Lovely Complex
by deina-kun

Disclaimer: Characters are the creation of Akiyoshi Hongo. The fanfiction is an based on Nakahara Aya's Lovely Complex.

A/N: Sorry about typos and lack of description. I've been rushing Updates for you guys. I'll try to improve the writing quality as I continue this fic.

RE: Nobody's Flicker ... I might try to put some of Yamato's thoughts in, but I'm not into 3rd person omniscient unlimited stories (where everyone's thoughts are known). We'll see.. :) For now it'll be 3rd person omniscient limited w/ Mimi's POV. And it's fun keeping Yamato's thoughts secret from the readers because it's not as obvious to tell who he likes (or not) and what he's thinking.

This chapter includes actual locations in Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan.

In fact, I don't really understand Yamato at all!

Step 04.

'Forget it! It's nothing that I should be worried about.'

"Tomorrow?" Taichi nodded with a growing excitement in his eyes. He noticed that Mimi was smiling rather uncomfortably and returned a wide smile, hoping to calm her down a bit. "Sure!"

She blinked and the discomfort in her actions changed to cheerfulness as she chirped on about the plans, "That's great! Yamato is coming too! And..." she took in a quick gasp of breath and watched her love interest closely, "Sora is also coming!"

Taichi felt himself stiffen as Mimi announced her final sentence. His face flared red as he averted his eyes from her, "Oh! Eh---"

Mimi smiled weakly and raised an eyebrow as she noticed the obvious blush coming across Taichi's face, 'What's with the "Ehh"?'

'Right now...' Mimi became uncomfortable around Taichi again as he withdrew from the conversation and tried to focus on the workbook the teacher had given them before their study hall. She turned to scan the room at the social activities going on and her eyes located a couple giggling and whispering in the corner of the room, talking about the summer festival, 'I wonder how it's going with Sora over there?' she blinked. Yamato's cheerful and cool grin attracted her attention, 'Yamato is trying hard, too'

"Okaasan? Is my kimono on right? I feel a little uncomfortable.." Mimi shuffled around barefoot with the kimono on. Her mom was making final adjustments to the sash around Mimi's waist, trying to make it as even and large to accentuate her daughter's features.

"There!" her mom gave the bow a light tap in victory as she giggled at her work. Mimi went to look in the mirror and smiled with satisfaction as the dark blue kimono with the light pink sakura flower print complimented the light pink sash around her waist. She finished with adding an ornamented hair pin through her seemingly glowing blonde hair tied in a neat updo and let the jewels dangle freely from the pin. 'Hmm. I actually wanted to show more of my feminine side by wearing a kimono.However, I wasn't sure if it would be very suitable for this kind of event.'

Mimi paused at a somewhat crowded area at the entrance of the Yurikamome Shiodome Station. People were flooding in and out of the subway with many girls returning from their shopping trips in Shibuya and Harajuku with shopping bags hanging from their arms (or their boyfriends' arms). Alternatively, people from out of town were rushing from the Venus Fort shopping mall to take the Yurikamome home.

After sighing over passing up the thought of shopping, Mimi felt the change in the atmosphere as she felt some anxiety of the things that she was expecting to happen that night set butterflies fluttering in excitement. She gripped the silk drawstring purse in her hand and waited for a crowd to pass by, but she paused to see a figure before her catch her eyes. Crouching down with his back against the pillar in the spot where she was supposed meet the others was a boy with his downcast blonde-haired head following the lines of the tiles on the floor to pass time. Mimi couldn't see his eyes underneath the white visor he wore, but her lips trembled a guess, "Yamato!"

The blonde-haired boy's head snapped up at the sound of his name. His eyes widened at the person who was slowly approaching him and his cheeks started to peek a hint of color at the sight before him.

"Sora and them haven't arrived yet?" Mimi looked down at him with the usual unknowing in her face and her eyes danced with questioning as she kept her gaze on him.

Yamato shrugged, "You gave me a fright.. I was wondering who it was..."

"Huh?" Mimi looked at him even more confused than when she came. After a few seconds, her face grew a shade darker and she drew the purse closer to her chest as she brought her clutched right hand up to her face in despair, "Do I look that weird in this?"

"No..." Yamato blinked and kept his eyes on her, wondering what brought about the quick change in attitude, but Mimi didn't seem to have heard his response.

"This is bad! I know some things are just not meant to be!"

He raised an eyebrow and looked at her with a straight face as he lost focus on the conversation, "What are you talking about?"

"Enough! I knew it!" she threw her opened palm out in front of him like a traffic officer would, but in a more dramatic way, "Stop consoling me!"

She dropped her hand and turned to the side. "This is no good... I feel like going home..."

His eyes hadn't detached themselves from her comic display of despairing and he looked at her with a light smile, trying to keep himself from laughing, but he couldn't resist and let out a long sigh with a slight chuckle in the the end. Mimi looked at him with her eyes burning at the boy whom she was looking down at, "What are you laughing at!"

Yamato rubbed the back of his hand across him mouth as he smiled. He stuck out his tongue at her with one eye closed in a playful manner after his hand passed, "Nothing. I was just---"

"Sorry! We're late!"

At those words, Mimi paused. She had begun to lower her head closer to Yamato's to add a few more bits of verbal criticism toward him, but paused and turned her head (as well as Yamato) to find Sora and Taichi stiffening in surprise in their light summer clothes as they noticed the close distance between Yamato and Mimi's faces. "We... met on our way here..."

After finishing with the greetings, Yamato finally got to his feet and the four of them walked to the Odaiba Seaside Park (Odaiba Kaihin Koen). It was becoming dark and the city lights were coming on as they were making their way to the park. The tents and booths could be seen in the distance from where they were and the lights were already on, dancing in a festive array of different shades of red, gold, and yellow.

"Ahh! Sorry!" Sora apologized after bumping into a person as they walked. Taichi noticed this and pointed over to his right, "You... walk on this side."

"Huh?" Sora looked up at him, unsure of what he meant by the gesture, but in a quick motion, he took a few steps and found himself walking alongside her to her left.

"In order to protect her from bumping into others, he let himself become her shield by walking on the side where it's more crowded!" Mimi gasped at the sight and applauded Taichi for the gentlemanly action.

"I don't get it! I wonder what he's up to." Yamato crossed his arms and forrowed his brow in confusion, wondering what Taichi was intending with that action toward Yamato's intended future girlfriend.

Mimi glanced at Yamato and agreed with him after noticing the disapproving and perplexed expression on his face, "What should we do?"

He looked at her with confusion in his eyes and replied flatly, "Do what?"

"The atmosphere between them is getting good.." she began.

He continued. "..just like that of a couple who's just started going out."

Their eyes grew wide at the realization and they both exclaimed at the same time. "You're right!"

'...I still can't do it!' the excitement from Mimi's face quickly went away as she stared on at the couple walking in front of them with sadness and defeat in her eyes. A frown spread across her face, 'Looking at them both.. there is no way that I will be able to interfece.'

'It is useless no matter how hard I try!' she bit her let and stopped walking. "Yamato!"

"Huh?" Yamato stopped and turned his head to hear, looking at her from underneath his visor.

She played with the string on her purse between her fingers for a few moments to organize the words in her head and took a breath in, "I've decided to stop liking Taichi-kun! I give up!"

Yamato looked at her in confusion as his eyes grew wide in surprise, "What?"

Mimi continued and turned around to hide her pathetic expression from him, "Because no matter what I do, it will be useless!"

"But..."

She turned around and tried her best to force a smile, but Yamato could tell that she wasn't really all that cheery no matter how convincing her picturesque face seemed. She let out a soft sigh, "It's not easy to make them respond to each other's feelings. I don't wish to interfere!"

"Mimi..." his eyes grew wide as he stared at her with mixed emotions crossing between awe, confusion, and wonder.

'This is enough! It's time for me to give up my feelings for him! Forget it! It's not like I had that much hope in the beginning!' her forced smile reverted back to her true emotions as a saddened frown spread across her face and her eyebrows drooped sadly in defeat. She lowered her head.

Yamato stuffed his hands into the pockets of his shorts as he looked up to the dusk sky. "Let me tell you!"

The enthusiastic sarcasm in his voice brought Mimi to look at him with wide-eyed questioning in her eyes as he continued, "That Sora! Whenever she's talking to me, she will always glancing at the direction where Taichi is!"

"...Really?" Mimi stared blankly at him, unsure of whether to believe what he said.

Yamato pulled his arms behind his head and stretched back a little, "Yep! It's really rude of her you know!"

'Eh...'

"Mimi!"

She snapped out of her mental evaluation of him. "What?"

"If this goes on, they will probably end up seriously dating each other, right?"

Mimi blinked at the thought. "...probably..."

Yamato's eyes grew distant. "I don't want to interfere with them too."

"Really?"

"Yep, why not be the one to bring them together instead! It's easier that way!" Yamato laughed at the brilliant thought and prepared for Mimi's enthusiastic agreement of the plan.

Much to his surprise, she didn't. "Are you trying to 'drown' yourself in sorrow?" she looked at him with a worried expression.

"Even if we are the Odaiba Academy Kouhai in this comedian love act, you have to know when to stop." he looked at her with a nervous lift at the corner of his lip after her strange response, but he put on a mock television announcer's voice instead, "That's all for today! Thank you everyone!"

Mimi giggled at his humor and turned to him with a lifted eyebrow as she kept her wide grin, "But no.. Even if you have to know when to stop, you also have to do something that's beyond your limits!"

At her words, Yamato's bewildered smile went away and he looked at her with a calm warmness in his eyes as a soft smile spread across his face. She blinked at the change of mood between them and her light-hearted giggling changed to a quieted and confused face. Her cheeks blushed lightly.

Yamato smiled and ran his hand through his hair. "Okay! Let's not care about both of them today, let's go and have some fun!"

At the cheeriness in his voice, Mimi smiled, "Okay!"

'...Yamato! Thank you'

"...Huh?" Deep into the crowd at the festival, Sora pulled herself away from gazing in awe at the various festival lanterns and realized that her best friend was no longer following behind, "Where's Mimi...? Where's Yamato..?"

'Being with Yamato.. is really good! It would have been far more depressing if I was all alone.' Mimi and Yamato had been sight-seeing all of the attractions at the festival and finally stopped at the same time in the most congested area where the attractions, the people, and the wafting smell of food were at its best. She giggled at the scene as she watched with sparkling eyes, "Wow! There are lots of stalls here!"

Yamato inched himself toward one of the stalls, trying to hold back his childhood temptations. "I want to try catching some goldfish!"

"I want to go too!" Mimi exclaimed as she followed as fast as she could in the slippers she wore.

They each took a goldfish scoop with the thin film of paper at the hoop that tears after it's been in the water for too long. Mimi took a try at catching a goldfish but tore the paper as the goldfish flopped hysterically on top of it while she scooped it out. She peered jokingly at Yamato through the hoop with some shreds of the wet torn sheets of paper still intact and laughed as Yamato looked disappointedly at her in embarrassment.

They moved to a stall that had toy guns where they were supposed to shoot at soda cans, but Mimi played around with pointing the gun at Yamato's head, laughing hysterically as he flinched in fright, thinking that she'd pull the trigger on him. The expression on his face was priceless and she couldn't keep herself from laughing even more.

Even though I've just fallen out of love, I'm still happy.

That's because Yamato is with me.

"It's fun!" Mimi exclaimed happily as she dangled a plastic container in her hand with the goldfish Yamato had won and given to her. "I wonder if Sora and Taichi-kun went back already?"

"I think so..." Yamato scratched the back of his head with his hand. "Apart from elementary kids, I think we are the only ones who are staying up to play until such late hours."

The two of them laughed at the truth in the thought as they walked through the still busy crowds. Yamato rubbed his nose with his finger, trying to hide his smile as he cleared his throat, "What did we come here to do anyway?"

Mimi couldn't find an answer to his question and continued to laugh at his previous thought. "Uhmm.. Yeah!"

After they calmed down and stopped laughing, Yamato glanced to his right at his kouhai and smiled warmly at her. The cold air seemed to put a light tint upon his cheeks. Feeling a slight tug from his stare, Mimi instinctively glanced over to her left and found his eyes gazing at her. She looked up at him with a sweet smile still lingering on her face even after all of the laughter. 'Frankly speaking... What did we come here to do?'

Her eyes stopped dead on a stall that had a tiny live turtles up for the prize and pointed in surprise at the direction of the stall. "Ah! Yamato! Let's go play that.."

"Uhh... Yamato..?" Mimi looked around and noticed that the tall blonde-haired boy was no longer walking by her side and she stared forward, calling out his name. "YAMATO!"

"I'm over here!" he looked at her with disgust as he emerged from a crowd behind her.

"Arrgh! You gave me a fright! You're so tall that you walk so fast I even lost sight of you in an instant!" she chattered on, expressing her relief with his presence with her once again.

"Are you trying to pick a fight?" he looked at her with a straight face but his expression showed a hint of frustration, "Besides.. I was behind you. How could you blame my height when you were the one that ran off ahead?"

Mimi pulled a hand to her mouth to cover it after realizing her error. "Ah! I'm sorry!"

Yamato had a hand resting on the side of his waist as he stared at her with a raised eyebrow, questioning her mental state. He sighed and took her right hand with his left, adjusting his visor with his free hand, "...There seems to be too many people! I'm feeling weird."

"Let's go and have some barbecued squid!" he pulled her along with him and she followed as he held her hand. She blushed as she realized the position they were in and her eyes trailed down to her hand in his.

"Yamato's really warm..." she whispered subconsciously.

He turned around and glared at her, assuming that she had tried to state an insult at him, "What? Are you talking crap again?"

"Nothing..." she continued following him and noticed his grip on her hand grow tighter as they walked through the crowds. She glanced at their entwined hands once again, unsure of the feeling she felt inside of her and her thoughts on the situations, 'Even though it's so cold out here.. his hand is warm.. His hand is like a man's hand.. it's all bony, though...'

'If I say this out loud, he will probably beat me up!' she continued walking with him, feeling her hand burn from his warmth and she twitched in slight discomfort over her growing thoughts. The sound of her sandles clacking on the stone walkway seemed to resound loudly as they walked, 'I musn't say it...'

Yamato felt Mimi's hand move under his and he turned around to look at her as they continued to walk. While she looked at him with the color of her face flushing out from the cold air other than a light tint on her cheeks, his expression on his face was undescribable. His eyes were a darker blue than the color of the blue on her kimono and seemed deeper and more unfathomable than ever before. She felt a pang in her heart as she saw the somewhat hurt and confused and regretful look in his eyes, 'I somehow get the feeling that...'

The only one who feels weird is me.

As they continued walking, a few kids around their age were whispering and giggling.

"Are they dating?"

"I think so. They're holding hands!"

"That boy looks so cute!"

Yamato and Mimi turned to see that those kids were probably from their school. She felt her hand drop and the warmth taken away as Yamato let go of his hold. She stared at him with a straight face as confusion and hurt loomed in her eyes.

"..." Yamato glanced around the festival to keep from looking directly at her, "They're laughing because you're attracting attention with your kimono."

"I think it's because you're too tall!" Mimi retorted. A silence lingered between the two and Yamato dropped his head to hide the dark look on his face. Mimi cast her eyes downward after realizing what she had said and drew her clenched hand up to cover her mouth, 'Ah...'

"Hey!" Mimi blinked and drew her attention to the voice as Yamato called out spontaneously after he turned around and began to walk away, "Don't you.. want to eat barbecued squid? It tastes better if you add an egg on it! Do you want to try?"

Mimi looked over to his tall frame with his back facing her and hesitated, her voice trembling in response, "I ate at home before I came here."

'Why... do I feel this weird...?'

"What did you eat at home?" he asked.

"BBQ House's Korean Specialty..."

"What Specialty? Didn't you see that ad on TV?"

"That one... It's that one...!"

"Is it nice?"

"Yeah..."

"...Ohhhh..."

"...Going back?" Mimi asked after a long silence between them.

"Yeah..."

It seems as though... nothing is right anymore.

"Mimi! I'm sorry!"

"Huh?" Mimi scratched the back of her head as Sora bowed low before her in apology, but Mimi replied in reassurance after realizing what her friend was apologizing for, "No, we're the ones who ought to be sorry, disappearing all by ourselves halfway through the outing..."

"No! That's not it!" Sora shook her head and looked at Mimi with a miserable expression of regret written all over her face, "Taichi-kun and I must have been an eyesore, right?"

Mimi's eyes grew wide at the strange response. "Huh...?"

"I know that you like Yamato-kun but I didn't notice it beforehand, I'm so sorry!" Sora continued, despairing over her friend.

'What?' Mimi narrowed her eyes at the unexpected words that were coming at her.

"Next time I won't follow the two of you!" Sora proclaimed, tugging nervously at the ribbon of her school uniform, "You and Yamato-kun have a good time together on your own okay! There!"

'What is she talking about?' after Sora's constant apologies and proposal, Mimi laughed weakly in response, "Uhmm.. Sora, I think you've got it wrong somehow... It's definitely not what you think!'

Sora looking down at the floor. "Taichi-kun already told me everything! Actually, Yamato-kun likes you the most, Mimi"

"What?" Yamato asked as he sat up from laying down at the bottom of the steps in the hallway. "I like you?"

"Why did it turn out this way?" he turned his head to look at the wall, avoiding her stares.

"I don't know either! What's more, she told me to keep on trying!"

"Trying what?" he turned his head to her with a look of disgust tracing the corner of his lips as he wondered what the outcome of the conversation would lead to.

Mimi turned her head away from him in embarrassment, not wanting to make contact with the attracting gaze of his eyes, "How would I know?"

His face became blank as he continued to fix his eyes on her averted gaze. "..Let me just say this first, I will never ever like a junior like you!"

Mimi turned her head, after he finished his remark, to face him. His face screamed anger all over it and disgust spread across her face as a look of utmost resentment remained stubborn in his eyes. "What..."

Yamato stood up and began walking up the stairs. "Never ever! That idea is crazy! Impossible!"

'I knew it...' she stood there in surprise as he continued to walk up the stairs. "...I..."

She took in a deep breath and shouted at the top of her lungs, "I will also never like a jerk like you!"

I just knew that he would say that!

A/N: How was it?

Although I don't like to ask for reviews (the review beggers "Please review or I won't update!"), I really, deeply thank you for those who have reviewed and followed the story. Your reviews and suggestions keep me motivated to continue, especially with these quick updates recently! Stay tuned!