Chapter 3

…

She had calmed down from the altercation that happened earlier and was now putting pressure on her open wound, letting the cold icy water numb as much of the pain as it could. It really stung, she hated being physically injured. Mimi was one of those people that liked to experience as little pain as possible, but somehow, it always found its way around her, this scrape was a pure example of that. Using one free hand, she opened the bottom of the bathroom drawer and took a bandage out. Once she was sure that the wound was cleaned thoroughly, she pushed the faucet handle down, bringing the water to a stop. She groaned when she rubbed the healing cream; then unfolded the bandage she found, tightly wrapping it around her damaged palm.

It had never occurred to her that she would run into any of the others, hell, she didn't even know if they still resided in Koto. A part of her was glad though, glad that they hadn't left, that they were still around. This accident might be the opening she needed to rekindle her relationship with the others, yet, there was still this uncertainty that she was lingering in her head.

Scared… she was scared. But why? There was no reason to for it. Perhaps, it was a just that she hadn't seen them in so long that she felt like it was the first time they ever met. Still, these feeling were new to her. She had once been so outgoing and passionate, never shying away from anyone, and always strode with confidence; so why was this bothering her so much?

She hated to admit it, but advice was needed, advice from the one person she wasn't in good terms with. Reaching her phone, she scrolled down to the last call she had made him, and pressed 'call'.

When he answered, she immediately responded. "I need to change my Friday session to tomorrow?" After hearing confirmation from him, she thanked him before hanging up.

…

She had to give props to the handicap, managing tasks with one hand was an accomplishment all on its own. Things definitely moved slower than usual, but she was still able to progress through her daily duties.

Oh. With the events of that day, she had almost forgotten about the damn envelope. Immediately, she noticed the strangest thing, the mailing information that was supposed to be on the front, was gone.

What?

She opened the flap quickly, hoping she was wrong, that she was hallucinating. Before she even took out the entire thing, she knew this wasn't hers, it was a documentation or something of that caliber. Her pulse beat fast again. Things just weren't going her way.

She called to mind what had happened earlier, and like a slide show, it became evident what had gone on. She felt a pang in her stomach, knowing exactly where her envelope was, and more importantly, who had it.

I can't believe this…

They waited outside the school yard, waiting for Taichi to make his slow arrival.

"Where is he?" Sora stated, frequently tapping her foot on ground.

"Don't worry, this is just vintage Taichi," commented Yamato, wrapping his arm around her.

To this, she only frowned. Sure, Taichi was always late, but this was no time to be hindering behind the crowd. "He lives the closest, you'd think he'd be the first one here."

Koushiro was looking at the seismic readings on his computer, everything in the digital world seemed to be in order.

"You two should probably get going." She motioned to the two younger teens, who were conversing among themselves.

Takeru, hearing the ginger, acknowledged her. "But Taichi..."

"I think he's sick or something," Hikari added.

"What makes you say that?"

Hikari pondered, "… He came home late yesterday, and didn't eat dinner, which is weird, considering he has the stomach of a horse."

"It's probably just from the fall he took yesterday," Koushiro informed, multitasking conversations with them and typing away on his device.

"Fall?" Sora questioned.

"He fell on someone, I think..."

"What?" Yamato's interest had been peaked, hopefully the dirt on Taichi would be juicy, something he could use against him. "How did that happen?"

"I don't really know." Koushiro closed the laptop screen and returned it back in his safe briefcase. When he caught a figure sporting his friend's hairdo, he decided to inform everyone else. "Ask him yourself."

"Ask who what?" Everyone turned around at the sound of the brunette. Yawing, he stretched both his arms and took in his friends expressions.

"You fell on someone?" Yamato jested.

The tall brunette turned to Koushiro, casting him a betrayed look. "Yeah, what of it."

"Really? That happened?" Hikari, now intrigued as well, asked.

"It's not important."

"I want to know," insisted Sora.

"Me too," added Hikari.

"I fell," he avowed.

"Wow, that's so detailed."

"Yep." He boasted.

"Okay Taichi, stop playing. What really happened?" Sora countered, folding both her arms.

Taichi sighed in defeat. "Look it was nothing, we tried to catch the bus, and she just… came out of nowhere. We crashed, she fell down, damaged her hand, and fell on a puddle," Taichi said, crossing his wrists behind his head. "Her pants looked like…crap, literately.

"I think that's why she was mad. I'm lucky I walked out of there unharmed."

"How did you even crash?"

"We…" Taichi looked at Koushiro, "were running… at full force." He realized the comedic side of their actions.

Yamato and Takeru both held their laughter and chuckles as long as they could before turning to each other, releasing a most hysterical outburst.

Taichi annoyingly pouted. "Did I say something funny?"

Both siblings couldn't contain it, the laughter was pouring out of them like vomit. Sora and Hikari looked at them in bewilderment. There was no reason for their little skit.

"What so funny!" he repeated.

Breathing slowly, Yamato began, "Sorry man, but, leave it to you to mess up a girl's day."

"Yeah, I mean, who runs—full force—trying to catch a bus," Takeru chortled.

"That's hardly the issue," Sora Interjected. Turning to Taichi, she asked, "You apologized, at least, right?"

"Uh… I tried, I even offered her my hand, before she slapped it away."

The outburst commenced again. "Taichi, this like what—the tenth girl, how many times are you going to get on their bad side!" the young teen chortled again.

"TAKERU," Taichi gritted.

"Let's go." Hikari rotated Takeru around and pushed him forward. "We'll see you guys later," she waved.

Waving them off, Sora turned to Taichi, whose attention was diverted from everyone else. "Taichi?"

"Hm?"

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah."

"We're just teasing you." Yamato admitted.

"Yeah, I get it…"

"You sure nothing's wrong? I cause it seems like there is."

He questioned if he should tell them of the girl, the girl who he some seemed relatively familiar. He shrugged that thought off. He would probably never even see her again, though, he wished he could, mostly to offer her his service, for the accident, that is. "Nah."

"Hey Tai, we have to turn in that new policy." Koushiro stated.

"The…" He turned his attention to the missing bag he forgot. "Right, Uh, I kinda forgot it at home."

"What!"

Throwing his arm is surrender, Taichi decided to retreat. "I'll just run home and get it, real quick."

Frustrated as he was, Koushiro knew they couldn't stay here for long, sessions were about to begin in just a few moments.

That afternoon the rest of the group—Sora, Yamato, and Koushiro—were meeting in an alternative club room, since the old one was out of commission for the rest of the week, perhaps even the rest of the month. Everyone was upset, mostly due to the extreme weather had been going on for the past week. Lots of plans and events had gotten postponed because of the heavy rain.

Yamato—rolling a pencil up and down the desk—began asking how long Taichi was going to take. Just then, the door opened swiftly, revealing their weary friend. "You take forever."

"It was that stupid quiz."

"Do any good?" said Sora.

"Probably not." Taichi hinted.

"I'm not really surprised, you hardly study for anything." She then continued conversing with Yamato.

"That's not true." Once he was fully inside the room he positioned his bag to the side, turning the tiny nob and opening the top, he grabbed the yellow folder. "Here."

The first thing Koushiro noticed when he took possession of the envelope was that it had a big white mailing sticker. Second, the mailing sticker had been personalized. "What?" he said out loud, "this isn't it.

"Where did you get this?"

"What?" Taichi repeated.

The name. Koushiro quickly released its contents on to the table. Looking over the sheet, he recognized what it was, a university application. On the recipient documentation, written in dark black ink, was Mimi's name. "Is this a joke?"

"What is? I don't get what you're saying, man." Koushiro passed the envelope to him and pointed to the mailing sticker. "From Tachikawa Mimi," he nonchalantly responded. He hadn't caught on, but then realized his empty-headed response. "TACHIKAWA MIMI!"

Gaining the attention of Sora and Yamato, who had—to this point—been managing their own conversation—took the yellow folder in their possession.

"Mimi?" Sora questioned, astonishingly so.

Looking over Sora's shoulder, Yamato decide to comment next. "What the hell."

Things weren't making sense, but then he remembered that yesterday, two envelops had been scrambled during his collision. He was sure that the closest to him belong to them. "Wait. There's no way that could have been…"

"What?" Yamato and Sora said in unison.

"I wasn't sure, but back then…" He was completely confident that the person he saw yesterday was, without a doubt, Mimi. "It was Mimi."

"Wait, I'm not following," she admitted.

"Yesterday, the person I crashed into was... Mimi."

If it wasn't for the immaculate credentials on the sheet, Koushiro would have doubted that. He knew Mimi's writing when he saw it.

"That can't be, she's in New York." Sora stated.

"Apparently not," Koushiro countered.

"Huh?"

He felt ashamed for looking through her application, but from what was written on the documentation, she was diffidently back. "See here," He pointed to a directive on the paper. "There's no doubt, she's back."

"But how? I mean she didn't tell us." She and Mimi had always been friends, and she'd like to think that they were pretty close, amongst all their other friends. But then why was this news so hard to believe? Taking out her phone, she started dialing away.

"What are you doing?" Yamato had been with Sora for a long time now, and since they'd been together, she would always tell him what Mimi was up to back in the U.S., even when he didn't really care.

"What else, I'm contacting her." She waited until someone had the chance to answer, but to her dismay, was received by a telephone operator. "It's no longer in service."

"When's the last time you spoke to her?" Taichi asked.

"Last year, it was actually really brief. What about you guys?"

"Uh…" The rest of them didn't answer as Sora had hoped.

"Maybe, two, three years ago, but I think Takeru talked to her on Christmas, or was it November…"

"Well, I think she contacted me last year, but just through email," Koushiro uttered.

"It has been a while." Indeed it had been too long for all of them, Taichi wasn't particularly as close to Mimi as Sora and his sister were. It was no wonder he didn't recognize the girl, even at first glance. "I don't think Jo has spoken to her either."

"How do you know?"

"I saw him this week, nothing about her came up."

"I'll call Takeru and tell 'em to come." He wasn't sure of what was going on, but he hoped his brother had more insight on the situation.

She stood behind the door, looking through the semitransparent window, deciding the best way to make herself present to the occupant on the other side. Three brief knocks was all it took for the door to swing open. The grin on the man's face could explain at least a couple of reasons why she fathom the idea of seeing a therapist, they were strangers, and even though they provided an outlet for their patients—they would judge, regardless of the other parties dilemma.

"Mimi," his voice calm and soothing, irritably so. "Come in."

He welcomed her into his office, which seems to gone through more decorative changes than a local convenient store. She nodded and took a seat on one of the available sofas. She admitted that the fung shui in this place was calming, the man probably arranged everything in the room to accommodate her.

"So how are we today?" he began. Mimi mentally rolled her eyes, like he didn't already know the answer.

"I thought you were an excellent psychiatrist, aren't you supposed to know?" She wasn't trying to be sarcastic. Through her experience, she learned how to fabricate her passive aggression.

He pointed at her injured hand with his pen. "What happened?"

"I…" Momentarily, she almost forgot she was physically injured. Shrinks were always aware of any physical altercations done to their patients. "Someone crashed into me when I was walking home."

"Does it hurt?"

"Does it matter?"

"I see…" He began writing notes down.

"Don't."

"Don't?" he questioned.

"I'm not stupid, I know how this game works," she retorted.

"I'm not sure I get what you're trying to say."

"You think this is self-harm." Mimi held her hand out. "It's not."

"I know, you just said it wasn't."

This is what irritated her about these shrink, no matter how much she explained certain situations, they always twisted the truth, and made it seem like things were always her fault. She learned how to play this game with the other two psychiatrist. "Can you not be so obvious?" That notepad really helped in empowering them.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Don't treat me like I'm one of your mental health patience, I'm not sick."

"That's not my field."

"Or so you say." There was that passive aggression again.

"I thought you called me because you wanted to talk."

"I do, I need your expert advice, not your assessment."

"Why? You've never wanted it before."

…

She hadn't answered, so he decided to take a different approach. "May I ask, what made you come to this conclusion?

Mimi thought about it, he was certainly not her first choice, but she was really low on the amount of people that could actually assist her in this situation. "I promised my dad that I would try."

"Oh… so I get that he is informed about your past sessions?"

When she first came here, she didn't have any intentions of ever opening up to him, and that idea was still freshly lingering in her head, but she wanted to try now, to take a chance. "… Yeah."

"And… you informed him?"

"He asked, I was just honest."

"Okay then…" He was cautiously surprised, without her knowing, she was beginning to unravel all on her own. "What would you like to discuss?"

"Before that, I think we should establish some ground rules."

"Interesting, go ahead," he prompted.

"Well, first off…" Mimi stood up, walking over and taking possession of his notepad. "None of this."

"Whatever makes you comfortable."

"Also, try not to sound be so… dedicated. Sometimes, I will be simple to understand, other times I won't. Just make sure to sound interested, at least."

"Got it."

"At the end of the day, I know you're still going to evaluate me… just don't treat me like I'm one of your regular angsty teens, please, it's insulting."

"But you are a teen."

"That's not my point."

He chuckled at his sudden realization. "Done."

"Um… also, my dad, if you talk to him, don't go making him worry, he has enough trouble as it is." After he nodded, she decided to continue. "Most Importantly, I don't want to talk about… that."

"Mimi, you know your father specifically—"

"I know…" She knew that last request would be a difficult one, but for now, she hopped to delay it. "It has to come naturally though."

"I agree, I won't push you."

"Please, I don't want you to think I'm manipulating you."

"You aren't."

…

"Whoa. I had no idea." Takeru was peering at the documentation, deciding if this was some kind of hoax.

Beside him, Hikari was looking over the information as well. "Mimi, here? But why would she not tell us."

"We were hoping you two had a clue." Koushiro answered.

"I really had no idea, I mean, I spoke to her like eight months ago. She just told me about a trip she was making."

"Now that I think about," Hikari wondered about the possibilities. "What happened to her social media?"

"I totally forgot about checking that." Quickly, Sora took her phone out and began login in to all the accounts she had.

"I haven't seen anything from her on my feed either." Takeru mimicked Sora, checking all his social addresses.

"She deleted me or something." Sora hoped that she would be able to at least find some kind of indication of her friend, but no luck.

"I don't know what's going on with her, but I think we can all agree that this…" Yamato dropped the application in the middle of the table where they were sitting at. "Is indeed hers."

"We should return it," Taichi suggested.

"I agree, but…" Sora tried to look for a deeper meaning to advice, but nothings was making sense. Maybe Mimi was mad at them. Why else would she delete all of them, and without warning.

"Well, not only that, but we need that other contract that belongs to the school. I told the counselor that about our accident, she excused it for the time being, but we really need it."

"She's attending I.G," Hikari said, looking at down on the paper. "Isn't that—that International all-girls school?"

"I think it is." The older ginger reread the name, making sure it was indeed that school Hikari mentioned. "It's not far from here, actually."

"If you think about, that direction is actually not far from where you crashed, Tai." Koushiro had found the location through the virtual map on his computer.

Fate was a funny thing, the coincidence that he and Mimi had collided was a sign, a sign that their friendships were strong. "Then that settles it, were just going to have to go see her."

He had agreed to most of her basic principles she had laid out for him. Hopefully with these guidelines, they could improve their communication standards.

"As a sign of our new relationship, I'd like to begin by asking you a question." She looked at him in silence, he knew this was his cue to go on. "How has your experience with other shrinks been?"

"Uh… what do you mean?"

"Well to be more specific, I want to understand, how your experience with other specialist has been? Good? Bad?"

"My dad didn't tell you?"

"He did but… I want to hear it from you directly."

"I see, can you tell me one thing first, what's your ultimate goal with me?"

He wasn't sure if she was trying to change the subject, but his mind hinted that perhaps this was her defense mechanism. "You mean accomplish?"

She nodded again.

"Well… I suppose," He immediately knew this was a test of her own. "I do want you to confide me, but I want it to be genuine and not forced.

"Do you think you need this?" he questioned.

"Do you?"

He knew she would revert the question back to him, to this, he already had an answer. "Quite frankly, I don't think you do." Again, she looked at him with a perplexed expression.

"Liar," she said calmly.

"I don't think you've noticed, but the way you came in; how you dress; how you react, it all plays a role on how you feel. I think you're very aware of where you are, the situation you're in, the problems you face. You just need guidance, guidance that we can work on."

She couldn't believe that he had figured this out so fast, it hadn't even been thirty minutes yet. "I'm sorry."

That statement really caught him off guard. "Why?"

"I've just been acting so juvenile with you, Instead of establishing this since the beginning."

"You're sixteen, Mimi. I think you're more than entitled to explore your emotions."

"…Mhm.

"The other psychiatrist said they'd 'help me', but how could they help someone when you don't even know your own essence."

"You mean metaphorically speaking?"

She nodded one last time.

"I see," he contemplated. This was going to be a tough task, mainly due to the vast understanding she had, but he would definitely help her regain her confidence. "So let me ask you this, Do you think I'll take advantage of your hardships?

"…It's too early to know, I hope you don't though."

"I realize you are very hesitant about speaking out."

"Well… my intention was… to… I mean I needed advice." The purpose was to get some grasp of what had been going on with her. She needed to take advantage of this opportunity.

"Then would you like to talk about that then?"

"Yes," she said calmly.

"Well, in that case, I'm all ears."

R/R. Thanks.