A/n: Thank you so much for reviewing, favouriting and following the story even when it hadn't been updated in months. It makes me happy that so many people are interested in this concept and I hope I can write it well. This chapter is basically like an introduction for Mimi's character, and I thought since Toei is using Meiko to trigger the plot in tri why shouldn't I do the same thing?

Two.

-x-

The sky outside had started to lose its glamour as their self-study period dragged on. Sora had already helped Taichi with their worksheet which led to the latter sleeping soundly and Yamato had already finished the work even before they began with it, so he sat with his earphones plugged in, quietly humming a tune as he gazed outside. Sora had decided to follow his lead, but the clear blue sky wasn't appealing to her after a few minutes. She sighed, and surveyed the classroom out of boredom, she thought of leaving her desk to go chat with some of her female friends but just as she was about to stand up, their homeroom teacher entered, clapping his hands and clearing his throat to catch their attention. The whole class straightened up and turned to face the teacher. Yamato kicked Taichi's leg lightly to wake him up and the brunet's head shot up immediately, he turned around and narrowed his eyes at Yamato who just stared back at him blankly.

"Yagami, face this side please." Their teacher called, and Taichi sluggishly turned around, his face still holding a drowsy expression as he turned to the front.

Sora chuckled at this sight and turned her attention towards their teacher as well, noticing that he was scribbling a name on the blackboard, he then turned to the door and beckoned the person standing behind the door to come in. The heads of her classmates moved in unison as they settled with staring intently at the entrance of their classroom, awaiting the new addition to their class. Sora followed her peers, feeling a little excited and hoping it was a girl. It was very unusual for them to get transfer students at this point in the school year, and the feeling that she had since morning that something different would happen was probably a premonition for this. She wanted to assume that this person would become a good friend to Sora, and that's why her strange powers had been sending warning signs to her since morning. The person waiting outside was probably feeling nervous as they took their time coming in, and a smile appeared on Sora's face as a navy haired girl entered their class.

"Aah."

Sora turned towards Taichi, puzzled by his reaction.

He faced her with a grin and whispered, "I told you I ran into one of our new neighbours in the morning right? That's her."

Sora nodded as her attention shifted back to their teacher who was now introducing their new classmate. Mochizuki Meiko, was her name. A once over told Sora that she was the shy type as the new girl could barely bring herself to look up and face the class as their teacher talked about her, and her cheeks were tinted red from probably embarrassment or nervousness. The teacher talked about how her father was a university professor and due to his sudden transfer Mochizuki had to move from the countryside, he hoped that they would try their best to make her feel welcome. Sora noticed that some of their male classmates were already eyeing the new girl with sudden interest which made her roll her eyes. Their teacher pointed to the empty seat in front of Taichi and Sora readied herself for a friendly greeting, she watched as Meiko's eyes followed the teacher's but instead of focusing at the seat her gaze met Taichi's. Taichi being his usual self, smiled at her. It didn't mean anything, Sora knew that very well, he was just being polite, but still she felt an unusual pang rise up in her chest and to her own surprise, when Meiko made her way towards them, Sora didn't offer her any words but only a small, forced smile.

Noticing that Meiko was being extremely cautious to not meet anyone's eyes, Sora felt a slight irritation rise within herself as the girl passed her without a second glance. Was it because she was embarrassed or not interested, Sora couldn't tell. What Sora was able to understand was when the new girl arrived at her seat, she paused and faced Taichi and as he politely smiled at her, her cheeks turned cherry red and she nodded slightly before taking her seat. Sora tried her very best to concentrate on the book on her desk and not let the disarray of emotions she was feeling stirring deep inside her to appear on her face, when a sudden movement caught her eye. Her raspberry eyes widened in shock and she had to contain her gasp with much effort as she saw a red string slowly drift from Meiko's lap where her hands rested, towards Taichi. The string didn't attach itself to Taichi but just came to a stop a bit farther away from his hand, and Sora could swear, in that moment, so did her heart.

X

"So new student huh?"

Sora frowned as she paused eating for a minute and turned to face her lunch date with curious eyes, "How did you know?"

"I'm always up to date Sora-san, that's my specialty!" Mimi smirked as she flipped her hair backwards stylishly, slightly for a dramatic effect and slightly to make her friend laugh.

The two girls sat on one of the slightly secluded benches in the school gardens enjoying some undisturbed quality time together. Today was one of their lunch-swap days and Sora was slightly uneasy about eating as much jam and whipped cream as was spread over every item in her bento but nevertheless she endured, so as to not hurt her friend's feelings.

Mimi Tachikawa was a year junior to Sora, and ever since she had bumped into the brunette in the hallway on the day of the entrance ceremony, they had become fast friends. If there was anyone who would come close to understanding her apart from Taichi and Yamato, it would probably be Mimi. Sora had only known her for around six months and they usually only met twice or thrice a week, but she always felt like she and Mimi had been friends for years. Although they didn't have much in common, in fact their choices were mostly as far apart as possible, when they talked everything seemed to click, it seemed to fall into place for Sora. She was also able to open up to Mimi about things she couldn't to her other two friends and that had seemed to really uplift her mood in the small while that she had known her. Just a few weeks after the beginning of 'Mimi-time' as Taichi had termed it, both him and Yamato kept commenting on a sudden change in Sora's 'aura', which she brushed off initially as their usual silliness but later somewhat understood what they were trying to say as she felt the change herself.

Naturally, now that Mimi had become a huge part of her daily life Sora could not stop herself from being curious about the stagnant red string tied to her junior's finger. While it wasn't extending and drifting off in a peculiar direction, just like Yamato's string, it wasn't fully stagnant either with more than a few strands drifting independently in various directions. One of these tiny strands had started facing Sora recently which had surprised her immensely. But after observing Mimi and thinking about it thoroughly, the auburn haired girl realized that Mimi's sense of love was different than most people. For her it was a pure emotion that she extended to everyone, her family, her friends and sometimes even to random strangers on the street who'd pass her a shy smile as their eyes met. Unlike Yamato, who had stopped believing in love, Mimi belived in it to such an extent that everyone she deeply cared about was somehow tied to her fate. And as much as Taichi and Yamato's status made her slightly lose faith in her belief over love, looking at Mimi's multiple strings would put it right back where it belonged. Sometimes however, Sora wondered how Mimi's string would change, when she actually met her soul mate and she secretly hoped that she would still have this strange power so she could witness it.

"Yeah, she just moved from the countryside. Sudden job transfer, apparently." Sora replied, popping a jam covered tart in her mouth.

"Mom or Dad?" Mimi asked again, happily stuffing her mouth with the perfectly normal bento that Sora had made for her.

"Dad." Sora answered, tearfully eyeing the food in Mimi's lap.

"Interesting," Mimi muttered, a musing look covered her pale face as she took a bite out of the croquette that Sora had worked so hard on, "So are you best friends with her already?"

"Actually I didn't really find her to be that interesting, she barely spoke two words," Sora said, her voice became a little more louder and the words spilled out a little more faster than usual as Meiko's wary eyes as she first entered the classroom flashed across her mind. She then internally cursed herself for being so stupid, Mimi wasn't the type of person who missed signs and let things go.

"So what did the new girl do to piss you off?" the brunette snickered, raising an eyebrow in amusement as Sora felt herself flush under her stare.

"Nothing. Like I said, she didn't talk much," Sora muttered and quickly turned her full attention towards her lunch, hurriedly stuffing item after item in her mouth to stop Mimi from taking this conversation further. She herself wasn't sure how she felt about Meiko or her connection to Taichi, or if she even felt something about it at all, so she definitely wasn't ready to come clean about this to Mimi. The two were quiet for a while and Sora hoped that the silence would last until the bell rang, signalling the start of class, but Mimi as always, had something different planned.

"Actually, I kind of wanted to talk to you about something important today," she started, closing the lid of the now empty bento box and setting it between herself and Sora on the bench, Mimi turned to face Sora fully.

Although Sora hadn't finished eating, she followed suit as she noticed the sudden change in her friend's attitude. When she looked at Mimi, she saw that her junior was trying to look happy but the smile on her face didn't reach her eyes. Her caramel eyes seemed clouded with uncertainty, as she met Sora's gaze it seemed to her that Mimi was searching for something, she wanted something from Sora. It wasn't until the brunette started talking that Sora realized what exactly Mimi was searching for.

"I'm…seeing someone now."

It took two full minutes for Sora to comprehend the words that had just left her junior's mouth. In these two minutes, Sora's eyes constantly flew towards Mimi's hands checking and re-checking only to find the same short red strings drifting around in the air aimlessly. When she met Mimi's gaze, she couldn't accept the smile plastered on her face because it didn't match the truth that Sora was aware of, unknowingly to Mimi.

"Well you're taking the news almost as badly as my father…" Mimi chuckled, her gaze shifting downwards. That's when Sora understood what she had been searching for.

Approval.

Mimi wanted approval, not specifically from Sora but in general. She wanted to know if what she was doing was right. Sora was unsure whether she could give the brunette what she wanted because the truth was right in front of her eyes and she couldn't bring herself to look past it. But at the same time, Sora did not want to lose her as a friend, so she acted according to the situation.

"Well because, its' just…so sudden, I don't know what to say…"Sora stuttered slightly, which was a silly habit of hers when she tried to do something she didn't want to, she hoped to all things holy that Mimi wouldn't catch on to it.

"Well yeah, I understand that," Mimi said, her smile fading slightly.

"I mean I didn't even know you had someone you liked," Sora continued, trying her best to not stutter by keeping her eyes on Mimi's face and not letting her gaze drift towards her hands.

"He, uh, kind of wore me down you know?" Mimi met her gaze for a second and then looked away, knowing that Sora would catch her drift.

"Oh. Your childhood friend. Koushiro-kun was it?" Sora asked, talking more to herself than to her junior but Mimi nodded still avoiding her gaze.

Sora didn't want to stay quiet, she wanted to congratulate Mimi and cheerfully share this moment with her, tease her, tell her she was happy for her and most importantly, reassure her. But this was the curse of her gift, she already knew the terrible outcome and thus could not bring herself to fake happiness for the sake of her friend. Sora had only met Koushiro once or twice and both times it had been painfully obvious, that that boy was smitten with Mimi. And both the times Sora had repeatedly checked to see if his string was remotely pointing towards Mimi, because sometimes it takes time for people to realize their love for someone, so maybe it would take a while for Mimi to realize that Koushiro was her soul mate and eventually their strings would entangle and tie them to each other. But to her surprise, Koushiro's string had been drifting in a totally opposite direction, his soul mate had already been picked by the fates and it wasn't Mimi. And yet here Mimi was, attempting to return his feelings, which shouldn't exist for her in the first place. To top it all off, Mimi had talked to Sora about how she wanted to be confessed to, what her ideal first date would be like, how she wanted to be proposed to, how her ideal wedding would come to be countless times and somehow Koushiro never seemed to fit in the picture.

Sora also didn't want someone she cared deeply about to settle for just anyone when she knew that the right person was out there, waiting to be found. Her mother had told her once, ages ago, that sometimes you have to go through a few heartbreaks to find the right person, and maybe this was how Mimi's romantic journey was supposed to proceed but Sora couldn't bring herself to accept that. She knew this was wrong, she could stop her friend from getting hurt so why shouldn't she?

"As much as I am surprised by this, I'm glad you're giving this a try Mimi-chan, you never know how things might turn out," Sora smiled as widely as she could when Mimi finally decided to meet her gaze. As much as Sora wanted to protect her friend from heartbreak she also didn't want their friendship to end because of her unwanted ability. So she decided to take the middle path, she wouldn't directly discourage Mimi from taking this step, but at the same time somehow make Mimi understand that she was against it without hurting her feelings.

Mimi seemed to contemplate Sora's words as she tilted her head backwards and looked up at the sky, Sora faced ahead instead, watching the brunette from the corner of her eye. Her face looked calmer than it had at the beginning of this conversation and that relieved Sora a little, she didn't know the conclusion that Mimi had reached in her head, but she was determined to use her curse to control the damage even before it began.

-x-

A/n: Hopefully by the next chapter the update gap would be shorter and the chapter longer, thank you for reading and reviews/criticisms are always welcome. Sora might seem a little domineering at this point, but she'll get better.