Well, sure enough, pretty soon Matt and I were a couple. All the girls at school were jealous of me: my boyfriend was blonde, beautiful, and sang and played lead guitar in his own band. I was pretty proud of myself. Both of my parents loved Matt, and he treated me like a princess, made me feel special, and was always very protective of me.

Tai and I were still good friends, but I found that I had less and less time to spend with him--Matt took up most of my time now. And yet even then, Tai wasn't bitter. He still talked to me whenever he could, still helped me with my homework, still gave me birthday and Christmas presents. Sometimes when I found the time we would hang out together, but…it was different. It felt like we weren't as close, and I found that Tai seemed almost scared to touch me anymore because of Matt.

All through the last year-and-a-half of high school, Tai never had a girlfriend. Lots of girls had crushes on him and would have loved for him to ask them out, but he never did. Matt was constantly teasing Tai about not having a girlfriend, but Tai never got angry at him. He knew Matt didn't know how much it hurt him that his best friend had "stolen his girl," even though we'd never technically been together.

But I knew. I saw all the little things, the small indicators of the pain I knew Tai was feeling.

And I ignored it. What else could I do? I felt so helpless. I really did think I was in love with Matt, and I definitely didn't want to leave him. He needed me, someone who he could love without having the fear of being hurt. I didn't know what to do, but I knew that I had to talk to Tai and tell him what was going on. However, I didn't get a chance to do that until it was too late.

It was at the Senior Prom. Matt and I had gone together, of course, and I felt very beautiful in my sparkly sky-blue dress with my hair all done up in ringlets. I could tell that even Matt was impressed.

The dance was about halfway over, and Matt and I had begun dancing to another slow song. I had my arms around his neck, and my head resting on his shoulder, eyes closed, when a quiet voice beside us spoke. "Mind if I cut in?"

I opened my eyes to see Tai standing there, an unreadable expression on his face. For a moment I felt Matt tense, but then he nodded. Apparently he could read Tai's expression. "Sure." He looked down at me. "See ya in a few, okay?" I blinked, unsure, but didn't object as Matt twirled me out of his arms and into Tai's. I watched as he made his way off the dance floor and over to the DJ and band, then I turned my head to look at Tai. He was staring at me intently, his eyes going over my face more carefully than they ever had before. It was almost as if he was trying to catch every detail and burn it into his memory, as if he thought he'd never see me again and wanted to have a clear, perfect image to keep always.

"Tai," I said softly. "What are you doing?" He didn't answer for a long moment; when he did speak, he asked a question of his own.

"Do you want to go for a walk? I want—" He paused for a second and looked away, then said more quietly, yet somehow more forcefully, "I need to talk with you."

"But what about Matt? Won't he think—"

"I already asked him. He said it's fine."

"Okay," I agreed, still a little reluctant.

The Prom was being held in the ballroom of a beautiful hotel, so we walked in the gardens behind the main building. We found a bench underneath a big apple tree. The tree was in full bloom, and rained flowers down on us, but Tai didn't even seem to notice. He looked very preoccupied, like he had something important on his mind.

We had been sitting there for a while, silent, when Tai suddenly seemed to come to a decision. He turned to me and looked straight into my eyes. "Sora," he began, and I could hear the note of well-repressed sorrow in his voice. "I guess—I just wanted to tell you goodbye."

"What?" I asked him, surprised.

He looked away and continued, "I wanted to thank you for being my best friend all these years. We were a great team…and we could have been something more. I—I thought we would be someday." He drew in a shuddering breath and plunged on. "I know it's my fault, that if I had really wanted a relationship with you I should have spoken sooner, but I always thought—" His voice cracked, and he had to pause for a moment to get it back under control. "I always thought that you felt the same way about me as I feel about you, that we already were…something more than just friends. I thought it was destiny."

My mind flashed back to that day years ago when he had found me crying on the park bench:

"Wow," Tai said suddenly.

"What?"

"I was just thinking, what are the odds of two kids who went to school together both moving, and then finding each other again two years later in a city the size of Tokyo?"

"I don't know, but it sounds almost impossible!"

"Yeah…but it happened. And I'm glad it did."

"Me, too." I paused, and we just looked at each other for a minute, gazing at the familiar, yet different, face in front of us.

"I missed you, Sora," he said at last, looking away, and I thought a hint of a blush crossed his cheeks. "I mean, it's almost like destiny or something. Well, I mean—I, uh..." He ended lamely, obviously embarrassed.

"I missed you, too, Tai," I cut in, and he looked up, relieved at the warmth in my tone.

-
How could I have missed it? He'd liked me for as long as I'd liked him! Maybe even longer. But now…

"Tai, I—"

"No, you don't need to apologize," he cut me off. He raised serious brown eyes to meet mine. "I know you saw my pain. And I know you didn't know what to do. And I also know that you think Matt needs you, and you don't want to hurt him." Tai passed a hand over his eyes. "But, God, I was just so jealous! I just couldn't understand it. Matt had half the girls in Odaiba at his mercy, and he takes the one girl I love, the only girl I've ever wanted."

I felt sick, like someone had punched me in the gut. I hadn't thought about it like that.

"I just didn't understand how my best friend could do this to me, how he could take the girl he knew I'd liked practically my whole life. I felt betrayed." He didn't even try to hide the tears that streamed hotly down his face.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered, a tear of my own slipping down my cheek.

Even through his own blurry eyes, Tai noticed that tear. He raised a hand and gently brushed it away, smiling wryly. "You know, that's probably the last time I'll ever do that," he said quietly.

I felt a surge of panic rush through me. Was he leaving me? And then at last it hit me. He had never left me:

I had left him.

"Oh, Tai!" I cried suddenly, and threw my arms around him. He rocked me gently as I sobbed out my sorrow, my pain, my regret. After I had calmed down, he gently pulled away, rising to his feet.

"C'mon, we'd better get back in there, or Matt will have a search party out for us."

"Tai," I murmured. I wasn't ready to go back yet. He looked down at me questioningly. "We can start over. I—I can—"

"No, you can't," Tai stated firmly. I was surprised; it was the first time Tai had told me outright what to do in terms of a relationship. He came back to sit beside me and took one of my hands in both of his. "Sora, you love him. And I know he loves you. If I split you two up, I wouldn't be able to live with myself. I really would be betraying you both." He raised my hand to his lips and kissed it gently. "I can't do it, Sora. Besides, I'm going to be traveling a lot these next few years. You need someone who'll always be there for you, not some commuter who'll be gone most weekends and holidays. It'll all work out, you'll see."

"Right," I said noncommittally.

"So, Sora, I guess,,,this is goodbye." He looked at me for a long while, and I saw the tears welling up again. He suddenly leaned over and kissed my cheek softly, oh so softly. Then he hurriedly stood. "Goodbye, Sora," was all he said before turning and disappearing into the night.

Tears falling freely down my cheeks, I whispered my reply: "Goodbye, Tai."