I can never write a short fic. This is getting much longer than I expected it to. Well, expect more "angsty" type stuff. I just can't resist using it even though when I started this, there wasn't supposed to be.

Oh in response to one of the reviews, yes I always found Mr. Fujiyama a tad bit...annoying and goofy. Oh well, no more of him now. :-p Oh, btw, I am planning on writing a sequel to this particular fic. For more information about that, just check out my bio under the "Upcoming Future Fics" section.

Now, as always, I do not own anything associated with Digimon in general, now on with the fic.
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Part 19: Miyako's Crushing Day!

Over at the Inoue home, Miyako's older sister, Chizuru, was talking on the phone about a very important issue...

"Yeah, I heard, a second year, my sister's friend Tachikawa-san...Why are you upset? I still don't have a date to my own senior dance, you do!...You really thought Yamato-kun was going to ask me?...Oh, that's silly, we aren't buddy-buddy friends, we're just acquaitances...Maybe I'll get a date by Friday morning...hey, I have to get going...What do you mean why?...Okay, so you want to know why. If you must know, I have some chores to do around here. It's my day to cook dinner...okay, see you tomorrow at school...bye Suzu-chan."

The glasses wearing girl hanged up the phone and sighed. She was really dissapointed that no boy had asked her to the upcoming dance. All of her guy friends, who only saw her as a friend, had dates, Yamato included. She acted like it didn't bother her much that Yamato didn't ask her, but it really did.

"Hey, what's up?" Miyako called as she walked into the living room.

"Nothing much. I'm just a bit annoyed because I don't have a date to my own dance!" The girl crossed her arms. "I just knew Yamato-kun was going to ask me, but he didn't! I thought were good friends, sort of. He told me a while ago that if he had to go to any important dances or school functions, that he would take a friend and not an obsessed fan; although, Tachikawa isn't one of them. She treats him the way I do."

"So you heard that Mimi-oneesama is going to be the date of Yamato-san?

"The entire ninth grade class knows it!" Chizuru then gave Miyako a questioning look. "How do you know about it?"

"I heard and saw him ask her," the girl said as she headed towards the kitchen.

"What?" Chizuru asked in surprise.

She got up and ran into the kitchen behind Miyako.

"You heard him ask Tachikawa out?!?"

"Yep," the girl said while taking a soda from out of the fridge.

"Oh..."

"If you're wondering, you were his first choice to ask out."

"Really?"

The girl popped the top of her soda and nodded. She then headed towards the cabinet to take out a glass.

Chizuru crossed her arms, not really believing what Miyako had just told.

"You aren't lying, are you?"

"Nope," Miyako said plainly as she poured her drink into a glass.

"Are you positive?"

"Yes, I'm positive," the girl said as she started to drink down her soda.

The girl walked back to the living room and sat down on the couch and turned on the television. Chizuru sat down beside her.

"He said that he would have asked you, but he figured that since you are already pretty popular and well known that you probably already had a date," the younger girl explained. "He really wanted to go with a friend who didn't see him as a 'movie star' like the majority of the girls in our school."

"Well, at least I know that he didn't ditch me."

Right at that moment, the phone rang. Momoe, who had been ignoring her two younger sisters since she was reading a book, looked up and ran over to the ringing phone.

"It's probably for me! I'm expecting a call from Jun!

She answered it, but it turned out to be a wrong number.

"Oh well," she said as she hanged up the phone.

"What's the deal with you and Jun and all of your other many phone calls anyway?" Chizuru asked. "You're tying up the phone line! What if some boy is trying to call and ask me out, but can't because my talkative sister is hogging the phone."

Momoe took her seat back down at the couch.

"For your information, nosy, Jun, me, and some other kids from our graduating class are planning a trip for next month. We are all still trying to decide where to go. It's sort of a graduation trip. So far, Jun wants to go to Kyoto, Yoshii wants to go to Okinawa, Aritomo-kun wants to go out of the country, etc. We still can't make up our minds and time is running out."

"Cool!" Chizuru exclaimed. "I wish we could go on a trip, but Spring Break isn't long enough for us!"

"Lucky for me, I'm in my senior year and I'm planning on enjoying everything there is about it! Including our senior dance the night of graduation. After these next couple of days, I'm through with High School, but I'm not going to start the University of Tokyo right away, not until the next term. I've already been accepted in and so has Jun and our good friend Mayumi! We studied very hard for those entrance exams and all three of us passed!"

"I don't know how mom and dad are going to do it. Both of you have different ceremonies since you are both seniors."

"They'll find a way," Chizuru laughed. "They always find a way."

The phone rang again and Momoe got up to answer it. Chizuru stayed on the couch with Miyako watching television.

"Moshi-moshi," the girl answered. "Oh, hold on," she said. Momoe held the receiver and called, "Miyako, phone!"

The girl got up to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Miyako-kun," the person on the other end answered.

"Izumi-senpai!" Miyako smiled in excitement. "It is really nice to hear from you!"

"Yeah."

"What's up?"

"Nothing much. I was just wondering if you had seen Mimi-san around."

"No, I haven't. She left right after school I'm assuming. I didn't even see her at her locker this afternoon, but I did see Sora-san, though."

"Oh, okay," the boy said in disappointment. "Thanks anyway, g'bye."

The boy was about to hang up until Miyako stopped him.

"No, wait, don't hang up. Let's talk for a while."

"I really don't have time for this, Miyako-kun," the boy said apologetically.

"But we hardly ever talk anymore; besides, I want to know what is going on with you."

"What's going on with me?"

"Yeah, you have been acting kind of different lately and I am curious as to why."

"But..."

"You've been acting so weird lately when it comes to oneesama and don't deny it because I've noticed it!"

"I'm sorry, Miyako-kun, I really have to go! I really need to get in touch with Mimi-san."

"But..."

"I don't have time for this, Miyako-kun!" the boy responded rudely, but it wasn't intentional. "I really have to go!"

"But Izumi-senpai, I just wanted to say..."

"Sorry, bye..."

The boy hanged up. Miyako felt as if Koushirou had stuck his hand into her chest, pulled out her heart, and crushed it in the palm of his hand. She had a terrible crush on Koushirou, even though she could never admit to it. The only other person that had an idea about Miyako's crush was the one person that Miyako could actually get jealous over...Mimi. She always suspected that Miyako had a thing for Koushirou just like she had always suspected that Sora had one on Taichi. She even had a hunch that Yuko had a small crush on Yuuji, but she knew never to bring something like that up.

It was pretty strange how she could see how others had crushes on other people, yet she could never tell when those, other than her obvious admirers, had crushes on her. It was true that Yamato could have asked out Chizuru, but he really did have Mimi in mind when he first thought of people to ask. He always found Mimi nice, smart, and cute and felt that the dance would have been the perfect chance to try to get a date out of her. The karaoke bar was supposed to be just the two of them, but Mimi made it a group thing.

Once again, the glasses-wearing girl was jealous over her "friend" since, lately, Koushirou had been paying a lot more attention to Mimi than to her. Her sisters noticed the look on Miyako's face as she held the phone in her hand. Both asked her what was wrong.

"Oh, nothing," the girl said with a forced smile.

She then walked over to the coat hanger by the door and grabbed her jacket. Miyako really didn't want to hang around with the way she was feeling.

"I better get down to the Ai-Mart, it's my turn to watch it."

The girl jumped into her shoes and ran out of the door, her heart aching.

"What's she talking about?" Chizuru asked. "You were going to watch the store today."

"Yeah, I was, but Miyako'll be back soon," Momoe said. "Besides, neither mom nor dad would let a child Miyako's age watch the store by herself at this time of the day."

"I wonder what Koushirou-kun wanted."

"A secret date!" Momoe laughed.

"Perfecto!" Chizuru laughed in agreement. "She just made that up about her going down to the mart to get out of the house."

"Hey, I'm getting hungry," Momoe said as she opened up her book again.

"Me too. I guess I should start dinner up now."

"Yeah, I'm starving over here!" Momoe then got a playful smirk. "Then again, it would be safer and healthier to starve than to eat your cooking!"

Chizuru tossed one of the cushions from the couch at Momoe.

"Only Mantarou-niichan would say something like that!" the girl said.

"I know," Momoe smiled. "Someone has to take over since he is away."

The girl laughed as she left her sister to go start dinner...
****
Down in the store...

"That will be," Mrs. Inoue checked the total, "¥663 (About $5.00), please."

The customer hands her the money.

"Thank you, come back again soon," the woman smiled and bowed.

When the customer walked out, Miyako walked in.

"Hey there Miyako," Mrs. Inoue greeted, putting the money into the register. "What brings you down here?"

"I wanted to watch the store for the evening."

"Miyako, you know you are too young to watch the store by yourself for the evening..."

"Mom, please!"

"No, you are just a little girl."

"You are always talking about how I could use more responsibility, why can't I watch the store until dad comes down!?!"

"Maybe when you are older, like your sisters and brother."

"No," the girl protested. "Please, mom, I want to prove to you that I am not a baby! That I can take care of myself! That I am better than Mi...er, oniichan, Momoe-neechan and Chizuru-neechan!"

"I know what this is about," the woman smiled.

"You do?"

"You want to earn some extra money for some new outfit you probably saw at the mall, I'm sure."

The girl nodded, even though she was lying. She knew that Wednesdays were always slow business days and that was the only place she could think of where she could be alone, away from her family.

"I guess that's logical, but I still think you are too young to be left here by yourself at this time of the day. Besides, Momoe said that she wanted to watch the store."

"I could really use the extra money."

"If that's the case, why not work on your normal days, Saturday and Sunday afternoons."

"I want to challenge myself."

"My little baby is so eager to grow up."

"Mom, I am not a baby anymore!"

It took a bit of persuasion--okay a lot--but Mrs. Inoue gave in and decided to let her watch the store. With the way Miyako was feeling, she really felt that being alone would help her right now. Miyako obviously wasn't going to give up, which is why Mrs. Inoue gave in. She knew how Miyako got when she got into her determined moods to show off her independence.

"You know where everything is and what to do so I'll get going. I'll send your father down to check up on you later. I am not going to have you staying here all evening."

"Okay mom and thanks."

It took the woman a long time, but she finally left Miyako.

"Why won't he talk to me? I thought I was his friend too." The girl then sighed. "He is shutting me out, but is willingly letting Mimi-oneesama in...why?"
****
After the conversation on the phone with Miyako...

"I didn't want to do that, but I'm technically not supposed to even be on the phone," Koushirou said while holding his cordless phone. He then sighed, "Darn, where in the world is she?"

The boy had tried calling everyone, in between chores so that he wouldn't get into trouble. When he called Yamato, he hadn't seen her since lunch, Takeru hadn't seen Mimi in a long time, Jou was out according to his answering machine--probably with Malissa or Eijiro or some other friends of theirs from school, the redhead assumed--Iori hadn't gotten home yet, Hikari hadn't seen Mimi and she told him that Taichi was out, Sora wasn't home, Daisuke hadn't seen her, Ken told him that he hadn't seen Mimi in a good while, Mimi's uncle said that she wasn't home yet and that he didn't know where she had gone, and we all know what happened with Miyako.

Koushirou had even gotten desperate enough to call Misao. He always considered him, as well as other devoted "Mimi admirers," stalkers. Misao just seemed to be the leader of them...

"Izumi?" Misao asked in shock after he answered the phone. "Izumi Koushirou? Computer Club Izumi?"

"Yes, it is me, which you have obviously established," boy said with exasperation.

"You are calling me," the boy said, still in surprise. "Why?"

"I am just as surprised as you."

The tall, buff dark-haired boy became a bit concerned. Even though the two weren't the best of friends--they were barely acquaintances--he figured that something had to have been wrong for Koushirou to call him voluntarily.

"What's wrong?"

Koushirou muttered to himself in annoyance. He really hated the fact that he was wasting his time calling Misao, especially concerning Mimi.

"Well?" he asked again since Koushirou was pretty much still debating over whether or not to ask him about Mimi.

"Oh, I was just wondering if you had seen Mimi-san."

"No, she left right after school. I was going to offer to walk her home before Yuuji asked, but she left before I had the chance!" the boy nearly cried.

The boy rolled his eyes at how Misao was acting. He knew that Misao, as well as the others who were obsessed with Mimi, annoyed him and vowed not to bother calling Misao again and not to bother calling any of his fellow inseperable buddies if he ever had anything to say or ask concerning Mimi.

"I am so sorry to hear that, Takamatsu-san," Koushirou told him in a fake, sarcastice sympathetic manner. The sympathetic manner of his was unintended, but his sarcasm was not.

"Don't you start anything, Izumi!" Misao threatened, noticing the sarcasm in Koushirou's voice.

"Who says that I am?" Koushirou responded cooly.

"Why are you looking for her anyway?" Misao asked, growing suspicious of him. "He better not be trying to ask her out!" he muttered to himself.

"She has some classnotes of mine and I just wanted to retrieve them from her," he lied.

"Oh."

"I am sorry for wasting your time, Takamatsu-san. I'll get going."

"Izumi, wait!"

The boy stayed on the line.

"What?"

"Could you ask Mimi-chan if I could walk her home tomorrow after school for me and then if she would like to hang out tomorrow night with me?"

Koushirou got a look meaning, "Is he serious?"

"Please?"

"Sure, I just hope I remember. Good bye."

The boy hanged up quickly before Misao could say anything further. He really wasn't planning on asking her out for him...

"I'd ask her to go out on a date with me before I would ask for a guy like him!"

The boy mentally slapped himself. He couldn't believe he had just indirectly said that he would like to ask Mimi out. He shook the thought off and stuck to not asking Mimi out for Misao...

"What do I do? I have to apologize to her!"

The boy got up and walked out into the hallway, preparing to leave until he was startled.

"Koushirou, dear, what are you doing?" Mrs. Izumi asked.

"Um, I...um...forgot and left my English textbook at school and I have to go pick it up."

The boy smiled nervously a bit.

"I have to go find my article too. I haven't seen it since I had it during lunch today!" the boy said to himself.

"Oh really?" Mrs. Izumi said, not at all convinced. "What do you need your English textbook for? You took your English Exam already."

"Um...I...wanted...to...look up a phrase I think I may have gotten wrong on it," the boy added on to the lie. He then started to sweat bullets as he said to himself, "Is that convincing enough? I sure hope so. I have to go out and find Mimi-san!"

"That's logical, but it can wait until tomorrow," the woman said, crossing her arms over her chest. "You are grounded, remember?" The woman then spoke in a stern manner. "You are not to leave this place for any reason, except to go to school in the morning."

"But mom, I have to go! It is really important! I have to go see, Mi--um...those answers!"

"Then tell me the truth. What is so important that you are willing to jeopardize your grounding time which could end up longer and our taking your laptop away?" she asked, staring right into his eyes. "Your father was thinking about doing that and taking your desktop away, but I persuaded him not to since this school year isn't quite over yet and you still have that history assignment of yours which has to be typed and researched on according to you." She then asked again, "Where do you have to go?"

"No place," he said while lowering his head. "It can wait until tomorrow."

The woman felt awful. She hated doing this to her son, but he had to learn not to keep secrets from them. She could tell that Koushirou was still being dishonest with her, which made her feel even worse.

"There are some dishes in the kitchen that needs cleaning and putting away...go do them."

The boy nodded and obeyed her and went to the kitchen to wash the dishes. A short while later, Mr. Izumi walked into the house.

"Hey dear!" the man said as he stepped out of his shoes.

He then headed towards the living room where his wife was sitting and gave her a small hug.

"Here is your strawberry ice cream," he said while handing her a small paper bag.

"Thank you," the woman said, taking the bag halfheartedly.

"What's the matter?" the man asked, noticing her distant look.

Mrs. Izumi explained what happened. The man frowned. The two then went to their bedroom so that they could talk more privately without Koushirou overhearing.

"What in the world is going on with that boy?" Mr. Izumi asked, shaking his head.

"I have no idea, it's obvious that he's still lying about something."

The man took off his glasses and started to clean the lenses with his shirt tail.

"So he wouldn't tell you why or where he wanted to go and is still covering up with more lies," the man said as he put his glasses back on. "I don't know what else we can do."

Mrs. Izumi couldn't take it anymore and started to cry.

"This isn't like our Koushirou! It is not supposed to be this way! He is supposed to be our perfect little boy! It is probably my fault he ended up like this!"

"No, no, don't say that," Mr. Izumi said, hugging on his crying wife, trying his best to comfort her. "It is not your fault. It is both our faults. We were both too soft on and spoiled him after we lost our own child. We pretty much spoiled every child we had in our home after our son's death."

The woman got out of her husband's grasp and sat down on the bed, pondering over the situation.

"What's wrong?"

"I am starting to get this feeling that Koushirou is covering for someone."

"What do you mean?" he asked as he sat down beside her.

"I have this feeling that he isn't doing this because he wants to, but because he has to."

"First he's a bad kid, now you are saying he's a good one?"

"No, not really," the woman said. She then shook her head, sounding a bit confused. "I don't know what I'm saying. All I'm saying is that I really feel that he is covering for someone. Take Sunday for instance, he was gone all day, the day before that, he mentioned something about Mimi. Today, he said something about having to go 'see' something and I doubt he was talking about a textbook because of how important he was making it sound. I think he was talking about a person. I think something is going on with Mimi and Koushirou is covering for her and just doesn't want us to know about it."

"Do you really think that's it?"

"Farfetched, I know, but that is what I truly think."

"So we are grounding him for nothing?"

"No, he has to learn to respect us, like you said. He can't do that by lying to us. He has to know that whatever is wrong or whatever situations he may face, that he can come to us about them."

Before her husband could answer, there was a knock on their door. It was Koushirou.

"Um, mom, I finished washing the dishes and I dried and put them away. I'm going to work on my history project now."

"Okay dear."

With that, Koushirou went to his room and locked himself in. He still had his lock that he put on the door when he came home from summer camp early years ago. He never did bother rising it since he got taller. Koushirou was really in a pickle. He didn't know if he wanted to sneak out to go and find Mimi or sit in his room worrying the entire night.

What he really wanted was to talk to his Digimon partner, Tentomon, for some of his advice and wisdom, but there was only one problem with that. Even though traveling to and from the Digital World isn't much of a problem, getting in touch with their Digimon was always a hassle since all of their Digimon always partied and such, especially during the school year since all of the Digimon knew how busy their human partners were. Koushirou knew that he probably wouldn't be able to get in touch with Tentomon until his Spring Break started up that next week.

He sat in his room, thinking about what he should do...
****
Back at the store...

Miyako was still sulking and moping. Back in her home, both Chizuru and Momoe were surprised to find out that Miyako really did want to watch the store for the evening. Their mother told them that Miyako wanted to get a new outfit. Momoe just laughed and teased that Miyako wanted a new outfit "to impress Koushirou-kun."

Miyako still sat behind the counter in the quiet, and dead convenient store with her thoughts, oblivious to the customer who had just walked in. She didn't even greet the customer in the same, routine manner like she would normally since she was in such deep thought. She just didn't understand Koushirou. How could she have such great respect for a person who doesn't even talk to her anymore. She really missed her conversations and all of the time they used to spend together before Mimi moved back to Odaiba. It never really bothered her before, but it had been a lot lately since he has just tuned her out altogether.

"Miyako-san?" the customer called, wanting to pay for their purchases.

The girl looked up to see Iori standing in front of the counter.

"Hello there Iori," the girl smiled quickly. She learned from her parents that you're always supposed to greet customers with a smile.

"Hi Miyako-san, what are you doing here?"

"I'm watching the store," she said plainly.

The younger boy noticed Miyako's tone and how it wasn't very outgoing, playful, or happy like it would be normally. He was also expecting more of a reason for Miyako's watching the story.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, just hoping I passed my math exam with flying colors," she lied.

"Is that all?" He smiled at the older girl. "You probably did well on it. You are a math whiz and you're great at tutoring math too. You tutor lots of people in your class, and you help me with mine all the time."

Miyako rung up Iori's purchases, which were a bunch of drinks for him and his family, which consisted of himself, his mother, and his grandfather.

"Arigatou, Miyako-san."

"You're welcome," she sighed.

"You know, Miyako-san, mom asked me to ask if you would like to join us for dinner later on this week. It's her way of thanking you for fixing our computer a short while ago."

"Mind if I take a raincheck?" she asked gloomily.

"But my mom was going to bakes cakes and everything," he added, knowing how Miyako loved cake. He knew a lot of things about Miyako, especially since she was his baby-sitter at one point.

*Note: I'm only assuming this, folks. I got that impression from the first episode of 02. Iori's mother wanted him to stay with Miyako so that he wouldn't be by himself.*

"Nah, that's okay." She then changed the subject. "You better get those drinks up to your family."

"Oh-oh yeah, that's right," Iori said. "I better get going. Bye, Miyako-san!"

The boy ran out of the store and back upstairs to his apartment. He felt that it was strange how Miyako wasn't acting like herself and how she had turned down having cake.

When he got to his home, his mother thanked him for remembering to get the soft drinks before coming home and informed him that he had received a call from Koushirou.

"Koushirou-san?"

"Yeah, he sounded like he really needed some help with something."

"I guess I should call him back."

"Okay, but hurry up," his mother told him. "Your dinner is going to get cold."

"Yes, and we all know that a cold dinner is the worst kind of dinner for one to have," Iori's grandfather, who was sitting at the table, stated wisely. He then spoke in a playful manner and said, "Unless they are brussel sprouts which is a terrible dinner no matter how hot or cold it is."

Mrs. Hida laughed at her father-in-law and sat down with him and started to dine while Iori went to call the Izumi household.
~*~*~*~
"Hello, Mrs. Izumi."

"Hello there, Iori. How are you?"

"I'm fine, but my mother told me that Koushirou-san called for me. I was wondering what was wrong."

"He called Iori when he wasn't supposed to have used the phone? It must have been very important for him to risk his grounding."

"Mrs. Izumi?" Iori called since Mrs. Izumi hadn't said anything since he asked what Koushirou could have called for.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the woman apologized. "I don't know why he called, but I can go get him."

The woman walked over to Koushirou's door and tried to open it, but she found it locked. She then started to knock. She still didn't get an answer.

"Koushirou...Koushirou...phone..."

Still no answer.

"He must have gone to bed early," Mrs. Izumi told him. "He isn't answering."

"Oh, okay then. Tell him that I did return his call."

"Okay, I will. Bye, Iori."
~*~*~*~
"Was Koushirou okay?" Mrs. Hida asked as Iori entered the dining area.

"I don't know," he shrugged as he took his seat. "Izumi-san said that he must be asleep since he didn't answer her."

"I am sure that whatever the problem was, that it has been solved," Grandfather Hida wisely stated. "Now let's dig in!"

The other two agreed and dug into their meals.
****
"What's wrong, Yoshie?"

"Koushirou has locked his door."

"I guess he doesn't want to be disturbed while doing his work."

"He probably just decided to go to bed early."

The woman didn't really believe what she had just said though. She had the feeling that Koushirou was once again being secretive. She didn't know how right she was. For Koushirou wasn't in his room, he had snuck out to go off in search of Mimi...