Kari followed Yolei into her bedroom, smiling as Yolei dreamily hummed and sighed about the note still in her grasp. The girl had lost it completely it seemed. Just a few minutes ago, Yolei was sadder than she had ever been in her life. Afterwards... well, one would think she had just won the lottery.
Yolei fell on her bed, sighing happily and hugging a surprised, sleeping Poromon in a deathgrip. "Oh, I can't wait to find out who he is. When I find him, you know what I'm going to do?"
"What?" said Kari.
"Help me..." squeeked Poromon as he struggled for air.
"I'm going to go to him, look him straight in the eye... and say that I'll be his forever. That our love will know no bounds. That-"
"Shouldn't we find out who it is first, before you declare your love?" mentioned Kari as she pulled out her cell phone and started dialing. "I'll ask TK if he knows anything about this. I can usually tell when he's lying."
Poromon finally squeezed free, gasping for air and flying haphazardly to another sleeping spot. "Air! Air! Air!"
Kari waited as the phone rang. Once... twice... *click* "Hello?"
"Hi TK, it's me Kari."
"Oh hi Kari, I was wondering what happened to you. Did you get home okay with all that stuff?"
"Yeah, thanks to Yolei. Hey, speaking of which, you wouldn't know anything about a letter she got today, would you?"
"A letter? No, why? Is it a bad letter?"
Kari giggled. "No, definitely not. We're just trying to find out who's letter it is. It was in her stuff, but it fell out during our walk. Did you see anyone by her locker today? I'm thinking someone stuck it in there, and Yolei just missed it."
"Hmm... I only walk by it in the mornings, but I didn't see anyone there during the day. Cody has a locker nearby, maybe you should ask him."
"Okay, thanks TK. Talk to ya later," said Kari with a smile.
"Bye." *click*
"What'd he say?" asked Yolei.
"He doesn't know anything about it. He sounds like he's telling the truth," answered Kari. "I'll try Cody."
Brrr... Brrr... three rings... four rings...
Kari glanced at her watch. "Come on, somebody pick up." After about six rings, the answering machine picked up, and Mrs Hida's voice could be heard. Hi, this is the Hida Residence. Sorry, we're not home right now, but just leave a short message after the beep, and we'll get back to you. Thank you ...beep
"Hello, this is Kari. Call me when you get a chance Cody. Thanks, bye." Kari hung up the cell phone.
Yolei sat up. "Davis hasn't answered any of my e-mails. He wouldn't leave his D-terminal lying around."
"Let me try," said Kari. She pulled out her D-terminal, and sent a simple message. "There, I just sent-"
Beep Beep Beep!
"Whoa, that was fast," remarked Yolei. "What'd you say?"
Kari giggled at the message answer. "I asked him if I should get a bikini or a one-piece for this summer. He says I should try a no-piece, naturally."
"So he was just ignoring my messages?" said Yolei. "Why would he do that?"
Kari smiled. "He must know something about the letter."
"Let's interrogate him!" yelled Yolei. "He'll tell us who wrote it!"
"What if he wrote it?" suggested Kari as she punched up a new e-mail message.
Yolei paused. "...I never thought about that. He seems so obsessed with you, that I doubted he would write me a letter. Besides, he's not exactly a... romantic kind of guy."
Kari shrugged. "You never know. There, I just sent a message to Davis asking him to meet me at the mall to help me pick out that swimsuit."
"He actually believed you?" said Yolei with amazement as they headed out the door.
****
Davis flipped through the bikini rack, looking for just the right one...
"Nope...nope...nope...ooh...nope."
"Hi Davis!" said Kari as she walked into the store, followed by Yolei. Davis turned around with a huge smile on his face...until he saw Yolei.
"Hi Kar- Ahh! Sorry gotta go!" Within seconds, he was making a mad dash out of the store.
"Get him!" yelled Yolei. Davis ran through the mall, dodging other people and yelling quick appologies as he raced through the crowded halls. Yolei and Kari ran as fast as they could to catch him, but Davis was a soccer player.
Davis looked back and saw they were way behind. "Heh heh heh...*phew*...That was-" WHAM! Davis felt an extraordinary amount of pain run through his body as he collided with a photobooth.
"Mommi..." Davis fell backwards with a *thump*, allowing Kari and Yolei the chance to catch up with him. They looked down at him, suppressing giggles.
"Nice try goggle boy!" said Yolei as Davis got up. "Now spill it! Why are you trying to hide from me?"
"I'm not trying to hide from you," said Davis lightheadedly. "Why would I do that Yolei?" Yolei grabbed Davis' goggles and stretched them towards her, then let them go, causing them to snap into Davis' face, rather painfully.
"Oww!" he complained, pulling the goggles back up to their normal spot.
"Come on Davis, tell me! What do you know about the letter?"
Davis shook his head. "I don't know anything about your stupid letter!"
"Then why are you trying to hide from me, huh!" barked Yolei.
Davis looked around, trying to find a security guard...or maybe an armed soldier that could pry Yolei away from him. "Uh...I've decided to stop arguing with you by staying away from you all together?" he answered jokingly.
Kari ran a finger along Davis' chin. "Davis, please?" she said with big, sad eyes. "Once you tell Yolei the truth, we can go buy that bikini..."
Davis seemed gripped by indecision- something you wouldn't expect from a guy in his position. "I...I can't. I promised..."
"Promised who what?"
"Ahh...uhh...oh man." Suddenly Davis looked at something behind them with fear. "Ack! Look out!"
Yolei and Kari turned around quickly. "What, what!" Just as they said that, the sound of someone running from them could be heard behind them. The girls turned around to see just what they expected- Davis had made a break for it.
"I can't believe we fell for that," groaned Yolei. "Davis just outsmarted us."
"I never thought I'd hear those words coming out of anyone's mouth," said Kari.
"At least we know that Davis knows who wrote it… and that he didn't write it. *Phew*."
"What's wrong with Davis?" said Kari jokingly. "He's not that bad."
"Speak for yourself."
****
----------------------
Motomiya Residence
6:30 PM
----------------------
*Ding-dong*
Jun walked to the door and looked out the peephole. She opened the door and answered with a smile. "Hey there girls."
Kari and Yolei smiled. "Hi Jun, is Davis home?"
"No he's not home!" yelled a voice from the back of the house.
Jun smiled. "Yeah, he's home. Come in." Jun moved out of the way, allowing the two girls to enter the home. Jun walked to the hall and knocked on Davis' bedroom door. "Davis, visitors!"
"I told you, I'm not home!" he answered from the other side.
Jun walked out to the living room where Yolei and Kari were sitting. "He's in his room. Go on in."
"Thanks Jun," said Kari with a smile. Kari and Yolei walked to the bedroom door, knocked a few times, and opened it up. They walked inside, finding the room to be empty.
"Daaavis," called out Yolei. "We know you're in here." No answer.
Hmm... if I were Davis, where would I hide. Yolei walked to the closet and opened it up. "Ah hah!"
*Thunk* "Oww!" cried Davis as he rammed his head into the wall. "Darn it Yolei, you're too dangerous! Everybody let gets near you gets injured somehow!"
"No, that's just you," said Kari as the two dragged him out of the closet.
"Now Davis, just tell us what we want to know, and we'll leave you alone!" said Yolei. "You can't hold out forever!"
"Just try me!" Davis countered. "I promised I would never tell!"
"Fine, if you don't want to tell, then just tell us what you know about the letter."
Davis sighed and fell on his bed. "...Will you leave me alone if I do?"
"Sure," they said with a nod.
Davis groaned and looked up at the ceiling. "Okay. I know who it is because he asked me to deliver it for him. He said he was too shy to do it in person, so he asked if I would give it to Yolei. I agreed, but I didn't want to give Yolei the wrong idea, so I just stuck it in her locker. I guess you just didn't notice it until it fell out of your ba- Hey, what're you doing!"
Yolei and Kari pinned Davis to the bed. "You're going to tell us who he is, or you're going to laugh yourself to death!"
"What do you...oh no. Please, not that!"
Kari and Yolei wiggled their fingers. "You'd better tell us..." The girls reached down and started tickling Davis, making him squirm and laugh uncontrollably.
"St-Hahahaha- please! Hahahahaha- okay, okay! Hahahahaha!"
The girls stopped tickling him momentarily. "You'll tell?"
"Yes! Yes! Just don't do that again!"
They continued to pin him, just in case. "Okay, tell me!" ordered Yolei. "Who wrote that letter!"
****
"Ken dear!" said Mrs. Ichijouji through her son's door. "Are you in there?"
Ken looked up from his book towards the door. "Yes mother, what is it?"
She slowly opened the door and peaked inside. "Here's your mail for today. It's quite a pile." Mrs. Ichijouji placed the pile of fan mail on the edge of Ken's bed. "I'll just leave these here for you."
"Thanks mom. Good night," he said as he returned to his book.
"Good night hon," she answered, closing the door slowly. Ken sighed sadly as he reached over and picked up the stack of letters. He put it in his lap and waded through it methodically. He read the names, and tossed most of them aside. He only read a couple, finding each more outrageous than the last. None of them had what he was looking for.
"I wonder if the Backstreet Boys have this same problem on Valentine's Day. All that fan mail, and not a single one that is sincere." Ken gathered the opened mail and placed it in his desk drawer. As an after thought, he walked over to his computer and booted up his e-mail. As could be expected, it was filled to the brim with messages from people he didn't know. Ken made a mental note to change his address, and keep it secret this time. Around the fourtieth message, Ken gave up and deleted all of them at the same time, not worried about who wrote them or what they said.
"*Sigh*... another Valentine's day come and gone." Ken hopped back into bed, turned out the light, and closed his eyes...
Beep Beep Beep!
"What the..." Ken got up and reached over to grab the source of the noise, his D-terminal. He turned on the light and looked at the message on the screen. Slowly, his eyes widened in disbelief.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dear Ken,
Ever since day one, I knew we would be together. I remember seeing your beautiful face for the first time... what a day. Your beautiful eyes... your charming smile... your smooth hair... I thought you were a dream. When I found out you were real, I dreamt of you every night. I still do Ken... I still dream of you. I never could find the strength to tell you my feelings in person, but I guess we both have that in common now. Now that I know you feel for me the same way that I feel for you...my dreams will never be the same.
Your Valentine Forever,
Yolei
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~