A/N: So sorry for the wait! Here it is. I'd like to dedicate this chapter to my eldest sis who helped me come up with the name of the chapter and chibi-yachiru-chan for her unbelievably encouraging reviews.

Disclaimer: I seriously own nothing.

Song – Connect by ClariS

yorokobi mo kanashimi mo wakeaeba tsuyomaru omoi

(Our feelings will be stronger by sharing our joy and sorrow)

kono koe ga todoku no nara

(If my voice can reach you)

kitto kiseki ha okoseru darou

(I'm sure a miracle will happen)

Meetings and Misunderstandings

The train station was fairly empty, just as the brunette sitting on the bench had expected. She was just sitting at the platform, watching various trains arrive and then leave. It had been more than an hour since she had left school in a hurry and up until a few minutes ago, she had been left alone by the people passing by. She finally averted her eyes from the tracks laid out in front of her as she looked at the person who sat next to her. She quickly shifted her gaze back to the tracks, her cheeks turning a light shade of pink. Taichi Yagami had made it pretty clear from the very first day he met Hilary Tachibana that he absolutely hated her. And now here he was sitting next to her, yawning slightly as he checked his watch. Hilary wished for the earth to open up and swallow her. Of all the people she could have run into, it had to be him. Neither of the two teens felt inclined to talk to each other and minutes turned into years as the ruby eyed brunette squirmed in her seat, highly uncomfortable with the current situation. Just as she was contemplating leaving, he sighed loudly and turned to face her.

"You should go home."

"I..." Hilary fidgeted with the hem of her skirt as she avoided his gaze.

She looked up abruptly, a look of surprise and concern on her face, "Is he alright?"

"Well he did punch Kai in the face, so I'm guessing he's more than just alright." Taichi replied casually.

"He did what?!"

Taichi rolled his eyes at her reaction and stifled another yawn, "The point is you should go home. He might be looking for you."

The girl gave a slight nod and before she could stop herself the question flew out of her mouth, "What are you doing here?"

The bushy haired teen raised an eyebrow, not happy with her question but he answered her anyways, "Picking up my sister." And he turned away from her, marking the end of their conversation.

Hilary bowed slightly as she muttered a thank you and got up to leave, he blatantly ignored her as he yawned yet again and refused to acknowledge her. She sighed inwardly with relief. That is how their interactions were supposed to go, Hilary trying her best to be polite and Taichi refuting her very existence. That fraction of a civil conversation that they just shared was their first actual conversation without Tyson standing in the middle as the mediator. And to Hilary's surprise, it didn't end up in scathing insults and painful tears. She spared him one last glance before exiting the platform and found him looking at her with saddened eyes revealing the reason why he hated her so much.

-x-

Charly hated waiting for people. She hated sitting by herself at the table trying to look interested in the menu despite having memorized each and every item on there. That's exactly why hanging out with Kai worked out so well for her, he always reached ten minutes before the designated time and she never had to wait. The blonde shook her head rigorously trying desperately to remove any thoughts focusing on the lying, scheming, cheat of a boyfr-, best friend. Charly huffed as she checked her watch again, her so called friend was way beyond fashionably late and as every second passed the green eyed girl devised new ways to kill the only two good friends she had.

"Oh gosh, Charly-chan I'm so sorry! So our theatre practice took longer than I expected, though you totally have to come and watch the show next weekend since I'm the lead and you can always bring Kai-chan along. And then this girl in our class is moving to another town so we had a surprise party and everyone was crying and they all looked so sad that I couldn't just leave them like that!" Mimi Tachikawa finally paused to take a breath and sank down on the chair opposite from her friend, who just glared at her not bothering to respond to her excuses, "You scowled when I said Kai-chan, did you guys have a fight or something? Is that what this is about? Are you never gonna talk to him again?" Mimi tucked a few loose strands of her coffee coloured hair behind her ear as she stared wide eyed at the blonde sitting across from her.

Charly tried her best to resist the big caramel coloured orbs by putting up her best glare, but she didn't last even a few seconds as her friend's curious gaze was too intimidating for her to counter. She sighed as she tried to answer Mimi's endless list of questions, "Well I did kind of have a sort of fight with Kai but this isn't about him." Charly shook her head again, as she herself couldn't understand what she had just said. She looked at Mimi hoping that the brunette would understand and indeed found her nodding furiously as if she really did understood everything.

"Can I order something first? I'm starving." Mimi said not waiting for Charly's reply as she motioned the waiter over.

Charly waited patiently as Mimi placed her order and flirted a little with the waiter. Both the girls sat in silence as they waited for the food to arrive. Charly was glad to have Mimi as a friend. Even though the hyper and annoyingly happy brunette attended the Shihōin Academy for Girls and spent most of her time doing club activities and actively volunteering for every damn little event, she always showed up whenever and wherever Charly asked her to. Even if she was half an hour late. But the reason that made Charly respect Mimi so much was because that girl always knew everything about everyone. Her happy and comforting nature made people come to her whenever they needed to talk, vent out their frustrations or (the best) confess their secrets. And although she usually refused to disclose personal information that she had gathered (like when Charly went to her with the photo and Mimi absolutely refused to tell her anything she already didn't know), just sometimes she would accidently blurt out stuff. You just had to push the right buttons and you'd have all the right information.

As the food finally arrived and Mimi dug in, Charly looked at her with most serious expression she could muster and said, "Tell me everything you know about Hilary Tachibana."

-x-

A small sigh escaped her lips as the raven haired continued to glare in her direction. She had apologised more than a hundred times in the past hour and he was still not ready to listen to her.

"What do you want me to say?" Misty hissed, her temper flaring.

Ash just shrugged in response.

It was the red head's turn to glare, "Look, I just wanted to help you okay?"

Ash scoffed.

"Oh please. I saw how happy you looked when you left with Taichi-kun."

"That's not the point." He muttered, flushing slightly.

"Oh really? Then please do tell me what exactly the point is?" She said in a slightly loud voice (or according to Ash, yelled).

"The point is you tricked me. You deceived me." Ash pointed at her as if she had just betrayed the whole freaking world.

"But it helped." She said through gritted teeth.

"But that's not what best friends do."

"So maybe I am not your best friend."

Misty bit her lip as Ash simply stared at her. The two teens sat in silence, avoiding each other's gaze not knowing what to say. Misty opened her mouth several times, but nothing came down. She cursed herself mentally. Now she had done it. She sneaked a peek at Ash and paled. He looked genuinely hurt. She wished she could take back what she had said. She wished he'd understand that she hadn't meant it one bit. It was just a spur of the moment response. But before she could gather up the courage to actually speak again, Ash got up to leave.

"Yeah. Maybe you're not."

-x-

A/N: It's a little short but the next chapter will make up for it. So the only new character appearing was Mimi Tachikawa from Digimon. And Shihoin Academy, well for anybody who didn't get that – Yoruichi Shihōin (Bleach). So read and review please!