"She was there, a second ago..."

Sora's words trailed off as she and Matt looked around, to see if any brown curls could be spotted. Their search turned to be in vain, however, when none were found. They went outside, wondering why on earth Mimi would disappear without saying a word.

"You don't think... You don't think something's happened to her, do you?" Matt said in a panicked voice.

Sora found herself speechless, having not once considered the possibility. Her worries were increased by Matt's comment; Mimi was young and beautiful, was it possible she been kidnapped? It would explain why she hadn't said goodbye. But there had been others with her at the drink stand, if she had been taken involuntarily, surely someone would have heard? Mimi had one hell of a shriek. Sora discarded the idea of kidnap.

"I...I don't know," Sora answered truthfully, looking up at Matt helplessly, "At least, I don't think so."

"Let's go look for her, it's better than just staying here doing nothing. I'll go inside, you check out here... She couldn't have gone far, we saw her barely a minute ago," Matt said as he turned to reenter the doors once more. His head swiveled back around as he wished Sora good luck, until the doors closed behind him with a loud noise.

She took a look around and set off to find her best friend, worried as she spotted no pink among the few in the crowd. Where on earth had she gotten to?

x-x-x-x

"He-He left me! He left m-me! Why?! How could he do th-that to me? To m-me!"

Mimi sat on a wooden bench surrounded by bright green trees and beautifully bloomed flowers. The kaleidoscope of colours that surrounded her contrasted her morose mood. You would think, the day Mimi's heart broke, all roses would wither and die, all leaves would shrivel and the grass would dry up. But no, it seemed nature cared little of Mimi's feelings. She sat in a stunned silence, eyes finally dry after silent tears had come crashing down her cheeks. The shocking news had finally registered... Her best friend was going out with the only boy who had ever captured her heart. Worst of all, her best friend was in love. They were in love. They were happy together. And in their perfect, happy world Mimi was nowhere to be seen. She couldn't help but being hurt; how could Sora have completely erased her from her mind when Matt had asked her out? Or had it been Sora to ask Matt out? She didn't know which was worse.

"W-what am I going to do? H-he was everything! He i-is everything!"

Sadness and confusion were soon overcome by anger, though. And Mimi's wrath was one you wanted no part of. Sora could have, no, should have had the decency to tell her, wasn't she at least allowed that? Sora knew full well Mimi liked and could very well -did she dare admit it?- lovehim. Had she even taken her feelings into consideration before going out with Matt? And here, Mimi had always envied her best friend. Kind, beautiful, selfless Sora. There was no wrong Sora could do, or no wrong she couldn't turn right. How it would shock everyone to know she had ignored years of friendship and trust to go out with some boy. But it wasn't just a boy. It was THE boy. Mimi sighed. She honestly didn't know whether to be angry or sad. Having past the denial and depression stage, she was at a loss as to which one came next.

"And- and now, he's with-"

"Oh, will you get a grip!" Mimi snapped at the sobbing girl sitting next to her on the bench.

The helpless girl looked at Mimi, eyebrows raised in surprise and she stared at her in a stunned silence.

"You're not the only one with a broken heart, you know!" Mimi glared angrily at the wide-eyed girl, "So suck it up and stop blubbering like an idiot!"

With fierce determination, Mimi got up from the bench. She would not cry for them. She would not shed any more tears. They weren't worth it. She would teach her- and him, she though darkly- that Mimi Tachikawa was not someone to be trifled with. Without a backwards glance, she left the bewildered, crying girl with a broken heart behind.

x-x-x-x

"Come on... pick up!" Kari muttered anxiously into the phone. She had been trying for the last five minutes but to no avail. T.K's voice answered automatically on the other line.

"Hey, this is T.K! Can't come to the phone right now, but leave me a message and I'll call back as soon as possible! BEE-"

"Argh!" Kari slammed the phone down on the table in frustration. Why wasn't T.K answering? Girlfriend-mode kicked in and she found herself suddenly worried. Her first thought was that something had happened to him on his way back to Matt's concert, which was where he was supposed to be meeting his brother after walking Kari home and giving the band enough time to have packed up. Then, he and Matt would go to his dad's house for the remainder of the weekend. But she had already called there and their dad had informed her that the boys weren't back yet.
Adding fuel to her worries, Tai had suddenly disappeared to god knows where, obviously upset after learning Matt's intentions.

She desperately needed to talk to T.K to seek the reassurance she needed at the moment. He would know why Matt was suddenly acting the player and planning on dating two girls at the same time. Surely fame couldn't have increased his ego that much?

"Argh!" Kari screamed once more, hands pulling her hair in frustration, "Everything just doesn't make sense!"

She checked the time and saw it wasn't quite as late as she had previously thought. Her mind made up in that split second, she rushed to her room, grabbed a warmer coat and rushed past the kitchen without giving it so much as a last glance.

"Now hold on a minute young lady!" her mother reproached her as she stepped through the kitchen door and saw her daughter hurry toward the front door, "Where on earth are you going?"

"Sorry Mum!" she called out over her shoulder as she opened the door, "I'll be back soon, I promise!"

"Why on earth-" Mrs Kamiya's question was interrupted by the loud, closing thud of the door.

x-x-x-x

"No luck huh?"

Sitting herself down with a resigned sigh, Sora leaned her head back against the cool wood of the bench.
She was tired and cold, not having brought with her a warmer jacket. Then again, she hadn't planned on staying so long after the concert either. There was no sight of Mimi, and half an hour after her failed search she had gone back to the entrance, where she had last seen Matt.

She turned her head tiredly to the blonde boy beside her and gave a small shake of her head. He let out a long sigh and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Me either."

Matt's face was covered in a frown and his eyes were deep in concentration. Then, as though giving up, he too leaned back against the bench with eyes shut and a lost expression on his face. Sora watched him carefully, admittedly a bit amazed and awed at seeing such a vulnerable Matt, one she had never seen before.

"Hey," she nudged him gently with her arm as a way of comfort, "Don't frown so much, you'll get wrinkles. And you know how Mimi feels about wrinkles..."

Her attempt at getting him to lighten up worked; a small smile started to appear on his face and he opened his eyes to look at her.

"She's gone home, Matt. I'm sure. We're just being silly overprotective friends who will wake up tomorrow late, due to being out here so long looking for her, and will get a call from Mimi waking us up, screaming at us that we're late for our usual Sunday morning breakfasts and manicures... Well," she added as an afterthought, "You probably won't have to suffer through the manicure, but I'm sure I will."

Matt threw his head back and laughed, turning to grin at her. He was about to reply when something past Sora's shoulder caught his eye. A figure was making their way towards them and he squinted trying to figure out who it was in the dark. When he recognised the all too familiar mop of brown hair his eyebrows raised in surprise.

"What are you...?" Sora asked upon seeing his face and turned around to get a glimpse at what it was that Matt was staring at. Her heart started fluttering quickly when she saw who it was. She would recognise his silhouette anywhere.

"Tai!" she exclaimed, jumping off the bench and throwing herself at him. She hugged him tightly but froze when he felt Tai's body tense at the sudden contact. She hadn't even thought twice about attacking him with a huge hug, it had been an instinctive reaction after not hearing from him from so long. Okay, so maybe a day and a half wasn't that long, but for Sora it had seemed like an eternity. She pulled away quickly, her face blushing horribly at his lack of response, and thanked the stars it was dark so he couldn't see.

"Where on earth have you been? We were worried sick!" Sora accused him as Matt made his way over to them.

"Bit late for the concert aren't you?" Matt joked as he walked over.

Tai, who was trying very hard not to let the feel of Sora in his arms and her flowery scent invade his senses, tensed at Matt's voice. His eyes slowly left Sora's and looked over at Matt. His (ex) best friend was grinning at him and it was doing nothing to control Tai's anger. The other two, however, seemed unaware that Mount Tai was about to explode.

"We were trying to find Mimi," Sora told him, making him tear his glare away from Matt, "But we can't find her."

Tai tried to keep his anger at bay upon hearing the news. Mimi, huh? That sure was quick, Matt...

"Any particular reason you wanted to find Mimi?" he tried to ask as casually as possible.

Sora frowned at him in confusion, having caught something odd in Tai.

"Er.." she said slowly, "Matt wanted to tell her something..."

And that was all it took for chaos to ensue.

Controlled completely by his rage, Tai didn't even think before pushing Sora roughly aside and stalking over to Matt. Sora let out a surprise cry as the force of Tai's shove made her stumble sidewards and fall on her knees. Matt frowned at Tai's sudden harsh movements and frowned.

"What the hell did you do that for?" he asked angrily, making his way over to Sora to see if she was okay. Tai blocked his path however, and as Matt looked up bewildered at his actions, as he too was pushed roughly backwards.

"What the hell Tai?!" he shouted angrily. Incensed, Matt pushed him back violently.

"Tai! Matt!" Sora cried as she got up from the ground and looked wildly between the two boys, "Stop it!"

The boys paid her no attention, however. Tai grabbed Matt by the collar and hissed furiously, "How dare you?"

"Get off me!" the blonde spat, "What the hell are you doing Tai? I thought we were friends!"

Tai laughed, a short, harsh chuckle.

"Friends," he spat the word out back in Matt's face, "Don't be such a hypocrite. Friend's don't betray each other like you have Matt."

And with that, he punched him. A nice, clean blow to his rock-star face. Tai hoped he had hit him hard enough to break his nose and got some satisfaction when he saw Matt stagger backwards clumsily, hands over his face, a split lip and a few drops of blood falling from his nose.

Sora's scream fell on deaf ears and her wide eyes couldn't believe what was happening. She pushed past Tai and rushed to Matt who was holding his face and squinting his eyes in pain.

"Have you gone mad Tai?!" she screamed at him furiously as she knelt beside him to help him. "What on earth is your problem?!"

But Tai's satisfaction was cut short when he saw Sora's accusing stare directed at him. Of course, take his side! Doesn't matter that he was going to break your heart! he thought furiously and his palms clenched and unclenched in fury.

"Tai!"

Matt and Sora looked up and Tai turned around as he heard someone call his name. When his eyes landed on the small figure running towards them he stared in disbelief.

"Kari? What are you doing-" His voice was interrupted when he felt someone tackle him to the ground. Matt, who had used Tai's moment of distraction to his advantage, fell on top of the other teenage boy and punched him right back.

"Matt!" Sora and Kari cried out at the same time.

Both boys rolled on the ground, fighting and struggling as each one tried to attack the other at the same time.

"Tai? Matt!" the girls heard another voice exclaim behind them.

"T.K!" Kari cried as the young blonde made his way over to them, eyes fixed on Tai and Matt fighting.

"What's going on?" he exclaimed in surprise, and without waiting for a response, he marched forward to stop the fight. Sora followed him, with Kari trailing behind. T.K rushed over to Matt and grabbed him by the shoulders, pulling him away from Tai as Kari did the same with her brother. Both struggled against the chains of their arms, until they were left panting for breath, looking murderously at each other.

When they were sure they weren't going to rush off to deliver more blows, Kari and T.K let go of them and carefully stepped in between them.

"WHAT was that?" Sora cried indignantly as her face went from Tai's bruising eyes to Matt's bloody nose, "Someone explain because I fail to see the logic of acting like a bunch of gorillas and beating each other up!"

"Well?!" she cried once more when she received no reply.

"Ask him," Matt spat, glaring furiously at Tai, "He's the one who started it with no real reason!"

"No real reason?!" Tai exclaimed as he tried to lunge forward once more but was stopped by Kari pressing a hand to his chest.

"Tai, what you did was completely uncalled for!" Sora said angrily as she turned to face him, "You could have killed him!"

"You're taking his side?!" Tai exclaimed in disbelief.

Boiling rage bubbled inside him. There she went, taking Matt's side in all of this. Didn't she know that the only reason he had done it was because of her? Because her boyfriendwas about to cheat on her with her best friend? It was all for her and yet... Something froze deep inside Tai's heart as he contemplated the situation. Sora would never love him. She had proved it to him just know. It was Matt, not Tai, who she had gone to check on first before turning angrily on him. And in that moment, she had chosen. Feeling numb, Tai thought he heard his heart shatter.

"So that's it," Tai said softly, his voice cold as ice. "That's it."

With Sora's furious glare in response, he turned around and left. He had to get out of there. Away from everything and everyone... away from the pain.

Author's Notes:

So... long time, huh? To be completely honest, my attention isn't as centred around fanfiction as much as it used to be, and even getting this chapter up was painful. It's not my best, but the guilt was getting to be too much, and so with a fierce determination I tried as best as I could to write this chapter up... I don't know, I'm still not convinced. Truly am sorry for the long wait.

To anyone still reading, sorry for a crappy update. My mind's set on at least finishing the story but I don't really know where to go from here. It's the worst case of writer's block EVER.

Hope you enjoyed it, at least :) I really did try. Review, please? Help my motivation rise up a notch? Just to let me know there actually are people interested...

Feel free to flame away aswell. Lol.