Love or Hate? (Part 6)
By Firenze

A/N: This is the longest chapter yet, about twice as long as the other chapters. I think it's unnecessarily longer than it should have been, because of all of the unneeded crap I added in here, but oh well. This is like the big finale thingy, I guess, so it's allowed to ramble on and on. Sora's final conclusion, though, doesn't come until after a very long time and a whole lot of junk. Oh yeah, about the voting process with Kenyako or Kouyako...the result is in there too. READ TO FIND OUT EVERYTHING!

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Sora sighed deeply, sitting on the bench and kicking her heels against the throng underneath it. Her tears hadn't yet ceased and were still pouring as hard as ever. Why did everything bad have to happen to her?! Couldn't she, for once, be spared and have fun?

"No, I guess not," she said bitterly to herself, blinking back a fresh wave of tears. "Taichi and Yamato and everyone just have to find new ways to make my life more of a living hell than it already is."

"Not exactly..."

She sniffed. "What do you want, Taichi? Haven't you caused enough damage already?"

"Me?" he asked innocently as he could, but a little worriedly.

"Yes, you... I thought I had made it clear I didn't want to talk to you ever again," she said, trying to get an edge to her voice, but it was kind of hard when she was sitting there blubbering.

He gave a quick sigh of relief. 'So that's what it is... Good. For a minute there, I thought she knew...or does she?' He thought about her words and then came up with a response. "Those tons of messages you left on my answering machine don't agree."

Only more tears came down. "Stupid Tai..." she mumbled, but she couldn't resist smiling.

"Was that a smile?" Taichi asked with a grin, sitting down next to her.

"No," she said angrily, crossing her arms and trying to sound tough again.

"I think it was." Slowly and cautiously, he brought his hand up to her cheek, turning it to face him. "Aw, come on, get rid of that ugly scowl on your face." Since she wasn't resisting, he brought his other hand to the other side of her face and cupped her chin in his hands. He looked at her in her watery eyes, and then gently lifted his hands to bring her mouth up. It wasn't quite a smile, but it was opposite from a frown. Taichi let out a laugh. "Close enough, I suppose."

Sora giggled a little, but the moment was gone again, and her anger returned. She furrowed her eyebrows, pushed Taichi's hands off her face, and scooted away. "Stop it. Leave me alone."

"Why are you mad at me?" he asked.

"Because...because I -- I --"

"Because you're mad at Yamato, so you're taking it out on the world right now," he finished for her.

"No," she said, fuming. Then she lightened up, and said softly, "...Yes." She was quiet, but then she suddenly looked up at Taichi. "Do you think Yamato meant all that stuff he said, or was that at a time when he was just blowing off steam?"

"Either he was PMS-ing," Taichi joked, but Sora glared at him. "...Or not. Maybe he's just a total jerk, Sora. Haven't we always known this?"

"But he isn't, really, deep down inside!" she protested, wiping away the tears from her eyes; one of the last, since the tears were finally beginning to let up.

"No one's a total jerk deep down inside," he said quietly. "I'm glad you finally realized it. People do make mistakes, you know." Then without giving her another look, Taichi pushed himself up off the bench and walked away without another word.

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Sora had returned to the story, since she told Miyako about a part she probably wouldn't have known; one that happened as Yamato's encounter with Miyako and Koushiro did. "And that's it... The first time I talked to Taichi in months ever since that horrible kiss."

"But did you really like the kiss, Sora?" Mimi asked. "Tell the truth."

"A little..." she confessed, looking guilty. "But I was vulnerable and desperate... And after all, according to Yamato -- or should I say, Taichi -- it's all my damn fault anyway, isn't it?"

"Oh, come on, Sora!" Miyako said impatiently.

"I can't even begin to count how many times people have said that to me lately," she said sullenly.

"You know Taichi didn't really mean all that! He was just feeling really mad and he wanted to get back at Yamato by making you hate him too. And I'm sure Yamato doesn't feel that way either. He wrote a song about how much he loves you, for God's sakes."

"I don't care," Sora replied stubbornly, crossing her arms. "I still hate them all. And don't think I'm not mad at you and Koushiro for what you guys did. I can't believe you helped that big dork."

"You *still* haven't stopped hating Taichi?" Hikari said exasperatedly, rolling her eyes. "Even after telling this story and seeing it from his perspective?"

"He's a big, stupid, dumb, insensitive jerk. I don't give a damn what he thinks."

"You're so hardheaded sometimes, Sora," Mimi said, annoyed. "Stop acting like that; you know you always loved him anyway, no matter what the hell you say."

"I'm not in the mood to talk about this anymore," she said, grabbing her feather pillow back and hugging it tightly. With that, the conversation was ended, even though Mimi's light brown eyes still burned with a flame to them. "Keep going on with your story, Miyako. I'm out of tales to tell, and I'd like to see if Yamato beats the living daylights out of you two."

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Yamato tried to get himself to breathe calmly and evenly, but it was impossible. He sounded somewhat similar to an enraged bull. "You two better explain everything now," he told them rashly, clenching his fists until his knuckles turned white. "Now."

"It was all Taichi!" Koushiro yelled out, breaking down. "This wasn't our idea at all! He came to us for help with all the technological mumbo jumbo. But he's the one who made the whole speech."

"Oh, yes, that Oscar-worthy performance that has, in a few short minutes that was supposed to be devoted to my original song, ruined my life. Keep going."

"What is there to talk about?" Miyako asked.

"Let's put it this way: the more you keep talking and spilling everything you know, the more time you have until I'll consider if I should spare you..."

Koushiro and Miyako let out huge sighs of relief, but Yamato wasn't done.

"...or beat you both to a bloody pulp and hide all the evidence."

They both gulped loudly. "Really, now," Miyako said. "You would never hurt your two frien--" She saw the deathly expression on Yamato's face, and he raised a clenched fist. "Uh, heh, heh...here's the story."

"Taichi saw you and Sora kissing, and he was really sad and that stuff, but he was pissed like crazy. Of course, he chose to solve this matter in an -- *ahem* non-violent way." Yamato glared at Koushiro, who sweat-dropped and quickly kept going. "He wanted a way to get revenge on you, and making Sora hate you too sounded pretty appealing to him. He came up with the idea of making a recording of you talking shit, and then he planned to play it at your concert in front of everyone just to make it more humiliating."

Koushiro, sweating like mad, found himself unable to continue, so Miyako picked up where he left off. "Of course, you know Taichi doesn't have the expertise or intelligence -- possibly the brain to accomplish such a task as this." She felt bad about saying those things about him, but it was mostly Taichi's fault (she didn't want to say all, because she had some responsibility by stupidly agreeing to it) they were in this situation, and sucking up to Yamato wouldn't be too bad.

Her words got the reaction she had hoped for. Yamato grinned and even chuckled; unfortunately, it wasn't particularly cheerful sounding, but more of menacing.

"So he first went to Koushiro, but he couldn't do it alone. He came to me; also because I help with the sound at your guys' concerts and everything. I had -- uhm...no choice but to agree." A bead of sweat dropped, as she remembered her kiss with Koushiro. "We made this recording of Taichi saying that speech, and went through an incredibly complicated procedure to tamper with the sound waves and everything to synthesize it into something of your voice. I'm not sure if we really had an accurate likeness, but Sora was convinced.

"Anyway, *we* didn't want to hurt you. We had gone into this as a favor for a friend, not knowing why he even wanted to do this to you. It was really nothing personal. We just felt bad for the poor guy."

Yamato scowled. "All that aside, you had no right to do that. You carried no grudge against me, so why would you be willing to get into the middle of this whole mess?"

"Well, why did you get in the middle of Taichi and Sora's fight?" Koushiro asked unwisely.

Yamato's eyes flared up. The normally gentle blue had become icy and piercing. "Don't even bring that up to me. And for your information, I interfered because I was trying to patch things up between them, *not* purposely make it more screwed up than this whole damn situation already is. Don't even compare our circumstances right now."

"I'm sorry," Koushiro meekly said. "Truly, we are. About everything. I mean, we were stupid enough to listen to Taichi. Enough consequences result from that dumb decision as it is. Please...please just spare us."

He rubbed his chin, feeling like a king having to make the decision of whether he should pardon someone or behead them. "I guess I'll go easy on you this time. I've got enough to worry about as it is, thanks to you two. But if anything like this ever happens again, you won't be so lucky," he said warningly. Then he softened. "Sorry , guys, I didn't mean to be all evil like that. But what you did seems almost unforgivable... Promise me you'll tell Sora that you were responsible for that speech, not me. Please?"

"Done," Koushiro said, shaking hands with him.

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"That's funny," Sora said. "And I didn't find out about this until tonight." She threw a dirty look at Miyako, who returned a sheepish expression.

"Oops?" she said meekly.

"Let me guess...it simply slipped your mind?"

She nodded hesitantly.

"It's all right, I suppose. I talked to Taichi again after that...he confessed to everything. I already knew about Koushiro and you helping in his little scheme. But I still don't know if I can forgive you."

Mimi and Hikari groaned. "I hate to say this," Mimi said, "as I'm probably only rubbing salt into the wound, but...'come on, Sora!'"

She rolled her eyes and then lightened up. "Okay, Miyako," she said, looking at her. "I forgive you for all the emotional distress you've caused me."

"And Taichi?" Hikari prompted.

"I suppose I'm not mad at him either," she admitted. The girls all smiled. "However --"

Mimi looked up. "However?"

"I still hate him."

Everyone groaned frustratedly again.

* * *

"Hey," Miyako said suddenly to the other girls. "There's something I forgot to add in that story."

"Yeah?" Hikari asked. "What?"

"A little minor detail about Koushiro and I..." she said, blushing scarlet.

"Minor? Let me guess, it ends with you two kissing and becoming a couple?" Mimi asked.

She blushed and nodded.

"Minor?!" all the girls exclaimed.

"Yeah, that's minor, and my story was about a little, tiny argument," Sora said sarcastically.

"Tell us the story!" Hikari begged anticipatingly.

"Okay..."

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Yamato left, and the entire auditorium was empty, except for two people sitting together in the dark audience chairs. Koushiro and Miyako had just stayed there, talking about the plan, about Yamato, about Taichi and Sora's situation, and just about anything they thought of.

But Miyako was sick of avoiding the topic that both of them had been trying to avoid. She stated plainly, while Koushiro was in the midst of explaining something about the Digital World, "Koushiro, I really want to talk to you about that kiss."

He turned bright red. "Oh -- uh -- all right. What about it?" he asked nervously.

"Why did you do it?"

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Because...I saw Yamato coming and it was the only way to shut you up without seeming suspicious. I'm sorry, it was a no-time-to-think situation, and that was the first thing that popped into my head."

"Why?" she prodded.

"'Cause I...errr...well, I -- it just did," he told her lamely.

"Is that all?"

"Yes -- no -- yes."

She tilted her head to one side. "Well, which is it?"

"No," he confessed. "You want the truth, Miyako? I did it because I love you, but I didn't want to tell you, because I know you've always loved Ken, and of course you still do, and so I didn't want me getting into the middle of some triangle or anything, because I happen to know that Ken loves you back, and--" He had been saying that entire, long sentence quickly and without taking any breaths.

"Koushiro, calm down. Stop!" Miyako said, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him until he shut up. "That's enough. Can I at least explain something?"

He shut up and nodded, breathing heavily.

"I -- well, I... When you kissed me, that got me to thinking. I started reevaluating everything I felt for you, because when you kissed me, I swear I saw fireworks. But one time, when Ken and I kissed -- yes, we kissed -- I didn't feel anything. In the end, I realized that it was you I really loved, even though I thought I loved Ken the whole time," she explained. She looked up at Koushiro and found his face startlingly close to hers. She nervously looked into his eyes and realized what he was going to do. He wanted to kiss her. So she leaned forward, and they did.

When they pulled apart, Miyako was too out of breath to say anything, but Koushiro suddenly realized, "Wait -- if you thought you always loved Ken, but it turned out you loved me, do you think it could be that way for Sora and Taichi? What if she always thought she loved Taichi, but she really loved Yamato? What if their kiss had her reevaluating her feelings for him, and she found that it went deeper too?"

"For Taichi's sake, I hope not," she answered.

But then the two easily forgot about the whole complicated Yamato, Sora, Taichi triangle, and focused back on each other.

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"Is it going to be like that, Sora?" Miyako asked.

She just shrugged, and then figured out a quick way to get the attention off herself. "But what about you and Koushiro, huh?"

It worked. Hikari and Mimi threw so many questions at Miyako that the three of them didn't have a chance to even remember what was going on with Sora. And that's exactly what she wanted.

* * *

Half an hour had passed, and the girls had gotten bored and gone onto other things. Mimi had removed the nail polish from her fingernails for the third time, and was having Hikari repaint them, with painstakingly detailed designs of hearts, flowers, stars, and other cute decorations, in a variety of pastel colors. Miyako found a tube of temporary hair color, and was highlighting her violent strands pink. And for the entire time, Sora had just sat on Mimi's window seat, doing nothing.

She wasn't exactly looking out the window, even though she usually loved looking at stars. And she wasn't deeply thinking about anything. Just sitting there in a daze... She was tired from telling her story for so long. It had frustrated her, made her sad remembering everything, and had made her go through the entire emotional ordeal over again, the last thing she had ever wanted to do.

"Are you ever going to tell us the rest of the story?" Hikari asked suddenly, only making Sora feel worse.

Finally, she lost it. A tear trickled down her cheek, and she wasn't even all too sure the cause of it. Soon, she was sobbing and crying her heart out. The other girls didn't try to stop her, figuring she needed to get all these not-so-bottled emotions out and over with.

When she stopped after a while, she looked at Hikari. "I think I've told enough as I can take," she said softly. "I'm sorry. But then again, there's not much more to the story than little details and technicalities. After all, it still, to this day, hasn't been resolved."

"So resolve it!" Mimi encouraged her. "End this whole mess once and for all!"

"As I was saying," Sora said, ruffled at being interrupted. "I'm exhausted, it's extremely early in the morning, and I better get some rest, if I'm going to finally do it tomorrow -- or later this afternoon, I should say. Goodnight -- er, good morning? -- whatever, everyone." And she crawled into her sleeping bag and quickly fell asleep.

Whatever she was going to do later on, the other girls didn't get to find out.

* * *

Sora supposed she wasn't lucky enough to have a dreamless sleep this time. Though she wanted it over with, the situation continued to haunt her, even through her repose. She tossed and turns as memories ran through her mind; ones she had tried so hard to forget and never remember ever again.

The memories started as far back since she and Taichi first met in preschool. Though she had briefly mentioned it at the beginning of the story, Sora never explained to the girls how the two met, and it was a most unusual story.

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For the first day of preschool, all the young children were very nervous. So was their teacher. As they came into the classroom, she nervously twisted her fingers, having a strong feeling that something bad would happen that day as always. She had a history for having terrible incidents occur on the first day of school. One child ate so much paste that he passed out and had to taken to the poison control center. One child peed in a bottle of juice and everyone drank it. Another got his finger stuck in the electric pencil sharpener. And one year, the entire classroom was set on fire when the class baked a cake for so long that it burnt and set aflame, then spread to the carpet. Something was definitely going to happen this year.

She examined each child carefully, trying to figure out their personalities just by appearance, but mostly trying to determine if they'd be the one to cause disaster. Once everyone was in the room and seated, she had it decided. It would be the one boy with a huge mass of brown hair on top of his head. She would have to keep an extra eye on him.

The entire day went along pretty smoothly, but the teacher wasn't sure. The only things to have happened were that
Five minutes were left of class, she noted, glancing at the clock on the wall. Still five minutes for something to go wrong...and nothing. She looked to the students, making their art project.

The teacher had been feeling rather liberal that day, and let the students have free arts and crafts time. She supplied the construction paper, scissors, glue, feathers, glitter, crayons, markers, and whatever other things they would need. And they could make whatever they wanted. But maybe that wasn't such a good idea...

She looked at the clock again. "It's almost time to go," she announced, "so clean up."

Everyone burst out into an incredibly off-key song of, "Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere. Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share."

"Yamato, you collect the glue," the teacher instructed. "Hatsuna, you collect the markers. Mimi (I know she's a year younger than them, but who cares, it's preschool), collect the scissors. Sora, please collect the trash..."

Suddenly, there was a long, earsplitting shriek. The teacher's heart nearly stopped. Just as she thought, something terrible had happened. She hastened to the source of the scream, which came from Mimi. What she saw made her nearly faint.

There was a pile of light brown hair on the floor. Taichi, holding a pair of scissors in his hand, was attempting to cut off all of the young girl's hair, and had already achieved a large amount of it.

"TAICHI!" the teacher yelled. "Put those scissors down!"

"It's her fault," he said defiantly, "for making fun of *my* hair. She said I needed a haircut, but she needs one worser than I do, so I said I'd cut her hair right now. And that's what I did."

"Go sit in the corner," the teacher said fuming, pointing at a stool in the corner. "Stay there until everyone leaves, and then I want to have a talk with you. In fact...I know it's early, but everyone dismissed!"

"I'll help finish cleaning, sensei," Sora, a shy, quiet girl, volunteered.

"How nice of you, Sora," she said in delight. "That would be very much appreciated." Sora went off, and then the teacher turned back to Taichi. "You could take an example from Miss Takenouchi," she said firmly. "How could you cut Mimi's hair? That'll take forever to grow back. I want you to clean up all that hair, and tomorrow, you are to give a sincere apology to Mimi in front of the entire class."

"But I'm not sorry!" he cried. "She got what she deserved."

"Taichi," she said with a stern tone. "I said, you will give Mimi a *sincere* apology. So you better be sorry by tomorrow. And if you don't...you'll have to kiss her."

"EWWW!" Taichi squealed, scrunching up his face like he had eaten a lemon. "But she's a *girl* and she's got cooties!"

"And that's why you'll apologize. I think that's done with. By the way, I'll have to have a parent-teacher conference with your parents and the Tachikawas. You can repeat you apology to her parents too, who I'm sure will be mortified by the sight of their daughter, whom you have just given a crew cut."

Taichi rolled his eyes. "Fine then. Can I go?"

She cocked her head to the side and thought about it. "I don't know, do you think you've been punished enough?"

He nodded.

"I don't know..." she said doubtfully. "Hmmm...this is a tough one. Sora!" she called. "I'll need your help. Do you think Taichi deserves more punishment?"

Sora stopped cleaning and paused, pondering that. She looked at Taichi, thought about Mimi, and made up her mind. "Yes."

"*What?!*" he screeched.

"Well, let's see...what else can I do to make you truly sorry? I can make you clean up the classroom everyday after school. I can make you do massive homework assignments. I'll take away your recesses, and nap time will be an extra reading time for you. I *can* make you kiss Mimi... Why not all of them?"

* * *

Taichi groaned and grumbled and kicked rocks, pebbles, and anything that came across his path on the sidewalk, as he walked home in a rage. "Stupid Mimi, and stupid teacher, and stupid Sora..."

"That isn't very nice."

He turned around, a scowl on his face. "Oh, it's you. What do you want?" he demanded.

"To say sorry about adding onto your punishment. Unlike you," Sora added, "I can give apologies and really mean them."

He just grimaced again. "Leave me alone."

"Well, I missed the bus for cleaning up. And so you're the only person here. I'm not allowed to walk alone," she replied.

"Find someone else."

"Stupid Taichi..." she said, shaking her head. "I just said you're the only person here."

"I don't care," he said shortly. "Walk with me then, but don't say anything."

"My, you're grouchy," Sora commented. "No wonder Mimi made fun of your hair."

"Hey!" he cried indignantly.

"But I'm sure you're really not this bad," she continued on, not listening to what he said. "I think everyone has a good side. You do too. But everyone also has a bad side. Today your bad side is just stronger."

"You don't shut up, do you?"

She still paid no attention. "I'm sure you're nice. And unlike Mimi, I happen to like your hair. And I bet we probably have tons in common, and we'll end up being best friends."

"You wish," Taichi spat out.

She shrugged. "Your choice. Well goodbye, Taichi!" she said cheerfully, skipping off.

"Wait!" he cried, running after her.

"I thought you didn't want to talk or walk with me," she reminded him.

"I'm not allowed to walk by myself either," he admitted nervously.

Sora smiled. "Look, there's one thing in common already!"

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Then the dream skipped a few years, after the two of them had moved from Highton View Terrace to Odaiba. And then it went to soccer camp...

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Taichi pressed his face against the window, staring at the landscape as it whizzed by. Suddenly, the car came to a stop. "We're here!" he cried excitedly to Sora.

She bounced up and down in her seat. "I can't wait!"

The two friends scrambled out of the car and ran to the trunk, struggling to pull out their heavy duffel bags.

Mrs. Yagami poked her head out the window. "Bye, Taichi, be careful sweetie! Bye Sora!"

"Bye, Mrs. Yagami!" Sora said, waving. "Thanks for the ride!"

"Bye, Mom," Taichi said, and quickly grabbed the handle to shut the car door.

"Not so fast, Mr.!" Mrs. Yagami said. "Kiss your mother goodbye, first."

"Awww, Mom..." he groaned. He looked back at Sora, who giggled, and his cheeks went pink. He leaned over and gave his mother a quick kiss on the cheek. "See ya later, Mom," he said, trying to hide his flushed face. "I hate when she does that," he said to Sora. "It's so embarrassing."

"At least you get along with your mom," Sora told him. "I got in the worst fight with my mom right before I left. It's terrible; she still treats me like I'm two!"

"No offense, but I don't really like your mom either," Taichi said.

"None taken," she replied. "After all, you have a perfectly good reason for feeling that way. I mean, *I* feel that way! I'd never hold it against you!"

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Sora woke up quickly and sat up. 'I don't ever remember saying that!' She hung her head and then said guiltily, "But I bet anything Taichi does." And so she decided. 'It's final. I'm finally going to apologize to Taichi for *everything*. Hopefully he'll accept it. I've been so stupid not to apologize for this long. I'm so stupid...'

She sighed and slumped back in her sleeping bag, her head sinking into her soft pillow. 'And I'm going to do it later today, I swear. Just like I told Mimi, Hikari, and Miyako I would."

* * *

Sunlight streamed into Mimi's bedroom through a crack in the curtains. It reached Mimi's eyes, and she blinked and awoke. Sitting up in her bed, she yawned, stretched, rubbed her eyes, and woke herself up. Then she checked to see if her other friends were awake yet.

Miyako, who had gone to sleep on Mimi's window seat, had rolled around in her sleep and fell off. She lay on the floor, tangled in her blankets, still tossing and turning and lightly snoring. Hikari was sleeping angelically in her pink angel sleeping bag. But something was odd...Sora wasn't there.

Her sleeping bag was missing, along with her bag and all her things. Had she just got up and left? Then Mimi spotted something on the floor where Sora had been sleeping. It was a piece of stationary paper. Mimi crawled off her bed and picked it up. It read:

"'Mimi --

'I'm sorry for leaving so early before you all woke up, but I had to. There's just something very important I had to do. Anyway, I had a really great time at your party (believe it or not)! We should do it again sometime. Sorry again --

'Sora'"

"That's weird," Mimi said, placing the paper on her desk. "What could be so important that she had to leave so soon?" She looked at the clock. Sora had slept first and woke up first. Mimi didn't know exactly when she left, but she couldn't have had more than five hours of sleep. Mimi thought about it again and again; what could possibly be so urgent that she just went without even waking them?

All of a sudden, it hit her. Her eyes went wide and she was so excited she couldn't contain herself. She shook Miyako awake, and gently woke Hikari up.

"What is it?" Miyako asked crankily, rubbing her eyes and putting on her glasses.

"It's Sora!" Mimi told the two girls breathlessly. "She's gone to tell Taichi how she really feels about him!"

* * *

'[Mr. Yagami:] "Hello, you've reached the Yagami residence. Either we're not home, not able to answer the phone (most likely of laziness), we're asleep, or we've had to rush to the poison control center because of Mrs. Yagami's cooking." *Sheepish laughing*

[Voice sounds vague and distant] "Honey, I was joking, really -- I --"

[Mrs. Yagami:] "No, that is NOT the case. Anyway, leave a message after the beep and we'll call you back as soon as we can."

[Taichi:] "BEEP!" *Brief silence, then laughter*

[Hikari:] "Taichi!"

[Taichi:] "Just kidding, just kidding."

Real *BEEP!*'

Sora couldn't help giggling from their answering machine message; she did every single time she heard it. They just sounded like their family was having so much fun. Then she remembered what she was calling for, and instantly stopped.
"Hello, this is Sora, and I'm calling for Taichi. Taichi, call me back as soon as you can, or meet me at the park today at noon. ...Bye." Then she hung up.

After that, she slumped onto her couch and sighed, dropping her head into her hands. She didn't think she was ready to do this...

* * *

Though Taichi had heard the message the first time when Sora called, he pressed the button on the answering machine and listened to her message again. "'Hello, this is Sora...'" He listened to it again and tried to make up his mind. His fingers were only a few centimeters away from the phone. Should he call her? Or should he just wait and meet her at the park. Why was it so hard to make a decision as simple as this?

* * *

Ring-ring!

Sora jumped up. She was so exhausted from her lack of sleep at Mimi's slumber party that she had drifted off on the couch without knowing it. The phone rang a few more times, and finally awake, she dashed to answer. It had to be Taichi, it had to be!

Ring-ri--

She picked up the received. "Hello?"

"Hi, Sora! Where'd you go?"

Her spirits drooped. It wasn't Taichi, but Mimi. Not that it was a bad thing, but she had been so looking forward to his call. "Oh, hi, Mimi!" she replied, trying her best to sound enthusiastic, but it came out half-heartedly.

Mimi recognized the sadness in her voice. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing--" Sora began, but suddenly, she couldn't lie anymore. "I called Taichi," she admitted timidly.

"Really, what happened?" Mimi asked eagerly. "Did you apologize? Did you tell him you loved him?"

"I didn't get to talk to him," she replied sadly. "Only his answering machine. I was hoping that it was him who called when the phone rang. No offense or anything. I just...I do want to tell him how I feel. But how are you so sure that it's love?"

"Well..." Mimi said slowly. "What else could it be?"

There was a mysterious pause.

"Well?" she asked again.

"Bye, Mimi," Sora said finally, and hung up the phone.

Mimi stared at her phone and looked to Miyako and Hikari. "She just hung up!"

"Well, what did she say?" Miyako prompted.

"Nothing..." Mimi trailed off. "She asked how I was so sure it wasn't love, and I said, 'what else could it be?' then she hung up. But seriously...what else could she feel for Taichi?"

Hikari, Miyako, and Mimi all looked at each other with knowing looks, and the three replied simultaneously, "Hate."

* * *

Sora impatiently looked at her watch again. 12:16. Hardly a minute had passed since she had last looked at her watch, even if it felt like an eternity had gone by. Where was Taichi?!?! He was already sixteen minutes late!

Then the thought finally occurred to her: what if he purposely didn't want to show up?

She covered her face with her hands, and after a while, she sighed and got up. Then she saw someone coming out of the shadows. Was it finally Taichi?

No. It was only some person who looked like Yamato -- wait, that *was* Yamato!

"Yamato?" she called out, and he looked at her.

He stared at her, amazed that she was even talking to him. He said flatly, "Sora, I thought you hated me."

"No, I don't..." she said. "Taichi admitted that he was the one who did that whole speech thing at the concert. He was supposed to meet me here so I could forgive him -- and apologize for everything that's happened between us."

"So you don't hate him anymore?" His expression was unreadable, and Sora couldn't tell whether he was happy or sad.

She just shrugged. "I just said I was going to apologize."

"Oh." He was quiet, and then after a while he looked up and asked, "But do you love him?"

"No, I--"

"So that's it, huh? You called me to come here just to tell me that you weren't in love with me?"

Yamato and Sora whipped around saw Taichi standing there with his hands in his pockets, looking down at the ground, and kicking up weeds and dirt with his shoe. Sora didn't know what to say to him.

"All this waiting for months," Taichi said to himself, "all these arguments, fights, backstabbing and betrayal, kisses, schemes, mistakes -- all this was to end by finding me out that you don't love me? That's just fantastic. All this stupid shit I went through for these months was for nothing! Nothing at all." He scoffed and furiously turned around and started walking back the way he came.

"It's not nothing!" Sora called after him. "I mean...I'm sorry for everything I did, and I forgive you for everything you did, which is already more than I should be doing. And we're not nothing at all... I don't hate you!"

He stopped and turned around. "But you don't love me," he muttered resentfully.

"Well, love is a really strong thing, Taichi," she said quietly. "And it's not like I *never* loved you."

"You did?" he asked, his jaw dropping.

"Of course! God, I loved you for the longest time. The only reason I ever stopped is because I lost my trust and faith in you when all of this stuff started." Then she paused, thinking, and then realized, "But why does it have to be love or hate? Both are really big extremes. Couldn't there be an in-between?"

"You mean...friends?" he asked despondently.

She nodded. "Best friends. That's not bad, is it?" she asked timidly.

"No, not at all... That's great." But he sounded unenthusiastic, and a frown was still present on his face.

Sora wrapped her arms around him and gave him a hug. "Sorry for everything that happened."

"I'm sorry too," he said, putting his arms tightly around her waist. They stayed in each other's arms for a long time, and Yamato eventually went away to give them more privacy. After the long period of silence, Taichi said softly, "Friends?"

"Yup," Sora said, hugging him more tightly, "not love or hate. Just friends."