Chapter Three: Don't Come Close

A/N: The first three chapters are revised. No major changes, except maybe for Taichi. He's nicer. ;) Those are his words. Oh, and the way Mimi got her revenge against Sora. It's in this chapter, I changed it from the tape playing all over the school thing. Thanks. ;)

'When you sleep, don't close your eyes.'

Her voice pealed through my mind as my consciousness slowly pulled out of the darkness, the rippling water rushing around me. My shoulders ached as I listened to my mother, as per habit, singing in the kitchen while she prepared for her and my lunch. The vein in my head throbbed and I winced. It was a terrific idea at the time, but now in daylight, beer seemed to be very, very bad.

Three soft knocks. The door opened and my mother's cool palm rested on my forehead. "Please wake up, dear. It is already sunrise. It's not good for girls to sleep during daytime."

I nodded. Mimi wouldn't kill me, but she wouldn't want me alive if I were late for our usual breakfast at a local coffee shop.

"O, where art thou, the joy of my life?" Hikari sang as she gulped the last of her coffee. "How can you leave me here, oh my darling, where are your sweet promises?"

"Oh dear, I've never forgotten you, only these flats look oh so more adorable than you are?" I answered Hikari's outburst. "Chill, pet. She's probably making a guy's day somewhere."

"Don't joke!" Hikari held up one hand, looking away. "Oh I miss my darling oh so much. Those words of yours hurt me so," she clutched her tummy and there were actual tears in her eyes.

"My dear Sora," the owner of the cafe stopped by our table on her way inside. "Thank you for being a fair sport with my daughter's histrionics. You're so kind."

My eyes were drenched with sunshine so I blinked. Heavy footsteps pattered past and cars huffed by. It was cool under the transparent blue awning, but it was summer and nothing could stay cool long enough. There was still no sign of Mimi's gentle footsteps on the cement pavement. I was at a cafe owned by the Yagami family, waiting for my best friend. But don't trust me. I'd an ulterior motive too.

"Ma'am," I stood up. "I'd thank you for the lovely coffee. Your daughter's nothing but a delight to me and my best friend."

"Oh," she got closer to me, her eyes bright with excitement. "It's really too early, but I have extra sake in the back. If you'd only take a look at my son... He's quite handsome, you see, but I'm getting quite worried."

"Ma," Hikari leaned back to her chair, her hands holding my cup of coffee and grinning like a bursting sun. "I think dear Sora has more than just seen him, if you get what I mean, ma."

Her eyes widened. "Really? Oh my. I'm very happy. This is very happy news. Oh goodness. Can you call your da for me? I want to tell him."

I was tempted. Before I could stop myself, I went, "No, it's okay. I can come by your house tonight and say hi to your husband."

"Oh, that's a much better idea," Mrs Yagami squealed. "Ah, it's so lovely he finally found a girl. I thought he's going to end up like my poor late brother. He died last year. Alone."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

Beside me, Hikari whispered, "Yeah. Thanks to AIDS."

"I don't find it funny."

Hikari's voice grew smaller. "Oh. Sorry."

"It's okay," I wrinkled my nose. "I'd love to see more of your son, aunty, if that's okay with you. He's a terrific guy."

"Oh," the old lady placed her hands on her cheeks, her eyes squinting happily. "Why don't you two just get married tomorrow?"

A bag fell off the stairs at the back of the premise. We fell silent, well, Mrs Yagami and I did. Hikari just kept snickering until a bushy head appeared and picked up his bag. Taichi strode quickly to his mother, kissing her on the cheeks before running out of the cafe, disappearing among the jostling passersby.

"Ah, that boy is embarrassed, I'm so happy," Mrs Yagami said.

The bell's warning melody echoed throughout the school.

Crowds subsided. Warning looks were shot. Feet scurried away like terrified rats in the face of hungry cats. Shoes squeaked as they were urged to make a quick exit. Lockers slammed unmercifully, eyes avoided others'. Heartbeats quickened insanely and when the mass exodus was over, only clouds of smoke were billowing in the almost empty hallways.

I shouldered my handbag, breathing in the very, very cold air. Shivers crept up my spine.

"Oh, gosh," Hikari put her hands on her hips, mouth twisted in wonder. Her chocolate hair was tied up in a ponytail today, with a fringe slightly obscuring her rich mahogany eyes. "I'm so feeling the frost bites. Sorry for not joining in, guys," she called out to a frantic guy. "I didn't get the flyer. And I don't know where to sign up. Good luck on migrating to Africa!"

As I chuckled, I caught the hurrying guy's eyes. He looked familiar with his navy hair. He smiled, showing off the rows of pearly white teeth. It had more watts than a light bulb. I blinked and then he was gone.

I blinked again, smoothing back my hair. Yeah, I recognised those teeth.

Just... not the face.

"Here, here, chill," I massaged Hikari's tensed shoulders. She harrumphed, crossing her arms. "There's probably a Jack the Ripper kind of guy loose here. Or there's a mega sale at Shibuya. Let's just join the fun, pet."

"Someone should have said something," her eyes brightened at the mention of sale. Unlike me, she's really into something opposite retro and affordable. Both she and Mimi are retail addicts, scouring the Dolce and Gabbanas of the world and fighting with older ladies with bigger purses. I rather watch as Mimi wrestled a fat lady to the ground, faces red, veins bursting and hands twisted than join in the fun. I'll just call the cops when it gets really nasty. So far, the cops just let us off the hook.

Speaking of Mimi... where is she?

"Where's Meems?" the petite girl voiced my concern, peering at every corner expecting Mimi to pop out suddenly with bags of clothes and a very satisfied smile. "I thought you guys shared a bed last night."

"Gone with the wind," I murmured. I found the bed too chilly for comfort. I opted for the sofa instead. When I woke up, the house was empty. I washed the bowl and glass even though my stomach grumbled. Mimi had gulped down all the food in the house so I grabbed a Dunkins Donuts instead.

So cold. I rubbed my shoulders.

Hikari stepped in front of me, clutching my hands. Her richly coloured eyes peered curiously. I held on. But I wanted to look away.

"Are you guys OK?" she asked loudly.

I managed a smile. "Yeah. We are."

Her eyes squinted. "Really? I don't believe you, girl."

A fist slammed the wall.

We turned to look, surprised. Hikari's hands fell to her sides, her eyes widening. It was the janitor. The same one we talked about last night. The one with 'the nerd who doesn't look like a nerd' kid brother. The one whose golden hair gleamed in the weak, harsh light of the poor school's light bulbs. The one whose eyes were painted by the proud cerulean sky. The one with the broom and dustpan, not to mention the 'I'll eat you if you talk to me' look.

Yeah, we joked about him. But Mimi was probably the only one who dared to interrupt his soliloquy. Not that he talks to himself, mind you. He just talks to the mouthpiece he's always carrying around, muttering insults to an invisible guy. Truly, I liked his mad slang.

We froze. His eyes spotted us.

"Don't you have any class to go, girls?" he barked at us.

Hikari bristled. "Sorry? Can you repeat that?"

"Don't be such airy fairy. Or are you Mutt and Jeff? Or just a chick with Down 's Syndrome?"

She exploded. The 'deaf' stuff escaped her, but she got the Down's Syndrome stuff alright. Terrific. I shifted my weight, bracing myself for the incoming onslaught.

"You! You jerk! Who do you think you're talking to? I'll get you for that! Kneel in front of me or I will, I will-"

"Oh yeah?" he leaned against the wall, pushing the broom against her feet. She stepped away, disgusted. "What will you do, ankle biter? Help me clean the toilets? Give me moolah?"

"I'll kill you!" her voice shook the walls.

Oh, God. I didn't need this. I needed to look for Mimi and think of ways to beg her forgiveness. So far, all the gods were against me today. Mimi never showed up at the cafe.

"I'm making a quid here and you're ruining my day, mate," he shoved the broom at Hikari's feet again, prompting her to jump away. "So shoo."

"You psycho-"

I grabbed the broom from his hand. His dark cerulean eyes flickered to me and stayed. "I'm sorry. Let's just get on our own ways, right? Terrific talking to you."

I handed the broom to him. He took it, his eyes still staring. The skin of his right hand was a little marred, his knuckles bleeding a little.

"Yeah, yeah. G'day," he murmured, opening the door to an empty class. Hikari stuck out her tongue as he slammed the door shut, drumming our eardrums to an early death.

"Nuts," Hikari muttered angrily, approaching the wall he had leaned on. There was a barely perceptible hole, with stubborn dust clinging to it desperately. The remains of small stones gathered at the ground, terrified witnesses of the recent accident. "Total nuts."

"I have Biology," I told her, grabbing her shoulders. "And you have Maths. The bell rang eons ago. We don't have a hallway pass. Let's go and make our teachers' day."

"I don't care," she produced two passes from her backpack. A true one, even. She slapped one on my empty hand. "I really, really don't care. I'm going to find that psychotic cleaning pro and ream him out."

She stormed away, her eyes crackling with thunders and dark clouds.

I sipped my hot chocolate. I had a best friend who can do magical disappearing acts. I had scurrying schoolmates who won't tell me what's on the agenda. I had two rows of sparkling white teeth to identify. I had a mad punching janitor who's also gorgeous. I had a riotous little-sister-slash-friend with Black Ops on her mind.

And I have Biology. This was not my day.

Frappuccinos, cappuccinos, espressos and lattes...

I cupped my mouth, looking away from the corpse in front of me. Right. Again.

Caramel Apple Spice, Cinnamon Dolce Creme, Hazelnut Signature Hot Chocolate, Pumpkin Spice Creme, Salted Caramel Signature Hot Chocolate...

"Um, hello," a gentle voice opened my eyes. "Are you feeling not comfortable?"

I nodded slightly, my hand glued to my nose and mouth. "I don't do this as a hobby."

He snickered, his hands bloodied. There were freckles of blood on his white cuffs. He had even ruffled his red hair with his hands. I took a deep breath through my mouth. The bitter air was thick with the fragrance of blood. I didn't feel like breathing that kind of oxygen.

"You will have that feeling whenever you first set your eyes on this magnificent specimen," his eyes brightened enthusiastically as he held the scalpels over the dead body. "But once you get to the best part... the part when you can see pure lungs breathing... It is purely magnificent."

I sat still, my eyes glued to the blackboard. However terrific a dead frog with its chest cut open and its private organs displayed to the world's eyes was, I was still not looking at its tiny lungs. They were still beating with the help of electricity. And its eyes were bulging. Not to be mean, but Koushiro Izumi's eyes resembled the frog's poor eyes right now.

Bulging with enthusiasm, I mean.

"Oh yeah, Koushiro," I switched my gaze from the blackboard to his deep almond eyes. "Have you seen Mimi? Today, I mean. I missed her at homeroom."

His thin shoulders tensed.

"No, no," he said quickly, his hands working quickly. I moved my hand away from the table as a shower of blood emitted from the frog's limp legs. Reflex, pet. "I have not seen her at all. I mean, yes, I have, but we did not talk much you see. She was very busy with her acquaintances and talks of a plan-"

He froze, his eyes moving slowly towards me. I smiled brightly. Thanks, Koushiro. At least I know what she's up to.

"A plan?" The princess didn't mention anything about plans. When Mimi talks about plans, they are usually mad, mad plans... Like locking the principal in his own office to demand healthier food in the cafeteria. Or ignore a girl who maddened Mimi indefinitely (I ignored that plan, but others followed faithfully. The poor girl transferred in less than a month). "What level?"

"Pardon me. I do not understand," doubts swirled in his eyes.

I smiled. "Is this plan... a simple and casual level? Or is it... a critical and gory one?" The ones I mentioned were just the easy, harmless ones. The principal case might be a thumb over the line, but the idea of a cappuccino machine in the cafeteria was too tempting. So I helped with the negotiation.

"Umm... I do not know," the doubts multiplied. His scalpel hovered above the frog. Weird but... I felt the dead frog's eyes on me. All dead frogs.

"Right," I smiled at him. He returned to his work, obliviously relived. My unused scalpel was crying of loneliness on the table. I picked it up, marvelling at how much harm such a simple stuff can do. I felt terrified, all of a sudden.

The scalpel captured the light.

The twins of disaster were missing.

I leaned on my locker, wondering. Where could Mimi have gone to? The day was almost at end and weirdly, I was yet to catch a whiff of her flowery perfume or a glimpse of her hair. People were jostling past, a lot of them people I knew, but before I could say hey, they had gone with laughter trailing behind them. Was it coincident that there were some fingers pointing at me too? Maybe it was because of what happened yesterday.

I was a little worried about Hikari. Mimi always said she never seemed to have her head on her shoulders and that sometimes rang true. She was so mad about the janitor that she seemed to forget it's the janitor she was mad about. If anything whiffs so much of mess, he did.

And the way he just held my eyes... I shivered.

Ah, Taichi. I smiled at him as he made his way through the crowd to me.

"Hey, Taichi," it was nice to see him in a circumstance without either his mother or sister. It was a bit weird this morning, although I couldn't help joining in the laughter. "I hung out with your mum, she's grand."

"Ah," he scratched his head, looking down at his feet. "That. She's pretty cool, you know."

"Yeah," I leaned into a locker. "Your mum said it's okay if I come around tomorrow."

Something happened to his cheeks. They were red. "I heard."

"She also said it's terrific if I hang out more with you."

"I heard that too." His voice became smaller.

"Did you hear Hikari telling her about yesterday?"

"Ah. Yeah. Kind of. It was a bit hard to," he said, massaging his right ear. "It's a bit swollen now."

I laughed. "Just put chilli sauce on it."

"Really?"

"No, silly," I laughed again. "Don't be so cute."

"I'm not cute," he ran his hand through his hair.

"You ever comb it?"

"Yeah. Right now."

"See, this is why you're cute."

"I'm not cute."

"Oh, you're, deep down, still confused about your identity in society."

"What the hell?" he rummaged his hair. "Guys can't be cute. We're supposed to be handsome, manly, gorgeous, those stuffs. I'm not cute because I'm handsome." He walked away after saying this, his cheeks still red.

"Handsome," I caught up to him. "You're handsome and cute. Terrific?"

"Okay," he smiled at me, genuinely happy. I was still chuckling when he pointed at the computer lab. A lot of people were trying to get in, shouting and laughing about some stuff. Naturally, we gravitated towards them and Taichi was going to ask what's up, but a girl from my squad spotted me and started screaming. She grabbed her friends and ran away.

"Ah, an encore," I said. Silence fell over the crowd as one by one realised. One by one, they departed from the computer lab, leaving one computer still flickering in the lab.

"Porn?" Taichi said happily.

"You're that kind of guy," I said amusedly.

His cheeks flared up. "No, I'm not. I'm a nice guy," he half-shouted it before looking down at his feet and muttered a small 'sorry'.

"Handsome and cute," I laughed as I slid past him to the computer. I shook the mouse, thinking it'd do the trick. Instead, I got a warning.

"Hey Taichi," I called him. "How do you... use a computer?"

He burst out laughing at that. "You're computer-phobe?"

"I can't use an i-Pod either."

"And I'm the cute one," he took over the computer. "You're the pretty cute one."

"Girls are supposed be pretty, beautiful and gorgeous. How dare you call me cute?" I mimicked him.

"Stop it," he laughed and did some tricks. After a while, photos flashed across the screen. For a long while, we didn't say anything.

There were dozens of photos. Photos of fat women in their birthday suits. Nothing stayed the same in the photos except nudity and a head. My head. The bodies were cropped and someone had put in my head on top of them instead. I didn't even know you could do that. Magic, computers. Splashed across the photos was the word, 'Slut.'

I had to hold Taichi back from punching the computer. No use hurting his hand. I could find the culprit without punching a thing. After all, who else could truly pull this off?

She was the crown of the crowd.

Sitting on a big stone in the school's courtyard with her slender legs crossed, her long chocolate curls danced in the cold wind's arms. The giggling pond beside her rippled as her small feet played with its translucent water. A cold wind lashed against her pale cheeks, but she didn't look like she cared. Her worshippers stood around her, protective and fiercely staring at me.

"Mimi," I said gently, trying to smile. "Koushiro told me. Taichi had him cornered, so. He's innocent."

She didn't look up from her reflection in the water. She looked like a kid. My heart went to her, despite what she did. Even then, anger emanated from my hands. I wanted to slap her.

"Bugger off," she said to her followers. They hesitated. "I said, bugger off! Now!"

They left, one by one. Some of them were punk girls who looked out of place among the cheerleaders and cheerleader-wannabes, with their spiked purple dyed hair, 'what-are-you-looking-at?' attitude and nose, ears, lips, navel piercings. Some pushed past me, knocking against my shoulder. I held on. Miyako quickly went past me, avoiding my eyes.

I started for her, but she pushed me away with her right foot.

"Hey!"

"I hate you. I bloody hate you."

Her eyes glared. I stared her down.

"What're you doing, Mimi? What are you trying to do?"

"Ha!" she turned away. "Don't you dare suggest that I can't accomplish anything without your bloody assistance."

"Terrific. What have I done?"

She glared again. "What have you not done?"

"Pet, I truly don't have a clue-"

"You! You, your mum, your freaking hell of a family! Blood runs deep, huh? It really, bloody does! "

"What channel do you tune in to, Mimi? Because I'm not getting you-"

"Bollocks!" Her scream echoed.

My hands shook. Maybe it was a trick of the light, but her eyes were watering. She stood up, drawing to her full height to reach me. Or trying to reach me.

"I'm damn knackered by you, Sora. You act gullible, but I know better. You freaking laugh behind me. Natch, maybe you're gullible. But it's all your freaking family's fault!"

I lost it.

"Are you mad? Can't you see that I don't know what you're talking about? If I'm green, then yes, I'm green! I just don't know, pet. I don't know what's going on."

Her hand rose, shaking.

"You just have to understand one thing. Your lovey dovey mum? She's a slut. Thank God your father's dead."

The echo was louder. Birds and butterflies fled.

Mimi touched her reddening cheek. Her tears were threatening to pour, but she balled her fists and gritted her teeth. She held on, defiantly looking up at me, shaking. Somehow, she couldn't have looked less beautiful. She looked terrible. She looked like hell.

She looked weak.

"I hate you," she managed to spurt out. "I bloody hate you."

"Like I give a damn."

She flinched. Her eyes flickered, giving up. She opened and closed her fists. Her long curls lay limp on her back.

"Whatever."

She walked off, determined on whatever hell she was going to let loose. The school had ended. I was all alone in the courtyard. The pond stayed calm. There was no wind to curse. There was some warmth left by her on the big stone, but it was departing.

It felt so cold. I crossed my arms.

A/N: Ah, the revised versions are finally done. I'm so happy. Now I can get on with writing the next chapters. I hope you've enjoyed reading this and please, leave a comment. Here's a cookie for you. ;)