Takuya

Active soccer player!

Kanbara

Unites the group together

Yep, another goggle head

And so the epic continues…

"I-Izumi?" the boy repeated again, not believing who was in front of him after three years of absence.

She stood still trying to process through her mind what to say at this time. "U-Uh…no." managed to slip out instead. He gave her a confused look as she tried to clear things up. "Uh, I mean, I don't know who you're talking about."

He stared at her and sighed in disappointment. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Takuya by the way." he began, lending a hand out to her. "I haven't seen you around, so if you need any help around town feel free to ask me."

No offense, but who just goes around introducing himself to complete strangers and act like friends? But ignoring that thought. Grasping his hand in return, she merely said. "I'm Zoe."

"Nice to meet you." he cheerfully responded before waving off to where he was supposed to go.

The blond watched him run down the street until he disappeared and cursed something in her mind about how this wasn't supposed to happen. Since he fell for her trick, she wouldn't mind playing along pretending to be a new foreign girl "Zoe". What he doesn't know won't hurt him. Yet.

……..

"No, no!" The pink haired student repeated, stamping her foot on the ground to grab the boys' attention. "The flowers should be hanging above the streamers, not the stage lights!" pointing at the ceremony's well decorated scenery, glimmering from the sunlight outside. The workers sighed while she glared at them, making sure everything was perfect.

"Ne, don't you think you're being a bit too harsh on them?" Kari teased, leaning against the entrance, with an amused expression. They both laughed, as they continued to stare at the workers decorating the most important event.

Mimi stared in awe and smiled. "I can't help it if it's not set up the way it's supposed to be", as she fluttered her hand out posing a pretend sassy look. "I mean, that's why a girl like me is here!"

"If you're here, couldn't you do it yourself? Considering that you know everything or something?" Kari sighed but stifled a giggle. "Even T.K. would have to agree!"

"Now you're just saying that because you don't want to have to take care of him when the decorations are finished". Mimi replied simply while examining her schedule on her planner.

Her friend stood there and let out a chuckle before leaving. "I guess people do crazy things when they are in love…" she whispered and walked down the steps to where T.K. was supposed to meet her. "I wouldn't mind".

She shook her head. "Alright boys! Let's finish the rest up!"

One of the boys responded back to that comment. "You're breaking our backs with all this manual labor!"

"Like I care".

"And she's breaking our hearts…" coughed another boy as a group of fan boys nodding and crying full of tears with their unrequited dream to be with a girl like her.

……………..

"The beginning of the end…" Izumi muttered, trying to figure out what Ryo's riddle of the day was. It didn't make sense to her, not to mention, thinking wasn't her thing. Her blond hair was swiftly swaying with the breeze in the air as she was walking down the street to nowhere. She didn't find her brother at the park at all, so all she could do was walk aimlessly until "something".

"Shinya!" a female voice called out, which at first made Izumi jump from the sudden outburst. Her hearing twitched with the familiar name. "Shinya…" she whispered softly, turning around to see an older teenage boy waving towards a girl. She focused closely on the girl, strangely familiar. "Isn't that…"

"Hey, did I make you wait?" he asked, but smiled as she shook her head no.

"Suzie?!" She almost blurted but thankfully, kept it within her mind. She would never think that Henry's little sister would be friends with Shinya. Well, okay. She "could" imagine them as friends, but still.

A cherry blossom flew by her sight along with the wind. Her eyes stared at the pink flower. Okay, she had to admit, pink was a pretty girly color and it reminded her of people like Mimi, but sometimes at times like these, pink was pretty cool. "Spring…" she remembered. It had been such a long time, not that at where she was living at didn't have spring, but it sure didn't have cherry blossoms all around that danced like rain.

Another sigh. As she sat underneath the sakura tree, her mind was wandering off once again to the past. If she hadn't left, would things be worse, or would it have been better if she had stayed? It kept questioning on and on, and she never knew the answer to it. She stared at the flower in her hand. Her finger softly touched the petals as she hesitated. "It's a silly game, but it's worth a try".

"Loves me…loves me not….loves me….loves me not…loves me…loves me not". she chanted to herself, tugging at every petal until it was gone. She glared at the last petal. "Loves me…"

She stared at it in disbelief. There was no way that Takuya would still have feelings for her. Not after three years. Not after what happened. Not after losing contact with everyone. Not after how she kept treating him. Ignoring them, isolating everything from her heart…she was even more heartless than Rika. It was painful to know that.

"How does it feel to be loved?" she said out of nowhere to no one. Utterly confused, she couldn't think anymore. There seemed to be both sides to everything. She had to pick one, and fast. No one is going to wait for her anymore if she kept this up.

…………..

"Man, I swear, I saw her". Takuya kept mumbling to himself, pacing back and forth in the room. Sure, a girl could change after three years, but something was telling him that she was still the same person. "She said her name was Zoe…." he also reminded himself again.

"Who said her name was Zoe?" Takato spoke up, interested with Takuya's conversation with no one. "The graduation ceremony is going to start soon, so what's on your mind?"

Both boys were silent, making the classroom eerie until he said her name. "Izumi".

He held a surprised reaction hearing that name that was forbidden to say after her leave. Everyone made an oath not to bring her up when Takuya came back to Japan heartbroken. "Uh…what was that?" making sure he heard right.

Takuya kept quiet again. "Izumi", he simply answered. "I saw her".

His friend stood there nervously, wondering if Takuya meant it in a good way, or a bad way. "Was she with someone?"

He shook his head no.

"So she was alone?"

He nodded.

"Did she say anything?"

"We ran into each other, but she pretended to be someone else".

"Well, how do you know if she really isn't that someone else?"

He shrugged. "I just had that feeling".

"Hey you two! Graduation is gonna start!" The older brunette girl happily announced as she walked right in the hostile atmosphere. "Uh…um…" as she felt the negative vibe from Takuya.

"Don't worry about him, he's uh…thinking too much". Takato assured her. He pulled Takuya along out of the classroom to follow Juri as they headed towards the school grounds.

………………

The blond inhaled. Exhaled. Inhaled. Exhaled. Urging her feet to move forward, it still seemed to be stuck to the ground like glue. "C'mon, just one step and I'm on the school grounds". She scolded her mind as her eyes stared at the boundary line between her and the school. Taking one step, she sighed. "Finally!"

Now that she was at her old school, it wasn't hard to figure out where the ceremony was if you could see all the flowers, balloons, graduation decorations everywhere. It was a nice greeting.

Unfortunately, that greeting was interrupted by crowds of fan clubs that merely ran over her, yelling names of their beloved idols. "Ow." she said painfully, once again falling to the ground. "I swear, I have this habit of falling", as she glared at the girls who pushed her aside. "They'll pay for that…" she muttered irritably.

Flashback

"Ow!" Izumi said painfully as she fell on the floor spilling her books everywhere. She glared at the girls behind her who pushed her. "You'll pay for that…." she announced angrily

End of Flashback

"Hey, did they give you a hard time?" she heard a female voice approaching towards her, reaching a hand out to her to help.

Another girl laughed. "You should stand up for yourself, that way they won't try bothering you".

Flashback

Her friends looked at her. "Did they give you a hard time again?" asked Juri worriedly

Rika folded her arms "You should stand up for yourself more, that way they won't bother you"

End of Flashback

"Hello?" The brunette called out to her snapping her fingers in front of her face. "Shinjuku, I think we have a problem".

"Huh?" The blond suddenly regain back to normal.

"Hey Sora! Kari!"

Now Izumi was glancing over at the boy who was running towards their group, followed by his twin.

The three looked at him. "Don't forget the orphan idiot" muttered Rika putting a hand on her head

She stifled a laugh making the situation awkward between the five of them. "She a friend of yours?" He pointed.

Sora shook her head. "Actually we just ran into her".

Arms crossed now, she decided to stop playing the masquerade game. "Hm, I'm surprised that you can't even remember the Orphan Flower around here", letting out a pretend sigh and smile.

The four froze and stared at her.

She stared back.

They continued to stare with shocked faces.

Her face was calm. "I see we're all shocked, ne?"

"W-When did you arrive?" Sora asked, worried if they were all too dense to realize she was there all along.

She shrugged. "Not long I would say".

"Does Takuya know you're here?" Kouichi added as they all stood there silently waiting for an answer.

She glanced down defeated and surprised that they were already bringing him up. No surprise there. "Is this… a bad time?"

They glanced at each other for answers but none. It was obvious that it was a no, she never saw him…yet. Or so they thought. It wasn't that they didn't want her here, of course they've been waiting for years for her to come back, but it just…just wasn't the perfect time…

"It's alright", Sora spoke up quietly, motioning the others to leave so it would be between her and Izumi. "But he hasn't been himself since you left".

Once again, no surprise there either. A nod was all she could do to reply to that statement. "Of course, I should've known that".

The older girl turned to the blond. "I'm guessing that, you were hesitating to see all of us… especially him." She paused receiving no answer and seeing that she wasn't lifting her head up from staring at the ground. "He's not…married and hasn't gone out with anyone either".

"Eh?" Startled by that line, her head rose to see if Sora was joking, but she was serious. She could feel a tint of red appearing on her face. "I…you…how…why…"

"Your face kept asking that the whole time". Sora giggled, pointing at her flushed cheeks, as she whispered in her ear. "He still loves you".

Izumi let out a laugh for that one. "Right, that's what he felt three years ago I bet". Great, now her old stubborn side was coming up again, trying to deny every opportunity when it came to love.

"Geez, what's holding you back?" she wondered aloud. For a girl like Sora, she was the observant type to know that Izumi was holding something within her heart. "It's like there's something you can't let go of".

There was a small tug inside her. "I…I don't know…"

She gave the blond a pat on the back. "C'mon, you like him, he likes you. What's the issue?"

"Sora, not everyone can just forgive and forget that easily". She muttered at the over protective mother-like girl of the group.

"Yes, but everyone can forgive and 'move on'", the girl rephrased. "That's the least you can do". Her eyes averted towards the crowd that was coming in for the ceremony. "It's like…" and tried to think of how to put it in words. "You feel like you don't belong here".

She gave her an amused look. "Oh? And what are you? My counselor?"

The girl stood there quietly and smiled. "That wouldn't be a bad job now would it?"

Izumi smiled in return. "No…no I guess it wouldn't".

They both stopped a couple feet from where the ceremony was going to be held. "Do you know what a broken destiny is?", not expecting a reply, she spoke again. "A broken destiny is when two people love each other, but have this reason why they can't be together. A broken destiny is when two lovers can't be together".

She listened to the words slowly, taking all the information to process through her mind.

Sora sighed. "Your brother and Mimi were almost like that. They were almost like that broken destiny, but guess what? They still believed and loved each other no matter where they were and followed their hearts."

"So that's where he went." The blond thought now knowing why she couldn't find him yesterday.

"They're together now". Sora finished and took Izumi's hand into hers. "And I think… no I know, that you should do the same before…" and trailed off leaving the sentence unfinished. "Well, you know what I mean", she grinned.

Without another word, she let go of her hand and walked ahead down the aisles of chairs towards the front of the audience to where the others were gathering. "A broken destiny huh?" she laughed, while watching the ceremony begin.

…………..

"Ruki, you can wake up now".

The brunette couldn't help but roll her eyes at that statement. "I already am awake if you must know".

"Fine fine, you are awake "spiritually" but not "physically".

"Hm, I see even my inner self uses sarcasm, but why are you calling me Ruki?"

"Of course, even you don't know your true name".

"And what would you know?"

"Gosh, it doesn't matter now. It's not important at the moment. We can deal with this in our next story".

"Next story?" Rika almost laughed and shook her head. "So, is the fight over?"

"If you're talking about "that" with Izumi and the others, well almost".

"What do you mean almost?"

"Ahem, I mean that Izumi is choosing not to go down the path of broken destiny, therefore, it's time for you to wake up".

"Mmm…" Ryo heard Rika suddenly moan from her bed trying to regain conscious. He quickly ran up to her bedside taking her hand. "She's starting to wake up…" he thought in disbelief, as her face went back to calm and into the dream world.

"Oh yeah, try to make me inner self". Rika taunted, there was no way to convince her to wake up.

Her inner self went silent. "Ryo is gonna kiss you right now that's what!"

Suddenly, Rika's eyes opened as she quickly sat up from her bed, about to slap that Hero Boy's doing, only to be enraptured into an accidental kiss. Both were surprised, but didn't pull away as he leaned closer to her. Realizing what was actually happening, she took her right hand and smacked him right across the face. Hard. "What do you think you're doing?!"

He gave her a quirky look. "What are you talking about, I think I was just in the middle of being with a beaut-"

Another smack across the face.

…………..

They all looked so happy. Juri looked happy. Her eyes knew perfectly well watching all of them celebrating their last day together. "I feel like I shouldn't be interfering…" Izumi sighed sadly but for such an odd reason, she was feeling happy about it. Happy kind of sadness, that's what it was.

She was waiting at the far end of the corner of the school grounds, after the graduation ceremony, watching all of them. Petals were kind of in the way of her view since they kept falling swiftly like rain.

"Lastly, Rika Makino". The speaker announced on the mic, even though many of the audience knew that she was at the hospital and were expecting someone to get the diploma for her.

At the corner of her eye, she noticed the petals starting to move away to reveal not just Ryo, but Rika was up and alive with him at the entrance. She had her normal blank expression as she walked up to the stage and took her diploma.

No matter what, she couldn't help but smile as the audience greeted her with a standing ovation. How much, Izumi just wanted to just run up to talk to her, like the old times. But her friends were already doing that job for her.

"Rika!" Juri hugged the brunette with tears of joy in her eyes. "I don't believe it!"

Rika smiled softly, giving a small pat in return. "I couldn't miss our graduation now can I?"

"Mere coincidence that you woke up at this time…" her voice trailed off as she shook her head. "Well, it's not important, as long as you're here." she grinned. Their last day wasn't going to be a sad good-bye after all. They were reunited with one more friend.

"Okay! Less talking, more graduation hats throwing!" Mimi exclaimed, interrupting the two with her fist in the air while everyone cheered. Rika as usual plugged her ears from that girl's loud voice.

"Alright, alright". Juri agreed and sighed with their undying optimistic spirits. Everyone held onto their dark square hats and counted. "One…Two…Three!"

You would have to admit, it was raining graduation hats as in the end, no one had sad expressions. Like some magic spell that kept them from thinking of what the future had for them.

The blond teen silently, had tears slowly falling down her face again, but for a different reason. They were just tears of joy, to see the people she had always cared for, be genuinely happy.

Walking away from the scene, she exhaled and smiled. They must have all moved on, and it's a possibility that she needed to do the same too. For real, and not just pretend.

Takuya suddenly felt something, no…someone was now leaving. Turning around from the gang, he noticed someone familiar was leaving without even greeting them all a hello in the first place. Before he could say it, Rika had already beaten him to it.

"Izumi is here". She said simply.

The group became silent and stared at the brown haired boy worriedly, the She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, was now brought up.

He laughed, leaving the group, he ran to catch up with the girl. His hand touched her shoulder, making her jump but keep still without looking at him. "You think you can just leave without a proper hello?" he teased.

"Takuya…" she whispered, her eyes slowly looking into his. "Takuya…"

"Izumi…"

"Takuya…you," and a glare replaced her dreamy look as she hit him across the face. "You idiot!" making him fall to the ground.

He was on the ground, shocked with what just happened. "What was that for?!"

She folded her arms and pretended to be mad. "You didn't visit me at all, notice me when I was here, and you didn't even bother meeting me at the airport!"

"What?! You didn't even tell me! And I even felt that you were still mad at me and-" but the boy stopped quickly to notice her smile as she laughed.

"I was kidding Takuya". She admitted with a cheery smile as her finger tapped his head. He stared at the ground, making the girl worry if her joke went to far. "Takuya?"

Now it was his turn to pull off a joke on her. Surprised by his action, he enveloped her into a hug and kissed her forehead. "Don't do that again".

"I won't promise you that". She responded and hugged back in return.

"Izumi are you crying?"

"Shut up, don't make me hit you again".

"I'm starting to understand how Ryo feels with Rika now…"

"Hey, I'm sure you didn't forget us now did you?" Juri spoke up interrupting their moment, as the group waved at the two.

"Of course not". They said in unison.

Walking towards the group, Izumi took his hand. "Takuya".

"Hm?"

"You do know that…you're falling in love with Izumi the Orphan…" Her head went low ashamed to bring that up now.

But, she glanced up at him because of his response. "What are you talking about?"

Before she question more to what kind of response that was, he continued on. "I know I'm falling in love with," their faces were close to each other, " a girl Izumi Orimoto".

Petals flew once again around them, as the group happily cheered them on and laughed. They were reunited.

The flower withers, but the seed remains.

But one day, it'll come back a beautiful flower.

Alright, this took a while to write up, and sorry for the wait. Originally I wanted this up on Valentines' Day, but I had to add and take out parts of this last chapter at the last minute. Hope you guys had a fun Valentines' Day though! Random as we all know it, I thought it was pretty funny when I put She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, if anyone understood what that meant. (lol)

Thanks to:

Kazumi Kairi or Kairi-chan: Wow, I really don't know what else to say to this person, but she's an awesome supporter I'll tell you that. No words could express what I needed to say. Thanks loads! XD

ATOMIC ORANGE: Haha, my hyperactive friend, always one of the number one reviewers like KKK-C.

Automatic Code Red 123: Glad you enjoyed my story! Oh, and thanks for giving me ideas of what to write up.

Gogglelicious: Dude when are we going to get together for our Gogglehead meeitng? Lol, thanks for supporting!

Pandapple: Short and sweet reviews

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Other reviewers: dbzgtfan2004, Ai102, Courageous-Flame, Namixas, amylovestakuya, Dis-ViEt-GiRl-OvA-HeRe, Rozen, amethyst fire phoenix, koyuki kimura, sakura's conscience, lil-ying-fa, Sakura Raindrop, NaruSakuLuver345, Usagi Sohma 83 (Much thanks to you! XD), kryuzei, Rubberman2025, U.W.A.H Squad, Light's Blue Blossom, ToraHimeSama

Annon. reviewers: DarthNima, Red Eye, O.o TT3TT, chika, hiro, Spell it out!, LovexHina, alannah, O.O bunni!, anonymous, queen of random, Chibified, nagi, Niki

I wrote tons I know. By the way, chapter 22, the song was by Elliot Yamin, "I'll Be Waiting". This makes up for the times I never responded. I also want to thank those who put me on their faves or alerts, those who never review, hope you enjoyed the story.