Chapter 2

Hikari sat at her desk typing away frantically, with the hopes that her essay would just end already. She stopped typing for a second, leaned back in her chair, and began reading what she had just typed.

Just then, her cell phone rang.

"Moshi moshi? Yes, hi, this is her. Of course! Nice to hear from you again. Ok…Ok…Oh my gosh." Hikari brought her hand up to her mouth to cover it in disbelief.

"Are you serious? I, I don't know what to say. Thank you so much. What? Oh, yes, of course, give me one second." Hikari scrambled around to find a spare piece of paper and a pen.

"Ok I'm ready. Yes, yes, ok, ok great. You don't know what this means to me, I'm so honored. Shocked, really." She laughed. "Ok great, I will see you then. Thank you so much. Ok, buh-bye."

Hikari hung up her phone. She stared at it for a little while, then replaced her hand back over her mouth and began to sob. Her brother heard her cry and ran to her bedroom, and stared at her, wondering what happened.

"Are you ok, Hikari-chan? What happened?" Taichi asked from the entrance to her room.

Hikari wiped away her tears and broke through her cries with a laugh, "I got the internship, Tai." She chuckled. "I got the job."

Hikari walked with Iori towards the soccer fields on campus, backpack slung over their shoulders.

"So when do you find out all the information about the job," Iori asked as he looked around to find Daisuke and Takeru.

"Tonight at six, I have to go and fill out some information about my passport and all of that." Hikari replied.

Iori heard Daisuke call his name and he waved back at him in acknowledgment. "Are you nervous? I would be. I mean it's super cool that you're going, I would just be freaking out a little inside."

"I am," Hikari responded. "I'm trying to be more excited than nervous though."

Just then Daisuke ran up to the two, explained that he and Takeru were going to go wash up and change really quickly in the locker room and that they'd be back to meet them in a flash. Hikari and Iori walked over to the benches to wait for the boys, while Takeru and Daisuke left the soccer field to the locker room.

"So that's awesome that Hikari-chan got the job, huh?" Daisuke asked Takeru as he dried his hair off from the 2-minute shower he just had.

"Yeah, I'm so happy for her. She was anxious about this job for a long time."

"So, what are you going to do when she leaves? I know you don't really 'speak your feelings' and all, but you're not a little worried about her leaving?" Daisuke asked.

"Honestly, I'm going to miss her, and I would be lying if I said I didn't care that she was leaving." Takeru responded as he finished tying his shoe. "But what can I do? This is something she's wanted all her life, to travel, and I couldn't be upset at her fulfilling her dreams. Besides, she won't be gone forever. I'm sure she'll have to return for next semester."

"I guess. I don't know, I mean I'm going to miss her. I wish she wouldn't leave. What if she decides to stay? I would be pissed," Daisuke said as he headed out of the locker room leaving Takeru to finish getting dressed.

Takeru stood there for a moment, staring into his open locker, lock in hand. "She wouldn't just bail on us," he thought. "She wouldn't leave us." He quickly shook out the idea of her moving on without him from his head and proceeded to lock his locker, then headed out to join the trio for lunch.

Hikari walked out of the campus auditorium with her head hung low. She sighed a heavy sigh and stopped on the sidewalk. She looked around, watching the limbs of trees bend over slightly from the wind pushing them around. She looked at her phone, closed her eyes, opened them, and brought the phone up to her ear.

"Takeru-kun, can we talk tonight? Yeah I got the details about the trip. Actually I would prefer to talk to you face-to-face, is that ok? How about near the bridge? Cool, I'll see you in ten." Hikari hung up the phone and continued to head towards her car.

As she pulled up the parking lot near the bridge she saw Takeru's car sitting there, him on the hood waiting for her arrival. She approached him, and they walked together on the boardwalk towards the bridge. Takeru stopped at a decent location and stared out across the water.

"So how'd it go? What's the deal with the job?" Takeru asked Hikari.

Hikari looked up from the ground into his eyes, small amounts of teardrops filling the bottom of her eyes.

"They want me there for five years, Takeru-kun."

Takeru just stared back at her. "What are you going to do?" He asked softly.

"I don't know! I don't know, I didn't think it was for this long! I thought at most a year! I can't leave for five years!" Hikari cried as she wiped away her little tears. "I don't know what to do."

Takeru just stared out over the ocean. A few seconds went by.

"You should do it, Hikari-chan."

Hikari looked over at him in disbelief. "But I can't leave you." She responded. "I can't leave you all."

"But it's something you've wanted for so long! You have to do it, you have to stop letting the people around you prevent you from doing something you want." Takeru said to her as he attempted to lighten her mood. He put his arms around her and rested his chin on her temple.

"Everything will be ok." He said to her softly. His eyelids began to lower as he realized he wouldn't hold her like that for a long time.