a/n: After almost five fucking years this accursed story still haunts me. To this day I still have yet to finish a chaptered story, but that ends now. I literally wrote this shit in an hour and I know it sucks. I don't care, I needed closure. This wasn't the original ending I intended for the story, but at least it answers the question that's been on everyone's mind since 2010: Why did Davis leave?

This entire story is a train wreck and I hate it.


Message to Kari from Davis, Dec 18, 2:19p.m.
I know you're still mad, but please talk to me.
Hell! I'll even take dots at this point.

Letting out a sigh, Davis slumped back into the booth as he pressed send. A full week had passed since Kari found out the truth, and she still refused to talk to him. After calling repeatedly and sending various texts, Davis failed to get through to her regardless of what he did. In all honesty, he didn't blame her for ignoring him like this. With the way he blew up at her that morning, he was surprised that she didn't just storm off. Instead, she quietly asked for him to take her home, not saying another word after that. Davis remembered seeing Kari trying to hold back her tears as he drove back to her apartment, her lips set in a tight line as her eyes were dead set on the road. As angry as he was at the time, he couldn't help but regret what he said to her. Despite there being truth in his words, Davis knew that it wasn't right for him to be so harsh. It wasn't fair to Kari because she didn't know what he had gone through.

"She's still not answering?" TK asked.

"Yeah." Davis replied, "What did the others say about me?"

"Well, to put it lightly...? Yolei said to go fuck yourself, and Cody is just disappointed in you."

"I shouldn't be surprised," the older boy sighed, "everyone hates me."

"Believe me," TK chuckled, "you're not alone."

Davis knew that after Kari found out the truth, it wouldn't be long until the others would know too. Just as he expected, he found out through TK that Kari had informed the rest of the group about Davis's lies. The younger girl wasn't too happy to find out that TK had known the truth all along either, and proceeded to give him the cold shoulder as well. So, there the two teens were, in the noodle shop trying to think of a way to win back their friends. They weren't having much luck, scrapping every idea they came up with in the past hour. Davis was on the verge of giving up, beginning to think that trying to fix things was pointless, especially when he was going to be leaving Japan the day after Christmas. The least he wanted to do was have a chance to explain things to Kari before he left. He didn't want to leave with her still hating him.

"You know, even if I tried I don't think she'd be willing to listen," Davis began, "I mean it's Kari. She doesn't hate anyone, and yet she hates me."

"Davis, don't be over dramatic," TK scoffed as he rolled his eyes, "Kari doesn't hate you."

"Oh, trust me. After what I said, she definitely hates me."

"C'mon. You said so yourself, she—"

You have one new message!

The sound of Davis's phone going off interrupted TK mid-sentence. Telling the blond to hold his thought, the older boy checked his to phone to see that he got a message from Kari. It was short and to the point, merely asking him what he wanted. Showing the text to TK, Davis asked what he should do. Should he text back, or take this as a sign to call her? After debating with himself for a few moments, Davis finally settled on calling her. Not much to his surprise, Kari had forwarded her call to voicemail. Figuring that this was probably his last chance to get through her, he decided to leave a message.

"Listen, Kari. I know you're still probably pissed, but I really need to talk to you. I'm leaving in a week, and I don't want to leave with us still being on bad terms. Please let me see you at least once. Bye."

With that, Davis ended the voicemail and hung up. He truly hoped that Kari would consider meeting up with him, or at least return his call. At this point he didn't even care if he wasn't able to talk to her face to face, only as long as she gave him a chance to explain.

"You know, Davis," TK spoke, "you never did tell me why."

The older boy raised an eyebrow at the younger, "Tell you why what?"

"Why you decided to leave," the blond replied, "Even when you were still in America, you never told me the reason why you left Japan."

"That's a long story."

"Well," TK shrugged, "we've got nothing but time."

"It..." Davis hesitated, "it's not really something I like talking about. I just... I was going through a lot of stuff at the time."

Davis figured that it was about time that TK knew the full story, and began explaining to him the real reason why he left Japan. His explanation was rather vague, only briefly touching on the fact that he had been suffering from a minor case of depression at the time before moving on to the next topic. He mentioned how deeply the group's drifting apart affected him, making him feel extremely alone and isolated. At first Davis didn't think much of it, believing that his group of friends would eventually come back to each other. But as time went on, the more they began to shut him out as they went off in different directions. It made him feel as if he was no longer needed, and made him question if they were ever truly his friends to begin with. The fact that his parents began having financial troubles during that same time didn't help him much either. Davis could clearly remember the day his father told him that he was a waste of money, the man telling his son that he should stop paying his school tuition when he was just barely passing. Things seemed to only get worse for Davis after that, his entire life beginning to spiral downward more and more as time passed.

"I wanted to reached out to you guys, but I knew that I'd probably just get brushed off."

Davis then began talking about how his decision to leave to American came about. Originally, it had been his sister, Jun, who was supposed to move in with their aunt. Jun had gotten accepted into a university in LA, and had made plans to further her education there. But after a certain event, Jun had decided to take the scholarship offer from a university that was only a few hours away from Odaiba. The excuse she made to her parents was that was staying in Japan would be better on them financially, and she wouldn't get homesick as much. In truth, the real reason why she made that sacrifice was for her little brother.

"Jun didn't go because of me," Davis said finally, "she thought that I needed to get away more than she did."

"What do you mean?" TK had always been under the impression that the Motomiya siblings couldn't stand each other, let alone be willing to make such big sacrifices for one another.

"One night..." Davis took a deep breath for continuing, "one night, I was on the rooftop of our apartment building. I was on standing on the ledge thinking about what it'd be like to jump, what it'd be like to die. To have no thoughts or worries, to be just... nothing."

The younger boy was speechless. He didn't know what to say after hearing that his friend had contemplated committing suicide at such a young age.

"Jun found me before I could do anything. If she hadn't, I'd probably be buried six feet in the ground right now."

"Davis..." TK's voice was barely above a whisper, "I'm sorry."

"That's why I lied to everyone," the older boy finished, "I didn't want you all to know the truth. I didn't leave because of you guys, I left because my life here was becoming toxic."


Another week had passed and it was the day that Davis had to board his flight back to America. As much as he wanted to be happy about getting to return to LA, he still couldn't shake the feeling of regret in the back of his mind. He still hadn't been able to get Kari to talk to him, and it was beginning to look like he was going to have to leave without getting the chance to. After finishing packing the remainder of his things, Davis decided to go for one last walk around Odaiba. He figured that since it would probably be another few years until he got to visit Japan again, so he might as well cherish the few hours he had left in the country.

After walking aimlessly for about an hour, Davis eventually found himself heading to the old park he and the others used to frequent. Making his way over to the swing set, he brushed off the bit of snow that was on it before sitting down. Since it was the middle of winter, the park was virtually empty, only a select few people passing by every now and then. Gently beginning to swing back and forth, Davis began to reminisce about all the times he had spent at the park. Thinking back, maybe if he had tried harder to keep his friends together, then maybe things would have turned out differently. But of course, would they have listened to him if he did try? Davis was brought out of his thoughts when heard someone calling his name. Much to his surprise, he looked up to see Kari standing a few feet away from him.

"Hey," he greeted softly, motioning for her to sit in the swing next to him.

They sat in silence for the next several minutes, neither one of them bothering to say a word. Davis was the first to speak up, asking Kari how she knew that he was here. The younger girl replied that she had stopped by his apartment before coming to the park. When his mother told her that Davis had gone on a walk, Kari figured he would have eventually ended up at their old hangout. The two of them didn't talk any more after that, both of them falling silent once again. Another few minutes passed before the silence was broken, Kari being the one to speak first this time.

"I heard you were leaving today," she spoke quietly.

"Yeah," he replied, "my flight is later on tonight."

"Are you going to come back?"

Davis paused for a moment before answering, "To be honest, I don't know."

"Oh..." Davis could hear the disappointment in Kari's voice. "TK told me the reason why you left."

"Did he tell you everything?"

"No," she responded, "all he said was that you didn't leave because of us. He told me that I needed to hear the rest from you."

"Oh, okay."

"Davis, I'm sorry," she began, "I wasn't being fair to you, and I—"

"I know," the older boy interrupted, "it's okay. What I said wasn't right either and I'm sorry."

"I wish we had time to start over," Kari sighed, "Just start off on a clean slate."

"Let's do it anyway."

Getting off the swing, Davis went to stand in front of Kari. A smile came on his face as he held out his hand to introduce himself. "Hey, I'm Davis."

"Kari," she smiled back as she took his hand.


a/n: Yup. It's finally the end after four and a half years... god, I hate this story so much.