So he sat in the park, away from everybody, and he saw the person who was especially his tormentor. Why had she had to walk this way? She was alone. He was grateful for that. He didn't think he could bear seeing her with someone else.
She was nearly past when he finally couldn't take it anymore. "Kari..." he started tenatively.
"T.K.," she said coldly. She had never spoken coldly to him before.
"Kari..." he started again. "Can we talk?"
"What do we have to talk about?" Her voice was still cold, but T.K. could swear it wasn't quite as cold as it had been.
"I think we do," he said.
"What do you want to say to me?" she snapped, but she did sit down.
"Kari," asked T.K. desperately, "what did *I* ever do to *you*?"
Her face softened, and for a fleeting moment, he though it might work. But then she sighed, "T.K., it's not what you did. It's what you didn't do."
"Kari," he pleaded, "I couldn't have done anything. You think I have any sway over my brother? You've seen how he's become."
"What about Sora?" she persisted. "Didn't you try to talk to her?"
How he could have been expected to have any influence over her T.K. had no idea, but Kari took his confused silence to become angry again: "You didn't, did you? And you say you couldn't have done anything!"
"What am I supposed to do?" asked T.K., getting angry himself. "I have loyalties towards my brother too, you know!"
"You care about him more then you care about me!" Kari yelled. It looked like she was going to cry.
For a moment, T.K. was willing to take it all back, just so he wouldn't have to see her upset. But then he realized in full what she had said. "He's my brother Kari! I can't just betray him! Not for anything!"
"So you admit it, you care more about him then me!"
"Yes!" He didn't even regret it; he was too angry, too stung by her words. "At least he doesn't force me to choose between him and you!"
Kari, surprised by his forcefulness, for several seconds said nothing. Then T.K. started to get up to leave, and she grabbed his hand. "Stop, please."
Any desire to pull away melted when he saw the tears start to leak out of her eyes. "Hear me out," she said, "Please." He sat back down.
"You say you care more about your brother then you care about me. But then you have to let me do that too...right now, Tai, he's broken. Matt did that to him.
You look too much like your brother, T.K. When I look at you, I see the person who ruined Tai. Who was his best friend, and stabbed him in the back. I can't spend my days looking at that face, even if I love the heart under it."
T.K. nodded slowly. He actually didn't need to hear this, he had all but figured it out on his own already. He leaned over and embraced Kari for the last time, and she closed her eyes and lay still. Then she pulled away. Tears were running down her cheeks. Then she pulled away if she was burnt and ran.
She did not look back. He wondered if doing so might have caused her to run back to him, despite everything she held against him, and against Matt.
He got up and walked off in the opposite direction. He'd get through. Somehow. He just wished he knew how.