If You Can't Be With the One You Love…
TK continued to ring the doorbell at the Kamiya apartment. It was the next morning, and he wanted to get things straightened out between him and Kari. It was time to bring some closure to the whole mess, and find out where the dice would fall. After ringing the doorbell for the sixth time, Tai finally answered the door.
"TK, hey sorry! Didn't know it was you. C'mon in, I'm the only one here right now." Tai said.
"Oh, then I'll come back later. I was looking for Kari." TK began to head back home.
"Well, you won't catch her man. We're heading out today." Tai told him.
"Heading out?"
"Yeah, didn't she tell you? Our family is taking a two week trip to Yokohama." Tai told him. "Man, I'm looking forward to it."
"I…see." TK said. 'Well, so much for closure. I guess I'll have to wait it out.'
"Hey, do you know what was going on yesterday? Kari was really kinda moody last night when she got home, and Davis wasn't with her." Tai asked.
"It's a long story, Tai. I'll let you get it from her for now. Catch you later!" With that, TK jogged off home. Tai just shrugged and went back to finishing his packing.
TK fell onto the sofa in his living room after getting back home. He closed his eyes, cursing at himself left and right.
"Damn it, everything is messed up. Kari's angry with me, Davis is AWOL, and Yolei probably doesn't even want to see me right now. I can be such an ass sometimes." He said to no one in particular. The phone rang and he groaned, dreading whomever it might be. He grabbed the cordless phone and switched it to 'talk'.
"Takaishi residence, TK speaking." He said into the phone.
"Hey TK, it's Sora. Mind if I come over for a bit?"
"Is my brother with you?"
"Just me today, TK. I promise."
"Yeah, you can come over Sora. I'm not going anywhere, that's for sure."
TK switched off the phone and waited for Sora's arrival. Sure enough, she showed up a few minutes later, alone as promised.
"You don't look happy." She commented as she sat down nearby.
"It's a new exercise for writing." He said somewhat sarcastically. "It's called 'piss off all your friends and find new ways to act like a jerk'."
"So I heard through the grapevine. Though I'll say this much, you're definitely Matt's brother. Only an Ishida could shake things up like you have, TK."
"Gee, that makes me ever so glad to hear." TK stood up and wandered into the kitchen for some water. "If you're here to get me to make up with Kari you're out of luck. She's gone for two weeks on a trip."
"Actually, I'm here to help you make up with Yolei." Sora said.
"Oh? I thought you and Matt thought I was just 'playing a game' with Kari, wasn't that it?" TK said, not dropping his attitude.
"TK I know you must have your reasons for doing what you're doing, and I'm not going to try and interfere with them. I'm here for damage control, nothing more, I swear to you." Sora said, joining him in the kitchen. TK finished his water and put his cup in the sink, looking over to Sora after he did so.
"I don't know if she even wants to look at me right now, Sora. We parted ways kinda awkwardly last night." He said, focusing his vision on the tile floor. "I don't know why I've been acting like I have been around her…"
"I can answer that one for you." Sora said, smirking. TK looked up at her, curious as to what she had to say. "It's obvious to me at least. You're attracted to Yolei."
"Sora, we're just good friends is all." TK said, trying to shoot down the idea.
"Yeah, that's what I told myself for about a month when I first started dating your brother. Face facts, TK. You've got a crush on her, big time."
TK fell silent for a moment as he wrestled with the idea. Sora took a seat in the kitchen waiting for him to speak up again. Finally, after a bit of pacing, he looked at her again.
"I admit she's really kinda pretty…" he said carefully.
"Told you so." Sora said with a smile.
"But I know she doesn't feel anything like that for me. She's been in love with Ken for a long time, after all."
"I can't help you there. What I can help you with is how to apologize to her." Sora stood up and walked over to him.
"What should I do?" TK asked.
"My advice: use what you know. You're a writer, after all."
"You think it'll work?"
"Well it can't hurt things any further. Now I have to go meet up with Matt for our date, but I'll check up with you sometime soon."
"I'll give it a shot, Sora. Thanks for the advice." TK said. As soon as Sora left, TK grabbed a notepad and began brainstorming on what to write. After an hour of work, he finally had something he figured was decent. Now he just had to get it to its destination. He picked up his phone and dialed up a number.
"Hello, Cody? It's TK. I need a favor…"
_ _ _ _ _
The knocking wouldn't stop, no matter how much Yolei rolled around in bed and tried to muffle it out with her pillow. Whoever it was, they were being way too persistent for her tastes right now. Finally she got up, threw on her robe and opened her door, ready to cream whoever it was.
"What do you want?!" she said angrily. She quickly calmed down when she saw it was Cody, who was cowering back a bit from her.
"Are you always so scary in the morning?" he asked, stepping back up to her.
"Sorry, I don't want to go into it right now. What's wrong?" She tied her robe tightly around herself and folded her arms.
"I was just supposed to deliver this to you." Cody said, handing over a folded piece of paper. "See you later!"
"Cody, wait up! Who's it from?" Her question went unanswered, as Cody was already gone. "I swear, I'll bet he is taking ninja training anymore."
Yolei closed her door and sat down on the bed, considering the piece of paper she held. At first she was tempted to just throw it away, but curiosity got the better of her and she opened it, recognizing the handwriting as TK's.
~/ Satoshi stood nervously in front of the indigo-eyed woman, who glared daggers at him. He'd been so callous and foolish with his words around her the last time they'd been together, she felt she could never forgive him. Satoshi struggled to make eye contact with her, fumbling with the words of the speech he'd so meticulously prepared ahead of time to try and apologize. He truly felt horrible for how he'd acted and how he'd treated her, and he had wanted to apologize with a truly elaborate speech where he sung her praises and spoke of the true beauty he'd seen in her, but he was at a loss for words as he stood there before her. Finally, just before she turned to leave, he gathered the courage to look her in the eye once again. He took a deep breath and spoke in an even tone, the words coming from his heart.
"I'm sorry. Please forgive me." /~
"TK…you silly thing." Yolei said as she finished reading the story. She smiled and folded the note back up, putting it in her nightstand drawer. "Now I need to go see him to tell him it's okay, though. But if I go out through the store, dad'll catch me and make me work. How am I going to pull this off?"
Yolei tried to formulate a plan as she changed clothes into her normal blouse, skirt and sweater. She tied her kerchief around her hair and cleaned her glasses, setting them on her face. Once done, she poked her head out into the hallway and silently crept along downstairs to the shop. By a stroke of luck, her father was haggling with one of their regular customers who always tried to squeeze them for a deal on something. Yolei took the opportunity to sneak out of the store unnoticed and took off for TK's apartment, hoping she would catch him there.
Sure enough, TK answered the door after Yolei rang the bell a couple of times, a little out of breath.
"Hi Yolei. What's up?" he asked innocently. She stepped forward and just hugged him tightly.
"Don't worry, I forgive you." She said quietly. TK sighed in relief and hugged her back a bit, glad she wasn't mad at him any more.
'1 down…' he thought, '…2 to go.'
_ _ _ _ _
"I'll meet you in the park later on. I promised Cody I'd hang with him for a while in return for the favor he did for me." TK said, locking the apartment behind him.
"Okay, I'll meet you there." Yolei said with a smile. As TK started to walk off, she called after him. "Hey, TK? Seriously, did you mean what you said last night? About me, that is."
This time TK turned to face her, smiling as he did.
"I told you already, Yolei, I'm not in the habit of saying things I don't mean." He told her. Yolei nodded, feeling her cheeks redden as TK disappeared down the stairwell. After a moment she headed off on her own, back towards the store. She was just around the corner from there when she spotted Ken walking by. It had already been a day of settling things, she figured it was now or never to find out what he thought.
"Hi Ken!" she said cheerily, catching up to him.
"Oh, hello Yolei. What can I do for you?" Ken asked pleasantly. He had looked up from a book he was reading to greet her, and had now returned to it.
"Busy at studying as always?"
"Yup. If you don't mind, I'm headed to the library…"
"This won't take long, I was wondering if you knew TK and I had been dating recently."
"Yeah, Davis told me a while back. I'm happy for you." Ken said with a smile, pulling away from his book once again. 'This had to come up sooner or later. I should've listened to Davis and straightened this out earlier. Oh well, no sense in putting it off anymore.' He thought to himself, repressing his annoyance at the matter.
"You are?" Yolei was more than a bit surprised that he wasn't reacting like she'd hoped.
"Sure thing. I mean, I'm glad to see my friends happy together."
"But didn't you…I mean, I still…"
"Yolei, I'm sorry." Ken stopped walking and looked at her, trying not to get too frustrated or angry with her. "I'm just not interested in having a relationship with anyone right now. I'm sorry if you had your heart set on me, but my heart is set on my studies and my future and…to be honest I don't want to date right now. It's that simple."
"I see…well then, I'm glad we got that resolved." Yolei said, trying to be as brave as she could. Inside her, though, she felt like her world was crumbling.
"Yeah…well, give my regards to TK. I'll see you around!"
Ken waved to her as he continued on his merry way to the library. Suddenly, Yolei felt like she'd lost her safety net. The plan hadn't worked at all like she'd hoped it would.
'Ken…doesn't like me like that…' she thought. 'Did I mess up somewhere? Or…was he never interested in me in the first place?'
The realization brought on a wave of depression that stuck itself in Yolei's mind as she slowly made her way home, suddenly feeling very alone.
_ _ _ _ _
TK felt a bit more of a spring in his step as he headed to the park, this time with the right composition book in hand. He spotted Yolei sitting on the same bench they had last time and waved to try and get her attention, but she didn't respond. As he neared her, he could see that she was staring intently at the ground, and after a moment he could hear that she was sobbing. He closed the distance between them quickly and sat by her, setting his book down.
"Yolei? What's wrong?" he asked. Yolei looked over at him and grabbed hold of him, crying into his shoulder.
"Ken…doesn't like me…" she said between sobs.
"What? That can't be right! I thought…"
"I…met him earlier on…he didn't care…that we were dating…"
"Yolei…I'm sorry. I didn't know."
"Neither did I…I've never felt so…so alone before."
TK put an arm around Yolei, trying to comfort her. Inwardly, he sighed at the turn of events.
'I can't help but think this is all my fault. She's gone though so much emotionally just to try and get Kari and me together, and now she finds out that the guy she's been crazy about for years isn't even interested in her.'
Yolei sniffled a bit and finally looked up at TK, her face completely anguished.
"What am I going to do now, TK?" she asked, almost pleadingly.
'So much she's endured…I wonder what she'd say if I told her that I wasn't sure that it was Kari that I wanted to be with anymore…' TK thought, a bit of curiosity pulling at him at the idea.
"Well first we've got to work on cheering you up. And I think I know where we can start with that." He said. "Come with me."
Not questioning, Yolei followed TK back to his place where she sat in a chair, wondering what was going on. TK grabbed his phone and dialed up Sora's number. He was relieved when she answered after a couple of rings.
"Hi Sora, it's TK. Hey do you have some time this evening? I think we might be in need of a Takenouchi Special."
_ _ _ _ _
Yolei had only ever heard of the Takenouchi Special before second handedly from Mimi, and had always wondered what it was. She was experiencing it firsthand now, and it turned out to be extremely simple and exactly what she needed. It consisted of getting a few friends together with a gallon of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and a couple of really bad, old horror flicks that they proceeded to make fun of at every opportunity. In this case, the friends present were Matt, Sora and TK, and at present everyone was rolling with laughter at the cheesy death scene one of the characters had just done.
"Must…stop…laughing…need…oxygen…" Yolei gasped as she doubled over in laughter again.
"Turn it off! We need…a break!" Matt cried as he lunged for the remote. He managed to grab it and turned the TV off as he gasped for air, lying across Sora's lap.
"I think I'll need plastic surgery to remove the smile from my face…" TK said, calming down. "Thanks a lot for doing this on such short notice, Sora."
"Oh, anytime TK. I just look for excuses to be able to do this for my friends." Sora told him. "You feeling better, Yolei?"
"Leagues better. I thank you, my face thanks you, but my abs are gonna kill you in the morning. I can't laugh anymore, my stomach hurts so much!" Yolei said. She was sitting upside down in her chair, as that was the position she'd ended up in.
"Well, I think we'll take our leave of you two for now then." Matt said, prying himself off of TK's couch. Sora nodded and got up as well.
"Indeed, our work here is done! Come, faithful sidekick! We ride into the sunset!" she said, gesturing at Matt.
"Matt's a…sidekick?" TK and Yolei said in unison. They both burst out laughing again, with Yolei yelping in pain as she did. Matt just shook his head and headed for the door.
"We'll see you two nuts later!" he called out. Sora waved to the two and left with Matt as TK and Yolei recovered from the last fit of laughter.
"Oh man, I won't need to laugh for a year after that!" Yolei said, catching her breath.
"I'm glad you're feeling better now, Yolei." TK said as he managed to stand up. "Though I don't know about you, but I'm thirsty."
"I could go for a drink. Whatcha got?" Yolei replied. She rolled backwards over her head and ended up on her knees. She quickly stood up and joined TK in the kitchen.
"Some orange juice, water, a few packets of prune juice…"
"Prune juice?"
TK looked back at her from the fridge, and the both nodded to each other.
"Cody's grandfather." They said in unison.
"I could make some tea if you'd like."
"Nah, it's not nearly cold enough for tea. Mind if I get some orange juice?"
"No prob. I'll take water myself."
TK grabbed the juice and water jugs and poured a couple of glasses, handing one to Yolei. They returned to the living room where they both sat on the sofa. TK considered the TV remote for a moment, but just set it on the table.
"Oh, you can turn it on if you'd like." Yolei said.
"TV doesn't really hold my interest much these days. Why bother watching stories when I can make them up, after all?" he replied, gesturing with his left hand like he was writing.
"That's true. I like spending my time tinkering with my computer and finding interesting things on the web."
"Maybe you could take a look at our computer sometime? Mom says it never performs as good as it should."
"Sure, I'd be glad to look at it."
Yolei took a drink of juice and set the glass down on the table. She sighed, as reality seemed to be edging its way back into her head, despite TK, Matt and Sora's efforts to help her cheer up.
"What am I going to do now, TK? I'm so afraid of being alone…" she said, curling up a bit on the sofa.
"Yolei, you're not alone. You have lots of friends who care about you."
"You know what I mean, TK…"
"Yeah…I do."
TK saw she was starting to get depressed again, her eyes beginning to mist over a bit.
'I can't stand this! I can't stand seeing her hurt like this! Not when I can be there for her…' TK thought to himself.
TK moved over on the sofa, putting his hand gently on hers. Yolei's head jerked up suddenly, looking at him.
"It'll all be okay. I promise, Yolei. So…don't cry anymore." He said, trying to smile at her.
Yolei started to smile back at him a little. Then TK moved to sit alongside her, putting his left arm around her. She leaned against him, just like she had on the train ride, and she slowly found her tears disappearing.
'I could stay here all night, just sitting with TK. Before all that happened yesterday I was really enjoying being with him. Hey, speaking of which…'
"Did you manage to catch up with Kari today?" Yolei asked, looking up at him.
"She and her family are gone on a two-week trip to Yokohama. I missed talking to her completely." TK replied.
"Oh. That's too bad."
"Yeah. Hey, listen, you want to do something tomorrow? Or anytime this week?"
"Huh? But Kari's not around, TK, so it won't…"
TK bit his lip as he tried to think of a way to cover his tracks, and as luck had it, he found a way.
"I thought about that too, and I figured that if she came back and found out we weren't dating anymore she'd be suspicious about the whole thing. So you see, it'd work out best if we kept it up just so no one gets curious." He said, hoping she bought his story.
"If you put it that way…though are you sure you're not just cooking up an excuse to go out with me?" she asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked at him.
"What do you think?" TK said, smirking at her.
'I think you're trying to be too sweet for your own good is what I think.' Yolei thought to herself.
"Well…sure, I'd like that. Any ideas?" she said after a moment.
"Well, Matt has a concert on Friday night. But I don't have any ideas beyond that."
"I think I heard about an poetry reading on Tuesday. You could bring some of your work and read it! That'd be great!"
"I'm not too hot on being public about my writing. I mean, I don't mind sharing it with you guys but in front of an audience?"
"It's worth a try at least once, TK. C'mon, it can't hurt!"
"Okay, I'll see what I can get together by then."
"Great. Hey, what time is it anyway?"
Yolei looked at the clock and saw it read 10:00 PM.
"Wow, later than I thought it was."
"Yeah, laughing so much really passed the time. I guess you need to get going?"
"Yeah. I have the evening shift tomorrow." Yolei said, standing up and straightening out her skirt.
"I could drop by and keep you company if you'd like." TK said, standing up as well.
"TK, I don't want you wasting your summer cooped up in the same store I'm trapped at." Yolei walked towards the door as she talked.
"We'll see. Maybe I'll stop by around closing time or something. You never know, I'm prone to be spontaneous after all."
"Yeah, I know. I have two reminders on my cash register of it after all."
TK stopped at the genkan with her, opening the door for her.
"Okay, well g'night Yolie." He said.
"Yeah. Thanks again for everything TK." She said as she stepped up by him.
"Hey, anytime."
An awkward moment passed between the two as they stood in the open doorway. At first they avoided each other's gaze, but eventually they did look at each other, laughing sheepishly.
'Is Sora right? Am I feeling attracted to Yolie?' TK thought. 'I can't deny that she's pretty, hell I've told her so!'
'Those eyes are so hypnotic, it feels like I'm being pulled into him sometimes…why can't I help feeling like this?' Yolei thought as she unconsciously stepped close to him.
Yolei took a total of two steps towards TK before she finally leaned in, kissing him on the lips. TK reached around a bit, finding her hands and taking them into his as he kissed her back. Yolei slipped her hands from his to slide them up his lanky arms, her fingers tracing along his muscles gently. TK brought his hands to rest at her waist, then sliding them down to her hips.
"Hmmmm…." Yolei moaned into the kiss at the touch of his hands.
'He's being more daring now…and I like it a lot. Can I seriously be thinking like this, and about TK?' Yolei thought.
'Every time this happens between us I can't help but wonder how she feels about it. I know I enjoy every moment of it…' TK thought. They continued to kiss for a few minutes until they heard the sound of someone clearing their throat off from just outside the apartment. Both of them looked over to see TK's mother in the doorway, looking right at them.
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything." She said as she smiled at them, stepping past them and heading for the kitchen. Yolei and TK's faces instantly turned as red as tomatoes as they quickly shied away from each other.
"Right…I'll be going then." Yolei said, trying to control her blushing.
"Okay. See you tomorrow." TK said, stepping back a bit. Yolei nodded to him and headed off on her own as TK closed the door after her. He leaned against it after locking it and sighed. His mother came back and looked at him with a smile.
"You're getting to be a real lady killer, just like your brother." She said, heading to her room. TK just sighed exasperatedly and headed for his room, eager to end the day and get to the next, as it presented yet another opportunity for him to see Yolei.
TK continued to ring the doorbell at the Kamiya apartment. It was the next morning, and he wanted to get things straightened out between him and Kari. It was time to bring some closure to the whole mess, and find out where the dice would fall. After ringing the doorbell for the sixth time, Tai finally answered the door.
"TK, hey sorry! Didn't know it was you. C'mon in, I'm the only one here right now." Tai said.
"Oh, then I'll come back later. I was looking for Kari." TK began to head back home.
"Well, you won't catch her man. We're heading out today." Tai told him.
"Heading out?"
"Yeah, didn't she tell you? Our family is taking a two week trip to Yokohama." Tai told him. "Man, I'm looking forward to it."
"I…see." TK said. 'Well, so much for closure. I guess I'll have to wait it out.'
"Hey, do you know what was going on yesterday? Kari was really kinda moody last night when she got home, and Davis wasn't with her." Tai asked.
"It's a long story, Tai. I'll let you get it from her for now. Catch you later!" With that, TK jogged off home. Tai just shrugged and went back to finishing his packing.
TK fell onto the sofa in his living room after getting back home. He closed his eyes, cursing at himself left and right.
"Damn it, everything is messed up. Kari's angry with me, Davis is AWOL, and Yolei probably doesn't even want to see me right now. I can be such an ass sometimes." He said to no one in particular. The phone rang and he groaned, dreading whomever it might be. He grabbed the cordless phone and switched it to 'talk'.
"Takaishi residence, TK speaking." He said into the phone.
"Hey TK, it's Sora. Mind if I come over for a bit?"
"Is my brother with you?"
"Just me today, TK. I promise."
"Yeah, you can come over Sora. I'm not going anywhere, that's for sure."
TK switched off the phone and waited for Sora's arrival. Sure enough, she showed up a few minutes later, alone as promised.
"You don't look happy." She commented as she sat down nearby.
"It's a new exercise for writing." He said somewhat sarcastically. "It's called 'piss off all your friends and find new ways to act like a jerk'."
"So I heard through the grapevine. Though I'll say this much, you're definitely Matt's brother. Only an Ishida could shake things up like you have, TK."
"Gee, that makes me ever so glad to hear." TK stood up and wandered into the kitchen for some water. "If you're here to get me to make up with Kari you're out of luck. She's gone for two weeks on a trip."
"Actually, I'm here to help you make up with Yolei." Sora said.
"Oh? I thought you and Matt thought I was just 'playing a game' with Kari, wasn't that it?" TK said, not dropping his attitude.
"TK I know you must have your reasons for doing what you're doing, and I'm not going to try and interfere with them. I'm here for damage control, nothing more, I swear to you." Sora said, joining him in the kitchen. TK finished his water and put his cup in the sink, looking over to Sora after he did so.
"I don't know if she even wants to look at me right now, Sora. We parted ways kinda awkwardly last night." He said, focusing his vision on the tile floor. "I don't know why I've been acting like I have been around her…"
"I can answer that one for you." Sora said, smirking. TK looked up at her, curious as to what she had to say. "It's obvious to me at least. You're attracted to Yolei."
"Sora, we're just good friends is all." TK said, trying to shoot down the idea.
"Yeah, that's what I told myself for about a month when I first started dating your brother. Face facts, TK. You've got a crush on her, big time."
TK fell silent for a moment as he wrestled with the idea. Sora took a seat in the kitchen waiting for him to speak up again. Finally, after a bit of pacing, he looked at her again.
"I admit she's really kinda pretty…" he said carefully.
"Told you so." Sora said with a smile.
"But I know she doesn't feel anything like that for me. She's been in love with Ken for a long time, after all."
"I can't help you there. What I can help you with is how to apologize to her." Sora stood up and walked over to him.
"What should I do?" TK asked.
"My advice: use what you know. You're a writer, after all."
"You think it'll work?"
"Well it can't hurt things any further. Now I have to go meet up with Matt for our date, but I'll check up with you sometime soon."
"I'll give it a shot, Sora. Thanks for the advice." TK said. As soon as Sora left, TK grabbed a notepad and began brainstorming on what to write. After an hour of work, he finally had something he figured was decent. Now he just had to get it to its destination. He picked up his phone and dialed up a number.
"Hello, Cody? It's TK. I need a favor…"
_ _ _ _ _
The knocking wouldn't stop, no matter how much Yolei rolled around in bed and tried to muffle it out with her pillow. Whoever it was, they were being way too persistent for her tastes right now. Finally she got up, threw on her robe and opened her door, ready to cream whoever it was.
"What do you want?!" she said angrily. She quickly calmed down when she saw it was Cody, who was cowering back a bit from her.
"Are you always so scary in the morning?" he asked, stepping back up to her.
"Sorry, I don't want to go into it right now. What's wrong?" She tied her robe tightly around herself and folded her arms.
"I was just supposed to deliver this to you." Cody said, handing over a folded piece of paper. "See you later!"
"Cody, wait up! Who's it from?" Her question went unanswered, as Cody was already gone. "I swear, I'll bet he is taking ninja training anymore."
Yolei closed her door and sat down on the bed, considering the piece of paper she held. At first she was tempted to just throw it away, but curiosity got the better of her and she opened it, recognizing the handwriting as TK's.
~/ Satoshi stood nervously in front of the indigo-eyed woman, who glared daggers at him. He'd been so callous and foolish with his words around her the last time they'd been together, she felt she could never forgive him. Satoshi struggled to make eye contact with her, fumbling with the words of the speech he'd so meticulously prepared ahead of time to try and apologize. He truly felt horrible for how he'd acted and how he'd treated her, and he had wanted to apologize with a truly elaborate speech where he sung her praises and spoke of the true beauty he'd seen in her, but he was at a loss for words as he stood there before her. Finally, just before she turned to leave, he gathered the courage to look her in the eye once again. He took a deep breath and spoke in an even tone, the words coming from his heart.
"I'm sorry. Please forgive me." /~
"TK…you silly thing." Yolei said as she finished reading the story. She smiled and folded the note back up, putting it in her nightstand drawer. "Now I need to go see him to tell him it's okay, though. But if I go out through the store, dad'll catch me and make me work. How am I going to pull this off?"
Yolei tried to formulate a plan as she changed clothes into her normal blouse, skirt and sweater. She tied her kerchief around her hair and cleaned her glasses, setting them on her face. Once done, she poked her head out into the hallway and silently crept along downstairs to the shop. By a stroke of luck, her father was haggling with one of their regular customers who always tried to squeeze them for a deal on something. Yolei took the opportunity to sneak out of the store unnoticed and took off for TK's apartment, hoping she would catch him there.
Sure enough, TK answered the door after Yolei rang the bell a couple of times, a little out of breath.
"Hi Yolei. What's up?" he asked innocently. She stepped forward and just hugged him tightly.
"Don't worry, I forgive you." She said quietly. TK sighed in relief and hugged her back a bit, glad she wasn't mad at him any more.
'1 down…' he thought, '…2 to go.'
_ _ _ _ _
"I'll meet you in the park later on. I promised Cody I'd hang with him for a while in return for the favor he did for me." TK said, locking the apartment behind him.
"Okay, I'll meet you there." Yolei said with a smile. As TK started to walk off, she called after him. "Hey, TK? Seriously, did you mean what you said last night? About me, that is."
This time TK turned to face her, smiling as he did.
"I told you already, Yolei, I'm not in the habit of saying things I don't mean." He told her. Yolei nodded, feeling her cheeks redden as TK disappeared down the stairwell. After a moment she headed off on her own, back towards the store. She was just around the corner from there when she spotted Ken walking by. It had already been a day of settling things, she figured it was now or never to find out what he thought.
"Hi Ken!" she said cheerily, catching up to him.
"Oh, hello Yolei. What can I do for you?" Ken asked pleasantly. He had looked up from a book he was reading to greet her, and had now returned to it.
"Busy at studying as always?"
"Yup. If you don't mind, I'm headed to the library…"
"This won't take long, I was wondering if you knew TK and I had been dating recently."
"Yeah, Davis told me a while back. I'm happy for you." Ken said with a smile, pulling away from his book once again. 'This had to come up sooner or later. I should've listened to Davis and straightened this out earlier. Oh well, no sense in putting it off anymore.' He thought to himself, repressing his annoyance at the matter.
"You are?" Yolei was more than a bit surprised that he wasn't reacting like she'd hoped.
"Sure thing. I mean, I'm glad to see my friends happy together."
"But didn't you…I mean, I still…"
"Yolei, I'm sorry." Ken stopped walking and looked at her, trying not to get too frustrated or angry with her. "I'm just not interested in having a relationship with anyone right now. I'm sorry if you had your heart set on me, but my heart is set on my studies and my future and…to be honest I don't want to date right now. It's that simple."
"I see…well then, I'm glad we got that resolved." Yolei said, trying to be as brave as she could. Inside her, though, she felt like her world was crumbling.
"Yeah…well, give my regards to TK. I'll see you around!"
Ken waved to her as he continued on his merry way to the library. Suddenly, Yolei felt like she'd lost her safety net. The plan hadn't worked at all like she'd hoped it would.
'Ken…doesn't like me like that…' she thought. 'Did I mess up somewhere? Or…was he never interested in me in the first place?'
The realization brought on a wave of depression that stuck itself in Yolei's mind as she slowly made her way home, suddenly feeling very alone.
_ _ _ _ _
TK felt a bit more of a spring in his step as he headed to the park, this time with the right composition book in hand. He spotted Yolei sitting on the same bench they had last time and waved to try and get her attention, but she didn't respond. As he neared her, he could see that she was staring intently at the ground, and after a moment he could hear that she was sobbing. He closed the distance between them quickly and sat by her, setting his book down.
"Yolei? What's wrong?" he asked. Yolei looked over at him and grabbed hold of him, crying into his shoulder.
"Ken…doesn't like me…" she said between sobs.
"What? That can't be right! I thought…"
"I…met him earlier on…he didn't care…that we were dating…"
"Yolei…I'm sorry. I didn't know."
"Neither did I…I've never felt so…so alone before."
TK put an arm around Yolei, trying to comfort her. Inwardly, he sighed at the turn of events.
'I can't help but think this is all my fault. She's gone though so much emotionally just to try and get Kari and me together, and now she finds out that the guy she's been crazy about for years isn't even interested in her.'
Yolei sniffled a bit and finally looked up at TK, her face completely anguished.
"What am I going to do now, TK?" she asked, almost pleadingly.
'So much she's endured…I wonder what she'd say if I told her that I wasn't sure that it was Kari that I wanted to be with anymore…' TK thought, a bit of curiosity pulling at him at the idea.
"Well first we've got to work on cheering you up. And I think I know where we can start with that." He said. "Come with me."
Not questioning, Yolei followed TK back to his place where she sat in a chair, wondering what was going on. TK grabbed his phone and dialed up Sora's number. He was relieved when she answered after a couple of rings.
"Hi Sora, it's TK. Hey do you have some time this evening? I think we might be in need of a Takenouchi Special."
_ _ _ _ _
Yolei had only ever heard of the Takenouchi Special before second handedly from Mimi, and had always wondered what it was. She was experiencing it firsthand now, and it turned out to be extremely simple and exactly what she needed. It consisted of getting a few friends together with a gallon of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and a couple of really bad, old horror flicks that they proceeded to make fun of at every opportunity. In this case, the friends present were Matt, Sora and TK, and at present everyone was rolling with laughter at the cheesy death scene one of the characters had just done.
"Must…stop…laughing…need…oxygen…" Yolei gasped as she doubled over in laughter again.
"Turn it off! We need…a break!" Matt cried as he lunged for the remote. He managed to grab it and turned the TV off as he gasped for air, lying across Sora's lap.
"I think I'll need plastic surgery to remove the smile from my face…" TK said, calming down. "Thanks a lot for doing this on such short notice, Sora."
"Oh, anytime TK. I just look for excuses to be able to do this for my friends." Sora told him. "You feeling better, Yolei?"
"Leagues better. I thank you, my face thanks you, but my abs are gonna kill you in the morning. I can't laugh anymore, my stomach hurts so much!" Yolei said. She was sitting upside down in her chair, as that was the position she'd ended up in.
"Well, I think we'll take our leave of you two for now then." Matt said, prying himself off of TK's couch. Sora nodded and got up as well.
"Indeed, our work here is done! Come, faithful sidekick! We ride into the sunset!" she said, gesturing at Matt.
"Matt's a…sidekick?" TK and Yolei said in unison. They both burst out laughing again, with Yolei yelping in pain as she did. Matt just shook his head and headed for the door.
"We'll see you two nuts later!" he called out. Sora waved to the two and left with Matt as TK and Yolei recovered from the last fit of laughter.
"Oh man, I won't need to laugh for a year after that!" Yolei said, catching her breath.
"I'm glad you're feeling better now, Yolei." TK said as he managed to stand up. "Though I don't know about you, but I'm thirsty."
"I could go for a drink. Whatcha got?" Yolei replied. She rolled backwards over her head and ended up on her knees. She quickly stood up and joined TK in the kitchen.
"Some orange juice, water, a few packets of prune juice…"
"Prune juice?"
TK looked back at her from the fridge, and the both nodded to each other.
"Cody's grandfather." They said in unison.
"I could make some tea if you'd like."
"Nah, it's not nearly cold enough for tea. Mind if I get some orange juice?"
"No prob. I'll take water myself."
TK grabbed the juice and water jugs and poured a couple of glasses, handing one to Yolei. They returned to the living room where they both sat on the sofa. TK considered the TV remote for a moment, but just set it on the table.
"Oh, you can turn it on if you'd like." Yolei said.
"TV doesn't really hold my interest much these days. Why bother watching stories when I can make them up, after all?" he replied, gesturing with his left hand like he was writing.
"That's true. I like spending my time tinkering with my computer and finding interesting things on the web."
"Maybe you could take a look at our computer sometime? Mom says it never performs as good as it should."
"Sure, I'd be glad to look at it."
Yolei took a drink of juice and set the glass down on the table. She sighed, as reality seemed to be edging its way back into her head, despite TK, Matt and Sora's efforts to help her cheer up.
"What am I going to do now, TK? I'm so afraid of being alone…" she said, curling up a bit on the sofa.
"Yolei, you're not alone. You have lots of friends who care about you."
"You know what I mean, TK…"
"Yeah…I do."
TK saw she was starting to get depressed again, her eyes beginning to mist over a bit.
'I can't stand this! I can't stand seeing her hurt like this! Not when I can be there for her…' TK thought to himself.
TK moved over on the sofa, putting his hand gently on hers. Yolei's head jerked up suddenly, looking at him.
"It'll all be okay. I promise, Yolei. So…don't cry anymore." He said, trying to smile at her.
Yolei started to smile back at him a little. Then TK moved to sit alongside her, putting his left arm around her. She leaned against him, just like she had on the train ride, and she slowly found her tears disappearing.
'I could stay here all night, just sitting with TK. Before all that happened yesterday I was really enjoying being with him. Hey, speaking of which…'
"Did you manage to catch up with Kari today?" Yolei asked, looking up at him.
"She and her family are gone on a two-week trip to Yokohama. I missed talking to her completely." TK replied.
"Oh. That's too bad."
"Yeah. Hey, listen, you want to do something tomorrow? Or anytime this week?"
"Huh? But Kari's not around, TK, so it won't…"
TK bit his lip as he tried to think of a way to cover his tracks, and as luck had it, he found a way.
"I thought about that too, and I figured that if she came back and found out we weren't dating anymore she'd be suspicious about the whole thing. So you see, it'd work out best if we kept it up just so no one gets curious." He said, hoping she bought his story.
"If you put it that way…though are you sure you're not just cooking up an excuse to go out with me?" she asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked at him.
"What do you think?" TK said, smirking at her.
'I think you're trying to be too sweet for your own good is what I think.' Yolei thought to herself.
"Well…sure, I'd like that. Any ideas?" she said after a moment.
"Well, Matt has a concert on Friday night. But I don't have any ideas beyond that."
"I think I heard about an poetry reading on Tuesday. You could bring some of your work and read it! That'd be great!"
"I'm not too hot on being public about my writing. I mean, I don't mind sharing it with you guys but in front of an audience?"
"It's worth a try at least once, TK. C'mon, it can't hurt!"
"Okay, I'll see what I can get together by then."
"Great. Hey, what time is it anyway?"
Yolei looked at the clock and saw it read 10:00 PM.
"Wow, later than I thought it was."
"Yeah, laughing so much really passed the time. I guess you need to get going?"
"Yeah. I have the evening shift tomorrow." Yolei said, standing up and straightening out her skirt.
"I could drop by and keep you company if you'd like." TK said, standing up as well.
"TK, I don't want you wasting your summer cooped up in the same store I'm trapped at." Yolei walked towards the door as she talked.
"We'll see. Maybe I'll stop by around closing time or something. You never know, I'm prone to be spontaneous after all."
"Yeah, I know. I have two reminders on my cash register of it after all."
TK stopped at the genkan with her, opening the door for her.
"Okay, well g'night Yolie." He said.
"Yeah. Thanks again for everything TK." She said as she stepped up by him.
"Hey, anytime."
An awkward moment passed between the two as they stood in the open doorway. At first they avoided each other's gaze, but eventually they did look at each other, laughing sheepishly.
'Is Sora right? Am I feeling attracted to Yolie?' TK thought. 'I can't deny that she's pretty, hell I've told her so!'
'Those eyes are so hypnotic, it feels like I'm being pulled into him sometimes…why can't I help feeling like this?' Yolei thought as she unconsciously stepped close to him.
Yolei took a total of two steps towards TK before she finally leaned in, kissing him on the lips. TK reached around a bit, finding her hands and taking them into his as he kissed her back. Yolei slipped her hands from his to slide them up his lanky arms, her fingers tracing along his muscles gently. TK brought his hands to rest at her waist, then sliding them down to her hips.
"Hmmmm…." Yolei moaned into the kiss at the touch of his hands.
'He's being more daring now…and I like it a lot. Can I seriously be thinking like this, and about TK?' Yolei thought.
'Every time this happens between us I can't help but wonder how she feels about it. I know I enjoy every moment of it…' TK thought. They continued to kiss for a few minutes until they heard the sound of someone clearing their throat off from just outside the apartment. Both of them looked over to see TK's mother in the doorway, looking right at them.
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything." She said as she smiled at them, stepping past them and heading for the kitchen. Yolei and TK's faces instantly turned as red as tomatoes as they quickly shied away from each other.
"Right…I'll be going then." Yolei said, trying to control her blushing.
"Okay. See you tomorrow." TK said, stepping back a bit. Yolei nodded to him and headed off on her own as TK closed the door after her. He leaned against it after locking it and sighed. His mother came back and looked at him with a smile.
"You're getting to be a real lady killer, just like your brother." She said, heading to her room. TK just sighed exasperatedly and headed for his room, eager to end the day and get to the next, as it presented yet another opportunity for him to see Yolei.