Location: School
Time frame: Weekday
Point of View: Sakura

Come full time, we were still at one-all and a penalty shootout was the means to determine the winning team for this year. The visitors were impeccable at the early stages, ahead by at least one goal, but their two misses at the end saw us victorious. The final outcome: three to two goals.

Tomoyo had already left by this time, leaving at the sound of the bell to continue her oil pastel painting project in art class; Rika: she went back to class also, to Geography class; Chiharu, she left me to go chatting with others on the pitch, telling me she didn't want to see a “gross display of affection that happened too often” between me and Kansuke; and me: I of course went to find Kansuke.

I found him after weaving through several groups and he was with a few of his teammates and a couple from the other team. Kansuke was talking to the group when I chose to enter: I placed a light hand on his arm, letting him know I had arrived. He turned to me.

“Oh hey, Babe,” Kansuke said. “Enjoy the game?” He wrapped an arm around my waist to pull me in to hug him. I did so delightfully, wrapping an arm around his waist, too.

“Yeah; a total blast,” I answered.

“Glad to hear.” Kansuke turned to the unfamiliar faces that looked at me curiously—as one would with new faces. He introduced me to them. “This is Kinomoto Sakura, the school's party planner and the most beautiful model.”

Not quite accurate and I was a little embarrassed with the second description he had of me, nevertheless it put a giddy smile on my face. I greeted them and congratulated them on a good game. The guys thanked me and asked a few questions about the model part about me. I told them briefly what I did and who I worked for before conversation resumed with the rest of the group.

With a game of football having just been played and this was a group of (football) guys except one (that one being me), football was the topic of conversation. I listened quietly for a while, but that soon became uninteresting to me and I moved my attention elsewhere.

Looking around the pitch, I found a couple of teachers talking to each other. I hoped they continue to chat with each other, hoping that this afternoon's fifth period would become even shorter that there was no fifth period because there was too little time left in it to attend and we'd finish early.

I passed them and looked several metres on my right. There, I saw Hisa with a player from the other team. I felt claustrophobic watching her stand so close to this guy: this tall, dark and lean guy with attractive eyes. Indeed, she was too superficial to go chat up a guy of any other description than good-looking.

Even from this distance, I could see the heavy application of gloss on her lips. She curled those over-glossed thin lips upwards into a haughty smile and planted those flirty hands on him. I hated her for being so flirty and wished guys didn't find her so interesting that they more often than not fall for her ways. On this occasion though, I got my wish as this guy left Trouble to herself, leaving her to stand with a group of his fellow teammates a couple of metres left of her. I smiled as she searched for someone or something to bring her back up from that shameful display.

She'd found a group behind and found Li. She looked like she wanted to head there: I hoped she didn't; there were many others around who she could play with to satisfy her games. I relaxed when she decided to leave him alone and turned to head elsewhere.

As she turned, she found me looking at her. She scowled; I was not scared and I gave her a mocking smile. She didn't like it much as she spun on her heel and walked away from me and my mocking smile.

Li and his group was the focus of my attention now. He stood some distance from where I stood with a couple of girls chatting to him. They were not from our school: sporting a yellow and black cheerleading uniform, they were from the other school. Particularly friendly towards Li, I could speculate what they were saying to him: “What do you like to do for fun?” “Oh, really, they seem like fun.” “We want to have a go at it, too (because we want to like what you like).”

Long sleek hair, flawless complexion, piercing eyes, glowing skin, tall, and slim: these girls seem to be the popular bunch of their school; whether declaring their interest openly or liked them in secret, these girls were the type to have many guys interested in them. I never knew that Li could attract such types and I observed this feeling awe.

I returned back to the guys for a moment to see what they were talking about now; football still: nothing of interest. I returned back to observing Li and the girls.

But it was no longer just the three of them. Natsumi and Tomoko approached the group now.

Natsumi didn't seem to like these girls much as I didn't see her speak a whole lot to them. She had only nodded occasionally, otherwise looked disinterested in having a conversation with them. Some time later, she extended a red see-through flask to Li, filled with what I presumed was water and Li took it into his hands. It was at this time that the three of them departed from the girls. They headed in the direction of the gymnasium. Li chose to drink from the flask during this time and it seemed to be an interesting sight for Natsumi as she watched him gulp down a couple of good drinks from it. A smile was on her lips after he finished; then snapped her head towards the ground when Li turned to return the flask to her—embarrassed of having been caught looking upon him doing something so basic.

Curiosity then became of me when a couple moments later Natsumi stopped walking and stood before him, looking like she had some particularly important thing to say to him. I could hear nothing of what she said, my distance too far (as you may have already gathered from my lack of account on what those I observed said), but whatever Natsumi had said to Li, it made him step a little closer and look squarely at her. And I ask: was he conscious of what he was doing and did he know how much of an affect he had on her?

I tried to follow their mouth movements, hoping to make out syllables and then words and sentences, but unfortunately it was too difficult with their side profiles facing me and lip reading not being one of my abilities.

Loud laughter from the boys jolted me away from this scene. I caught the eyes of some of the guys and quickly laughed along with them.

“Right. Changing rooms,” Kansuke said. The guys agreed and headed off. Kansuke turned to me. “Babe, I'll call you later, ‘right?”

“Okay...” I said; then darted my eyes left to see Li and Natsumi walking again; I had missed what happened between the two. I returned back to Kansuke, resuming what I had wanted to say before that. “Okay. So, you're going somewhere after this, right?”

“Yeah. Getting a game of pool, looks like.”

“Okay. Then I'll hear from you after school.”

“Yup. Later, Sakura Babe,” he said and gave me a goodbye kiss.

I turned to head back for class, but was halted when I heard a call for Kansuke. This call for him, even though my back was facing this, I immediately knew who it was: it's unmistakable with the combination of the suggestive tone and that familiar scent of vanilla in the air, and something else I couldn't define that made my nose wrinkle with dislike—it was Hisa. I turned back to see her hands on Kansuke's chest, stroking him there.

“What is it with you and always touching guys like that?” I said to her.

She turned to me, showing an arrogant grin. “You don't like this, Sakura?”

I corrected her, showing her the same grin she showed me, “I don't like you.”

She parted from Kansuke and took a step forth towards me. “Oh is that all? Then I'll continue.”

She went on her words and pulled Kansuke towards her with her hand on his chin. My eyes grew wide when I saw her lips puckered up and coming into contact with Kansuke's lips. I quickly spoke with what my mind could muster up in such urgency—I said,

“What's new about this?” I got her attention with that and she was no longer focused on Kansuke; she cocked a brow as she waited for what words I had to say. Gladly, I continued, telling her, “It's nothing new when you do it to every guy. It's getting very old, Hisa.”

She had nothing to say to that. She moved on—to my satisfaction; and my victory.

“What's the plan?” she asked Kansuke. “I'm coming.” I interrupted, asking—

“You're skipping?”

Hisa turned back to me and squared her eyes on me. “You going to tell on me, aren't you?”

“No. I won't have to because the secretary is already on your case with your bad attendance record. I'm just warning you that you won't be able to just skip easy like that without the secretary asking you for a reason that you haven't already overused.” A fact that she took no fear of as she replied to me,

“That's for me to worry about.” That was her last reply to this topic when she returned to her question and asked Kansuke for the plans again. He gave them, telling her to wait by his car.

I was disappointed with Kansuke. He was supposed to read me and understand that I didn't want her there joining them; joining him.

“I prefer to wait for you outside the changing rooms,” Hisa said. She paused, turned to me, and then with smugness, she added, “I miss smelling you fresh out of the shower.”

I knew her intention was to ruffle me up and I tried hard to control my anger, but it jumped out of me.

“Look, stop your stupid games,” I said. “And get your hands off my boyfriend.” Yes, her hands were on him again, drawing figure eights on his chest.

That smug and proud smile returned as she saw my irritation. “So you do care.”

I glared and silently waited until she removed herself off of him. She was so slow: one fingertip at a time, taunting me. I was looking to Kansuke, suggesting for him to tell Hisa she should not come because he didn't want her to. He didn't though. He just said—“Ladies, time to break this. I need a shower. I'll call you later, alright?” he said to me; then left.

“Bye bye, Sakura Babe,” she mocked as she followed Kansuke.

I scowled.

Knowing I'd be watching her walk away from me, Hisa didn't stop playing. She linked an arm with his and leaned her head on his shoulder. I asked why Kansuke didn't fling that witch away. I headed to class upset.

I assumed when I said to Kansuke that I'd hear from him after school and he agreed to, I'd find a text or get a call telling me where I should wait, but there was no such call or text; and when I went to the school car parking lot, there was no sight of a black car with him in it waiting for me. Confused, I called him up; there was no answer from him. I got his voicemail message. Annoyance surfaced. I walked to the gates; waited there for a bit; then called him up again. This time, after several rings, finally there was an answer.

“Hello,” he said with a bounce in his tone that made the annoyance I felt rise a whole degree more. The sound of pool balls knocking into each other and voices in the background told me that he had not at all left to come get me and now I couldn't hold the annoyance from coming forth in my tone as I asked him,

“Did you forget about me?”

“Babe, oh! So sorry. The call slipped my mind, eh?”

“Well, are you coming to give me a ride there?”

“Actually, Sakura Babe, it is a long way back to school, so you do understand, right?”

“Where are you?”

“We're in town.” He paused; then explained, “You know how it is after school. It'll take me ages to get to you and back. So, no point, eh, Babe?”

“No point...” I mumbled. He wasn't willing to come get me.

“Mm, you understand, right? It's kinda difficult.”

No, it was extremely hard to understand. It wasn't difficult if he really wanted to come get me. I struggled to agree, wanting so much to join him, but what was I to do when he was reluctant to leave Fun to come get me? Nothing. I mumbled a “fine” and I could see on the other end his pleased smile on his lips as he said,

“Good. We'll be doing something later on, so I'll contact you when we decide what we're doing, okay?” I made a noise that agreed. “Okay, great, Babe. Call you later.”

The phone clicked off.

I stared at the phone until the red phone symbol disappeared on my display screen then returned my phone to my bag and began walking home.

It was a miserable walk home. The sun was out, but a chilly wind accompanied it and it made me feel even worse than I already was. Presently, the wind got through to the skin around my neck. I adjusted my blazer, pulled the flaps to cover my neck then wrapped tightly my scarf around my neck before returning my gloved hands into my blazer pockets. I crossed a street and arrived onto a block of shops where a nice little café situated. A warm drink interested me and I entered.

I was immediately greeted by a welcoming waitress when I entered. It felt different seeing the place practically empty. It being after school, I expected to see a lot more tables filled than the couple I saw in this popular café for teenagers. I removed my sunglasses and greeted her back as I approached the counter. After looking at the menu, I ordered a mocchachino and a slice of mud cake before paying for it and taking a seat around the backside of the counter where it was a cozy hiding from the rest of the café.

My order soon came to my table. I left the gossip magazine I had been reading whilst I waited, that I found left on the table, and took a bite of the mud cake then took a sip of my mocchachino.

They think because they were far from me and I had my cup over my face as I sipped that I could not possibly see their eyes look my way, but I could and it's irritating—I had an audience. I was already in a bad mood let alone have the strength to stand nosey parkers. I lowered my cup and cocked a brow—“What?” I expressed in them. They snapped away and I was able to return to my drink without their rude stares.

Some time later three girls entered the café and interrupted the peace; their rowdiness had made me wish they hadn't come in. Their school uniforms were the same as mine and so they were from my high school. When they chose the table in front of me and their faces became apparent to me, I realised they were from Hisa's circle.

I tried to hide and returned my eyes back to my magazine, hoping none of them would see me, but the one named, Reika, found me. My quiet and relaxing time here was over.

“Hey, Sakura. It's surprising to see you here. How's it going?” she said in a surprised tone.

“Reika, you're here too,” I replied, mimicking her surprised tone.

Indeed I was nice to one of Hisa's people. Though I didn't like her a whole lot, she exerts an artificial niceness that requires me to make nice as well.

“Yeah, we felt like something,” she said. She paused then told information that pierced me as I had no knowledge of it—she told, “We felt like getting something before we headed over to Ashida's. Actually, why are you here? I thought you'd be over there with him.”

I lied, “I have some things to do. I'll be joining him later on.”

“Really? You're missing some show, Sakura. Hisa tells me she's having a blast at his little party.”

I must also note that Reika was Hisa's best friend (or side kick—whatever those people call such friendships). I was not daft enough to believe that Kansuke wouldn't have done something else after their pool playing, but it never feels good to hear that your boyfriend planned something and he left you out of it again.

Affected and unhappy as I was to what they told me, I held a look of indifference as I returned to my magazine, flipped through it, and told her—

“That's great. I'm glad the party's a blast. You have a great time when you get there, then.”

I gave her a smile afterwards and Reika had a look of uncertainty as she seemed to be trying to read my mind. After a while, she gave up and wrapped this up finally.

“Alright, well, I'll see you there then, Sakura. Enjoy your drink, eh?”

“Yeah, thanks, you too.”

She left me to myself again. However, I couldn't enjoy my time here anymore for obvious reasons. I spent a couple minutes more before I put my sunglasses on, grabbed my bag and books, and made my way out of this place.

“Excuse me.”

I turned to the voice that had stopped me—not without irritation of course—and found it was one of the guys from the group who had looked at me earlier. I waited—impatiently—for him to speak his reason for stopping me. He extended a magazine towards me then asked,

“By any chance you are the girl in this picture?”

Intrigue and interest became of me. I tilted my head to the magazine and looked. I looked upon a picture of my first photo shoot.

“Yes, she is me,” I replied.

The next moment was the strangest thing I'd experienced as he asked for my autograph. I was no famous model or even famous. Nevertheless, I did and signed the picture.

“Sakura is your name, right? I heard your friends calling you that,” the guy asked when I returned the magazine and his pen to him. I nodded. “It's a lovely name.” He then proceeded to ask for my phone number. Of course I politely told him I had a boyfriend. “That's a shame,” he said.

I nodded before continuing my way out. What had just happened in the café circled in my head for some time, until I found a familiar person exiting Kobayashi's Chinese Grocery Store: Li. He hadn't spotted me and walked incredibly fast for me to catch up. Quickly, I called out to him. He stopped and turned. He found me and waited. I caught up to him.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey,” he replied.

I didn't notice his black mechanics suit before, but I noticed it now. It seems I was a sucker for guys in black mechanic's suits because my eyes were trained onto the body that wore one now. Lucky for me, Li could not see where my eyes were with my glasses covering me.

“Doing some grocery shopping?” I asked, returning to him. He held two bags, one on each hand.

“Uh.”

“What did you buy?”

He lifted it up slightly to allow me to peer through the tops of the bags. “Chinese vegetables, noodles, and sauce.”

“Looks like a feast.”

“Uh.”

He didn't seem to be much in the mood for small talk with replies so brief and the next moment we stood in silence.

“Anyway, you look like you need to be somewhere, so I'll let you go,” I said. Li halted me as he asked me,

“Are you heading home?”

“Yeah.”

“I've got my car today. Do you want a lift?”

“You have work—I mean, don't you? They're your work clothes on, right?” I said, gesturing to them.

“It'll be fine.” With the obvious comforts of a car ride, I happily accepted the offer.

It was quiet in the car. I could hear the brushing of my clothes as I uncrossed, switched and crossed my legs again to stop my right from falling asleep. No music or radio came out of Li's hi-tech music system and I sat uncomfortable in the quietness. I began a conversation with Li.

“Great game this afternoon by the way.”

“Thank you.”

“I heard Mr. Ogata bribed you with credits to play today. Do you plan on staying on?”

“I won't be. When the player I substituted recovers there won't be a place for me.”

“That's true,” I said. “I guess not.”

Before another patch of quietness could enter, I moved onto another topic: my interesting experience I had with my ‘fan'. I said,

“A really strange thing happened today.”

He turned to me to say “what was it?” before he returned to watching the road.

“Well, someone asked for my autograph today.” Li turned to me again and raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Yeah, I was in the café and a guy suddenly asked me if I was the girl on the magazine spread he showed me and asked me to sign on it.”

He smiled. “Congratulations on your first fan.”

“Mm. Reika, the girl who hangs around Hisa and is in our History class,” Li nodded, indicating he knew who I was talking about: “she and her friends were there, too. They were so high and mighty, always trying to say things that got to me, but she was like whispering to her friends when she saw this, not believing what was happening in front of her. It felt so good to see her like that!”

He only smiled and said, “That’s good,” which made me wonder if in speaking about the satisfaction of such triumphs to him I had been too friendly with my conversation with him. I returned to watching the road in slight embarrassment.

A moment later, a vibrating noise sounded. I looked to Li out of reflex. “I think it’s your phone that’s vibrating,” he said. I nodded and went to my bag and retrieved my phone. Opening it, the message revealed to be Kansuke’s.

Irritation moved through me as I read his message saying he will be seeing me at seven-thirty with nothing about what was happening, or a word about his party at his place. I pressed hard on the ‘end' button before throwing my phone back into my bag.

“You alright?” Li asked.

I did as best I could to keep my tone from sounding as crummy as I felt. “It's fine,” I said, but no I could not: sourness came through. I apologised to Li for it before I turned to my window, feeling that if I stayed facing him a moment more I'd snap at him.

I had been seized with these troublesome thoughts when I was startled by Li's cell phone going off. He reached for the earpiece to his hands-free cell phone device that was clipped to the dashboard before he answered the call.

It seems to be someone from home as he spoke to this person in his native tongue. I obviously understood none of what he was saying. There were short and long chattering on this end and he'd spoken in a serious tone with a serious expression. Less than a minute, the call ended and Li returned the device to the dashboard where his phone hung.

Naturally, I was curious to who that was on the other end. I placed my glasses on my head then asked Li—

“Was that someone calling from home?”

“Yeah.”

“Your family calling to check up on you?”

“No. That was Jinwei.”

Somehow, Jinwei didn't come to mind and it surprised me to hear that name.

“That was Jinwei?” A rhetorical question, nonetheless, he nodded. “How is Jinwei? Is she doing okay?”

“She's fine.”

“That's good.”

Silence entered. My thoughts remained on this topic of Jinwei for many moments as I have noticed that Jinwei seems to appear in all of our conversations and she seems to be a part of his daily vocabulary. So, curiosity beckoned me to ask this next question:

“Jinwei, is she like... your girlfriend?” Li turned to me with a puzzled look on his face, looking for a reason why I'd asked that. I explained, “She seems to call you a lot and the last time she came to Japan I remember that she stayed at your apartment and in your room.”

The topic seemed to be an uncomfortable one for him as he shifted in his seat.

“It's complicated,” he finally replied.

“Complicated?”

“Uh.”

I still wondered why that was; his brief answer didn't enlighten me any further his relationship with Jinwei. I thought in my head: many questions circled around.

“Jinwei is the daughter of a business associate of my mother's,” Li suddenly began. My attention turned to him, waiting. “That time Jinwei came in summer break was my first meeting with her. My mother and Jinwei's father got her to come visit me for us to get to know each other. Mother insists that Jinwei and I should be together. I don't agree, but she says she sees her perfect for me and I must go out on dates and get to know her.”

There was now a lengthy silence as that information processed in my head. I didn't know how it felt to have someone choose for you the person you went out with or be forced to go out with someone, but I myself couldn't imagine not being able to choose. However, Jinwei seemed like a nice girl. She was pretty, kind, and (I guessed) intelligent as well, so it made me wonder why Li didn't like her—presumably that was how he felt about her. I decided to ask him the question, saying—

“So you don't like Jinwei? She seems like a nice girl.”

He turned to me and said, “It's not that I don't like her,” He turned back to the road, “I just prefer that I choose who I go out with than a girl being forced onto me.” I nodded, understanding; then out of curiosity and to change the mood currently in this car, I asked Li what his mother did.

“My mother is the CEO of her company,” he answered.

I reacted to the information like anyone who was raised in an average family: amazed. It now explains how Li was able to live in a modern apartment that average students could not afford to live with flatmates let alone renting the place by themselves.

“Wow, you're like Tomoyo then,” I said.

“I'm like ‘Tomoyo'?” he asked.

When I had said this, I had thought he probably lived like Tomoyo: a massive house with fancy furniture and maids to do all their chores and housework, and had access to things average people didn't. Not that I didn't appreciate how much my dad has provided me, but I imagined how it was like to be so privileged, to be like Tomoyo and him.

I didn't say this though. Instead, I told him that they were alike because both his and Tomoyo's mum ran their own companies. He nodded; understanding.

“What does your company do?” I then asked.

“It's an advertising agency.”

“Advertising? Wow. You ever worked at your mum's company?”

“On several occasions before I came to study here.”

I nodded. “You know, you could be the boss of your family's advertising company one day.”

He pulled a disapproving face. “I don't want that.”

“Why not?” I asked curiously. I had searched the papers and went online looking for jobs, having worried about what I'd do after school before the whole modelling thing came up and CEO of a company was definitely not one advertised often and I'd imagine only smart and a few select people knew and could obtain this job.

“The office environment doesn't appeal to me,” he answered.

“It doesn't? It's comfortable, air-conditioning and all that, it's not too bad.”

“Mother has on several occasions given me a taste of that environment and I disliked it. On the first day I worked there, I lasted about an hour before I got bored and wanted to go home.”

“I wouldn't mind working there.”

He smirked. “I might tell my mother that a girl called Kinomoto Sakura wants to work at her company.”

“I don't oppose,” I challenged. He just laughed, amused.

“What do you want to do then if you don't want to be CEO of your family's company?”

“I'm interested in mechanics, so something in that line of work.”

“That's monotonous work isn't it?”

He smiled to the valid point I had made; then explained, “But it's hands on and I like it.” I returned a face for his witty response. He chuckled in return.

Li checked for traffic as we approached another intersection before crossing. He resumed, saying—

“I heard that Ashida and the others talking about heading for a game of pool and drinks in the changing room. Did you have something else to do?”

He was a meanie, I thought, but I didn't think Li needed to know there was a problem and answered him with what Kansuke told me.

“No, they went to town and it's too troublesome to come back.”

“Will you be going out later then?”

“Yeah,” I answered. I thought why he wanted to know what I was doing. Maybe he wanted to ask if I wanted to do something with him. In that case, I couldn't and would have declined, but I had thought too much it seems as he just nodded and left it at that.

Quietness re-entered for some time.

“If you find yourself without a ride home, I can drive you home. Call me whenever you need me. It doesn't matter what time,” Li suddenly said.

It seems this might have been what was on his mind before. I don't think I'd get into the same trouble I did that night he apparently brought me home, believing this was the reason he said this. Nevertheless, I smiled, accepting his offer.

We soon came upon my street and turned into it. When we approached my house, I noticed a black car parked at the curbside that looked a lot like Kansuke's. It took coming up behind it that I realised it was him, finding the snowball reindeer car ornament that I gave him as a gift dangling at the back window.

“What is he doing here?” I said, speaking my thoughts aloud.

“Who?”

“Kansuke,” I replied to Li before I got out of the car and headed over to him. Kansuke had stepped out of the car as I did.

“Why are you here? I thought you said seven-thirty?” I asked him, feeling myself boiling up a little.

“I wanted to spend some time with you before we headed out,” he explained.

“What happened to your party, huh? You got b—?”

Kansuke stopped listening to me as his eyes left me and looked up at Li who had come to stand behind me. The gaze turned rigid as he said to Li,

“Hey, what's up with this? You movin' in on my girlfriend, Loner?”

I motioned to speak, feeling confrontation between the two on the horizon, but I was too slow and Li spoke ahead of me, saying—

“I gave her a ride home. Where were you?” his tone full of accusation.

That set Kansuke off: eyes became dangerous as he stepped forward, coming chest to chest with Li. “Look: now that we're off the pitch, I'm not going to be nice,” he said. “You start moving away from my girlfriend or you will get it.”

I thought Li was smart enough to do as Kansuke told, especially when he looked like he could clobber him, but Li stayed. I feared to see black eyes and bloody lips in the next moment as the two started shoving at each other's chest. I got in between them and bellowed,

“STOP!”

The jostling stopped. Both guys remained glaring at each other. I was now annoyed; that yell had irritated my throat; now it hurt. After a glare from me for them both to chill, they released each other and moved apart. They straightened their clothes. Kansuke was my boyfriend, and it was he, who looked more agitated that I went to him and said,

“Li just offered me a ride. It's nothing extreme, right?”

“I could have offered you that ride.”

“I did ask, remember? You didn't come.”

He had nothing to say to that. Again the whole conversation ran through my mind and I felt annoyance with both what he said now and before; and then the party he had hosted without telling me or inviting me again entered my mind.

“You had a little party at your place. It's really interesting that I didn't know about it when I'm your girlfriend. I had to hear it from some of Hisa's friends.”

His fury was now completely gone and he was a lying-ass who was found out: eyes looked away from me and he didn't have a word to explain himself.

I shook my head and rolled my eyes; he didn't even attempt to apologise for what he did. I had no desire to continue to wait and irrationality took over—I said to him, “Go continue to have fun with your friends. I'm kinda tired, so don't bother about tonight either. I'm not coming,” before I walked off.

I could hear Kansuke's speedy footsteps coming to me. At least he cared to, I thought. A hand grabbed my arm and turned me around.

“Sakura, you're annoyed at me right now, I get it, but don't be annoyed. I'm sorry, Babe. I didn't think.”

I shook my head once—his words inaccurate to me. “That's not true,” I said. “You don't forget to include your girlfriend. You choose to forget to include your girlfriend.”

“Sakura, come on. I really am sorry. It's a simple mistake.”

I shook my head again to how trivial he thought my feelings were and I released my arm from his hold to resume again.

“Hey, hold up, Sakura. Come on!” I heard an exasperated sigh come from him which made me pace even faster in anger.

He caught up to me. This time, he spun me around faster and in that quick motion I became face to face with him, no room to escape as he had his arms wrapped tightly around my body. His eyes came squarely at mine; then he said,

“Let me make it up to you.” With a grin that spread across his lips and a deep and provocative tone, he added, “You know how good I am at making it up to you.” He tried to soften me with his loving caresses to my cheek and looked at me with his glimmering blue eyes. Those eyes always made me still with awe and I started to lose against him.

“Fine. I expect you to make it up to me big time. I won't accept anything less,” I said. “It's not nice to have people snicker at you because your boyfriend didn't tell you he was having a party without her.”

“I know. I'm already planning how to make it up to you in my head right now.”

He then kissed me; slowly, gently, and then with more fervour : the hand that positioned at my back slid across to come to stop below my breastbone. The other hand still at my back brought me to press into his body before I felt the hand at my breastbone start to caress me there with a thumb.

“I'll leave you to it.”

Li. I pulled away from the kiss. I'd forgotten about Li. I turned, my mouth open to say goodbye, but he was already in his car. A rev of his car, loud in my ears than it probably was in reality: I believe he was mad. I think I hurt him again.

“So we are okay, Sakura Babe. Now can we spend some time together?”

“Sure,” I replied, still looking at the spot where Li's car was parked a moment ago.

Dammit.

At a quarter to nine we headed out for a night out with the gang at our regular hangout—a popular drinks place which also served some decent cheap meals. The night was okay; there was nothing out of the ordinary chatting and drinking with the gang. Maybe it didn't seem like a blast for me because by that time I was already feeling tired. And so, come ten-thirty, I decided to go home, but as usual Kansuke wanted to stay out later than I did and though he did try to be considerate and asked one of his friends (who at the time was leaving also) to take me home it wasn't considerate enough. I chose to walk home in the night. The night was frightening. Scary noises and creepy shadows existed and I had made it a block or two beyond the drinks place before my over-active imagination got the better of me. I recalled Li's offer to give me a ride this afternoon and dialled his number. I expected to hear his voice come through after several rings, but to my puzzlement, the voice that greeted me was not his voice, but a female's voice. She said,

“Hello, Li Syaoran's phone.”

“Who's this?” I asked.

“It's Natsumi.”

“Oh! Natsumi. Um, where's Li?”

“He's right here with me. He asked me to answer his phone for him because he's driving,” she clarified. “Was there a reason you called?”

“I did. I wanted to ask...” I answered then stopped. I didn't know if it was alright to ask them for a ride when it seemed they were doing something. My mind then wondered what she and Li were doing together.

“Sakura?” Natsumi called. I returned and replied,

“Sorry, no I called because I thought Li was free, but it looks like he's not, so don't worry.”

“Why, do you need him to do something? It's okay—Um, hold on...” She stopped as Li's voice came through. I heard only fragments of words here and there. I waited until she returned to me.

“Li asked you if you wanted a lift home,” she said, coming back to me.

“Actually, yeah.”

“Where are you now?” I named the street. “We'll come get you.”

I felt bad, but when I looked at my surroundings: the darkness, the eerie noises and the creepy silhouettes again, I was glad and accepted their kindness. “I'm sorry about this. Thanks so much, Natsumi.”

“No problem,” she said. “We're coming now. See you soon. Bye.”

It was some fifteen minutes when Li's car finally pulled up in front of me. When I entered into the car, I found Li in a well-pressed navy-blue shirt and dress pants, and Natsumi was in a cute dress with hair curled at the bottom and gorgeous make-up. I could only think that they were out on a date.

Natsumi turned in her seat to greet me. “Hey, Sakura. I hope you didn't get too cold waiting out there.”

“No, I'm fine. Thanks for coming.”

“It's no problem. Did you have a great night?”

I clicked my seatbelt on. “Yeah, it was good... It was fun.” She furrowed her brow upon the lack of conviction in those words. I skipped topics. I said, “You look really pretty tonight, Natsumi.”

“Thanks.”

I heard a plop as Natsumi turned herself back to the front.

“Oops. I'm so sorry, Li. I dropped your phone on the floor.” She went below to quickly pick it up and wiped it on the material of her dress.

“Don't worry about it,” Li said. Natsumi didn't stop and continued. My eyes widened when he placed his hand on top of hers to stop her from wiping it. “Natsumi, it's okay.”

She must have turned a whole shade of red with that (I couldn't tell in this light). She did stop; nodded; then slipped his phone back into his suit jacket which she had placed on her lap.

A click of the buckle, turn of the key, and the sound of the engine, we moved off onto the road.

I had passed the time looking out the window whilst Li and Natsumi continued a conversation between themselves at the front. I had not paid attention to what they had said for most of it, but I tuned in when Natsumi mentioned their evening. She said,

“We should go mini-golfing again.”

“You didn't seem so enthusiastic about it at the start.”

“Really? No, I was.”

Li chuckled, a very amused chuckle that I was curious about. I thought he only laughed like that with me. Natsumi then admitted,

“Well, okay. I now like it then. Thanks for suggesting it. I want to go again.” Li turned to her and gave her a wide smile before he nodded—I guess, pleased his plan was a hit with her.

This conversation ended, but I wanted to know more; more about their evening and anything else that would come up from it. I asked—

“Where's this mini-golfing place? I might give it a go.” Natsumi answered me, saying,

“Oh, it's in town. I don't know if you've been to the bowling alley in town, but like near there. It's really cool. You definitely have to try it.”

“Mm, I will. You'll have to give me the details so I can go.”

“No problem. I'll text the information to you.”

I didn't expect Natsumi to actually send me a text then and there, but my phone sounded and I found her text there. I opened it to read her message; only to find that she hadn't text me the information, but something else. She wrote,

“Hey Sakura, I'll give you the address later. But, I'm so happy I have to share. Mini-golf is so cool! Li...”

I opened the next part of the message in another text.

“...he taught me how to golf. He had his arms and body around me and was so close, it was so fun!”

What she had said was cool, but I couldn't feel happy and excited for her as her message sounded. I felt the opposite. However, I sent her a message back. I wrote:

“I'm so happy for you. You must tell me all about it later on the phone. I'll be happy to listen to the goss.”

I sent it through. Her phone sounded and she took some time to read it before she turned back in her seat and mouthed the words “I will” before her lips spread into a huge smile. I began thinking how I would handle hearing her talk about her seemingly great date with Li. I guess with how things were going with Kansuke and me, I wasn't really up to listening to how another's was so great, especially Natsumi's with Li. I just gave her a smile for that and she returned back to the front.

It was quiet again for a moment before Natsumi began speaking again to Li. I decided I wouldn't listen to this part of their conversation and I returned my attention out to the darkness of the night outside my window. It was much more comforting.

They were comfortable with each other; they were similar; they matched, I thought when I couldn't help returning back to observing and listening to Natsumi and Li. The things they talked about, the way they interacted with each other, I couldn't find anything that made me believe they didn't fit together. In fact, they looked kind of cute together and I saw no reason to believe that these two won't become an item soon. I was happy, very happy that Natsumi was getting closer to obtaining the guy she had her eye on for so long, but at the same time, I don't know why I didn't feel comfortable with it. I heard myself wishing that this wasn't; and hearing that, I told my idiotic brain to stop being so selfish. I was in a battle with myself; my feelings in a joust with each other with no clear winner.

I looked into the rear vision mirror, wanting to steal a look at Li, but in doing so, I was caught by his gaze when he decided to look up into the mirror at the same time to check the rear traffic. His eyes seem to smile at me when they saw me. I shifted my gaze back out my window. I took my jacket off, feeling hot.

We soon arrived outside my house. I thanked both of them then said goodbye before I made my exit. I'd walked some steps onto my driveway when I heard a clank of a car door and then Li calling out to me. I stopped and turned as he came around to me.

“You forgot your jacket.”

“Oh... Thanks,” I said, thinking he'd called me back for something else—a talk maybe, but it wasn't. I took the item of clothing into my hands. I fiddled with the collar of the jacket for a bit before I asked,

“Are you and Natsumi going out again after this?”

“Yeah.”

“Not a whole lot of places are opened at this time (it was about eleven)”.

“There's a café near my place that opens till midnight.”

“Oh.”

Li nodded then smiled. He then turned behind, towards the car; I followed his gaze to meet up with Natsumi: she gave me a small smile and then I returned back to Li as he did to me. He announced, “I better get going.”

“Okay. Thanks again for taking me home.”

“No problem. See ya.”

“See ya.”

After I closed the gate behind me, I stood for a moment to write a message on my cell phone: “Thanks again for tonight, Li. I really appreciate you coming to get me tonight—and for this afternoon, too.” Then I sent it before the sound of his car disappeared off into the distance. I made a mental note to properly make it up to him later.