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Puzzle Pieces
[Chapter 4]
when you lose somebody you love, you don't get over it, you get used to it
*.*.*.*
She really hated being late.
A bead of sweat slid down her forehead as she sped toward the restaurant, desperately clinging to the balloon strings that were threatening to slip through her fingers.
Nearing the entrance, she quickly checked her phone. 6:24 pm, she read before dashing through large double doors.
"How many in your party, miss?" asked a host as she approached the booth.
Sora scanned the large room. "I think they may already be seated, it's a party of—" she cut off as she spotted short, blonde hair amidst a large group towards the back of the restaurant. "Oh, there they are! May I?" She didn't wait for a reply as she weaved through tables, making a beeline for her friends.
Approaching the table, heads swiveled in her direction and she fought hard not to flush under the attention. "I'm so sorry I'm late, practice ran over," she breathed as she eyed an open chair next to the blonde she spotted earlier. Heading her way to the end of the table, Taichi interrupted her.
"Here, Sora, I saved a seat for you!"
He sat in the middle of the booth motioning toward the empty space between Koushiro and himself. As Koushiro started to rise, she stammered, "Oh no, no need to get up Koushiro, I can take the chair at the end next to Takeru, I don't want to be an inconvenience."
"Nonsense, this spot has your name on it," Taichi replied, waving off her concern. Already out from the bench, Koushiro stood, waiting to let her in. Conceding defeat, she lowered herself and scooted across the seat into the space left for her.
"You always have to be so difficult. Congratulations, brat," she joked as she handed Taichi the balloons she had been holding.
"Thanks, Sora!" he exclaimed appreciatively, ignoring her insult. "Here, Hikari," he added as handed them across the table to his sister, "tie those to the back of your chair so they won't take off, will you?"
Small, deft fingers anchored down the strings and Hikari turned back to the table smiling proudly. "Anything for the guest of honor!" she exclaimed.
"I still can't believe you didn't tell all of us you wanted to go to business school!" Mimi whined. "I thought you were going to be a sports doctor or something!"
Taichi rolled his eyes as a few others chuckled at her remark. "Mimi, I've told you about a million times, I'm studying International Studies. You just have a terrible memory."
"Well… whatever. It was hard to keep track, you were basically switching majors every other month."
"Who would've guessed?" Joe mused aloud. "After all these years, Taichi is finally hanging up his cleats for a briefcase."
"Next thing you know, he'll be wearing suits and sporting a fancy new haircut," Sora chimed in, patting his bushy mane fondly.
"Hey, aren't you supposed to be nice to me tonight?" Taichi chuckled, nudging her lightly with his shoulder in retaliation. "Also, I think the waiter's trying to flag you down, Sor."
Turning to meet eyes with the server, Sora offered the man a sheepish grin before lifting up the menu in front of her.
"I'm sorry, I completely forgot to pick something. Give me just a second, I don't want to hold everyone's orders up…"
It took less than a minute to add her order to the tab, but by the time Sora's attention was to the table again, she was unexpectedly surrounded by several, smaller conversations. To her right, she could hear both Koushiro and Jyou feverishly talking down Mimi's outlandish party ideas. Taichi and Daisuke were on her left rehashing their last soccer match a little too loudly for Sora's taste. At end of the table, Miyako was unabashedly eyeing another waiter from across the room.
"… so based on what the counselor said, I'll really only be doing a three-year course load," she overheard Hikari explaining to Takeru who was bobbing his head up and down, encouraging her to continue. "I guess senior year is strictly shadowing professors and working as a teacher's aide to get experience in front of a classroom. But I'm really excited to be starting my early childhood development courses next year, they'll be much more relevant to my career than the classes I'm taking now!"
"Are you still working towards being a kindergarten teacher, Hikari?" Sora asked, inserting herself into the conversation.
"Yes, I am!" Hikari beamed. "I'm incredibly grateful to have been accepted here; the school has their own post-grad accreditation program that you automatically get accepted into if you maintain a 3.7 GPA. I'd have to keep my grades up, of course, but it's an amazing opportunity if I can achieve it!"
An image ran through Sora's head of a five-year-old Hikari pretending that a young Taichi and Sora were her disobedient pupils, chasing them around the Yagami household.
"… I honestly get chills knowing that in just three years I'll be standing up in front of a group of students. The counselor also said that—"
As Hikari continued, Sora couldn't help but smile fondly at the young woman in front of her. It really had been too long since she had had a proper conversation with Hikari –and Takeru, for that matter– and she realized she had missed their regular presence. It was shame she hadn't made more of an effort to keep in touch with them…
"You okay, Sora? You seem a bit spacey."
Jerked out of her thoughts, Sora found herself staring into piercing, blue eyes causing her to do a double take. Takeru tilted his head in concern, throwing a quick glance Hikari's way.
"Yeah, sorry Takeru," she said, shaking her head clear. "It just feels like it's been so long since I've talked to you guys, I can't believe it!"
"Well I know Taichi's been really busy this senior year, I can only imagine your load is just as full. We're just glad we get to see you at all!" Hikari smiled.
Takeru nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, it's crazy how you close you guys are to graduating. What are your plans for after university?"
"Well," Sora started, "I'm currently strengthening my portfolio so I can have more of a competitive edge when I apply to design school. I switched majors so late that I don't think I'm quite ready to apply for the upcoming year." She shrugged. "But I'm also taking the gap year to do an internship for the work experience, so that should hopefully boost my resume."
"Who would've thought? Takenouchi Sora, the great fashion designer!" Hikari praised.
"Well, not yet," Sora giggled. "But maybe one day."
"Takeru's decided to take the artistic route too, did you know?"
"Oh, really?" Sora answered, turning her attention to Takeru. "What are you studying?"
"Journalism!" he revealed excitedly. "I started a blog for fun a few years ago so I could share what I was up to with Ya—" he flinched, "—my friends, and from then on, the idea of writing professionally just kinda stuck with me. I'm actually in the process of applying for a university newspaper staff position for next semester. Applications are due at the end of the month."
Takeru's eyes had flashed in concern, but just as quickly, Hikari was ready with another question, prompting him to go more into detail about the interview process.
Really, Takeru?
Sora couldn't help but be mildly offended by the obvious cover-up. There was no reason to walk on eggshells around her; was it not clear that she had already moved on? Did Takeru really think she still wasn't over everything?
"… and honestly it's super convenient having my mom around to help me hone my skills…"
It wasn't a secret that Ishida Yamato was a topic she'd rather avoid, but that didn't mean she was going to have a panic attack every time someone said his name. Sure, for a while the mere mention of him used to reduce her to a blubbering mess, but she was only human. He was her first love, after all.
She must've missed a joke of Takeru's because Hikari unexpectedly broke out into a fit of giggles, snapping Sora out of her daze. She looked up just in time to glimpse a self-satisfied smirk plastered on the blonde's face and her eyes widened, caught off-guard by the eerie resemblance.
Since when did Takeru start looking so much like his brother?
The thing that gnawed at Sora the most about her breakup with Yamato was the complete lack of closure. It was like everything had snuck up on her all at once: the tour announcement, the plane ticket purchase… the final goodbye. And Sora wasn't the only one who felt blind-sighted; their friends agreed that everything seemed to have happened incredibly fast. She would know, she had questioned almost everyone about it several times.
"I love you too much to have you wait around for me."
What a load of bullshit.
But she had moved on, just like everyone told her to.
Granted, hindsight taught her that her recent ex-boyfriend probably wasn't the next best choice since she caught him cheating on her at the first party of the new school year, but she couldn't deny that she had been really happy for the first time in a long while. She couldn't help it, she liked being in a relationship.
The moral of the story was that she had moved on. And people really should get that through their thick skulls.
"Hey Sor, wanna split a dessert?"
For the second time that night she was abruptly pulled out of her inner monologue, this time by Taichi. She glanced around distractedly at Hikari and Takeru before processing the question. Hoping they didn't notice anything, she shot a sly smile Taichi's way.
"Dessert?" she replied. "You know I'm always game."
As it neared 8 o'clock, the group relinquished their seats and started their goodbyes outside of the restaurant. Passersby could hear choruses of "It was so good to see you!", "See you next Friday!", and "Congrats, Taichi!", and Sora couldn't help but think the night was ending too soon.
As if reading her thoughts, Taichi slung his arm over her shoulder and said, "After-party at my place?"
She waved to the last of their friends as the two ambled back to their cars.
"Pretending not to fall asleep with the TV on?" she smirked, looking up in his direction.
"You know it," he grinned.
"Lead the way."
*.*.*.*
