Summary: It's TK and Kari's senior year in high school and they take a surprise Thanksgiving trip to America where things get super complicated. It doesn't look good for TK and Kari's relationship when Kari decides to move back to America and have nothing to do with TK. Can their relationship survive the test of time or will Kari's stubbornness keep them apart forever?

Hard to Love You
'Should've Said No'
(Don't own Taylor Swift either)

"Kari, what do you want to do?" The priest asked her, nearly startling her. From the corner of her eye, she could see people moving, breathing and blinking again.

"If I may, I'd like to say something."

The priest nodded his head in approval. She turned to TK first. TK's eye's lit up with hope. He was confident she was going to pick him after all.

"TK, you are such a loving and caring person. I pushed ya away for years and years and ya kept fighting for my affections. Ya still loved me when I didn't always love ya back. I don't know too many guys who would go to Charlotte, North Carolina to find their ex-girlfriend." TK's eyes widened. He didn't know she knew that. "I've treated ya horribly these past ten years. Ya deserve someone nicer, kinder, and more loving than me."

TK's sad eyes looked away. He turned away, he didn't want to see Kari choose Brian after all.

"Brian, ya know how to make a girl feel special." Kari began to say, "ya have been so kind and so loyal to me. I never had to worry about anything when I wasn't at the track with ya." Brian's smile got bigger and bigger. "But I don't know if I can say the same about me." Brian's smile quickly disappeared. "It took me ten years to realize I gave my heart away a long time ago and I never really got it back. Ya deserve someone who loves ya with their whole heart and not part of it."

"What?" Brian asked confused. He was baffled, she didn't choose either of them!

"It took a few people to help me realize that I was making a huge mistake today." Kari quickly paused and made a quick glance at Sora. Sora caught her eye and gave her a supportive smile. "I've been lying to myself these past few years. There were some people I thought I hated and I couldn't have been more wrong. I so strongly wanted to believe that I didn't love them anymore that I started to believe it after all, but my heart knew better. It took me ten years to realize I'm still in love, but not in love with ya."

"What?" Brian started to become angry. Hearing Brian's angry outburst made TK stop and turn back around. "Then why did ya say 'Yes' when I asked ya to marry me then?"

"I'm so sorry Brian. I should've said no. At the time I thought I loved you and only you but that trip back to Japan six months ago made me realize I was lying to myself the entire time. I'm so sorry Brian. I never meant for any of this to happen."

Brian dejectedly turned away. He was so pissed off. He wanted to beat the shit out of TK for ruining his wedding, but he kept his emotions in check. Brian knew a fight now, in front of hundreds of family and friends, would only make things worse. He angrily stormed out of the church.

TK looked back to Kari to see her smiling back at him. He smiled as he quickly walked back towards her and gave her a hug. "I'm sorry it took this long," Kari apologized and kissed him in front of God and everybody in the church.

"It was worth waiting for," replied TK as took her hand and lead her back down the isle. He opened the church doors and they ran down the steps into the street. The wedding party and interested wedding guests followed them out of the church. They stood on the steps of the church as they watched Kari get on the back of TK's dirtbike.

"When did TK get a dirtbike?" Sora asked.

"I don't know," answered Tai as they watched the couple drive away into the sunset.

"TK, I didn't know you had a dirtbike," Kari yelled into his ear.

"I don't, I had to temporarily borrow it to get to the wedding on time," lied TK. When TK finally decided he wanted to go to the wedding, he hopped in his car to find it was out of gas. The only working vehicle in the neighborhood was the neighbor's prankster kid's dirtbike. "So where are we going to?"

"As long as I'm with ya, I don't really care."

TK drove them down to the beach. It was an unusually warm day in December. The two walked hand in hand on the warm, snowless, sandy beach. When they got tired, they sat and watched the sunset together.

"TK, I'm so sorry for how I treated ya these past ten years. I was a stubborn bitch and I feel absolutely horrible about everything. I don't understand how ya can still love a person like me after all these years. It amazes me that don't hate me for everything I've put ya through," confessed Kari.

"Kari, I could never hate you cause I love you," replied TK.

Kari remembered hearing this phrase before. It was not the first time TK had said this to her. They had been through so much together. It had finally hit her the kind of love he had for her. It could not compare to the love Brian had for her.

"I love ya too TK."

TK reached into his khaki shorts and pulled out a little velvet black box. Kari eyed the box very carefully and then looked back up at him. Her heart began to beat faster and faster as he slowly began to open it.

"I meant to give this to you about ten years ago." TK said as he opened the box to Kari. It was Kari's dream engagement ring, the ring she always dreamed of. He had kept it after all these years. Even though the ring brought him painful memories of their break-up, it also had good memories of their relationship. After all these years, TK couldn't bring himself to through it away or pawn it off for money to pay the bills.

Kari looked down at her dream ring. She covered her mouth in shock. Emotion overwhelmed her and tears began to fall.

"I don't expect you to say yes now or anything, but maybe a few months or years down the road, maybe we could get married?"

Kari looked at the beautiful pink, heart-shaped ring and back at TK. She couldn't believe this was happening. She went from almost getting married to getting proposed to in only a matter of a few hours. It had been a crazy past six months but she was finally truly happy. Kari was so happy, her tears of happiness was beginning to make her mascara run. She couldn't imagine spending her life with anyone else.

"Yes!"