CHAPTER 59

That afternoon, Emily went home, extremely upset, but she didn't even know why. She had heard from a friend that Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do were fighting at the ice rink, so she had immediately rushed over to see what was going on and if her friends were okay. However, by the time she arrived, she just got to see the Phys Ed teacher dragging Robby away, and she watched as Miyagi-Do celebrated their victory. She saw Sam and Miguel's nervous embrace and their obvious flirting, anger and upset had rushed through her. Why though? Why had she been so worried about Miguel that she had dropped everything and sprinted over to the rink? Why had seeing him hugging Sam triggered her so much?

It was only when she was on her way home that she realised… could she maybe have romantic feelings for Miguel? No, no way! Sure they were extremely close friends now, but that didn't change the fact that they had tried dating before and it had very nearly prevented them from being friends at all. It had gone up in flames almost immediately, and they had said that they didn't want to risk trying to date again and ruining their friendship entirely. So why did she feel like this? Why did watching Miguel and Sam hurt her so much?

Deep down, she knew exactly why. It was the very thing she had been avoiding admitting for a while now but something she knew she couldn't bury from herself for too much longer: she had feelings for Miguel.

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Shameful. Absolutely fucking shameful. As Silver heard about the events from earlier that day in the rink, his blood boiled. Though he was absolutely fuming at his students for choking and not beating the Miyagi-Dos and he knew he'd be punishing them soon from their failure, but what was weighing more heavily on his mind was Miguel. When Cobra Kai had recruited Robby, they had completely ignored Miguel as they had assumed with Robby, the All-Valley would be an easy win. However, times like these just proved how big of a threat Miguel could be to them. By ignoring his existence, they were exposing them to the potential threat he could be to their All-Valley win. Everything was in Cobra Kai's favor: better dojo, better students, better senseis; so they NEEDED to make sure Miguel couldn't sneak a win in the All-Valley. That's when he realised… there was only one solution. It was like they had been taught in the Army: whenever you were presented with a threat… ELIMINATE THAT THREAT. They needed Miguel out of the tournament ASAP.

Silver knew that drastic times called for drastic measures, so he decided to call up someone from his past. Someone he had come across multiple times for the parts of his work that needed to remain behind the scenes. Someone who didn't mind crossing morally gray lines for as long as it meant getting a mission done. Someone who worked only in the shadows to not be caught and arrested by the authorities.

Silver quickly scrolled through his phone to the number of his friend, before calling it. The number rang several times. No answer. Silver started to doubt his plan. Maybe his friend was locked up in jail. It wasn't uncommon in his line of work. Or maybe he had changed his number. There were so many what ifs and they ran through Silver's head for several moments before shockingly, the phone clicked on and a gruff voice answered.

"Hola. Quien és." A tough spanish voice growled into the phone, asking who it was. Silver let out a small sigh of relief. It was him.

"Diaz, it's Silver." Silver said. The man on the other end chuckled.

"Silver. It's been a long time." The man remarked.

"It has." Silver agreed.

"So, my brother, what can I do for you today?" The man asked. Silver raised an eyebrow.

"What makes you think I need something? Can't I be calling to see how my old friend is doing?" Silver stated. The man laughed.

"Come on, Silver. You and I… we're both busy men. We don't call people just to catch up. Now… how can I be of service to you?"

"Okay, fine, I need a favor." Silver admitted. Silver then gave the man a short backstory of the Karate war and at the end, asked for his favor. "So what I need is for you to get the leader of Miyagi-Do out of the All-Valley tournament."

"You want me to kill him?" The man asked bluntly. Silver shrugged, remorseless. He was the most merciless of the 3 Cobra Kai senseis, for good reason. He had 0 regard for human life whatsoever, so he had no qualms about whatever the ruthless man on the other end of the line had in mind.

"Do whatever you want. Just get him the hell away from the tournament." Silver snapped. The man on the other end chuckled.

"Wow. You're that desperate to get him out, huh? He must be pretty good." The man commented. "What's his name?"

"You know, funnily enough, he has the same surname as you… Diaz. What are the odds?" Silver remarked. The other man laughed.

"Pretty good, I'd say, given that half the people in Central and South America probably have that surname." The man replied. Silver nodded.

"True. But he's also from Ecuador, so I guess you also have that in common too." Silver remarked. The other man raised an eyebrow.

"A Diaz from Ecuador, huh? Maybe we could be related. What's his name?" The man asked.

"Um… Miguel. Miguel Diaz." Silver replied.

Immediately, the tone of the call changed. Silver heard the man let out a small gasp. For the man knew exactly who Miguel Diaz was. He hadn't seen him for 14 years, but there was no way he could ever forget that name because…

"Miguel Diaz? That's my… that's my son." The man stammered. Silver's jaw dropped.

"He… he is?"

"Let me guess… 17 years old, lives with just his mom and grandmother?"

"Well I hear the grandmother died a few months back but yeah, that's the one." Silver stated.

"Oh, my God." The man murmured. Suddenly, Silver remembered what he had asked Miguel's father to do, and his eyes widened in alarm.

"Oh, um… Diaz, if Miguel's your son, I seriously apologise for what I asked you to do. I will leave him alone, and I hope there's no problems between us as a result."

Miguel's father chuckled.

"Silver, Miguel Diaz and his family fucked me over. They fled Ecuador without telling me. They ruined my life. So trouble? No, there's no trouble my friend. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to destroy Miguel Diaz once and for all…"

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As Miguel walked into West Valley the next day and as he looked around, he internally groaned. Shit. It was February 4th, 10 days until Valentine's Day. And that meant that decorations had already been put up in the school. Pink banners, hearts and streamers were strewn from the walls. The halls were littered with flowers and chocolate wrappers. Miguel had always found Valentine's Day to be a little frivolous - it was a waste of time and money in Miguel's opinion. Maybe because he hadn't ever spent it with someone he loved. But this year, because for the first time he had someone he cared about that much but he couldn't spend it with her, he found everything a lot more obnoxious. The stupid hearts more vomitingly pink. The cheesy celebrations so cringingly awful. He just hated every single part of it.

Then came West Valley High's awful tradition of a Valentine's Day Dance. It was a ritual that had been going on in the school for years. They had three dances a year: a Halloween Dance, a Valentine's Day dance and the main end-of-year prom. Out of all of them, the Valentine's Day one was by far the worst. Because of the nature of the day, there was more pressure than ever to bring a date. Those who didn't were either teased and mocked, or just had a horrible time at the dance as they wallowed in misery. Needless to say, the old nerdy Miguel had never had a date before to the dance before so all of his previous experiences had been awful.

Miguel sat in study hall, looking around the room at the various couples all around him. Another thing Miguel hated about the first half of February as for some reason, people felt like they could be a little more PDA with their significant other. Miguel saw countless people around him kissing, holding hands and other romantic gestures with their partner and all it did was make him more sour. He was more bitter than anything. Bitter about the happiness everyone around him had found while he was still unable to find it. Well, he had found it. He was just unable to act upon it.

Suddenly, Miguel felt someone slide into the seat next to him, and he turned to see George sitting next to him.

"Hey." Miguel grunted at him.

"Hey." George smiled. "How you doing?"

"Who invented Valentine's Day?" Miguel asked. George raised an eyebrow.

"Um… well I believe it was an ancient roman named St. Valentine, who…"

"No, I mean who was so monumentally stupid that they thought Valentine's Day should become a worldwide celebration?" Miguel snapped vehemently. George sighed, sympathising with his friend. It was killing him to see Miguel still so not over Emily after so long, and watching him pine for her. It was especially hard to watch now that he himself was in a blissfully happy relationship with Mary… to know that he had managed to get together with the girl of his dreams when Miguel was still unable to do the same made George feel bad sometimes.

"Ah. Right. You figure out who you're going to take to the dance yet?" George asked. Miguel sighed and shook his head.

"Nope. I mean I know who I want to take." Miguel remarked. George chuckled.

"Jee, I wonder who." He commented. Miguel nodded and sighed, closing his eyes. Now even just thinking about Emily and how day by day, the chances of him ever getting with her became slimmer and slimmer stabbed him in the chest and caused him intense pain.

"Yeah, so… not ideal I guess." Miguel murmured. George nodded, and replied with something Miguel was starting to hear more and more often from his friend.

"Well, you could always take Sam." George said. Miguel sighed.

"Seriously, man? This again?" Miguel muttered. George shrugged and raised his hands indignantly.

"What?! Come on! You know Sam is into you!" George exclaimed.

George was indeed correct actually. Sam did indeed have feelings for Miguel again. It had started shortly after Miguel had arrived in Miyagi-Do and had only increased since then. Although she hadn't outright admitted it, she had been pretty obvious about it. However, up until this point, Miguel had been keeping Sam at arm's length given his feelings for Emily.

"Man, I'm not going to ask out, Sam. I'm still kind of into…"

"Emily. Yeah, I kinda noticed." George remarked sarcastically. "But it's been more than a month now. Maybe you need to just face the fact that Emily just doesn't like you like that. The healthy thing to do is move on."

"It's not exactly that easy." Miguel murmured.

"Sure it is." George stated. "Emily DOES NOT LIKE YOU. I'm sorry. I know it sounds harsh but you need the blunt truth. She doesn't like you and she might never do. Sam, however, does. And if you end up spending the rest of your senior year wallowing in sadness about not getting one girl, you're going to miss out on so much great stuff, starting with this Valentine's Day dance. Because despite what you believe, these kinds of things can be really fun if you're with someone. So my friendly suggestion… respectfully, give up on trying to go after Emily. Go ask out Sam on a date this Friday. Then take her to the Valentine's Day dance next Friday."

Miguel looked up at his friend. He knew George was right. It hurt deeply to admit but he was right. He needed to get over Emily, and the best way to move on would be to truly move on by dating someone else.

"You know what? You're right." Miguel murmured. "You're right. I'm done chasing Emily. I'm going to ask Sam out…"