Location: Sakura's room
Time frame: Wednesday
Point of View: Sakura

My eyes flipped open to a string of loud, mind-rattling beeps; whatever dream I was having slipped away along with a few thousand of my brain cells. Forcefully, I slammed my hand over the top of my alarm clock and felt my victory as it fell flat on its face in silence on the ledge above me. Sluggishly, I dragged it down the headboard and under the sheets to bring it to my view.

Six-thirty, I determined. Five more minutes...

I had decided that sleeping an extra five minutes wasn't going to make much of a difference to the beginning of my morning. Not only that, six-thirty was early anyway. So, indulgently, I closed my eyes to rest them for a little while longer.

“Sleeping Monster... time to get up!” I heard all too soon.

My ears popped before they were again assaulted by a scraping noise. Everything became blindingly bright (the result of undrawn curtains). Quickly I crawled underneath the sheets for protection.

“Huh, Touya?—what are you doing here?” my voice coming out raspy.

He didn't answer. Instead, he just left. Internally, I sighed, thinking about how my brother was a grown man and yet he's still into playing such childish, mean games on his sister. It didn't matter though; I wasn't the little kid he used to tease when we were younger. I was a lot older, a lot smarter, and I'll just get him back when he least expects it.

Happy with my own resolve, I lay underneath the sheet's warmth for a few moments longer. I smiled at the marshmallowy cocoon I was under. If I had to pick something I liked about winter, it was being able to snuggle underneath layers of sheets and blankets and feeling their enveloping warmth. And if I had to pick a bad thing, it was getting up, which I realised was what I had to do now, or I'd be late to school.

So popping my head back up above my sheets, I stretched out my arms, giving my body a satisfying stretch before returning one of them back underneath to feel for my alarm clock. When I finally found it and brought it to my view, I almost fell out of my bed. The clock indicated five to eight; and school started at eight-thirty. I was supposed to be up twenty five minutes ago. I was late... I was more than late!

Rushing to the bathroom in a stumbling heap, I began my morning routine: I took my shower then dried my hair before putting on my make-up. I was actually making up good time at the speed I was going—that was until my eyeliner ran past the corner of my right eye and up towards the brow bone.

I cursed and reached for the make-up correction pen I had in my make-up box. But as luck would have it, it had dried up. Another curse escaped me as I wondered why—of all times—it had to dry up today. I settled for a moistened q-tip and began erasing the extra length. But instead of fixing the problem, it smudged the line as well as the eye make-up, making it worse.

Defeated, I whimpered at my futile attempt to make up lost time. There was no way I could go to school looking like this; I looked like I had a bruise on my eye. I was definitely going to be late now.

Then unexpectedly, the bathroom door opened. I turned curiously in the direction, wondering who it could be. To my surprise, Li walked in.

He said nothing when he entered; he simply offered me a smile before moving to wash his hands in the basin next to mine.

Grabbing my make-up mirror, with a fresh q-tip in hand, I turned away and continued my business away from his view. I couldn't really concentrate with him in the room though. His presence was making me incredibly uncomfortable. I was looking like a panda, trying not to look like a panda, and he was next to me washing his hands—and so slowly too.

My gaze flicked towards him, watching—maybe a little out of impatience and maybe a little out of curiosity as well. He continued to lather. It took me one more flick of my gaze before he finally finished. He shook off his hands before making his way towards the hand towels. I turned in the opposite direction, ducking lower and moving my mirror closer to my face to keep it away from his view.

After pulling a couple of hand towels from the dispenser and drying off his hands, he finally made a move towards the direction of the door. But instead of making it all the way there, he stopped. He reached over my shoulder and pulled out a face towelette from the packet I had sitting in front of me (something I hadn't realised was sitting there before). He turned me around to face him; I stood there, frozen in place, staring back at him with my panda-of-an-eye.

“You're beautiful no matter what you have on your face,” he said, his voice soft and deep.

For some time, he stayed standing in front of me, staring, as if waiting for some sort of response. I decided to offer him a smile. He seemed satisfied and returned a smile before he moved to work on the smudge above my left eye.

Seconds later, he was finished. He flicked the towelette off to the side and I watched him step closer, the gap between him and me dangerously small. But I made no move to back away as I tried to grasp the situation and decipher his intentions through his gaze: I saw deepened brown and flecks of golden desire stare back at me.

Quickly, it became obvious to me what he was thinking—what he wanted. My heart started to thump, anticipating his move to close the distance between us completely; my breathing became shallow; and my body growing warmer every second that passed under his gaze. Then, before there was even enough time to register his advance, I found myself expressing a moan of pleasure in his skillful mouth.

His foot tapped the sole of my shoe; I travelled backwards; continuing to until I was backed up against the wall behind me. There, a trail of electrifying warmth travelled down my bare arms as his hands caressingly slid from the top of my shoulders down to my hands. He moved to thread his fingers through mine, and slowly, he brought my hands above my head then—Oof—with force, he pinned them down with a hand of his. He pressed his body up against mine as his kiss, once gentle and soft, intensified, causing me to enter into a frenzy of uncontrolled desire.

I could feel a part of him harden against me; and I began to burn and throb below, wanting him to take me then and there. But he kept me restrained, asserting his power over me and my senses. He used his kisses, his tongue and his warm breath to tease me, finding all my weak spots (and more)—and he continued until he drove deep into me an insane desire for him.

Then finally, he let go of my hands. Without a moment wasted, I made quick use of my newfound freedom and tore off his shirt as we stumbled aimlessly away from the wall. His belt was the next to go—and not a moment too soon as far as I was concerned. I was going to have him...

No I had to have him—

Bang!

Huh?—wh-what was that? My eyes flipped open, startled by the sudden noise. Double white doors greeted me; I stared at them, disorientated.

Pink curtains... wooden study desk... my tote bag...? These were the items in my room I found in my scan, and from that I soon realised I was in my room, in my bed, and I had been woken up from my sleep. It was morning and—

Euh, it's so hot! Immediately, I flung the blankets away from me, letting the cool air dry the sweaty feeling from my body.

Then wondering what time it was, I rolled onto my front to look up at my alarm clock. It wasn't where I thought it would be though. So leaving the ledge, I searched beside me and found it lying next to my pillow—I must have reeled it in again. I picked it up just as a yawn surfaced; I read it through watery eyes: Seven-fifty...

Suddenly, realisation hit me and I bolted to the window. I tore apart the curtains then looked down onto the street. There it was; Kansuke's black car parked on the side road; and half way up the path to my house was:

“Kansuke!”

That noise I had woken up from; it must have been his car door. I could not believe I overslept. Kansuke and I were supposed to meet at seven and head out for breakfast just before school began. It was his football final (or soccer final as some might be more used to) today, and we thought it'd be a great idea to get a big breakfast in before he took on our visitors (who annually took part in the sports exchange between our two schools). I don't know why I always do this.

Hurriedly, I sprinted downstairs to leave the door open for Kansuke before sprinting back up to make a call to him.

“Hey, I'm just outside your house,” he said, picking up.

“I know. I'm not ready. I woke up late. I'm so sorry, but can you give me twenty minutes?”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks, Kansuke. Oh, the door's already opened.” Then I clicked off and quickly began my rushed morning routine—all the while—feeling completely embarrassed for making Kansuke wait below.

He had teased me about this the night before. He was saying how I had a habit of being late in the mornings and suggested that we go for breakfast another time—like in the weekends; because we didn't have to be anywhere on time. Then he laughed. But I didn't think it was funny because I could get up on time. I had told him how I was going to prove it to him too by being ready and waiting at the door even before he arrived.

Well that hadn't happened. All my huffing and puffing ended up to be just hot air (as you can tell now). I really should learn to get up when the alarm clock rings. I wouldn't be in this situation had I not decided to sleep past it; and I definitely wouldn't have to constantly check to see if I had put on my make-up right or if my skirt was pulled down properly at the back from rushing so much. Twenty minutes was just not enough time to do everything.

In fact, I barely made it in thirty—I better prepare myself for a huge teasing. Making my way down the stairs, I descended them in a fast run before I slowed down to a normal walking pace at the bottom. Mumbled voices were heard as I made my way down the hall, and I linked them to the television. Kansuke must be in the lounge watching it.

Walking into the room, I called for him. He turned to face me, answering the call:

“Ready?” he asked. I nodded, embarrassed. “Well, let's go then,” he said simply. He then turned the television off with the remote before waiting for me to walk out the door with him.

“I'm so sorry for making you wait,” I apologised some more.

I felt guilty and—as I had mentioned many times already—embarrassed for the amount of time I had taken. Even now, as we walked down the path towards his car, he'd made no move to tease me or look even the slightest bit annoyed. He was quite laid back about it which surprised me because most guys I know wouldn't let me off that easy. In fact, not even my friends let me off without at least a little teasing; and if positions were changed and I was him and he was me, I'd probably give me a little teasing too, but all he said in response to my apology was:

“It's all good, Babe,” before opening the front passenger door for me to get in, “After you.” He then got into his side of the car. “I know it takes time to look good,” he added.

I didn't know whether to take that comment as a good thing or a bad thing—was that the teasing?—or was it meant to be understood as his way of saying that he understands that a girl needs time to be presentable in the morning... or should I be offended that he thought I needed the time to look good?

Dismissing the thought, I offered him a smile and returned a kiss (as he had leaned in for one).

“So... a late night?” he began again.

“The whole night you were up on the phone with me—you should know.”

“It could have been a lot longer if only I was able to convince you to come over to my place last night.”

At that, I stiffened, but not in reaction to Kansuke's suggestive comment, but to the images that suddenly flashed through my mind. His comment brought on images of Li, me being pressed up against a wall and him kissing me—images to a dream I hadn't recalled until presently. As more images came to memory to form a fuller scene with thoughts and feelings, my smile fell and I turned away to stare out onto the road ahead, confused.

For so long, I haven't thought about him—not at school, not at home, not in my spare time. After we got past the whole confession, avoiding each other, and then having Li tell me—more or less—we were okay again, there was nothing more—there shouldn't be anymore for me to deal with. Come to think of it, we haven't even been in one place together long enough to have a decent conversation recently (I put our lack of contact down to Li's studies—as final exams are nearing—and work and my busy schedule with school, modeling, and Kansuke); so there hasn't been an opportunity for him to say or do anything that would give me anything to think about.

Yet, I obviously was. I might not be thinking about him during the day when I was awake, but seemingly I was during my sleep—which I'd say was worse. Now, I was not only confused, but troubled—troubled by his sudden appearance and more so by the way he had appeared in it.

“What's wrong, Babe?” Kansuke entered.

I turned back quickly, realising how serious I must have looked to him. “Umm... nothing,” I lied. Trying to assure him, I added, “I was just thinking if I forgot anything at home.”

“Is that all?” I nodded firmly. “Don't look so serious. If you have, we'll go back and get it after breakfast.”

I leaned my head on Kansuke's shoulder. He reached over with a hand and stroked my hair, the contact comforting me. “Thanks, Kansuke,” I said absently.

Moments more in the car and we finally arrived at our destination. I was met with a little eatery (and I say it not in a negative way; it was little, but in a nice intimate way) that had seats and tables set close together; so close that if you were to sit at the front of the eatery, you could have a nice conversation with the staff standing behind the counter. The most noticeable, though, was the aroma of freshly cooked sushi rice and grilled food wafting the street even before you walk in.

Simply looking forward to trying out the food in this tasty-smelling place, I had finally gotten Li and the dream off my mind. My mind was clear and ready to enjoy a lovely breakfast with Kansuke when another troubling scene threatened my chances of that.

Having left to the bathroom to clean my hands (they had come into contact with something sticky on the menu when I placed my order for my pancakes), I returned to see Kansuke and a young waitress not too much older than me talking and smiling together. I wasn't sure what they had been talking about, but it involved a piece of paper which Kansuke had taken from her and was in the midst of putting into his trouser pocket.

She left, but not before turning back once more to look at Kansuke—almost as if to see if he would turn to look at her as well. Although he didn't notice her look over the shoulder, Kansuke did look pretty happy about their whole exchange.

“I'm back , ” I announced, calmly walking up to our table and trying to act normal. “What did the waitress want?”

“Nothing, Babe. She was just bringing the food over to the table,” he said—which wasn't a lie as there was a plate of pancakes, tea and a grilled fish set on the table where there wasn't before.

“Really?” He nodded, making no reference to the piece of paper. I know I was going to sound like a jealous girlfriend, but I had to know what was on that paper. So continuing, I eyed his pockets, asking: “What did she give you?”

I saw a twitch of his head, as if surprised that I had seen the act. But that was all the reaction I got. He then reached into his right side to retrieve the piece of paper in question and openly admitted to what I believed was on the paper:

“You mean this?” he said, “She gave me her number.” I stiffened as I prepared myself for the possibility of hearing something I didn't want to hear. “I didn't want to hurt her feelings,” he elaborated then he scrunched it into a ball before throwing it into the center of the table like it was trash. “I wasn't going to use it.”

I stared at him, searching his eyes. Although his actions seemed genuine, I did have trouble accepting the explanation. This wasn't the first time he had girls offering him their numbers; and although I've never seen him act on any of it, I couldn't help but have this unsettling feeling deep within me whenever a girl showed interest in him.

I knew he was popular with the girls before we started going out; and it wasn't a problem then because it just showed me how desirable he really was. Now though—now that I'm his girlfriend, I wished that they'd stop coming up to him. Not only that, I wished Kansuke would stop being so friendly with them because he was with me now and shouldn't be paying any attention of that kind to any girl but me.

“Breakfast,” he said suddenly, eyes moving to the food on the table. “I'm hungry. You should eat it too, Sakura—before it gets cold.”

My gaze lingered on him, disappointed he had moved his own away from me so easily. But deciding to let it go for the sake of not ruining the occasion, I cut into the pancakes and began eating my breakfast.

For a long time, clinks and slurps were the only sounds at our table. We ate in silence, neither of us speaking. I was beginning to feel annoyed at his complete disregard for my feelings—or more like, he didn't even seem to realise that he had done something wrong. But just as I was beginning to lose hope, he spoke and apologised.

He realised it was wrong for him to take the waitress' number and for not rejecting her straight out; and although I knew he was joking about the following, he even begged me to think of something horrible to punish him so that it'd teach him to never accept another waitress' number. When I declined to do so, seeing the exercise unnecessary, he decided he'd come up with some of his own. He had come up with such ridiculous punishments for himself that I couldn't help but laugh and accept his apology.

Really, I just don't know what I was going to do with him—one moment he's flirting with girls, making me feel horrible and inadequate, and then the next he's got his hands cupped and begging me to forgive him and making me feel like the most important girl in his life.

But in the end, everything between us worked out okay. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast together, we were full, and we had plenty of energy for the day ahead. We left the eatery talking about Kansuke's football final this afternoon. He was so excited that he couldn't stop talking about it. The whole entire drive back to school he was saying how he couldn't wait to play this afternoon because he was the man and his team (Kansuke being the team's captain) was going to be soaking in victory by the end of the day... or something like that. Kansuke was definitely pumped up, and seeing how excited he was I too couldn't help but start to get a little pumped up myself.

I arrived at school shouting and laughing before running off into the school's football pitch and kicking a few rounds with the ball to burn off some of that unexpected peak of energy. It only lasted for a short while though, because after several mostly failed attempts trying to get the ball pass Kansuke, I decided to take a rest on the bleachers to spend the rest of the time watching him practice his drills—at least that was what I had planned to do; because when I got out my cell phone to look at the time, I was late.

Amongst the shouting and the running, somehow I missed the warning bell for class because the second bell was about to go any moment now. So grabbing my tote bag, I jumped off the bleachers, ran over to kiss Kansuke goodbye before running like mad to homeroom. Normally, Kansuke and I would be making our way to homeroom together, but as today was the football final, Kansuke was excused for the morning to train (which didn't officially start for another twenty minutes, so he not only gets the morning off, but he could have slept in too. Football guys get such special treatment!).

I was a corner away from entering the hallway entrance when my shoulder collided against another. I felt myself spin around before a stinging pain echoed down my arm.

“Ouch...” I said, rubbing my right shoulder.

“Sorry.” I looked up to see Li standing in front of me. “Are you alright?” he asked.

Without knowing, my gaze had moved to Li's hands (they had taken hold of my shoulders—the right one rubbing my arm slightly) and I suddenly froze. I wanted to answer him, but unexpectedly, my mouth had dried up, my heart was beating against my chest, and I just didn't trust my voice to come out right. So instead I nodded.

“Are you sure? Do you want to go to the nurse's office?” Again, I shook my head.

When he released me from his hold and lowered towards the floor, I took the chance to hydrate my lips, breathe deeply, and recompose myself. Half-way through my exhale, I realised he was picking up the things that had splattered onto the floor—my things.

Quickly, I crouched down, waving my hands to get Li to stop: “You d—I'll do it...“

“It's okay,” he insisted, picking up a book, a few pieces of stationery before reaching for my tote bag to put them all in for me.

He handed my belongings back to me.

“Thanks, Li,” I managed to say, returning upright. At the same time, the final bell also sounded.

“It looks like class has started,” he said, articulating the bell's warning.

He lowered his gaze to look directly into mine, taking a step forward. My breath hitched and I felt my head swim a little, barely catching his question,

“Are you sure you're alright?” I nodded distractedly; he smiled. “That's good,” then he left, leaving me in my place to stare at his retreating back.

Mr. Hisamatsu had already made a start on the daily topics of discussion by the time I got to homeroom (Mr. Hisamatsu has been previously introduced as my calculus teacher, but he's also my teacher for homeroom). I took my usual seat at the back, just next to the door and stared at the whiteboard at the front. My hand lay cupped against a cheek, leveraged by an elbow, feeling its warmth, whilst my heart continued to thump against my chest.

What happened back there? All the other days I had been fine in Li's presence; I didn't freeze, I didn't heat up, and I definitely could talk in front of him. Even as recent as yesterday, when I stopped to say a brief hello to him in Calculus class, I was fine. But today, I bump into him, and all of a sudden I was frozen and unable to even say a simple ‘yes' to tell him that my arm was fine.

I suppose it might have something to do with the dream; after all, it was what had popped into my mind when he held me by the shoulders. But then I hadn't really figured out what the dream meant so it didn't do much to enlighten things.

Then there was that penetrating gaze of his. I guess if I was to be honest about it, I've always been affected by it one way or another. Something about Li's gaze, the way he looks at me with those eyes, it had always made me nervous. It didn't matter if his gaze was on me because he was waiting for me to answer or he was listening to me speak, it always made me think that with one look, he could see into my mind; read my thoughts; or figure something out about me that even I wasn't aware of.

The only difference between all the other times and this time is that I've never in the past become so speechless, so immobilised by it. I don't know; the incident in the hallway, the dream, it's all so confusing.

Unable to sort it out myself, I decided to take it up with Tomoyo. She had always been the one I went to whenever I had anything I needed to sort through, but not only because she was my best friend, but because she was so insightful about things such as life matters. My chance to talk to her came during morning recess, after listening to her amazingly beautiful voice in the music room (we had decided to go there so she could practice her choir solo in front of me). But what I had decided to talk to her about was not specifically concerning Li, but rather more along the lines of what she thought about dreams and their meaning.

“Hmm... they can mean many things I suppose,” Tomoyo answered in thought.

“Like...?” inviting her to elaborate.

“Like... When I was really stressed out about an important fashion show I had to do, I dreamt about not finishing on time; or a piece of the outfit is missing. I even dreamt that a twister appeared and blowing them all from my hands, and I was dangling off the hem of the dresses, trying to save them from flying off into the sky (I let out a giggle at the last image; Tomoyo can be so funny sometimes). For that dream, I put it down to nervousness I had or worry over the fashion show coming up.”

Tomoyo continued to add to her answer: “Dreams are cryptic though and don't always present a literal meaning. Still, I guess it could represent a fear; a desire; a need—I read somewhere that it could be a way of working through something you can't in real life...”

Desire... For what?—for Li? I thought involuntarily. Internally, I shook my head off the thought.

“Sakura,” Tomoyo called. I redirected my attention to her. “I'm thinking something you dreamt is making you ask me about this?” I nodded shyly, knowing she was going to ask me about it—and she did: “What was it about?”

“I-It's kind of embarrassing.”

“You can tell me. I promise I won't laugh.”

Moments of hesitation took place as I weighed the risk of telling her and being embarrassed—but hopefully relieve my burden of keeping this dream to myself—versus not telling Tomoyo and suffering with the images alone. After staring into Tomoyo's reassuring violet eyes and recalling her title of ‘my best friend since we were little children', I was soon encouraged to go ahead and tell her about the dream I had about Li.

I began to go into the dream, mentioning Li, his involvement, the actions and the sensations. The entire time I was telling Tomoyo my dream, she sat still, listening to it without judgement; and as promised, she not once laughed which made it easier to tell it. She did however have a few raises of the eyebrows, but nothing I couldn't take.

When I finally finished telling it, she made only one comment; and that was in regards to how she found Li's appearance in my dreams to be sudden and unexpected since he and I had so little association with each other. It was at this point I felt the need to tell her all that I've been holding out on her; that he'd been in my life a little more than I'd been letting her in on. I mentioned how he had helped me several times already: how he'd helped me with my calculus, how he'd saved me from the rain once, how he'd stayed with me in the tent when everyone was at the campfire listening to ghost stories, and how he'd cooked for me too; and then finally how he'd kissed me one night.

“He kissed you?—when?!” Tomoyo cried as I told her the last part, her voice having gone high-pitched.

A little afraid of the repercussions of not having told her sooner, I answered with hesitation: “...Weeks ago.”

She then leaned in to take hold of my shoulders. “And you didn't tell me?!”

I didn't know what to say except answering sheepishly with: “I didn't think it was important.”

“Not important?—Sakura! There seemingly is this other guy—“

“There is no other guy,” I corrected, but she ignored me.

“—that I didn't even know existed there. We're supposed to be best friends—we tell each other everything.”

“I know Tomoyo. I'm sorry. It's not that I didn't want to tell you. It's me. I just... I guess I just didn't want to think about it.”

“Okay let's put that aside. The question is: what did you do?”

“I...” my voice then went quiet again, “...kissed him back.”

“Then what happened?”

“Then Kansuke turned up.”

“He caught you?”

“No, he turned up after the fact.”

“Did you tell Kansuke?”

I shook my head. “We weren't really that serious yet, so I didn't think I needed to.”

“What about Li then?”

“Nothing—he said he liked me, and I said I was already going out with Kansuke. For a while we both avoided each other, but now we get along fine. We see each other at school and we talk sometimes.”

“What did you think of the kiss?”

“What did I think of the kiss?” I repeated, caught off-guard by the question. “He's... good,” I decided to say.

“Just... ‘good'?” I nodded. She obviously disagreed with my answer. “I don't know Sakura, you can't dream about someone like that for him to be just ‘good'.”

“But Tomoyo, you just said that dreams don't always mean what they show...”

“I know. But think about it, Sakura, after all Li's done for you—and he's done so much—the confession... the kiss; are you sure that he hasn't gotten under your skin? Have you considered that maybe he's starting to make an impression on you more than you know?”

I wasn't too sure about what to think of Tomoyo's thoughts on the situation. She had always been the perceptive one and I've always believed that when she saw something, it usually was not too far off from what was real. I guess I could accept that Li was starting to make an impression on me. He is a nice guy, he's really helpful, caring, and he's smart; I'll even admit that there was something about his eyes too, but does it mean that I was warming up to him in the way she was implying...?

“You know what Sakura?” entered Tomoyo's voice. I lifted my eyes to look at her. Her expression drew my full attention and it made me sit still and wait for what she had to say next. “If I was Kansuke, I'd be worried because he might have a bit of competition soon.”

I sat there in still silence, taken aback by her conclusion of the situation; and I stayed that way until the bell rang not long after. After thanking Tomoyo for listening to me, I headed to class with me in my head. I was pretty much back where I was before morning recess: I was back in my seat, sitting in (History) class, and thinking about Li—except, before he and I were just images in my dream. Now though, after talking to Tomoyo, somehow, she had made the possibility all that much more real.

Yes, I've come to respect Li for all he's done for me; but I just wasn't so sure that Tomoyo had it right this time. She may be more perceptive than most, but she just had to be wrong about this one.

I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply before exhaling a slow exhale. My mind; it couldn't process any of it anymore. Eventually, it went blank.

Lunchtime rolled around and I was glad to be with Tomoyo and my friends again instead of being stuck in class and in my head. Their company as well as the football game that I was watching at the moment was a welcoming distraction. Standing on the sideline of the football pitch with me were Tomoyo, Rika, and Chiharu, as well as Natsumi and her friend Tomoko—both of who had happened to have chosen the same side of the pitch to watch the game from. We had just seen the first half end with the visitors scoring just before the whistle went; and we were now waiting for the players to take a quick breather before the second half got underway.

“I wish it was our team scoring that goal instead of the other team,” Natsumi commented next to me.

“I think if Yamazaki and Eriol were here, we'd be the ones in the lead,” Chiharu replied back.

I agreed with her. Considering it had been an evenly matched game—that was until the very last second when that goal was scored—I, too, believed that, had Eriol and Yamazaki been here, we'd most likely be the ones celebrating the first goal of the game instead of the other team.

But they were both at home; recuperating. Some two or so weeks ago some nasty flu virus had rendered them unable to play. But they weren't the only one's being hit by the virus. It spread itself through two more players in the team and a good number of the reserves too, causing them to all drop out before the competition even started.

It was like some epidemic outbreak within the football team and it had caused such a headache for our football coach, Mr. Ogata (who's also our P.E. teacher). With the number of players out due to the flu, he faced a possibility of withdrawing the team from the exchange. Luckily though, through his persistence, he found barely enough replacements to keep the team in the competition.

“They're back,” Natsumi announced.

I turned back to the game to see the teams taking their position. Seeing Kansuke, I cheered him on, “Come on, Kansuke. Show them what you've got!”

“Go, Li!” Natsumi chimed in.

My gaze left Kansuke to focus on Li. As Natsumi had so energetically cheered for, also running onto the pitch was he.

What I failed to mention when I collided into Li this morning was that he was dressed in the blue and white colours of the school's football uniform; and that he was heading in the opposite direction because he, like Kansuke, had pre-game practice with the football team.

Apparently, Li was one of the guys Mr. Ogata had approached. I say this because I had no idea he'd been recruited until one day last week during football practice. I had decided to stay after school one afternoon to watch Kansuke to find Li also on the pitch, doing his drills.

Before that, I didn't even know he played the game. It was not until I had brought this discovery up with Tomoyo as a random topic did I find out that Li had a short stint as a member of the team last season—a fact I must've either missed or forgotten because I went to almost every game since Kansuke began playing and I knew or knew of all the players on the team since. According to Tomoyo (who knew this from Eriol), it was this short stint which led Mr. Ogata to consider Li. Seemingly he had made enough of an impression on Mr. Ogata for him to approach Li about standing in as a reserve.

Being offered this opportunity, you'd think anyone would accept, but not Li. From what Natsumi tells me, Li declined at first because he couldn't spare any time for the game; he had his studies to think about—a reason I thought was in fact very Li. So many guys in school would kill to be a part of the football team, but not him; studies were more important.

I had to give it to him; he was one of a kind. It took Mr. Ogata to assure him extra credit for his participation before he finally accepted it seems. So now he was on the football team, but not as a reserve, but somehow managed to move up as a member of it.

This sight of Li; it was a strange one. I was used to seeing him at the school library, up in trees, alone; not in the school's football uniform, playing the school's most popular sport with some of the school's most popular guys. Not only was he playing on the team, but he was actually pretty good at the sport.

He had the ball at the moment and was moving in a rather quick, skillful fashion. He had just received the ball from Kansuke and was in the process of maneuvering it around the defenders. My eyes lay still as he continued to advance. It looks like he was thinking of shooting for goal, despite the distance and position he was shooting from.

And then seconds later it was in.

The crowd cheered and I stood stunned at his strength and aim. Apparently, Li was not only pretty good, but really good. I suppose this display must've been the reason behind his promotion. He just scored the team's first goal.

“Way to go, Li!” both Natsumi and Tomoko cheered.

“Li's impressive,” expressed Tomoyo.

“I'll say. That was quite an angle he was shooting at. I can't believe he picked it.” Chiharu added.

I watched Li jog back into position. There was no celebration on his part. All he did was acknowledge the few fellow teammates that moved to give him a pat on the back before focusing on the game again.

I can't figure him out. He just scored a great goal; and where normally others would revel in their success, he chooses to be modest about it. He could be on the football team, but he chooses his books. He could be amongst the majority, but he chooses isolation.

“I'm so glad Ashida finally passed the ball to Li,” Natsumi commented.

I turned to her, not understanding. “What do you mean?”

“Many times Li was open and Ashida knew he was, but he just wouldn't pass it to him,” Natsumi told.

The entire first half I didn't notice a problem between the two. I knew that they had a history with each other, but Kansuke wasn't the type to let personal issues get in the way of his game.

“I'm sure Kansuke would've passed the ball to Li if he could,” I said.

Natsumi shook her head. “No. I counted two times where Syaoran was the obvious choice; he was the obvious striker to pass it to, but Ashida wouldn't.”

“Mr. Ogata must've had a word with him,” Tomoko said.

“You call him Syaoran?” I asked Natsumi, backtracking.

Tomoko answered it for her, giggling. “Only when she's not in his presence... and when she doesn't realise she had called him that.”

At that, Natsumi blushed red; then slapped her friend across the arm for teasing her. I had forgotten that Natsumi had a thing for him.

“Natsumi, do you like Li?” I decided to ask her directly.

Shyly she nodded. “I think he's really kind and thoughtful, he's good at almost everything he does and... he's not like anyone I've met before.”

Her last words were said as she moved to stare out onto the pitch at the guy she admired so much. I followed her line of gaze; Li had the ball at his feet and he was driving it towards the goal again. I maintained my gaze on him, Natsumi's words ringing in my ears.