"That's the stupidest thing I've ever seen," Yamato looked around in surprise at the words coming out of the mouth of one Taichi Yagami... He looked annoyed.

He followed his gaze to Taichi's line of sight and found Sora talking to some guy with a tennis racket swinging by her legs. He looked around curiously, trying to locate the source of Taichi's frustration, but failed.

"What's wrong?" asking Taichi was the fastest route...

"Sometimes Sora can be as thick as Greymon's leg," Taichi grumbled, his eyes drawn low in disappointment.

Yamato looked again to see if he missed something. Nope. Just Sora talking to a boy from their class.

"A bit ironic coming from you," Yamato chuckled, chalking down Taichi's comments to his overreaction to something normal and deciding to ignore it.

Taichi glared at him and huffed loudly, "See that boy talking to Sora?" He pointed with his eyebrows matter-of-factly.

"Yeah. Last I checked it's not a sign of brain damage to talk to your classmates." Yamato shrugged, looking back down to his notes.

"Unless it's a classmate that's suddenly finding excuses to ask you simple things!" Taichi countered, his teeth gritted with frustration, "Things that he could ask literally anybody else."

Yamato narrowed his eyes at him in annoyance, "Taichi you're making zero sense."

Offended, Taichi held his shoulder and twisted it to make Yamato look in Sora's direction, "Look, you idiot! Look closely!"

Now starting to get angry, Yamato glared at Taichi then at the duo in the distance. Sora was politely answering some questions the boy was asking from a textbook. Staring at them for few moments, Yamato realized that the boy was hardly listening to her. He was more interested in standing as close to her as conventionally acceptable, probably a tad closer, than actually listening to what she was saying.

Something tasted bad in Yamato's mouth.

"That's Kae she's talking to. Ever since Sora joined tennis and started wearing that stupid skirt, he has been really interested in her." Taichi explained smugly.

Yamato glanced over at the skirt - it was frilly. That's all he could think about it.

Oh and also the white sort of complimented her tanned legs.

Okay, now that was the last thought about it. No more.

Do all girls wear the same length or is that a particularly short one?

Stop.

"I'm sure you're reading too much into the situation," Yamato said, a cold edge slipping into his voice that Taichi didn't notice.

"Don't be daft like Sora!" Taichi snorted, "Kae's clearly hitting on her. And she doesn't even know! That's what's driving me crazy. It's been weeks!"

Yamato could feel his breath getting shallow.

Sora with a boy. Sora dating a boy. Sora in ... love... with a boy.

He was sure he hates every version of it.

Sora was Sora. She was... Sora. She can't date. She won't date. She doesn't date. She's just not a dater...

She's definitely not someone's... Girlfriend.

"We have to stop this then," he found himself saying abruptly.

"Stop it?" Taichi asked incredulously which confused Yamato further. Wasn't he complaining about it a minute ago?

"Dude, Sora needs to grow up. She can't remain ignorant of this stuff you know. She has to learn this too," Taichi shook his head, "You know she's the only person in our class who doesn't have a crush on someone or hasn't been on a date. Even I went on a date two months ago. And the stupid thing is, she doesn't even care."

"I haven't been on a date," Yamato said quickly, "She's not the only one."

"Yeah but several girls have a crush on you so that doesn't count." Taichi shrugged it away.

"If she doesn't wanna go on a date, she shouldn't go just because everyone else is doing it." Yamato said hotly.

"I'm sure once she realizes that someone's actually interested in her, she will wanna go on a date." Taichi glanced at Sora who was now walking towards them with a candy in her hand.

"What's going on?" she asked as she unwrapped the candy slowly.

"Another candy?" Taichi asked with a meaningful glance at Yamato, "Is candy a price for your help with homework?" He gave a small snort.

"Idiot," Sora rolled her eyes, "He knows I like chocolate and he had some in his pocket so he offered." She said, shrugging slightly.

Yamato could feel his ears getting slightly warmer. He couldn't remember the last time he offered Sora something sweet . Of course, it doesn't matter. Sora was his friend and they didn't exactly have a "candy relationship". Not that he wanted that anyway. Because... Well, she was Sora and his friend but really Kae shouldn't be giving candy like this and this particular candy looked just a tad fishy.

"Come sit over here," Yamato offered in a hurried tone as he stood up too fast, too close to Sora. Sora tried to step back, stumbled a little. Yamato held the hand she was holding candy with, pulled her in place, but the candy dropped into the dirt. It was half open and it rolled, the dirt sticking to it.

"Sorry," Yamato muttered, barely hiding the relieved smile.

Sora pouted as she looked at the candy then shook her head, "Oh well. Maybe I'll get some next time." She smiled. Besides her, Taichi had a huge Cheshire cat grin on his face.

Yamato looked at her quietly for a moment. She was telling Taichi about the grip of her racket, her skirt neatly spread over her legs, the white uniform spotless.

She didn't know someone had an interest in her. Not because of her; not because she was so friendly, not because she was kind, not because she was the most selfless and bravest girl he knew - not because she was Sora... But because she changed her looks.

She deserved better.

And Yamato realized that as her friend, it was his duty to straighten some things out with Kae.