Love or Hate? (Part 5)
By Firenze

A/N: Just a quick note for anyone who doesn't like Kouyako: I just wrote that part in for my friend, Taigurl, because she likes it, and she's the one who gave me the idea for that and this part, so it's just a thanks. Personally, I like Kenyako too, but then again, once you think about it...I like Ioriyako, Kenyako, Kouyako, Koumi, just about everything, so...yeah. Anyway, if that part bothered you, sorry, but I can't please everyone. I'm still not sure if I'll go on to Kenyako or keep developing the Kouyako though. How about a vote? Anyway, whether it's Taiora or not will be my decision. After all, lots of people have been begging for Sorato... You'll find out in the last chapter.

By the way, ying zero said something very interesting: "PLEASE make it be taiora, it would be so good! I know Tai isn't really evil...." Well, I never said he was 'evil,' he's just really desperate for revenge. If that's evil, then I guess he is, but you know if he really did become evil, that would be sweet! Well, enough babble -- here's part 5, or part 2 of 'Miyako Tells Her Tale,' pretty much.

+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^

That Friday night, the day before the big concert, Miyako was having second thoughts. She frantically paced back and forth in her bedroom, brushing her violet hair so much that she thought it would fall out, mumbling to herself the pros and cons. She still couldn't decide: ruin one of the most important moments of Yamato and his band's lives, or help out Taichi and Koushiro who were in desperate need of her help -- for a reason she truly didn't know.

At the present moment, it was leaning to the side of burn the tape and let the concert go along smoothly. She had been working so hard to make it a success before Koushiro and Taichi came in and interfered. Why should she purposely ruin something she had wanted so much to pass along flawlessly?

On the other hand, she wasn't wrecking the *entire* concert. It was just a short three minutes of it, just one song. It was just something Taichi needed to get off his chest. He seemed so genuinely hurt, even though she didn't know why he was feeling that way that she felt she had to help him out. But how would Yamato feel?

Great. Back to Square 1. Miyako groaned and buried her head into her hands. If only someone could help her decide! She walked to her desk, rummaged through a drawer, and found what she was looking for. The tape on which they had recorded the Yamato speech. Cautiously, quietly, making sure no one would wake up, she inched to the living room.

Her parents had fallen asleep on the sofa. A tiny fire was still burning in the fireplace; unsafe, obviously, but Miyako possibly needed it. Her eyes darted from the tape to the fireplace, one final time thinking over what she should do, who she should help out. Her grip tightened on the tape, and her hands shook. She shut her eyes and forced herself to reach a final decision. She did. Releasing her grip, she dropped the tape.

* * *

Ring-ring!

Miyako's eyes snapped open, and she dashed to the phone. She picked it up, cleared her throat, and asked hastily, "Hello?"

As she had suspected, it was Koushiro. "Miyako?"

"Yes?"

"Well, the concert starts in about six hours. Are we still on?"

Her brother, who had been listening to their conversation on another phone, misinterpreted their words. He slammed the phone down and stormed into Miyako's bedroom. "Miyako, do you have some secret boyfriend you're not telling us about?" he demanded.

Miyako was startled by the suddenness. "Huh? What are you talking about?"

"You've got a date with this boy to the concert, don't you?" he asked, his eyes glinting. "Don't you?"

Miyako thought about what made him draw this conclusion. But she didn't understand. "What do you mean?" she repeated, with more annoyance to her tone. "Where'd you get this from?"

"I -- well -- I -- er --" he stuttered.

"Hello? I *work* at this concert," she said in a tone that made it sound like it had been so obvious.

Her brother's eyes widened. "Oh, well I -- I'm sorry." He bowed his head and walked out of the room.

Miyako started laughing, but Koushiro was confused. "What was that about?" he asked.

She giggled. "I don't really think I know either."

"Anyway, so..." he trailed off.

Remembering what he was talking about, her laughter stopped. She thought of the tape... "Koushiro, last night I had so many second thoughts that it made my head spin. I was constantly changing my mind. I didn't know what to do. Did that happen to you?"

"Yeah, sort of..."

"Well, I was starting to go insane trying to make a decision like this. Then I told myself that I would either agree to do it, or I would burn the tape. I was standing right in front of the fireplace, making a final decision...and I -- I --" Miyako lost her voice.

"Miyako? You what?" She didn't answer. "Hello? Hello? Hel--"

With shaking hands, she pressed the 'Off' button on the phone, and then went back to bed, hoping everything would be all right when she woke up.

* * *

Ding-dong!

Ding-dong!

Koushiro waited at the door, twisting his hands, tapping one foot, and showing gestures of how impatient he was becoming by the second. He reached his finger out to press the doorbell one more time, when the door opened.

Hikari answered the door. "Koushiro?" she asked in surprise, not having expected him.

"Can I talk to Taichi?" he asked. The words, 'he's asleep,' were about to come out of her lips, but Koushiro interrupted her. "I know it's pretty early, but it's really, really urgent."

"Well..." she said hesitantly. "All right. Come on in." She opened the door wider, and he stepped through. Hikari slowly closed the door and locked it. "Just wait here," she instructed. "I'll wake up Taichi. But I'll warn you, he's a little cranky when I wake him up."

He nodded, thrusting his hands into his pockets. He waited, until he heard a loud commotion. It sounded like lots of pulling and tugging, sounds of resistance, Hikari's pleading voice, Taichi's grumpy mumblings, and a big fight. But in the end, Hikari won.

Taichi stumbled into the room, his mass of his completely tousled, his eyes slightly bloodshot, his pajamas wrinkled. He rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Koushiro, what is it?" he asked. "You better have a good reason for waking me up like this."

"I do," he replied. "This is so important, you have no idea--"

"What could possibly be so important at six o'clock in the morning?" he demanded, obviously still grouchy from having been woken up so early.

"I just talked to Miyako and--"

"Yeah?" he cut in. "And what did Miyako say?"

"Miyako told me something that could totally ruin your entire plan."

"How?"

"She burned the tape."

Taichi stared at him in disbelief, occasionally blinking. What Koushiro had said wasn't even funny. He just kept on staring at him for a few more minutes, and Koushiro thought he was just going to explode. But he didn't. He burst out laughing. He laughed long and hard, and Koushiro just stood there, unmoving. "Man, Izzy, you really had me there! Wow, at first I thought you actually said that Miyako burned the tape!" He went on laughing hysterically.

"She did," he said, not understand what was so funny.

Taichi slapped him on the shoulder. "Yeah. Sure, Koushiro. I believe you." He kept laughing; laughing so hard his face went red and he couldn't breathe. Koushiro had a feeling he was losing his mind.

"I'm telling you, I think she burned the tape!" Koushiro told Taichi again, a lot more firmly this time.

The words finally hit Taichi. He abruptly stopped laughing. His face lost all of its color, becoming a pale, pale white. He could hardly breathe. "But -- but -- that was our only copy!" he choked out. He grabbed Koushiro by the shoulders and started shaking him. "Please, please, Koushiro. Tell me you're joking!"

"I -- I can't," he said slowly. "Look, I'm sorry, Taichi, but..."

"No," he said shaking his head. "No, this can't be happening..." He felt like crying and throwing up at the same time. "This ruins everything, and now my life is ruined again, instead of Yamato's..."

"Why do you want to ruin Yamato's life anyway?" Koushiro suddenly asked. "I know I said I didn't care, but now I do. Please, tell me why this is so important to you."

Taichi took a few deep breaths and calmed down. "Okay, here goes..."

+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^

"And it's basically the entire story Sora told us, from his point of view," Miyako told them.

"Hey, Miyako?" Sora asked, speaking up after she had been quiet for a very long time.

"Yes?"

"Just get to the part about the concert," Sora said. "I still have some stuff to tell, and it's almost two o'clock in the morning, and I'm getting really tired and frustrated from thinking about this so much. So please, go on."

"Yeah, I want to know why you guys are dreading this concert so much!" Mimi squealed. "What was Taichi's plan?"

Miyako took a deep breath. "Here goes..."

+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^

Yamato stared at the piece of paper he had scribbled all over; bar lines, notes, things he had crossed out and fixed and revised and rewritten, until it came out to an actual song -- a huge mess, but nonetheless -- a song. It seemed perfect, or so he thought.

He called all the guys in his band, who were starting to warm up. They gathered around him, staring at the paper he was holding in his hand.

"Hey, I know this is kind of last minute, considering our concert is in an hour," he replied, "but I think I just came up with a new song."

"Cool," the guy who played the keyboard said. "Are we gonna play it today?"

He shrugged. "If we can get them to let us play it. Let me go talk to someone about this. Maybe we could squeeze this in. I mean, what does it matter if our song is a few minutes longer? Here, you guys can practice it." He handed them the paper and walked off, searching the backstage area for someone he could talk to.

Everyone seemed way too busy. Whoever he tried to talk to, they just walked right by, talking to other people, giving orders. Finally the only person left to talk to was Miyako. She managed the sound.

"Hey, Miyako!" he called, walking to her. "Do you think we can fit an extra song into our show?"

She was taken by surprise. "Extra -- extra song?"

"Yeah. Think we can?" he asked again, a little impatient.

She thought about it for a while. "You're going to have to talk to the people higher up...but I suppose so. Have you practiced it a lot?"

He nodded. "I've been writing it for weeks. The rest of the band can easily catch up. But what do you say. Do we have a chance?"

She shrugged. "I guess I can ask Bob (lack of a better name here, people) if we can extend the concert a few minutes or something. Couldn't hurt."

"Thanks, Miyako!" he called, running down the corridor back to the room where his band was practicing.

'Extending the concert...' Miyako thought vaguely, and the thought of Taichi, Koushiro, the tape, the fire, flashed through her mind briefly, before she walked off.

* * *

The concert was about to start in a few minutes. Taichi sat in one of the back rows, and he couldn't stop fidgeting and squirming. Koushiro glanced over at him. "Don't bite your nails, it's bad for you."

"Gee, sorry, *Mom*," he said sarcastically, and went back to being a complete wreck. He glanced back at Koushiro, though he was a little perturbed (big word! j/k) by the last comment. "Seriously, though...you think she burned it?"

Koushiro sighed. "We went over this a million times. First off, I don't know. Second, we'll just have to wait and find out. And third, stop asking me, because reverting back to point one: I don't know."

"Touchy, touchy," Taichi commented.

Koushiro just rolled his eyes. "I'm tired. This thing has me just as stressed as you. I worked so hard on that tape; I can't believe she could just burn it like that! But we don't know that she did. Let's just wait and see."

Taichi nodded, and then leaned forward anticipatingly in his seat as the lights in the audience dimmed, the ones onstage got brighter, and the show started.

* * *

"It's over now," Taichi said emotionlessly, glancing at his blue luminous watch. "The concert's about to be over once this song's done, and Miyako didn't play the tape. She burned it."

The band finished the final bar of the song, ending with a huge bang. Everyone cheered and shouted, but they were a little sad that it was over. Just as people were getting up out of their seats, they sat back down.

"Wait, wait, don't go just yet!" Yamato said to everyone. "Today we have a little surprise for everyone here."

The audience liked that. They cheered so loudly that Taichi had to cover his ears with his hands.

Yamato stepped up, grabbed the microphone off his stand, and walked to another side of the stage, as the lights became dimmer. "Well, a few weeks ago I was messing around with my bass and fumbling with words to try and make a song..." He held up a very wrinkled sheet of paper. "And here it is. It's really the first time I wrote any song like this, but in the past few months, something really confusing and emotional happened to me. And I...I just felt compelled to write something about how I was feeling. It was just a way to vent everything. So, here it is... But wait, before we start, I want to dedicate this to a few people... Taichi, I'm so sorry about everything, and I'm willing to bet this won't make anything better, but I just have to do this... Sora, wherever you are out there..."

He paused and scanned the huge crowd of thousand expectant faces, looking for just one...as impossible as finding a needle in a haystack... But the spotlight went from Yamato to Sora, who was sitting in the audience looking confused. She looked to Hikari, who was sitting next to her, and they had a short talk.

"What's this about?" she whispered, feeling subconscious. Hikari merely shrugged, focusing intently on Yamato, waiting to hear what he had to say.

"Sora, I just want to tell you that despite everything, I really lov--" Suddenly, there was earsplitting feedback. Everyone covered their ears and winced, but it was over. This time, it was a recording.

"I don't think I can take this anymore. I can't. I just can't do it. I can't pretend that I love Sora. I didn't mean to kiss her...it just sort of subconsciously happened. I didn't even want it to happen! I mean, if you think about it, it was all her fault anyway. And Taichi...he's the one who started all of this. He brought me into this whole entire mess. I want to say I'm sorry for the kiss, but I can't. Deep down inside, I know that none of this is my fault. If only those two could just get along. But I have to say, I really have nothing to do with it.

"Sora... God, why did she have to kiss me? I didn't even *want* her to kiss me. Sure, she's my friend, but I could never do that! Kissing her was just so...so weird... I had to like spit once she left. I almost threw up. It was repulsive... She's my friend, but I could never like her that way! She's nice, yeah...but she's just really bland and boring, has absolutely no personality, and she's not even that pretty. (Sorry to Sora fans, I *used* to like her too!)

"You know, like I said, this never would have happened if she just said yes to Taichi, or he asked earlier, or -- or something! But it sure as hell isn't my fault, and those two have got some major problems to work out. Not me. So I'm not taking any more of this shit. I'm through with Taichi, and especially Sora. And if she ever tries to kiss me again, I *will* throw up."

The recording ended, and everyone gasped, disbelieving what he or she had just heard. That was one of the most cruel, insensitive things any of them had ever heard. Though Yamato was possibly the most shocked, Sora was too, and easily the most hurt by those words, of course.

All the people in the place were staring directly at Sora, who was trying her best not to cry, but failing. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Sora, I --" Yamato began helplessly, so shocked himself about what had just happened that he could hardly speak. "That wasn't me, I didn't --"

"Just leave me alone, Yamato Ishida!" she yelled out, scrambling to her feet. "I hate you too!" And then she buried her face in her hands and ran off as fast as she could.

"Seems like Sora hates just about everyone these days, doesn't she?" Koushiro murmured to himself. He turned to Taichi. "Is this how everything was supposed to go?"

Taichi nodded, but there wasn't a grin on his face. In fact, it was rather opposite. "I know it's what I wanted to do, but I can't help feeling bad..."

"Still, you're lucky Miyako didn't burn the tape," he reminded the downcast boy. "Speaking of Miyako, I'm gonna go off to find her and congratulate her on a job well done. Gonna come along?"

"No thanks," Taichi said, absentmindedly waving his hand. "I think I'll go and find Sora. What I came to see is over, and as far as I'm concerned, I don't want to stay in this dump any longer."

Koushiro nodded, and the two boys went off their separate ways, the spotlights following them. When they were gone, the lights all went back to Yamato and the Teenage Wolves onstage. The band members just stood there stock-still, unsure of what to do, and Yamato was slumped on his stool with his head in his hands. When the lights came back, he stood up.

"Well...I guess this concert has died. I don't know what the hell that shit was, but I swear; that wasn't my song. Maybe I'll sing it some other time. So thanks for coming everyone... Sorry about that last part, but I'd say this went pretty well... We'll see you next time!"

The lights immediately dimmed and the people in the audience quickly streamed out. It was empty in a matter of time, except Yamato, who still sat in his stool, staring down glumly at the sheet of music that he had never gotten to play. Frustrated, he crumpled it into a ball and threw it as far as he could into the audience. Then he sighed heavily, got up to his feet, and walked off to the back of the stage.

But as he was heading off, he overhead a bit of conversation, and though he knew it was wrong, stopped and eavesdropped. It sounded like Koushiro and Miyako's voices.

"So you didn't burn the tape!"

'What tape?' Yamato thought suspiciously, and listened intently.

"Actually, I did," Miyako said.

"But -- then -- how--?" he stammered.

"I knew I'd end up doing something like this, so I made an extra copy and told one of my sisters to hide it from me in case I tried destroying the original. You have no idea how stressed this made me."

"Yeah, same here," Koushiro agreed. "I was going insane, but even more so when I thought you burned the tape. Glad you kept it though. I was feeling kinda uneasy, and Taichi too, but it's what he wanted to do, so mission accomplished, right?"

"Yeah, I guess... But I feel so bad for Yamato," Miyako said guiltily. "His song looked really good. And Sora...she's only been confused and hurt more. Should we really have listened to Taichi?"

"Might have been my greatest mistake ever... But didn't you get such a huge rush hearing something we put together played in front of all those people?" he asked.

"Are you kidding? I was feeling so nervous I thought I'd pass out. And I'm still feeling that way now...for some reason, I feel like it's not done. Something else is going to happen, and it'll be bad, very bad... I don't know what, but I just can't shake the feeling that -- YAMATO!"

Koushiro whipped around and saw Yamato coming out of the shadows, and standing there, looking angry and confused.

"You--!" he began furiously.

Miyako's eyes were wide and found she could hardly bring herself to speak. "Yamato, I -- I don't know what to say--"

Koushiro looked from Miyako to Yamato, thinking about some way to avoid this situation, or at least run from it. He couldn't think of anything. "Can you say, uh oh?"

+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^

Dude, I realized something. I tend to end a lot of chapters with cliffhangers of like two people saying or doing something private, and then the exact person they don't want to hear, does. (I also noticed I've been saying 'dude' way too much, but that's pretty irrelevant right now.) Anyway, I'd love to say Part 6 will be out soon, but unfortunately, I can't give that promise. Look out for it though; Sora will finally confess to Taichi how she really feels... Will it be love or hate? You'll find out -- eventually! (P.S. Vote if you want Kouyako or Kenyako!)