Chapter 9: Telling The World
I was making my way downstairs to go to school and found Sora sitting on a bench between our buildings.
"Hey." I said as I sat down beside her. "I thought you'd be on your way to school by now."
"No, I was waiting for you." She stood up and looked at me with a smile. "I thought maybe we could go to school together, boyfriend."
"Boyfriend?" I repeated, unable to hide my own one. "It sounds great hearing it coming from you."
"I'm glad you think that." She approached me, looking straight into my eyes. "It feels good saying it as well, without being confused about my feelings anymore."
"You have no idea how happy that makes me." I placed my hands on her hips. "My girlfriend."
"You're right. It does have a nice ring to it." She gave me the brightest smile and I couldn't help but smile back at her.
"So, my girlfriend, are you ready to go to school?"
"Absolutely! Let's go."

As we were getting nearer the school, I felt Sora's hand shake a little. She kept focusing ahead, so I squeezed it lightly.
"Hey, are you alright?" I looked at her concerned. "You're shaking."
"I'm fine. I'm just a little nervous about walking into school with you." She looked at me. "Not because of you, though. Because of your fans. I have no idea how they are going to react."
"Yeah, they can be a little over the line."
"A little?" She asked with her eyebrows raised. "That's being polite."
"Alright. Do you want us to walk in separately?"
"No." She said firmly and squeezed my hand tighter. "Let's walk in together. I don't want to hide it anymore. I think we had a lot of misinterpretations already."
"Okay, let's do it."
She took a deep breath and we walked in.

I thought we would go unnoticed, but Mimi made quite a big scene when she saw us.
"Oh my God! I can't believe it!" She squealed when she came in our direction. "You two are holding hands! That's so cute!"
Some of the girls nearby deliberately turned around and stopped what they were doing to look at us and whisper to each other. I could feel Sora getting a little tense from the way she squeezed my hand.
"Mimi, we were hoping you'd be discreet about this. We didn't want to draw attention, you know?"
"That's right. Some of my fans can really cross the line and that's not a good thing."
"I get that. I'm sorry."
"It's okay." Sora smiled at her. "We wouldn't be able to go unnoticed anyway."
"Are you okay with that?"
"Not really, but I don't want to keep hiding anymore. I've done it enough."
"Wow, I'm surprised you are actually going to face them."
I looked around me and then back at them. "They won't do anything to physically harm us, but we still should watch out."
"I'm so happy for you two! You deserve it so much!"
"Thank you, Mimi." She looked at me and gave me a smile. "We should go to class now, but let's meet for lunch later."
"I'd love that! I'll see you then."

"So how was it?" I asked her after we entered our school building.
"I honestly thought things would be much harder. If they keep being this way, it's perfectly fine to me."
"They will, don't worry."
"What about you, though? How was it for you?"
"It was good. Great, actually. We can never let our guards down with some of my fans though."
"I know, but I doubt they will do anything to harm us. Even so, I'm still not that comfortable with them talking about us in small groups."
"Being popular is awful most of the times, but I try to ignore it as much as I can. It helps me a lot."
"I should adhere to that. It will die down pretty soon though."
"I hope so." I stared into her eyes intently.
"What?"
"Nothing. I'm just making sure I'm not dreaming."
"Well, you're not. You can wake up and see it's all real."
"That makes everything much better."
"We should get in class."
"You're right, let's go."

.

The morning period went by very fast. By the lunchtime, there were still some whispering coming from a few small groups, but nothing that would bother us. The afternoon period also went by fast and the final bell rang before I even realized.
"Do you want to walk home together?" Sora asked me while she put her material away.
"I wish I could, but I have band practice now. Hey, you could watch it if you want to. Then we can go home together."
"Hmmm."
"Is that a yes or no?" I asked her confused.
"Won't I disturb you, though?"
"Absolutely not." I assured her with a grin. "You can never disturb me or anything else, believe me. Unless you have something else to do and can't go."
"I don't have anything to do today. Alright, I'll go. There's one condition though."
"What is it?"
"You'll have to stick around for my tennis class tomorrow."
"Will I get to see you wearing a skirt?"
"Not really. The weather is getting a little colder and my coach allowed girls to wear white pants. I'm sorry to disappoint you." She couldn't help but laugh seeing my expression of disappointment.
"Well, you can't win everything."
"That's true."
"So are you going to be there?"
"Of course!"
"Great, so let's go."

I'm not the type to brag most of the time, but I couldn't help but think I was playing really well that afternoon. Even my band mates were surprised with it. Sora was sitting at the back of the room because she said she didn't want to disturb us, but I could see she was clearly enjoying it.
"Hey." She approached me when band practice was over with a large smile on her face. "You were really good!"
"You think so?"
"Absolutely! I had no idea it was so cool to watch a band rehearsal."
"Is that really or could it be because your boyfriend is on it?" I wrapped an arm around her and pulled my guitar case over my shoulder.
"Maybe the latter." She smiled slyly at me and wrapped her arms around my waist. "I have to admit it's pretty amazing to have a boyfriend who's in a rock band. I kind of feel like a groupie or something."
"Is that supposed to be a good thing?"
"Probably not." She laughed. "Forget what I said. It was too stupid."
"Fine." I smiled. "But I wouldn't mind having my own groupie by the way."
"Okay, this is embarrassing." She blushed and walked away from me.
"Sor, I was only joking. Wait up." I quickly grabbed my bag and ran after her.

.

"You know, I was thinking maybe we could tell the big news to Gabumon and Piyomon. What do you think?"
"I think that's a great idea! Piyomon was dying for me to say something to you."
"Really?"
"Yeah, she kept pushing me to confess to you. Actually, she wasn't the only one. My mother also seems to enjoy this idea a lot. She will be thrilled when I tell her."
"You still haven't told her?"
"No, but I will later today. I won't be able to hide it from her for much longer."
"Then we should do it."
"We?" She looked at me confused.
"Of course. We should tell her together. All of our parents, actually. We should tell them all together."
"Okay." A smile appeared on her lips and she dragged me down the sidewalk. "Let's do it together then."

.

"What is wrong?" I looked at Sora through the mirror in the elevator and noticed she was biting her lower lip.
"I don't think I can do this, I'm sorry."
"Do what?"
"Tell my mother we're together. I know she will be happy about it, but I'm just so nervous about it."
"Everything will be okay." I walked to her and held her hands within mine. "We dealt with something bigger earlier today and things went great. This one will too, trust me."
"You have a really good point, but I'm still nervous. I know nothing bad will happen, but still…"
"You can do this. You said yourself, she will be happy about it. So there's no need to worry."
"You're right. If I was able to face your fans, I can pull this off as well."
"Exactly."

"Mom, I'm home." Sora announced after she opened the door of her apartment. "Yamato is here."
"Oh, you're finally home. You arrived a little later today." Mrs. Takenouchi appeared in the hall. "Hello, Yamato."
"Hi, Mrs. Takenouchi. How are you?"
"I'm good, thank you." I smiled. "What about you?"
"I'm good too. Thanks for asking." She smiled back at me. "How's your father? And Takeru? I haven't seen them in a while."
"They are great."
"Mom, there's something I… I mean, we need to tell you."
"Did you get in a fight in school?"
"No, why would we get in a fight?" Sora asked a little surprised. "Actually, Yamato and I are together. We're… dating."
"So you decided to give you two a chance?"
"I did." She looked at me and gave me a smile. "I didn't want to run away from my feelings anymore, so here we are."
"I'm glad you decided to face your feelings and be happy."
"Me too."
"I'm happy for you two. I always thought it was just a matter of time until you realized your feelings for each other."
"Mom, please." Sora said embarrassed and covered her face with her hands.
"I think so too, Mrs. Takenouchi." I looked at Sora and smiled. "But it wasn't easy to convince her to give me a chance."
"Okay, let's go tell our partners now." She pushed me towards her bedroom. "Mom, we will be in my room."
"Alright, darling."

.

"What if they aren't near a TV to talk to us?" I asked while sitting on the chair.
"Let's hope they are. It would be very sad if they aren't this time." She turned on her laptop. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm sitting."
"This I know, but you should be sitting on my bed next to me. We're going to tell them we're together. We should be close to each other."
"Are you sure about this?"
"Why wouldn't I?" She looked at me surprised. "Unless you don't want to sit by my side."
"I do, but it's on your bed."
"So what? You've sat on it before."
"That's true, but things were a little different then."
"Oh I see. Well, if that's what you want, I'm fine with that."
I bit my lower lip and thought for some minutes before I gave in and sat down beside her.
"I knew you were going to change your mind eventually."
"You won me over when you said we were supposed to be next to each other."
"I'll make sure to use that argument from now on." She teased and then leaned over to kiss me. I seized the opportunity to steal another one when she began to pull away. "You're so sneaky!"
"Just a little." I couldn't help but laugh. "I'll let you steal a kiss from me next time."
"Right now?"
"No, it has to be a surprise. That's why you steal it."
"Makes sense." She looked at her laptop screen. "She's here!"
"Sora! I missed you so much!"
"Piyomon, I missed you too."
"Yamato is here too. How have you been?"
"I've been good, thank you."
"How are you?"
"I'm good, actually I'm better now." Piyomon smiled widely. "It's been so long since we last saw each other."
"I know. I have something to tell you."
"Okay, what is it?"
"Actually, we do. So I was wondering if you could find Gabumon first."
"Hmmm." She looked at both her right and her left. "I don't remember seeing him around lately. But I can try."
"That would be great."
"Do you think she will find him?"
"I hope she does, or we won't be able to tell them."
"So what do you want to do while we wait?"
"I'm not sure. Do you have something in mind?"
"As a matter of fact, I do." I leaned towards her, capturing her lips in a passionate and long kiss.

Piyomon returned about ten minutes later with Gabumon. I had my head rested on Sora's shoulder and quickly lifted it when they appeared in the screen.
"Gabumon!"
"Yamato! It's been so long! How have you been?"
"I'm good. What about you?"
"I'm good too. I missed you so much!"
"I missed you too."
"So we have something to tell you both." Sora spoke beside me and blushed a little. "We are together."
"What?!" The two Digimon said together.
"That's what you heard." I confirmed. "We are dating."
"I didn't think I'd see the day." Piyomon started crying. "I have been telling you so much to do it and you finally did! I'm so happy!"
"How long has it been?"
"About two weeks."
"Two weeks?!" She looked at me confused. "But I only said I wanted to be your girlfriend a few days ago."
"I know, but I count it from the day I asked you."
"Two weeks then." She turned to screen with a smile.
For the following ten minutes, all that we heard was cheering and crying from happiness from our partners.