The Orphan Flower

Renamon

United through teamwork

Killer glares

Ignorant often

The younger brother of Yamato

And an older brother of Izumi

Kid-like personality

Educated

Really seems to be the younger one of the three

Um……likes Hikari!

Kid genius

Elegant like

Nothing typical

The brunette sighed nervously taking the phone into her hand and carefully dialed the number, waiting for someone to pick up as it was ringing. "Please answer please answer." she kept praying hearing a soft click on the other end.

"Hello?"

"A-Ah…U-Um I-Is…" she stammered getting interrupted by a laugh on the other end.

"I'll go get Izumi." the voice answered again and left the phone for a few moments until the blond came to the device and picked up. "Hello?"

"Izumi?" she meekly said.

Another laugh came from the other side of the line. "Yes, the one and only. What did you need Juri?" Izumi replied with an amused expression realizing who the person she was speaking to was of course her.

The voice on Juri's side was quiet. "Um… you weren't at school for a while, so the teacher was wondering if something was wrong." she closed her eyes to think of what else to add. "I know that something is up, but, I don't know the exact plan."

"Yes, and I don't plan on telling you." the blond explained calmly breathing slowly from her nervousness. "Yet."

"Everyone is worried about you."

She paused trying to think of the kind of people that would worry about a person like her. "Mind naming them for me?" she questioned at the same time testing her.

Juri fingered the cord connecting to the telephone. "There's me, Rika, Takato, Ryo, Jenrya, Kouichi, Kouji, Hikari-"

"Now you're starting to name off people that are "your" friends." the blond corrected her while slinging her bag onto her shoulder. Glancing at the clock, she sighed. She needed more time to kill.

"They really do care." she shot back. "What about Shinya? Mimi? and the one that you love Tak-"

"Don't you dare try finishing that name." Izumi cut in hearing a gasp from her. "I don't want to talk about it. If this is what you called me for then…" and paused to think. "then I'm going to hang up."

"I'm going to keep calling you and I'll try going to your house." Juri began hoping this would cause her to give in to her idea.

"Yeah? Well too bad because I won't be there." as the tone of her voice was starting to sound cold. "And I won't answer the phone either because one, I'm just going to ignore it, and two, I have to keep my phone off when I'm boarding the plane."

Juri almost dropped the phone hearing those words. She inhaled slowly trying to contain herself. "I thought you were leaving tomorrow." she said quietly, her heart beating faster with the reply she would get.

"I was." Izumi agreed noticing the gates open and gathered her belongings. "But we had a flight change." as she stood in line with her brothers and glanced at the window seeing the planes in the sky. "I'll still keep in contact with you, don't worry."

The brunette's hands were clenched in a fist in anger and at the same time upset and hurt. "You're leaving right now without telling any of us beforehand?!" she practically exclaimed inside the telephone booth surprising the people around her.

While Juri was furious, a calm Izumi continued to listen on the line. "You know Juri, someone once told me a quote, "You never know what's missing until it's gone."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked nervously.

The blond didn't answer as she gave her passport to the woman to look over. Before taking a step into the path to the airplane, she whispered. "Goodbye." and hung up with a simple click.

"Izumi!" Juri kept repeating into the phone as tears were starting to form and fall down her cheeks. Slamming the phone into the receiver, she opened the door to leave only to open it too quickly that it hit someone and fell down. She gasped and helped the person up. "I-I'm so sorry!" she apologized. "I I didn't mean…"

"Hey, it's alright." the boy chuckled taking her hand to stand up. He glanced at her face to notice who she was. "Hey, Juri? What's wrong?" seeing her tear stained face.

"Eh?" she asked blankly realizing that the boy she had ran into was Takato. Her face was turning pale as she tried to process through her mind what to do. "Ah uh…" she stood there speechless and glanced down. "Don't worry, I just thought you got hurt…" she mumbled.

"Not that, I meant… you're crying, what's wrong?" as his hand softly touched her shoulder, surprising her.

Looking away, she said. "Don't worry about me." the way that Izumi had always said it whenever someone asked her what was wrong. She couldn't help but wonder how she could be that strong to not show any emotion, unlike her, she was easy to make fun of and of course end up crying.

"Could you try repeating that line and saying it straight to my face?" he asked gently, his hand touched her cheek, having her face him.

Instead of being her usual self where at this point she would end up blushing and running away type, she smiled. "Don't worry about me."

Noticing his uncertain face, she smiled again. "Crying won't help anything." she added and waved goodbye. "Thanks, but I have to get going." as she ran to find the one boy who could bring her friend back.

…………………..

"She what?!" he almost exclaimed, but kept it in. All this information within seconds was too much for a dense boy to contain.

Juri covered her ears from his loud voice. She took it that he heard it correctly, and just didn't believe it. "Can't you bring her back?"

He stood there thinking. Yes, it was a possibility that he could convince her to come back, but this time… it wasn't going to be as easy. This was a matter of how they both felt and if she just didn't feel the same way, then…"I don't know if I can…" he admitted.

She stared at him in disbelief. Him of all people was giving up hope.

"I don't know if she'll feel the same way. Besides, Mimi and I can't do anything so far with the marriage unless if we both admit that we like someone else. I don't know if Mimi likes anyone, and she can't fake it to help our situation." he explained and sighed. "Tomorrow is the fourteenth, how am I going to get a plane ticket that easily? On the day I might get married too?"

This made her smile as she held a couple of tickets in front of him. "I have them."

He took them out of her grasp and scanned over at the times. "Who is the fourth ticket for? Takato?"

"I-I just t-thought it would be a w-way to apologize for r-running into him." she stuttered trying to cover the story up.

He went silent but nodded. "We'll leave then."

Here. Going. Gone…

Chapter 20 is dedicated to my Chapter 19 reviewers!:

Yuki's Little Girl, Pandapple, Kazumi Kairi or Kairi-chan, Anime-Queen-2011, ATOMIC ORANGE, Automatic Code Red 123, Pokkin Choco, First Day High, Gogglelicious, and Ramen and Chopsticks.