And thus our rivalry had begun and it had in no way gotten better from there.  If I were in a library, with a book in my hand he would mock it, and say I had no taste and that my clothing choice reflected this.  Of course I would find away to tell him he didn't know how to read and he'd get defensive as well, which would turn this into a large argument.  Things like that would happen all the time and we both swore our hatred towards each other an uncountable amount of times.

I remember hearing once, that you have to love someone before you can hate them.  In fact it was that year of school that I had heard this saying.  My Japanese teacher quoted it sometime during that school year and I remember that it was Taichi's face that surfaced in my mind then.  I had scoffed at the saying, exclaiming that you didn't even have to like the person to hate them.

Taichi was in the class with me, as well.  It was the first time we'd ever agreed on something. We had both gotten detention for that… not for sharing are opinions but more for the language we had used while giving examples.

I remember that evening, being kept after school, teacher at the front of the class reading a book called 'Les Miserables'.  I read it years later, while I was at university.  It's why I could still remember what the book the teacher was reading is called.  I read it because it was that teacher who suggested it.

But back to the point.  I was sitting in the middle row writing an assignment that was given to me the moment I walked into the class.  Taichi was beside me writing roughly on his sheet.  He had a pencil sharpener next to him that the teacher gave him after the third time he had broken his led.  He blamed me for the detention and I blamed him.  Don't ask me how it was his fault I got a detention or how it was my fault for getting him a detention?  It just was.  Back then it was logic we lived by.

But he was furious since he was missing a soccer practice and I was quite glad he was.  Though I wasn't a person to cut off my nose to spite my face.  No.  I would have preferred if he was not in the detention with me since every time he sharpened his pencil the sound gritted against my nerves.  Every time he sighed, and breathed I was tempted to strangle him.  It was just that I was glad he was missing something he liked since I was missing my band practice as well.

I don't think he knew I was in a band then, which is why I was calmer and more collected then he.  I knew he was missing something he loved and he was sending me looks that were meant to intimidate me.  He even grew angrier whenever I returned his looks with a, somewhat, malicious grin.

We both looked to the front of the class when the teacher stood, picking up his empty mug, and walked out of the class leaving the two of us alone.  Simultaneously we both looked back down at our assignments.

I continued as I had been but he was different.  His posture was different in the sense that he was no longer hovering over his sheet of paper menacingly.  He now sat with his back more upright, like mine though not as much, and he was making some effort to not carve into the desk, threw the paper, with his pencil.  He still had kept his head down but not as much as it had been previously.  And when he spoke it was with an air of calmness.  Not the calmness you'd experience at night while camping out by a lake or something of the sort.  It was more like the calmness before a storm.

"So…" He had started innocently.  "What's the name of the color you dye your hair with?"  The only sign that you could see from me that showed how much the statement affected me was in my writing, how, by accident, I had crossed out the symbol I had only just written but before I could retort he added, "And a friend of mine had wondered if you dye both top and bottom.  She was really curious."  I remember how a friend of mind told me then when I become humiliated a pink flush covers my cheekbones and makes it look as if I were wearing makeup.  I remember a guy telling me it was cute though the comment, at the time, didn't help my state at all.  That was the color I must have turned then.  But the embarrassment turned to anger a second later.

"I don't dye my hair and let it all dry out. Unlike you I do care if I look like shit."  I paused for a moment as he turns around to look at me, ready to retort, but before he could, I added, "And as for your friend… I bet she's you."  I made my voice sound sweet, then winked at him and kissed the air to sharpen the insult I had given him.

Taichi's eyes had shown with murder upon me saying that and I had fully expected him to jump out of his seat and try to kill me, but instead he turned back to his work and said, "I think you should deflate your head and get back to work."  I remember I had something to say to that, that it was good and probably would have turned him homicidal… I also remember hating how I didn't say it because the teacher then walked back into the class, retook his seat at the front of the room, put his now full mug down and got back to reading.

I can't remember what it was I was going to say but I remember the remorse I felt for not saying it.  Or maybe it was the remorse for letting Taichi win the argument because just then he had glanced at me, and held my stare with an air of confidence, of superiority.  He grinned in triumph and went back to work.  After that he hadn't needed to use the pencil sharpener at all.

Our arguments had gotten worse from there on.  After that neither one of us wanted to let the other have the final word and we tried to get under each other's skin as much as possible.  Despite all this we never got physical with each other… well, I can't say that.  We had once.

It was in grade twelve, and the two of us were in gym together.  You probably saw that one coming.  Gym class is probably one of the classes that almost anything could happen in.  The class drives your physical strengths and pumps up your adrenalin.  Many outcomes are possible in the class and the control the teacher has is numbered since the class is always huge and spread out in a jumble of rushing teens since the exercises almost always have to do with speed and wide-range movements.

It was a warm day so the teacher had suggested we go outside for the last outside activity of the term.  The teacher had asked us which sport we would like to play.  Taichi had said soccer; I had honestly almost said 'anything but soccer' but knew how stupid that would sound so stayed silent.  But, as I mentioned, Taichi was popular so… soccer it was.

I hated sports and participated as seldom as possible.  In gym I was always picked last, mainly because both teams wanted to win, but I didn't mind.  I felt stupid standing there, though, waiting to be chosen while Taichi openly gloated that he was chosen first and smirked at me while I glared back.  I remember when I was picked I had walked forward and past Taichi.  I had given him a malicious grin and said, though sounding as though I were talking more to myself, "Well… at least I've got my height."  I knew I had struck a nerve with him on that but was already past so I couldn't see for sure.

We lined up on the field as we got ready for the match.  I stood in my usual position when we played soccer.  Far off on the right where the ball was least likely to go.  Taichi stood in the center of the field, waiting for the kick off, and when it had come Taichi was the one who claimed the ball.  I had hesitated in my stance, making sure there was everyone in front of me before I headed after the ball, and then ran.  I wasn't as fast as the majority of the class since I rarely ran outside of gym but I still didn't let myself move any faster then what was above a jog.

Though I hadn't made any kind of an effort I still watched the game and I wasn't surprised by how close Taichi was to my team's net by the time my team had taken the ball away from him.   They ran to the side then kicked the ball across the field to one of my team mates who had started running up field with it.  I stopped and watched as he ran in my general direction with it.  He looked at me as if he was debating passing me the ball since he saw someone on the other team coming at him on the side.  He then shook his head as if he thought himself crazy.  He kicked forward as the boy had tried to steal the ball but tripped my team mate instead and Taichi took the ball instead after he had jumped over the two tumbled boys.

Taichi looked at me and grinned after he stopped the ball and held it down with his foot.  He glanced to his right and saw my team coming at him so he kicked the ball in my direction.  I stopped the ball with my foot and had wondered, briefly, why he'd do that, but that was until I looked up and saw the entire class heading in my direction.  Then I realized why he gave me the ball and glared at him through the rushing crowd.  I kicked the ball from me, towards a team mate, hoping to get it away from me as soon I could.  I succeeded to get it away from me but it missed the one I was kicking it too entirely and, accidentally, got it to the wrong team.

"Nice going Ishida!"  Someone had shouted, I don't remember who and I don't think I knew at the time either but what I did see was that damn grin on Yagami's face as he started running again, joining back up with the game.

In a few moments Taichi had gotten the first score of the game and my team had mourned and glared at me.  Obviously it had been my fault they got the point.  "Great, Ishida!"  Some one else had shouted at me sarcastically.  "We could have gotten that goal if it weren't for you.  It's not often Taichi messes up like that."  I turned to glare at the one who said that and had received five glares in the process.  And as I turned my attention back to the game I saw Tai, smirking deviously

I narrowed my eyes into slits at the Brunet as he got ready to play and this time I really participated.  I was made to look like a fool in front of my entire class and I was not going to let that egoistic block head get away with it.

The goalie kicked the ball to my team and the match started.  The ball had made it half way down the field before Taichi had taken it and turned it around towards my teams net.  Now I ran.  In earnest I ran and I can't ever remember running as fast as I did then.  My feet barely had enough time to touch the ground before they were lifted and I was sent soaring over the ground towards my target.

I think I had surprised people when I had run past them, my long legs stretching to run fast and faster each time.  Now, if I had to beat Taichi in a race…I wouldn't be able to but since he was being slowed down to dodge people I had caught up and was running beside him sooner then I thought.  He glanced at me, stumbled slightly in surprise which gave my enough time to kick the ball away from him and into the hands of another player; from my team might I add.

Taichi glared at me and turned around, ready to ignore me and continue with the game but I wasn't done.

I turned with him and kept close, with in one step, but it wasn't good enough.  Not to do what I wanted anyways.  I wanted to slow him down and make sure he couldn't play, couldn't interfere, so I stepped up my speed.

Taichi was closing in on the person who had the ball when I had run forward and moved so I was partly in front of him then slowed my speed so he had no choice but to slow down or risk penalty by shoving me down.

"Move it, Ishida."

"Bite me, Yagami."  Were our exchange of words.  I remember him growling and I knew I was getting on his last nerve.

He tried moving around me but I just moved back in his way.  He slowed for a second before giving his all to pass me but this time when I had moved in his way I wasn't fast enough and only got my foot trampled on as he fell forward, flat on his face.

A whistle had blown and the game froze as eyes turned to regard the fallen boy.  Taichi was up again, hand on his cheek which had collided with a rock and a bruise had begun to form.  He stared hard at me and I had returned the gaze with the same ferocity.  The teacher walked up to us and stared at Taichi.

"You okay?"  He asked first.  Tai had nodded.  We hadn't broken eye contact at all.  "Good."  Then the teacher said louder so everyone could here.  "There will be a penalty shot.  Taichi will be taking the shot, as the offended, and Yamato will be guarding the net as the offender."  We both nodded but more to each other, excepting the challenge.

A few moments later we had found each other in the midst of everyone's attention.  Taichi stood at a white line that had been sprayed upon the grass with the ball under his one foot and I stood a few feet forward from the net trying to keep my body as sturdy as I could.

The moment the teacher had blown his whistle Taichi kicked the ball gently and took a step forward.  He took another step, quicker this time, and kicked the ball, and another step, quicker yet again.  He kept speeding up, keeping his eyes on my blue ones until he was in a full blown run, charging at me and kicking the ball, he must have been only five feet away from me when he neglected the ball entirely and ran at me.  I brought up my arms as he lunged at me, one arm over my shoulder beside my neck, the other under my arm, both fists tightly locked at my back as he started putting his weight on me trying to shove me down to the ground.

I was doing the same but his weight was more and my knees were bending while I was forced to try to keep myself upright and knock him back.  I was shocked faintly when I felt my self lifted and my feet left the ground.  When I was brought back down it hurt and I was forced to my knees.  I unlocked my arms from around him, readying to go into an offensive mode but then he pulled away from me and held my shoulders so tight then that I had been left with bruises the size of his finger tips.  He brought back his one hand with every intention to punch me but I beat him to it and had socked him in the mouth, cutting his lip.

Blood dripped down his chin and he had been about to do damage to my face in turn when hands started grabbing him and holding him back, obviously more worried about what he'd do to me then I'd do to him.  It angered me slightly yet I hadn't let it get to me.

The teacher got in between us as I stood up, unsteady at first upon realizing how much my feet had gotten hurt before but had gained my balance upon seeing the angered yet confused looks we were receiving from our teacher.

"What's wrong with you two?"  He asked.  Neither of us had answered his question, just glared at each other.  His hand had raised and wiped the blood from his chin which smeared it over his tanned skin.  My hand raised and lightly touched my bruised shoulder.  "Fine.  You don't want to talk, take it up with the office."  Then the man waved his hand through the air to dismiss us.  The hands had left Taichi and the two of us walked to the office with a final warning about not fighting on the way or we'd get expelled.

Tai's and my relationship didn't get any better from there, either.  We hadn't gotten physical again, though; our arguments were still pretty bad.  I suppose after that we had gotten a name for our selves with the school… well, at least my name was added to the book since Taichi's had already been there.  People had started expecting us to argue after that and said we bickered like an old married couple.  Neither of us paid attention to those who said that, and there wasn't a day that went by where my hatred towards him hadn't grown.

I remember celebrating when Sora publicly broke up with Taichi for a kid named Jyou, which was quite the change if I do say so myself.  I remember how my anger fumed when the soccer team had won in the final game of the year.  Taichi had gotten the plaque for the team as well which added to the fire.

I had really hit the music and wrote tones of anger filled songs those two years.  My bands popularity grew as my writing skills enhanced and I was writing lyrics every night while I did my homework or listened to music or did anything, even in class sometimes.  I still have lyrics I never let anyone know about because I liked the emotion I was putting into them and kept them secret so no one could repeat the style of them.  I know imitation is the most sincerest form of flattery but there are some forms of flattery for some things I'd prefer to not receive.  And that remains till this day.

I loved prom because it was my band that was there singing the majority of the songs.  We even had a few songs that were legible for slow dances but when I was off stage waiting to be back on I had someone to dance with, though I think this was because I was the lead vocalist.  They always get the popularity.

Taichi and I had managed to stay out of each other's hair on that night.  I remember I had been wearing a white tux that my father had taken me out to get.  It was the first thing my father and I had done together in years.

The night, over all, was good.  Graduation was better though because it meant I wasn't going to see the brown poof head again.  I had sat in one of the middle rows and listened to the whole ceremony in anticipation.  Finally, after what felt like forever, they called us up for our diplomas.  We were all congratulated, did the famous hat toss before we were aloud to socialize and it wasn't long before I found myself standing face to face with Taichi Yagami.

"Well…"  He had said.

"Well, I guess this is far well."  I said as monotonously as he had while offering my hand for him to shake.

He took it in his and we squeezed each other harder then necessary as he nodded.  "I suppose this is."  He said, sounding as if he had anticipated and practiced this meeting.  He didn't even turn his head as his name was called by, whom I had assumed to be his mother.  We broke off our hand shake and nodded to each other.  Are expressions were both intense and carefully monitored to prevent any emotion from breaking through.

"Don't die from any ailment."  I said, my voice sounding slightly more cheerful.

"I won't as long as you don't drop the soap in jail too often."  And with those final words of departure we turned on each other and walked away.

Now life is funny, you see.  If I had never seen Taichi Yagami again, I would have lived.  I hadn't minded being apart from him and I assume he didn't mind being away from me.  I moved onto University and took the chef course there while he moved to some college and kept up with his soccer, though I'm not sure of what he majored in since he never discussed it.

My band had disbanded in my second year of University since by then our work had to be prioritized and the band wasn't a priority.  I was still living at home at that point in time but was considering moving out and had been searching for a job.

It was also this time that I had started to notice something about myself… how I never had a girlfriend and never wanted a girlfriend.  I also wondered if it was normal for me to notice things about other guys…

One evening I had visited a soccer match that our school was having with a community college.  My friend was on the team so I promised I would be there, so there I was.  I was sitting in the second top row with a large navy blue coat wrapped around me and my binder opened on my lap as I worked and glanced up now and then to watch the game.  Blue fuzzy ear muffs were over my ears and muffling some of the noise so I could concentrate easier on my assignment.

At one time during the game I had looked up as my friend was about to shoot but before he could, someone had taken the ball away and suddenly, in horror, I realized who the boy from the other team had been.

You probably can imagine who they were and trust me I was surprised beyond belief to see him… and angry at the powers-that-be for having me go to this damn game.  After that I hadn't paid much attention to my work and watched the game, or more precisely, Taichi.  I was watching his every move, waiting for him to fall on his face or something.  I had cursed profusely when he won, though what caught me off guard was when he looked into the stands the moment he scored and met my eyes with the gloating grin I remembered to firmly.

My anger had flared up, as it had done many times while I was in high school, and I had been brought aware of the fact that he knew I was there all along.  I had glowered at him and watched as his grin widened.

It had been then that his team surrounded him; congratulating him on the final score and celebrating in there overly excited way.  While the fans started to leave the benches I began putting my binder away, keeping it at the very front on my backpack to remind me later that that was the homework I had already started.  I got up and walked down the stands gracefully.

When my feet were firm on the ground I looked out into the field, my one hand held my backpack fixed to my shoulder while the other one hung loosely at my side.  I saw my friend head solemnly off the field with his team.  He turned to me, gave me a quick wave.  I waved back and hoped he could see my sympathetic smile I put on for him before looked directly a head and seeing Taichi walking towards me.

I remember how I took my one hand and removed my ear muffs and placed them inside my pocket.  "So, we meet again."  He had said.

"Looks like it.  Shame to that."  I was about to say something when Taichi's name started being called profusely.  I scowled at the thought that he was still as popular as in high school.

Taichi turned his head and looked at a boy who had a bronze-ish hair color which had been spiked.  "Hey Tai," He had said in a hyper manner.  "I saw your lost score, it was awesome, though all of them were, I mean your scores and…"

"Gee, thanks Daisuke."  Then he looked at me.  "He's a fan.  He says he wants to be just like me."  Taichi gloated.

"And, yet again, shame to that."  I remember how the kid did a double take of me before grinning.

"Hey, are you one of Taichi's friends?"  I grinned.

"Yup.  We've been best friends for years, right Tai-kun."  Taichi opened his and, from what I saw of the look on his face, what he was about to say would have been incredibly rude but Daisuke spoke before he could.

"Really!  Wow.  You must know a lot about him.  Was he this cool when he was in high school?"

"Well," I said, not being able to resist the opportunity.  "At the beginning he was, but after this girl broke up with him… she kind off…" I formed my fingers into the shape of scissors and made snipping motions.  "Cut off his…Yeah."  I had concluded when Daisuke winced and looked at Taichi's crotch with a sorrowful look.  I nearly broke out laughing at the embarrassment Taichi wore on his face before anger over took it.

"No, Yama-kun.  I think you're remembering you sex operation.  You know?  The time you became a guy."  Daisuke turned to me and looked at me, shocked, but I already had a come back in mind.

"Well, it got you, didn't it?"  I then winked at the Brunet and I think that was the first time I had ever seen Taichi Yagami blush.  I was pleased.  "Well, if you don't mind, I have a job to find…" then I gave Tai a look.  "You know the thing that you get where you work for money, yeah, that."

"Fuck you, Ishida.  Go to hell."

"I'll meet you there, then."  With that I had turn around and walk off to my home as I replace my ear muffs.

I had gotten a job not long after that, working as entertainment at Rhythm Palace.  It was a themed restaurant where the theme was music.  The walls were decorated in black wallpaper that had little white musical notes on it.  Tables looked like drums and this long table that we bring out for when we have a crowd all sit down together, looks like the back a large tambourine.  The entertainment was all live and musical.