Mimi ate in silence. After the breakfast, she said that she wanted to go for a walk. The girl wandered through the streets, aimlessly, not quite understanding what was bothering her. It was just a flower; a pretty one, nevertheless. She began to comprehend her feelings once she realized where she had arrived.
In her front, there was the trolley that had brought back the chosen children from the Digital World, one week before.
"Mimi-san?" A voice she knew came from her left. Koushiro was looking at her, leaning on a tree.
"Koushiro-kun?" Mimi was surprised to see him there. "What are you doing here, by yourself?"
He moved his eyes from her to the trolley.
"Sometimes, I come here to think."
"Can't you do that anywhere?" Mimi tried to imprint a joking tone to her voice, but could not even deceive herself. A lingering sadness remained in her heart.
"Why did you come here, Mimi-san?" Koushiro asked, after half a minute of silence.
"My Father gave my Mother a flower…" Mimi hesitated.
"Did it remind you of Palmon?"
"How did you know?"
"I think about Tentomon whenever I see an insect." Koushiro's voice became lower. "And other times too… like when my Mother is cooking or when I'm in my bedroom… sometimes, when I learn something new, I turn around to tell him, forgetting that he's not there."
"You miss him a lot." Mimi muttered, looking down. "I get upset in random occasions ever since we returned. Most of the time, I don't make the connection, though…"
"You didn't have the chance to say good-bye to her properly, right?" Koushiro questioned, glancing at the girl.
"Palmon hid away and didn't show up until we were leaving. She's not good with farewells, I guess." Mimi murmured. It still hurt her to remember that day. But she would not let herself be upset for too long. "We did say good-bye in the end, so it all worked out."
"But weren't there things you wanted to tell her?" The boy insisted.
"It's not like I ever kept things from her." Mimi pondered. "We would probably just hug and cry together, had she not done what she did." The girl added with a smirk.
Koushiro frowned, glancing at the ground.
"What's the matter?" Mimi inquired.
"I…" The boy hesitated.
"What?"
"I wish I could've been more like you, Mimi-san." Koushiro murmured. Not used to hear the other talk like that, the girl almost took a step back.
"What do you mean by that?" She asked.
Koushiro trembled, slightly, still keeping his eyes on the ground.
"You're always so upfront." He began. "So honest and quick to open your heart… I'm sure Palmon felt very at ease with you. You're good at dealing with others… you know what to tell them… you know how to put in words what you feel."
"I don't always know what to say!" Mimi contested. "I've said some stupid things because I didn't think enough about them!"
The girl remembered about the time she had made Palmon believe she was ugly. Mimi had not thought too much about it, but when Lilymon appeared and asked if she was beautiful, the realization that the girl had been insensitive to her friend hit her. Did she ever apologize for that? But her partner did not seem to resent her.
"I wish I had been more considerate." Mimi whispered. "If I had been more thoughtful…"
"I believe you're fine the way you are." Koushiro told her.
That surprised her but had also the effect of calming her down.
"You're fine the way you are, too." Mimi said back, which made the boy look up to her with an expression of shock.
"But… that time in the labyrinth-" He started.
"How long are you going to cling to that?" Mimi had no patience in her voice. "You did one bad thing once, so what? I've moved on from that ages ago, you have to do it too."
"You forgive people so easily, Mimi-san." Koushiro chuckled. Mimi did the same in response. But then, she realized that the boy had not really said what was bothering him. Nor had he said why he wanted to be like her.
"Koushiro-kun, when you brought up the good-bye subject… you talked to Tentomon, right?" The girl asked.
Koushiro looked away for a second. Then, reluctantly, he gazed at Mimi again.
"I showed my gratitude the best way I could but Tentomon said I was too formal." He explained. "Then, Tentomon comforted me… he told me that there would come a day when the words would flow naturally."
"That's a sweet thing to say." Mimi commented, showing the boy a smile.
"I wish I could've said something better to him… I wish I could've put more sentiment in my words." Koushiro looked down, furrowing his eyebrows. "Tentomon deserved better… he deserved to know how important he was-"
"He knew." Mimi said, approaching the boy.
"How could he know if I never-" Koushiro started to protest.
"You don't need to verbalize everything to communicate with someone." Mimi interrupted him. "And you don't need to be over emotional to let someone know how much you care. You're different from me, Koushiro-kun. That doesn't mean that one of us is better than the other and it doesn't mean that one of us should try to be like the other."
He lifted his head and their eyes met once again. Mimi noticed a peculiar glow in his eyes, like the one he had whenever he discovered something.
"Thank you for telling me that." Koushiro said, showing her a small smile.
"That's what friends are for." Mimi replied, beaming.
"Mimi-san…" The boy's voice sounded indecisive.
"What?"
"I think that Palmon misses you as much as you miss her." Koushiro said. "I also think that, even when you didn't choose the right words, she still knew what was in your heart."
The wind gently stroke Mimi's face as a warm feeling filled her.
"Yeah, I think you're right."
She looked to the sky, wondering if Palmon was doing the same in the Digital World. They did not always understand each other and had their disagreements and arguments, but her partner was always there for her when it mattered, just like the girl would be there for Palmon.
Mimi smiled.
There was no point in worrying about the things that were left unsaid. Nor was there a reason to pretend not to notice the absence of her friend. Those who mattered would always leave a presence, and all one could do was to accept it.
True friends impacted one another's lives and changed them forever. Among those friends, there was no need to spend energy thinking about the right way to say something.
Even in the heaviest silence, the truly important words would find their destination.