Hakuna Matata

**Part 1: First Encounters**

“Class, I would all you to welcome a new student.” The sensei announced that Monday morning to her kindergarten class. Twenty pairs of eyes glanced up from their work and towards the front of the classroom. There, stood a little girl of about five years of age. Her long, blonde hair was pulled back into a high ponytail, with a thin headband the color black holding back any loose strands. Her skin was fair, and her cheeks rosy. Most interesting of all about her were her eyes; they were the deepest shade of green any of the children had ever seen. Those green eyes shyly glanced from one face to the next as she introduced herself to her new classmates.

“Konnichiwa,” she began, while politely bowing. Her voice was rather soft and shy, yet had a somewhat melodic tone to it. “My name is J.C.”

The sensei then motioned for the girl to take a seat. Choosing the only available vacancy, she sat down next to a small boy with dark hair, cut short, and deep-blue eyes. All the meanwhile, Ken glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes with somewhat of an interest. Usually one to quietly keep to himself, Ken felt a surprising urge to say something to calm the shy yet nervous expression on her face.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Ken. I like your name.”

Those three sentences, though short, seemed to make all the difference in the world to the girl as she looked up at Ken, and gave him a slight smile as if to say thank you. Ken couldn’t help but notice how pretty she looked when she smiled…much better then the loneliness which had occupied her expression just moments before. Ken knew what it was like to feel lonely. He constantly felt ignored by his parents at home as he sat back quietly in the shadows of his onnichan, Sam.

“Arigato. I like your name too, Ken” she replied. Both briefly exchanged smiles, before the sensei at the front of the room began the day’s math lesson. Ken had always been somewhat good at math, not as good as Sam, but still pretty good, so the work was not all that hard. Several times, he glanced over to see how J.C. was doing. He would have thought, with her being new the class and all, she would have had some trouble, but surprisingly enough she seemed to be doing rather well on her own. In fact, she was finishing the problems as quickly as Ken himself.

“Hikari! Takeru! No talking while you do your work!” the sensei suddenly shouted, taking Ken’s attention away from J.C. momentarily. He glanced toward the back of the classroom, along with most of the other kids, in time to see the two who had been spoken to snap their attention away from their ‘secret’ conversation, only to blush from embarrassment. This had been the fifth time this month alone that the sensei had had to speak to them.

“Gomen.” They bother muttered at the same time. By now, most of the other students had gotten so used to it, they turned their attention back to their work almost immediately; those two were always together…and had been ever since they were little.

J.C. and Ken both simultaneously giggled at the sight of their two classmates when they immediately picked up their whispering and muffled laughing almost immediately after the sensei turned her back. Then, she turned back to her math problems, and continued working.

Turning back to his own work, Ken whizzed through his next few problems, until he came to one he didn’t understand. He tried and tried, but it just didn’t make any sense to him. His frustration must have shown, because before he knew it, J.C. spoke up asking if he wanted help. Slightly embarrassed, Ken nodded.

J.C. reached over, and explained the problem. Ken blinked; why hadn’t he thought of that? The way she explained it, it seemed so easy. Unfortunately, the sensei saw J.C. as she reached over to help Ken.

“J.C.! Ken! I already said no talking!” she repeated. Ken froze, and was just about to reply, when J.C. spoke up, saying, “I apologize, sensei…I was asking Ken to help me on a problem.”

The sensei looked from one child to the other. “Is that true Ken?” she asked the boy.

Ken was about to say no, but then he saw the look in J.C.’s eyes. It’s okay…just say yes. “Yes” he replied.

“Then I apologize, Ken, and I thank you for being so kind as to aid a new student.” Came the response. Ken simply bowed his head in response, before the sensei walked back to her desk once more.

Ken glanced over to J.C., “Arigato” he said in a whisper, while giving her a quick smile

“ ’welcome” she replied in her soft voice, returning the smile. Both children then turned their attention back to their work, neither saying anything more.

Later that afternoon, Ken went to the park to play soccer. He never seemed to mind not having anyone else to play with, for he enjoyed the simple action of kicking the ball back and forth himself. His parents had just recently given him a new soccer ball to play with, so Ken was obviously eager to use it

After checking in with his parents, Ken walked over to the wide, open field. There, he proceeded to drop the soccer ball to the ground a practice dribbling it. The routine he had been working on the day before quickly came back to him as he dribbled around some trees, a few rocks, and up toward his “goal”- two trees right next to each other, about the size of a normal soccer goal. As he approached it, without even looking, Ken kicked the ball towards his goal. Imagine to his surprise when a small pair of hands easily caught one of his post powerful shots!

Ken wasn’t sure what surprised him more: the fact that someone had caught that shot, or the fact that this ‘someone’ was a young girl his age, with long, blonde hair and deep green eyes….

“Hi, J.C.” Ken said, somewhat surprised to see her here.

“Hiya, Ken. That was a good shot. U like soccer?” she said in her quiet voice. She had changed out of her school uniform earlier, and was currently wearing a pair of denim jeans, and a green sleeveless shirt that matched her eyes almost perfectly in color. Her hair was still the same as before.

Ken nodded in response to her question. “Yeah. Do you?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never played before.” Ken was a bit shocked at this. She had blocked the ball so good. How could she have never played? “Will you teach me?”

“Huh-wha-uh, sure” Ken managed to stutter out. That last request had taken him a bit off guard. J.C. giggled at the sight of the bewildered boy, and handed him back his soccer ball. He then took her back over to the open field, where he proceeded to explain to his new comrade the art of ‘dribbling’.

The first few tries, J.C. kept tripping over the ball. Once, Ken managed to catch her before she fell. After about 50 tries (and one or two new bruises), she began to get the hang of it. Pretty soon, J.C. could run the whole yard of the field without tripping.

Next, Ken taught her how to shoot. He brought her back over to the two trees, and showed her how to kick the ball so it would fly into the goal. J.C. picked up on this rather quickly; she managed to shoot a goal within her first 3 tries.

For her next lesson, Ken stood in front of the goal and told her to try and get it past him. She nodded, and began to dribble the ball, counting off the steps like Ken had taught her to do. 1…2…3…shoot! Her mind counted out the steps as she dribbled up to the goal, positioned the ball, and kicked it. Ken caught it easily. Pouting a little, J.C. turned back around to try again. Just as she did so, Ken shook his wrists a big, as if in pain. Man, she kicked it pretty hard for a beginner!

A couple more tries later, and J.C. managed to kick the soccer ball past Ken, then started laughing at the funny position Ken ended up in his latest attempting to catch that ball. He started laughing too, and pretty soon they were both nearly hysterical. Ken couldn’t remember the last time he had had so much fun at the park playing soccer.

“Wanna play a game now?” Ken asked. J.C. calmed down enough to agree, and pretty soon they were in the middle of a 1-on-1 game. Ken found it surprisingly fun, even though the game wasn’t taken very seriously. He always thought that soccer had to be serious and strictly to the rules…but he was finding he enjoyed this way much better. Both children were laughing so hard; they didn’t even notice the passing of the sun in the sky. Before they realized it, it was time to go home.

“Ken! Time to go home now!”

“Jenna! We’re leaving” Ken heard this and asked, “You’re name’s Jenna?” J.C. nodded

“Yeah, but only my mommy calls me Jenna anymore. Not even my daddy!”

Ken thought for a moment, “Then what does the ‘C’ stand for?”

“Huh?”

“In your name.”

“Oh!”, she looked down a bit, almost as if embarrassed for some reason, “promise not to laugh?”

“Promise!” She looked up

“It’s the initial for my middle name, Cosette. Mommy’s from Ameri-ta, and she named me after a character of her favorite Broad-day play.” She half-expected him to laugh, even if he promised he wouldn’t, but (to her surprise) he just smiled.

“Jenna Cosette” he said her name out loud once, then smiled. “That sounds pretty.”

“Really?” She hadn’t expected him to say that!

“Sure!”

After getting over the slight-shock, J.C. smiled back a shy-smile. “Thanks.” She said.

“KEN!”

“JENNA!”

“Oh, I hafta go now. I’ll see you in school tomorrow, Ken.” She said, before giving him a quick kiss on the check. “Bye.” And with that, she walked over to her mom.

Ken just stood there for a minute, unconsciously holding his hand to his cheek. Did she just…kiss me? He smiled, picked up his soccer ball, and walked back over to his mom, the smile never leaving his face….

**Part 2: When You Need A Friend…**

Eight-year old Ken ran through the streets, tears running down his cheeks, eyes red and puffy from crying so hard. Several adults stopped to glance at him as he ran by, but none proceeded to stop the young boy, or to even see if he was all right. Ken wouldn’t have stopped, anyways. He just kept running…. he was now at the entrance to the park, yet still he kept running, not stopping for anything. Memories of the last few days chased his mind, nearly begging to be recalled. Nothing Ken could do seemed to allow him to repress those memories, and they began flooding his mind with replays over the events that had recently occurred….

< ‘Sam always gets mom and dad’s attention because he’s smarter than me!’ Ken thought, while looking at a framed picture of his onnichan on the dresser. ‘If he were gone, I’d be the one they loved, not Sam!’ His anger began building inside him, before he shouted out loud, “I WISH SAM WOULD JUST GO AWAY FOREVER!”…>

That most recent memory occurred not an hour prior to the moment Ken ran into the park. He couldn’t believe it; his onnichan…gone forever, just as Ken had wanted. Ken’s wish had come true. His wish…came…true….

Finally, from either the surplus of memories flooding his mind, or from sheer exhaustion, Ken collapsed under the shade of a tall tree. At this point, he was away from the park crowds…away from all the people who would stop and ask questions. He pulled his knees up to his chest, and continued crying, bowing his head down. I’m-I’m sorry, Sam! I didn’t mean it! I didn’t really want you to go away forever…I was just mad!

“I didn’t mean it.” Ken muttered out loud through his tears. Since he was in a secluded area of the park, Ken didn’t expect anyone to come up to him, but to his surprised, he soon felt a small hand placed gently on his shoulder.

“Kenny?” a soft voice spoke. Ken didn’t even have to look up; only two people in the world ever called him Kenny, and one of them was gone….

Ken tried to respond, but tears choked his every word. He looked up, and his eyes met the same deep-green shade he had seen nearly every day for the past three years: those belonging to his best friend in the entire world.

“Kenny?” J.C. tried again, kneeling down beside him until they were eye level. “Are you okay?” she asked, her voice never rising above the soft pitch it had always taken. She was greeted with silence filled only by the young boy’s sobbing. It broke her heart to see her best friend like this; after all, she was only eight herself. Not knowing what else to do, she wrapped her small arms around him in a tight, yet comforting hug.

“My mommy told me about Sam a little while ago…I’m so sorry, Ken.” J.C. said as she hugged him. He continued sniffling, but spoke as if he hadn’t heard her.

“It’s my fault.” Ken said, to no one in particular. J.C. pulled away to look at him.

“What?”

“It’s my fault Sam’s gone.” Ken picked his head up to look at her. Through his tears, he could see the expression on her face; not one of anger, but confusion.

“I made him go away.” He stated. Her attitude never changed as she responded to him.

“Oh, don’t say that! It was an accident; nobody made Sam go away…it just happened!”

Ken looked down. He couldn’t even face her anymore. “You don’t understand, Jenna…” he began, calling her by the name only he and J.C.’s mother ever got away with using, “I…I wished for Sam to disappear…and he did! He did disappear…just like my wish….” He began crying again, half from guilt, and half from the fear of J.C. hating him for what he did. Instead, he felt her soft hands brush away the tear-soaked bangs from his face, and a simple kiss on the cheek; she always did that to comfort him, and it always seemed to work. He looked up at her again, and saw her eyes lightly moistened with tears, yet a gentle smile on her lips.

“Oh, please; if you had the power to make wishes come true, we’d be playing for a championship soccer team by now!” she half-joked. Then, she lowered her voice down to almost a whisper, as she took his hand into hers, and continued, “You’re just too kind a person to ever do anything that horrible. I won’t believe for a second you made Sam get in that accident…and you shouldn’t either.” She got off her knees, and sat down beside him.

For some strange reason, her words seemed to calm the boy down. Finally, Ken managed to stop crying. Wiping away the last of the tears in his eyes, he looked over at the girl sitting beside him with a smile forming on his face.

“Thanks, Jenna. I feel better now.” He said. J.C. smiled back, before glancing at the new watch her mom had just recently gotten her.

“Wow, it’s getting late. We should be going home about now.” J.C. commented, looking back up at Ken. He seemed to stiffen slightly at the mention of home. Noticing this, J.C. quickly added, “Wanna sleep over? If our mommies say it’s okay, I mean.” Giving her a grateful smile, Ken nodded his head. Simultaneously, the two stood up and, hand-in-hand, walked back to J.C.’s house, where the two children proceeded to ask their parents’ permission for Ken to sleep over….

“How ‘bout this one?” J.C. asked later that night, holding up another videocassette. Ken simply shook his head in response.

“I saw it the other day.” He replied. Frustrated, J.C. went back to the cabinet in search of a video for the two to watch.

It was about 8:00pm that night. Ken’s mother had given him permission to sleepover, and so had J.C.’s mother. The two, like always, set up their sleeping bags in the living room of J.C.’s apartment, so as not to disturb her 2-year-old sister (whom she shared a room with). Feeling much better after talking their talk in the park, the two proceeded to search for a video to watch that night. It was almost a tradition with them; every time one slept over the other’s house, they would watch a movie before falling asleep. The problem was always what video to watch. Finally, J.C. came out of the drawer triumphantly holding a brand-new cassette tape in her hands.

“I know! We’ll watch the one my daddy brought me from America!” she exclaimed, having leaned the country’s proper name since she was young. Her father often made business trips to America, and usually brought back his two girls a gift. On his most recent trip, he had brought back an American video for his two girls to share; yet neither of them had gotten the chance to watch it yet. Now seemed just as good a time as any for J.C.

Ken shrugged. “Okay. What’s it’s about?” he wanted to know. J.C. looked at the cover.

“Well…from what I can read, it’s called…The Lion King” she said, reading off the cover, “By somebody named ‘Disney’” (A/N- I don’t know about you, but that has got to be one of my favorite Disney movies of all time! Either that, or the sequel! )

“Is it in English?”

“Yeah, but daddy got a movie with Japanese words at the bottom of the screen, so we can read what they say and understand the movie.”

“Cartoon?” J.C. nodded. “Cool. Let’s watch it!”

J.C. took out the video, and popped it into the VCR, then went over to where she and Ken had set up their sleeping bags. Ken sat up in his sleeping bag, and leaned against the couch, facing the television. J.C. crawled into her sleeping bag, and laid down on her stomach, also facing the television. As the movie started, J.C.’s mother brought out a bowl of popcorn for the two to share. Munching away on the popcorn, the two enjoyed the African-styled music that went along with the opening scenes. Further on into the movie, they simultaneously grinned at each other during the scene introducing Simba’s best friend, Nala.

“Hey, that’s kinda like us, isn’t it, Ken?” J.C. joked. Ken laughed along with her. Then, they settled back down to continue watching the movie. They both were enjoying the movie greatly, until one certain scene came up, reminding Ken all over again of that day...(the scene where Mufasa died saving Simba from the stampede…T_T)

Ken stiffened suddenly; the smirk he had held on his face for the past few hours was gone now. Looking back towards him, and seeing him like this, J.C. got up off her comfortable position on the floor and sat down beside him.

“Are you okay, Kenny?” she asked softly. He nodded slightly, bowing his head so his eyes would not meet hers.

“You sure?” she continued. Ken was about to nod his head again, but then shook it instead. J.C. reached over and gently hugged him again, calming him down a bit. When she pulled away, she saw the tears in his eyes.

“Everyone goes away.” Ken managed to whisper to her.

“What?” she asked, confused.

“People we love…they go away. First Sam, now the Lion’s dad.” He said, referring to the movie (which was still running by the way, yet neither child paid attention to the hyenas as they chased Simba out of the Pride Lands).

“That’s not true!” J.C. began, before Ken cut her off as if he didn’t hear her.

“You aren’t going to go away, are you?” he asked, looking directly at her. J.C. was rather taken aback by his question.

“Why would I go away?” she asked him.

“Because…” Ken looked down, “Everybody I love seems to go away…”

J.C. could only smile at his excuse. At age eight, the two were unfamiliar with the concept of true love, rather referred to it at pretty much a friendship-basis, yet the words were still special. Although it was no shock to hear him say those words, it brought a feeling of happiness to J.C., knowing her best friend “loved” her.

“Well, I hate to disappoint you, Kenny-boy, but I’m not going anywhere!” she finally replied with a smile. Ken looked up at her.

“Ever?”

“Ever.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.” Ken suddenly felt much better at that point. J.C. immediately noticed his brightening attitude. That’s what’s worrying him, she thought, he’s worried about everyone leaving him…including me!

Although Ken was feeling better, J.C. opted to remained seated next to him throughout the remainder of the movie. At one point in the movie, she subconsciously rested her head on his shoulder. As they watched the scene where Nala and Simba find each other again (A/N: ok, if you have NEVER seen the movie before *cough*doubtit*cough*, then I apologize if it gets confusing with me mentioning particular scenes.), Ken spoke up again.

“Still think that’s us, Jenna?” he joked. Not taking her head off his shoulder, she replied, “Maybe.” Looking down at her, Ken saw a ‘distant’ smile appear on her face. As soon as their eyes met, they giggled slightly, before turning back to the movie. Both children were getting very sleepy, and were beginning to have a hard time keeping their eyes open.

“Getting sleepy, Jenna?” Ken asked, half-asleep himself.

“Mmm-hmm.” She softly responded, her eyes closing. She yawned, and shifted her weight slightly, her head remaining on Ken’s shoulder all the while. “G’night, Kenny.”

“’night…” By the time the movie ended, they were sound asleep, still in the same position as before….

Later that night, J.C.’s mother tiptoed into the living room to check up on the children. She found them sleeping soundly, still in the same position. Taking on a mischievous grin, she sneaked out of the room for a moment…and returned with a camera. Making sure to turn off the flash so as not to wake the slumbering angels, she quickly snapped a picture of the all-too-kawaii scene before her, before placing a blanket over them, and walking out of the room, camera in hand, smile never leaving her face….

**Part 3: Soccer Tryouts**

J.C. arrived at the soccer field around 10 minutes before tryouts began. She wanted to warm up first…and maybe get a chance to talk to Ken. It was strange…almost unsettling; the sleepover they had had that night, nearly two years ago, was almost the last time Ken had spoken to her. It was almost as if when Sam had died, a part of Ken died as well. He lost his childish spark she had always loved about him, and grew very serious and grim.

Sitting down on the bench to put on her cleats, J.C. frowned as she recalled their last confrontation. He had barely spoken 2 sentences to her! It was right after school, about a week ago. Ken had just won the Math award for top student in their grade for all of Odaiba, yet seemed unfazed by the accomplishment. Lately, he had been putting more and more effort into his studies, and spending less and less time with the people around him. Something was wrong; she could tell. It was almost as if Ken had lost his humanity, and had become an empty shell of a person, where what once stood a young boy with so much youthful innocence and energy, was now filled with awards, studies, schoolwork, and…she didn’t really know what else. Soccer, maybe-- Ken had NEVER given that up, and was well known as one of the best in his age group in all of Japan. But, even the spark from his playing had gone. He seemed to loose all sense of fun for the game in every attempt to win. He had been the captain of last year’s team, and had directed them all so sternly with every move, one would have thought he might have been a leading General for an army in his past life. The coaches never noticed this, however. They were so impressed by Ken’s speed and skill in the game. “The Rocket,” he was called; a nickname she had given him three years ago during their very first season of soccer on a team. It had originally been a joke between the two, but the nickname ended up sticking.

“Hey, J.C.!” she looked up from her cleats only to look into the face of the one who had called her name. Hikari ran over to her and sat down on the bench. The two, seeing how they had always been in the same class together since kindergarten (A/N/- that’s really how it works for all children in Japan…weird, huh?), wound up becoming good friends.

“What’s wrong? You’ve been staring at your shoes for nearly five minutes straight!” Hikari exclaimed. J.C. just blushed; she had been so deep in thought, she hadn’t even realized the passing of time.

“Nothing.” She replied, not looking up “ just thinking about the tryouts, and all.”

“You’re lying.” Hikari stated. It wasn’t a question, or even spoken harshly. It was just a statement.

J.C. sighed. She should have known better. She never could figure out how exactly, but Hikari ALWAYS seemed to know when she was lying about something. “Yeah, I am.” She replied blandly.

“Care to talk?” J.C. was just about to answer, when out of the corner of her eye, she saw something…a tall figure with shiny, navy-blue hair walking out onto the field. She continued to watch him as he sat down on another bench, set his bag down, and proceeded to put on his own cleats for the tryouts. Following J.C.’s gaze, Hikari realized what was wrong.

“It’s about Ken, isn’t it?” she asked. Turning her head to face Hikari, J.C. took up somewhat of a surprised expression for a second, then (realizing this was Hikari, after all) simply nodded in response.

“I just don’t understand it, Kar! He won’t talk to me anymore! He just ignores me, and acts like he doesn’t even know who I am.”

“I’m pretty surprised, too.” Hikari agreed. “You two were as close as…as…”

“You and Takeru?” J.C. finished with a smirk, causing the brunette beside her to blush slightly.

“Me and TK are just friends!” Hikari managed to mutter. J.C. just rolled her eyes.

“OK, evidence: 1) You just used one of THE most cliché excuses out there,” she began, now smirking as Hikari turned from a light pink to about 3 shades darker, “ and 2) You called him ‘TK.’ Nobody, and I mean NOBODY ever gets away with that…except for you!”

“Hey! When did this conversation turn to me and TK, hmmm? I thought we were talking about you and Ken?” Hikari protested. J.C. was just about to respond, when the coach blew the whistle, signaling the beginning of the tryouts. Sighing, J.C. got up and walked over to the field, after receiving a “Good Luck” from Hikari.

Glancing around the group of kids who were there, J.C. spotted many familiar faces. Hikari’s older brother, Taichi, was there along with his best friend, Sora. Hikari’s friend Koushiro was also amongst the crowd. Then, of course, there was Ken. He didn’t look at her once, or even acknowledge her existence. In fact, he didn’t seem to acknowledge any of the other children’s existences. He just stared at the coach as he explained the rules of the tryouts: there would be four teams created, judging by age and/or skill level. Those trying out for goalie positions would be separated from those trying out for field positions until later on. J.C. sighed in releif; this means she and Ken wouldn’t have to try out together. He was commonly known for taking position at center field, whereas she had developed an incredible skill as a goalie.

As the groups separated, J.C. noticed that there were more goalies than ever trying out this year. She proceeded to cooperate with the warm-up exercises the coach was instructing; all the while, sneaking glances to the other side of the field, where she saw Ken continue to run circles around this one dark-haired boy, who appeared confused. Focusing her attention back to her own tryout, J.C. went along with the other boys and girls, and sat down on the sidelines while one-by-one they were tested on their blocking skills.

She had to admit; some of them were pretty good. That boy, Koushiro, was probably the best she had seen in a while. He blocked nearly 4 out of every 5 shots coming at him. Surprisingly, this still did not make her nervous.

When her turn came, she took her place in front of the goal, positioned herself so that her weight was distributed evenly, and prepared for the first shot. She blocked it with ease, barely even having to move to catch it. One of the things she had learned long ago while playing soccer with Ken is to never move unless necessary; otherwise you could be completely faked-out (A/N- this was an actual piece of advice given to me…and it really helps.). The next few blocks required her to shift her weight a bit, but still remained with her feet planted firmly to the ground. Of course, in between every shot she would shake out her legs so as they did not become stiff. After another couple rounds of shots taken at her, J.C.’s turn was over—she had blocked 9 out of every ten balls which had come her way. Feeling proud of her accomplishment for the day, she walked over to the sidelines to grab a drink from her water bottle.

As the cool liquid was pour down her throat, J.C. sensed someone coming up behind her. It was a skill Ken had taught her in learning how to ‘sense’ the other players surrounding her in a game. Turning around sharply, yet without panicking, she found herself face-to-face with…Ken.

“I watched your performance,” he began, his voice taking on a cold, monotonous pitch. J.C. wasn’t sure if she should have been thrilled that he was finally talking to her again, or furious because of the manner in which he chose to do so. Deciding to remain ‘neutral’ in the manner, she replied, “…and?”

“Very impressive, I must admit.” His voice suddenly changing a big; was that pride she heard? Toward her?

“I learned from the best.” She found herself replying. For a moment, J.C. began to feel as everything were the way it was two years ago; when they could laugh and joke and compliment one another with that sense of pride you get only when watching a close friend thrive. Her hopes were shattered at the next sentence Ken spoke.

“Of course, it still won’t be enough to face me 1-on-1 in a game.” J.C. just stared at him in shock. For the first time in over a year, she stared straight into his eyes…and what she found shocked her.

“You’re not Ken.” She spoke in a low tone, almost a whisper. The friendliness had left her expression, and had been replaced with a mixture of anger and sadness.

Ken almost didn’t seem to notice her as he coolly replied, “Of course I am. I’m standing here, aren’t I?”

“No…I don’t know who you are, but you’re not my Ken.” She replied, “My Ken never had such hatred in his eyes…his were always filled with kindness and lo-,” he suddenly interrupted her

“What gives you the right to be saying this anyways, hmm?” he snapped at her. Her trance was broken at the sound of his voice…it had been…so harsh. Finding herself at a loss for words, she could only stare at the boy she thought she knew, but didn’t. Tears began welling up in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall…not in front of him.

Ken was about to add to his comment, when the coach signaled that break-time was over, and it was time for the goalie’s to face off against the others in the final part of the tryouts. Ken began walking back over to the field, but suddenly stopped and turned back for a brief moment. J.C. could have sworn she saw a hint of sadness in his expression. Before she could double-check, Ken turned back around and walked back out onto the field. J.C. soon followed.

Not once during the first half of tryouts had J.C. been nervous. Soccer had always seemed to come easily to her, and she spent most of her time concentrating on the fun rather than the score or status of the game. Yet, something about her brief talk with Ken—that and the fact that he occasionally kept glaring her way--put an uneasiness in her stomach which made it hard for her to concentrate. The first few exercises were rather basic, with almost no level of difficulty; they had to practice blocking a shot made from over a long-distance. J.C. easily blocked every shot from her ‘competitors’ at this level. Next, the same was done from a much closer range. Again, she managed to block every single shot that came her way; her agility and speed were well exercised during this level. Finally, the portion she was most dreading; the 1-on-1 mini-scrimmage.

The basis of this was to take one single player, and put him/up against the goalie in a 1-on-1 match. Every year, the coach always picked Ken Ichijoji to play the field for this; if a goalie could block his bullet-fast shots, he/she could block anyone’s. Usually, though, Ken went easy on the goalies during tryouts.

“Okay, people; listen up!” The coach announced, “These five people will be selected to go up one by one against Ken in a block-shoot-off…” followed by the five named called; J.C. was one of them.

Luckily, she was chosen to go last, so she could have a few minutes to attempt to regain her hold on the situation. She would just have to put the past behind her, if only temporarily….Hakuna Matatta…but that thought only saddened her more. It reminded her of the last time the two had spoken as friends—at the sleepover, where they had watched The Lion King for the very first time. She had loved the movie after that night, but never could bring herself to watch it again. Too many memories. Yet, she never could forget the seemingly childish ‘motto’ of two of the characters.

Once again loosing track of time in her thoughts, J.C. found it was already her time to go…apparently, not one of the other goalies had blocked Ken’s shot. Taking a few deep breaths, she got up and proceeded to walk over to the goal to take her position.

If there ever was a more awkward moment in Soccer, this had to have been it. As she turned around, taking her position in front of the goal, J.C.’s eyes briefly met with Ken’s. His eyes held no emotion what so ever as they looked back at her. For a brief moment, J.C. felt a wave of sadness come over her; when she was little, she could just practically read Ken’s mind by just looking into his eyes…know what he was thinking. Now, his thoughts were as closed off to her as Fort Knox in America.

Immediately after the Coach blew his whistle, Ken began dribbling towards the goal. J.C. kept a close eye on his movements, just as Ken had taught her to…. How ironic: the one who had practically taught her all about soccer was the one she would be facing at this moment. She noticed that he was moving as if he were to shoot towards the upper-left-hand portion of the goal. She was about to position herself to block a shot heading in that direction, when she realized something….I know that routine….

**Flashback**

J.C. was walking through the park after her very first day of kindergarten. It had been rather…what was the word she was looking for…expected. She hadn’t planned on immediately fitting in; she was just too shy. Yet, there was that one little boy who had acted so kind towards her in a gesture of friendship.

Suddenly, she stopped as she heard something. Glancing up to her right, J.C. saw someone kicking a soccer ball back and forth across the field…Ken! Walking over to just behind one of two rather large trees, she watched as he skillfully dribbled the ball down towards the goal. What she didn’t realize was that she was IN the goal. It looked to her like he was about to kick it over towards the left (from what she could tell…she had only watched people play, but had never played herself), but at the last moment, his routine drastically changed, and he attempted a power-kick over at the right side of the goal…right towards her. Using her quick reflexes, she easily caught the ball, and proceeded to go over and talk with her new friend, who was now staring at her in shock….

**End Flashback**

Before Ken even reached the altering position of his routine, she had already shifted her position to block his “fake-out move.” Just as Ken reached the shooting point of the goal, she dove to block the ball, which was now coming her way….

Everyone at the field had stopped to watch. They all held their breath as Ken took his shot, waiting to see if J.C. would block it in time. They saw her diving for the ball in an attempt to keep it from scoring….

And saw her catch it just before it went in.

The crowd gasped in surprise, then immediately began cheering. J.C. got up off the ground, dusted her now dirt-covered practice uniform, and threw the ball back over to the coach, who was looking over at her with his mouth wide open. Ignoring the face the coach was making, she glanced over at Ken. His face held no emotion whatsoever, but his eyes…she wasn’t sure if that was pride or hatred she saw in them; maybe a little of both.

The coach ran over to J.C. in astonishment. “That was INCREDIBLE!” he managed to gasp out, still overcome with a mixture of shock and pride. J.C. returned the compliment with a modest smile.

“Just luck, I guess.”

“LUCK?!?!? If that was luck, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle!” he exclaimed, “I watched your eyes the whole time….you KNEW where Ken was going to shoot…and blocked it! That wasn’t luck; that was skill!”

Shrugging the compliments off, she kindly thanked the coach, and walked over to the bench for some water, where her fellow companions were still cheering her off.

“That was awesome!”

“I can’t believe you blocked KEN’s shot!”

“Wow!”

“Oh my God! How’d you DO that?!?”

She regarded each compliment with a smile. Not letting it go to her head, she calmly watched while the tryouts for field positions resumed.

She, indeed, did make the team, along with Ken. The two were known as the star players of, not just their team, but also the entire league. Together, they brought their team to an undefeated victory by the end of the season…. he had scored more shots than the rest of his team put together, and she had only let 10 goals go by her the whole season. No one seemed to notice, however, the tension and silence between the two during nearly every single game, as well as the glares he gave her every so often….

**Part 4: Hakuna Matata**

It had been months since Ken had been defeated as the Digimon Emperor. They all had forgiven Ken long ago for his mistake, but he had yet to forgive himself. He couldn’t even understand why the others had forgiven him…he had unknowingly caused the pain and suffering of so much. That burden was almost too much for Ken to bear. He had lost himself over that period of time; he had lost his heart—something he desperately wished to find, but couldn’t.

During one of his long walks, in which he attempted to collect his thoughts and figure them out, Ken found himself inside the park. Strange…he didn’t remember even heading in this direction. Shrugging it off as nothing to be bothered about, Ken decided to continue his walk through the park. He figured that he would at least get some solitude from the noise of the streets.

Suddenly, he stopped. He had heard something from out in the field. Laughter. Although the thought at viewing someone else’s happiness while he felt none seemed unnerving to him, there was something about the voice that he heard…something familiar. He walked over to a rather large hill, hid behind a tree, and looked down at whoever was there. What he saw was definitely not what he had been expecting to see….

There, running around the field, was a young girl about his age. From his distance, he couldn’t see much more of her features other than her dark-colored denim jeans, baby-blue tank top, and black headband. The headband, which was very thin and stylish, held back long, blonde hair which was otherwise let loose, and fell straight down to around the middle of the girl’s back. She seemed to be playing with another girl, much, much younger than herself, who also had blonde hair. At a glance, Ken could tell that the older girl was apparently attempting to teach the young girl, whom Ken figured must have been about 2 or 3 years old, how to kick a soccer ball around. He watched as the younger girl squealed with delight at every chance she got to either catch the ball, or kick it back to the older girl. The sight made Ken smile. His smile, however, quickly turned to shock as the older girl turned around to pick up the soccer ball, and unknowingly reveal her identity to him….

J.C. Needless to say, Ken was rather surprised to see her; the last he had heard from her was a year ago, when she moved away. At the time, he hadn’t cared in the least—he wasn’t concerned with anything except taking over the digiworld. But soon after he was defeated and came to realize what had been going on around him, he began to miss her. She had left thinking that he hated her. In fact, ever since Sam died, he had been giving off vibes that he hated her. Now, he couldn’t figure out why he had felt that way.

His anger began building up inside him. It was that Arukennimon. SHE made me do all those things…and hurt her… Ken thought, referring to J.C. those last three words. Suddenly, his anger turned to sadness at the thought of the pain he must have caused her. She probably hated him now. Either that, or had forgotten he ever existed.

Ken wanted to turn away, but found he couldn’t. He just stood there, watching her as she taught the little girl how to play. He had never seen her with her hair down before…even when they were little. Ken thought of how pretty she looked now, with her blonde hair framing her face like that. More importantly, he noticed that she still kept that compassionate way about her, as she was seemingly patient with her “pupil,” who kept tripping over the ball much as J.C. had kept doing all those years ago when Ken was first teaching her how to play. I wonder who that is. He thought. Ken had never seen her before, but figured it must have been a relative of J.C.’s…they looked so much alike.

He was so transfixed on his thoughts, Ken never heard anyone coming up behind him. He soon heard a recognizable voice behind him.

“Whatcha looking at, Ken?”

He quickly turned around, to find himself face-to-face with Hikari. Getting over the shock of seeing her here, he quickly muttered, “N-n-nothing.”

She glanced over his shoulder briefly, before smiling and responding, “I didn’t know Nothing had long, blonde hair.” She looked back at him. “Why don’t you just go talk to her instead of standing here all day?”

He looked down. “I can’t.”

“And why ever not?”

“She hates me.”

“Who said?”

“She HAS to hate me!” Ken exclaimed, bring his head back up to face hers. Kari saw the glimmer of tears forming in his eyes. “I was so horrible to her…I was so horrible!”

“Ken.” She began, a stern yet kind voice coming out, “Did we forgive you?”

Ken looked at her for a minute, still not sure of the answer.

Sighing, she continued, “Yes we did. And if we did, then why wouldn’t she?”

“You don’t understand!” he began, before she cut him off.

“Try me.” She had that determined look in her eyes that even Taichi feared on occasion.

“Well…I…” he couldn’t find the words.

“Go. Talk.” She demanded, yet not harshly. Ken gulped, the turned around, and proceeded to walk out onto the field.

As he walked closer, he saw her running over to the little girl and picking her up in excitement; the little girl had just scored a goal. She was so into the game, she never noticed Ken walking up behind her.

“H-hi” Ken stated. She turned around in response to the voice, and Ken nearly lost his breath as he looked into her eyes…. he could have sworn they were more green now than they had ever been.

As soon as J.C. saw who was speaking to her, she gave a slight gasp in shock. “Kenny?” she said. He nodded. Her look hardened as she remembered what he was…but softened as she saw the way he was looking at her now.

“Who’s this?” Ken asked, referring to the little girl J.C. was now holding in her arms. She looked at him suspiciously for a minute before responding.

“This is my little cousin, Kiara. Her mother’s out of town for the day, so I’m babysitting.” Kiara was looking at Ken in a shy way, but smiling at the same time.

Ken bent over slightly so he could be eye-level with little Kiara, smiled at her and said, “Hello, Kiara. My name’s Ken.” Kiara giggled in response, before looking up at her older cousin, who was now smiling again ever so slightly. She began jumping up and down in J.C.’s arms from excitement.

“ Kay-Thee! Kay-Thee! Pwee Thocca!” she demanded in excitement. Ken looked a little confused, and J.C. could only chuckle at his expression.

“She’s only two, so she can’t pronounce words properly, yet. She said ‘K.C.! K.C.! Play Soccer!’”

“K.C.?” Ken asked, slightly more confused.

“Yeah…my aunt never could get my name right, and always called me ‘K.C.’, rather than ‘J.C.’ I guess she kinda taught Kiara the wrong name.” She replied, still giggling a little.

“Oh, so I guess I should start calling you “Kasey” from now on, is that right?” Ken joked, a smile on his face now. She replied with a smile on hers as well.

“Actually, I like that name…but you had BETTER not call me that, Kenny-boy!” she replied in a half-joking manner.

They started walking over to the sidewalk, where they sat down to talk. J.C. put Kiara down to go play, but instead, the little girl walked right up to Ken and held her arms up.

“That means she wants you to pick her up” J.C. explained, the smile on her face growing a bit wider. Ken picked up the little girl and put her on his lap. “I’m surprised; she’s usually very shy around strangers. I guess she must like you.”

Kiara looked up at Ken and gave him a smile that could have melted the heart of the cruelest person on the earth. “Ken-ny!” she exclaimed, remembering her older cousin call him that. J.C. gave a little gasp in shock.

“That got to be the first time she’s ever gotten anyone’s name right!” she exclaimed.

“Really?” Ken was a bit surprised. J.C. nodded. He looked down at Kiara, who was happily sitting on his lap.

“She’s really very pretty.” He said to J.C.

“Thank you.” She replied.

“She looks just like you.” He said without thinking. When he realized what he had just said, he looked up in alarm over to J.C., who had the shocked look back on her face.

“Y-you mean that?” she asked. Blushing, Ken nodded. J.C. began to blush, too. At this point, both of them had forgotten all about what had happened in the past. Kiara eventually got bored sitting on Ken’s lap, and hopped off to go play with her soccer ball, leaving J.C. and Ken together on the bench.

“When did you move back?” Ken asked.

“This Summer.” Ken was a bit surprised that she had been here for so long, yet he hadn’t seen her.

“Well, I’m glad you did. I missed you.” He said, while looking away so she wouldn’t see his face turning pink.

“I missed you too. I left thinking you never wanted to speak to me again, but I guess I was wrong.” He looked back at her. Mustering up every ounce of courage he had, he turned to face her.

“I’m sorry.” He said.

“Forget about it. It was in the past,” J.C. replied, “Hakuna Matata, right?” she added with a smirk, recalling that phrase from the movie they had watched together so long ago. She hoped Ken remembered it..

Ken smiled back at her. “Right.” He said. Then, without much of a warning, she leaned in to kiss him.

Ken was surprised; she ALWAYS found ways of surprising him like that, ever since they were little. It was just a peck on the lips, but it still left Ken in somewhat of a daze. She smiled at him, and he smiled back, their faces still so very close.

“Forgiven.” She whispered, and kissed him again….

Back up at the top of the hill, Hikari stood watching the two, with a smile on her face. Another figure, a bit taller than Hikari, walked up behind her.

“Playing matchmaker again, are we?” Takeru asked with a grin.

“Yup.” She replied without even turning around.

“Tsk-tsk-tsk.” He scolded her in a joking manner, “When are you gonna learn NOT to interfere with other people’s love life?”

“When I get it wrong?” She replied, equally joking. They laughed a bit, before Takeru changed the subject.

“So then, what do you have planned for the Winter Dance, oh Madam Cupid?”

Hikari grinned and turned back to the couple, “You’ll see….”

**Part 5: Epilogue**

It was two weeks before Christmas, and the beginning of Christmas Vacation. As tradition stood, the signal of Christmas Vacation was with the annual Winter Dance at the school. All the kids were excited. Taichi was going with Sora, Miyako had gained up the courage (after giving up on Ken once she found out he now had a girlfriend) to ask Koushiro, who accepted, Mimi was in town and had agreed to go with Jyou, Hikari was going with Takeru (after dealing with about three hours of complaining from EACH of their brothers…yet swearing they were just going as friends), Yamato was performing with his band at the dance, Daisuke and Iori were going solo (Daisuke refused to go with anyone but Hikari, and Iori kept on saying how he was “too young to be going on a date”), and, of course, Ken was going with J.C.

The girls had all gotten together to get ready for the dance, and had agreed to meet the boys there; “We wanna keep our dresses a surprise,” they kept insisting. That was just fine with the boys, however…they would simply meet their dates/friends there.

Around 10 minutes after the dance began, all of the guys had arrived. Now all they had to do was wait for the girls. They hung around together by the food table…Daisuke and Taichi occasionally stuffing food in their mouths, the others just rolling their eyes at the pigs they sometimes called friends.

Sora and Mimi were the first to arrive, both of them grinning and saying the younger girls would be here shortly…they just had some last-minute things to take care of.

Taichi nearly choked when he saw Sora. She was wearing a long-sleeved, off-the-shoulder red dress, which came down to her knees. It was tight fitting, but not TOO tight. Her hair was pulled back into a high bun (courtesy of Mimi, of course), with two, red chopsticks poking out from either side. Over the dress, she wore a see-through, long-sleeved, white sweater, but it was so small. It only covered her arms, half her back, and was merely tied together in the front. Around her neck, she wore the necklace that Taichi had given her for an early Christmas present: a choker that had an exact copy of her crest in the front.

Jyou’s reaction was somewhat more civilized, yet it was hard for him to keep his eyes from bugging out of their sockets as he gave Mimi a once-over.

Mimi had dressed herself in a pink and green spaghetti-strapped dress that also went down to her knees. Her hair, which she had dyed back to its original light-brown color, was down and flowing over her shoulders, save a few locks here and there which had been braided.

Just as the others were beginning to complain why the three missing girls weren’t there yet, who should walk in but Hikari, Miyako, and J.C.

Hikari was probably the most casually dressed of the three. Protesting against all of Mimi’s whishes to dress formally, she decided to stick with a long, hunter-green skirt, and a gorgeous v-neck sweatshirt one of her friends had given her last Christmas. Around her neck was a copy of her crest of Light, as well as Takeru’s crest of Hope, Taichi’s Crest of Courage, etc. (Takeru’s Christmas present to her that year). She had taken her hair out of it’s usual clip, and let it hang loosely over her face. She kept INSISTING she didn’t want to dress up, because she was, “only going with Takeru.”

Koushiro was somewhat surprised when he saw Miyako. Mimi grinned proudly from the sidelines as she watched Koushiro’s expression; she had solely been in charge of every girl’s ensemble…save for the stubborn Hikari. Miyako had taken her hair out of that bandana, and had pulled it back in a green headband instead, contrasting nicely with her purple hair. She had taken her glasses off and was now wearing contacts. Now that her glasses weren’t hiding her face anymore, Mimi had added a touch of makeup to give Miyako’s skin a glowing tone to it. Miyako wore a purple floor-length dress that matched her hair perfectly in color, with a green sweater over it. Normally, Mimi would have NEVER suggested mixing green with purple, but for some strange reason, the colors went great together on her raven-haired friend. Koushiro smiled as he brought Miyako out onto the dance floor, not taking his eyes off of her for a second.

At long last, Mimi turned to, what she considered, her greatest creation ever. She had to cover her mouth with her hand to keep from bursting into laughter at Ken’s expression. His eyes were practically falling out of their sockets, and his jaw had hit the floor.

“Y-you look…beautiful, Jenna.” He managed to say. J.C. beamed in the praise of her new boyfriend.

For the first time ever, J.C. neither wore a headband, nor had her hair pulled back. She had asked Mimi, a good friend of Hikari’s, to style her hair for her, and Mimi had chosen to give the young girl a slight perm. Her hair now hung loosely over her shoulders in a soft wave of loose curls. She wore an Emerald-Green, no-sleeves dress that came up to her neck, and down to her ankles. The dress was tight fitting, like Sora’s, but not too tight, also like Sora’s.

Giggling, J.C. held out her hand to Ken, who accepted it, though still in a trance, and followed her out onto the dance floor along with everyone else. Even Daisuke and Iori seemed to be having fun; not ONCE did either of them complain about not having a date.

The evening wore on, and pretty soon, a slow-dance came on.

“All right, people…we’re got a special dedication going from Ken Ichijoji, to his girl, J.C. Miyaya….this one’s for the two of them!” the DJ announced. J.C. looked over at Ken, who merely grinned in response. As the song began, he led her back out to the dance floor, and wrapped his arms around her. She folded her arms around his neck.

*Never Had A Dream Come True* by S Club 7 came on. J.C. smiled; she had told him a few weeks ago that she absolutely loved this song. J.C. had bought the CD at the mall one day, and had immediately become attached to the music. The two slowly moved closer together as the song played on. Soon, she was resting her head on his chest, eyes closed, and engulfed in the moment. She began to softly sing along with the music…

You'll always be the dream that fills my head
Yes you will, say you will
You know you will, oh baby
You'll always be the one I know I'll never forget
It's no use looking back or wondering
(Or wondering)
Because love is a strange and funny thing…

She found herself agreeing completely with the lyrics. Love was, indeed, “a strange and funny thing.” But one thing she was certain for sure…she was in love. She glanced up only once, to find herself face-to-face with the one she was in love in…and briefly kiss him again. By his simple actions, she could tell he felt the same.

As he looked down at her, Ken suddenly felt something inside him. It was beating loudly. My heart. It was then, Ken finally found the power to forgive himself for his past, and all the things he had done because of a mistake on his part….That’s all it was: a mistake. He bent down to kiss her as she moved upward. When they broke apart, they smiled at each other.

“Keep singing.” He whispered to her. She obeyed, and sang along softly to the final verse of the song

I never had a dream come true
'Til the day that I found you
Even though I pretend that I've moved on
You'll always be my baby
I never found the words
(Never found the words to say) to say
You're the one I think about each day (each day)
And I know no matter where life takes me to
A part of me will always be
A part of me will always be with you, ooh…

Over towards the side, Hikari stood leaning in Takeru’s arms, a smirk on her face as she watched her little plan in action.

“So,” Takeru began, causing her to look up at him, “If you’re cupid, then what does that make me?”

Turning around, Hikari wrapped her arms around his neck, smirking, and leaned in, “…my bow-and-arrow caddy?”

“Har-har.”

As soon as the song finished, a new one came on…yet the two never noticed as they looked into each other’s eyes, and smiled. I’ve finally found my heart, Ken thought. It was her…she was my heart the entire time…

“You never appreciate what you have, until the threat of loosing it becomes all-too real” -Unanimous Quote

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