Chapter 1:
Home is Where the Heart Is
The natural good, sweet smell of cherry blossoms, brought by the cold breeze is the first thing that she smelled and felt. "Feels great to be back", said the 23 year old Tomoyo Daidouji just recently got back from her recent vacation in France. As a daughter of a huge toy company owner, she spends her time in all the possible luxurious way that she would want. Any person placed in her shoes will spend their lives in a pleasurable, luxurious way. But not Tomoyo, not the beautiful long, grayish-violet hair lady. She may indeed just spent her 1 year and 7 months in the City of Lights just to have a peace of mind from all the stress, pressure and heart breaks that she just had in Tomoeda, she needed to clear her thoughts and regain her strength back.
After the marriage of her very much close cousin Sakura to her longtime lover Shaoran, also a friend of Tomoyo, she cannot deny the fact that she can no longer spend the usual time that she use to spend with Sakura. Not only have that, all the pressure that she have being the renowned stylist and designer of the country placed her into a high level of stress. All of the cortisols* released have brought her nothing but lack of sleep and colds. These reasons have forced her to spend some time relaxing and reorganize her thoughts in their vacation home in Paris. Her mother perfectly understands why she would need to spend some time there, always giving her everything that she wishes, especially that the fact that Tomoyo is not really fond of asking things from her mom, but instead, working hard for what she wanted.
After her arrival to Japan, she have decided to take a warm, bubbly bath and enjoy the beautiful scent of flowers from their home's garden. She had definitely missed everyone from her village, her pets, her favorite sofa, everything in their home made her miss and remember her happy past days. She was able to spend some time her newly wed cousin and best friend, had some lunch and visit the newly opened theme park. At night of their reconciliation after more than a year of not seeing each other, they shared their dinner with Shaoran.
"Heard you had a great vacation back there in Paris Tomoyo!" exclaimed Shaoran.
"Yeah she did sweetie! Look at her smile!" added his wife
"Hai, indeed i had fun. There are a lot of good places to see there other than the Eiffel Tower" answered Tomoyo.
"wouldn't it be more fun if you spend time in there with a lover, since it's a place for lovers anyway?"
Tomoyo was quite surprised with what Shaoran had said. She have never considered having a boyfriend ever since, just happily contented with her best friend and the happiness that they can share all the time. But now that her best friend is already married she never wanted to be a big bother some to the couple, she have not yet decided if she still wanted to have her own lover a well.
"actually yeah, it is a good place for some couple to visit and have a vacation with. As for me, I don't have any boyfriend yet so just needed to pay attention first with my priorities, mainly my new tie up in my career."
"oh really? Until now cousin? With your beauty and intelligence, a man is stupid if he wouldn't want you."
"but I heard you had tons of suitors even before you left for Paris, right?" Shaoran asked.
"if you consider 3 suitors as many, well I don't have a "type" or likings in any of them. Seriously you two, just wait and the right time will come. Just relax alright?" beamed Tomoyo.
"well, hm, yeah. We just hope you end up with a right guy" Shaoran said then winked.
"surely I will. How about you two? No babies yet? Or you're already on the way Sakura-chan?"
The couple flashed a blush on their faces with what Tomoyo had asked to them.
" we tried but still no baby yet, maybe because we're both busy with our jobs." Sakura sheepishly answered.
" why not having a second honeymoon then? Have a break with all of your jobs, now that it is spring, it's a nice weather to travel."
"you know what? That's a great idea! How about next month? I can take a leave from work. Sakura can also take a leave from her work, isn't that right my love?"
"as long as i finish my duties first, then I can take a leave."
"easy as that you see? Well it's up to you guys now where to take a break then."
"yeah, funny we never thought of that idea. Thanks Tomoyo-chan!"
They then finished their dinner then exchanged farewells on each other. As the happy couple are left, Tomoyo made her way back home. She had to fuel up her Lamborghini so she had to take first another street before heading home. She passed by the new place that she would be working on starting tomorrow, a 5 floor building, with a touch 1980's style. Though quite old, it is still blooming with lively plants and flowers in every windows, surrounded by trees and with a huge parking lot on the right side. She heard a lot of stories circulating around that place that there was a tragic accident there before. She never wanted to know, or even had the time to know. What she is sure about that place is that she'll be very busy working in there starting tomorrow.
As she heads home and passed by her new would be working place, she saw a black cat meowing and seems to restless. She saw that only light present in the place was coming from the guard house, where two to three male guards are present.
What made her worry was a man on the third floor window, smiling at the cat.
Why would he still be there at 11 in the evening? And all of the lights were shut off? She don't know if she'll still find out the answer the following day, all she knows is that she wanted to go home and take a rest.