'He did what!?' Jeri screamed and immediately lowered her voice. 'Did he really say that?' Her eyes were shining of happiness. Rika was to embarassed to say anything.
'That's so great, Rika, I'm happy for you!' Jeri tried to hug her but Rika escaped her arms. She pushed herself away using her legs and leaned against Jeri's bed. They were in Jeri's room, sitting on the floor. Takato had to go home and he wasn't really happy about that. He didn't show his annoyance but both girls could clearly see him rolling his eyes in a mirror reflection - he on the other hand didn't notice anything.
'I don't know, Jeri ...' Rika said and hugged her knees. 'That's so weird.'
'Oh, cmon, I've always seen you two as a couple!'
'But .. We're friends and .. we .. I .. I could never be .. lovey-dovey with him,' Rika continued.
'Lovey-dovey?' Jeri started to laugh.
'Don't you laugh!' Rika said and threw her a pillow. 'That's horrible! Can you imagine me and Ryo all sweet and sugary??'
Juri thought for a moment and Rika understood that as a negative answer.
'See?' she said and layed down. 'What am I suppose to do??'
Juri layed down to her and looked at her. 'No, you're right, I hardly imagine you being sweet-'
'Exactly!'
'with anyone!' Juri finished the sentence. 'That's how you are, Rika, but I'm sure you can be very .. hihi .. lovey-dovey, when you're alone with a person you love!'
'But I don't .. love the guy,' Rika said and blushed. Juri acted as if she didn't see that.
'You did cry on the phone, you know ...'
'Of course I did! He scared the hell out of me! It was so sudden and .. and .. and he's Ryo, goddamn! And .. Well, I was just sniffling!!'
'So what, if he's Ryo!' Jeri said and stood up. 'Takato was my classmate! I knew him all my life! How weird is that!?'
Rika sat down:'You're right, it is kinda weird ...' She started to laugh and Jeri punched her with a pillow.

Rika slept at Jeri's. She had a dream about hundreds of Ryos turning into candy and hunting her. In the end she ate them all and they were really sweet. She didn't remember the dream, when she woke up, but she was really thursty and didn't know why.
When she looked at Jeri, who was sleeping in a futon, she remembered the previous night and she felt a sudden pain in her chest. She was afraid of meeting Ryo because she didn't know what to do. She was thinking about the whole situation late in the night. She tried to think of all the times they spent together and realised that she stopped thinking about a relationship with him a long time ago. When did that happen?

After they beat the D-Reaper, Ryo was still living in Kyushu, hundreds of kilometers away from Tokyo. They only saw each other on Digimon tournaments. They only played against each other once. She won but couldn't get rid of the feeling, that he let her win. In times of the tournaments Ryo, her, Kazu and Kenta spent every single day together. That was also the time of Rika's stupid girly dreams about Ryo. She stopped dreaming about him in college but she could still remember the dreams. She told Jeri about them (of course she didn't reveal Ryo's identity) and Jeri just laughed that Rika was a girl afterall. When she learned about Ryo coming to Tokyo to study in the capital city, she got really excited about it. But then they started to hang out almost every day and he became a close friend. They laughed together, they did stuff together and most importantly - they argued whenever they wanted! That's not something you can do with your lover, is it!? At least not that often.

She decided to leave Ryo the first step. If he already messed everything up, he should fix it, too!

Rika left Juri late in the afternoon and went straight home. She wanted to disappear in her room but her mum caught her.
'Here you are, honey! Come to the kitchen, I need to tell you something!' her mum said and she was suspiciously excited. Rika just followed her into the kitchen. Her grandma was already there.
'What's up?' Rika asked the two women.
Her mum took a letter from the table and showed it to Rika.
'What's that?'
'You did it, Rika!! You won that stupid prize to Europe!!' her mum cried and Rika pulled the letter from her hands.
'Dear miss Nonaka Rika ... won a prize ... a month in Berlin ... two persons ... congratulations ... your answer ...' Rika was reading the letter greedily. 'That's so ... so great, mum!!' Rika cried and the three women were jumping around the kitchen like three little girls.
Rika at least forgot about Ryo for a few moments. But they didn't last long.
'Oh, I almost forgot! Ryo called an hour or two ago,' her grandma suddenly said and Rika felt that pain in her chest again.
'Oh really .. I'll call him back later.'

She didn't call him back. She was lying on the bed the rest of the day, thinking of her trip to Europe, Ryo, Ryo, Ryo, Europe ... Ryo in Europe. OH STOP IT!
She was afraid he'd call again. When he didn't, she was disappointed. She felt really stupid and she wanted to call him back a few times but she always changed her mind.

It was school next day. Rika couldn't sleep most of the night and in the morning she felt like someone had driven over her.
She intended to be late for school, so that she wouldn't have to meet him. But by pure coincidence he was late too and he bumped into her in front of the school. She immediately turned red and nervous.
'Oh, hi, Rika! You're late!' he said happily.
'Oh and you're not!?' she said a bit too agressively.
'Wow, you're even more edgy than usually!' he giggled.
What game is he playing? Does he want me to do the first step!? You wish, mister!!
They were walking up the same stairs in silence.
'I'm the one who should be mad, you know girl!' he said and Rika stopped.
'Why's that ...?' she said quietly.
'Well, my queen, ('Don't call me like that!'), you didn't come to my party! You said you'd come!'
Ryo took her ability to speak already twice in three days. What did he just say?
'What do you mean ...? I was there!' she said loudly.
'Satoshi said you weren't and I don't remember seing you either,' he said and gave her a faked angry look.
'But ...' she didn't know what to say. He doesn't remember!? 'Don't you remember our .. our conversation?'
'What conversation?' he asked her and lifted his right eyebrow.
'Oh, never mind! You drank too much and you probably don't remember!' she said and smiled at him.
'Oh no, you saw me drunk? I hope I didn't do anything stupid!'
'No, you didn't do anything ...' she said. 'I ... I forgot we had our first lesson in the basement, stupid me!' She giggled, said bye and ran down the stairs. She almost felt and killed another student ('Watch out woman!') but she managed to reach the main doors and she left the building.
She was walking for six hours and when she had no more tears left, she went to work. And that was the first time Rika was there punctually.