"Sakura..."

The voice was soft and warm at the same time. It was soothing and familiar. When she opened her eyes and looked around, she couldn't find the owner of the voice because of all the smoke around her blocking any view of anything!

"Sakura-chan..." She was calling her name again and she sounded so near.

She turned behind her, but still she couldn't see anything. It's all smoke!

"Who are you? Where are you?" Sakura asked. She was curious and she knows that voice... But for some reason, She couldn't tell who owned it. That's just weird. Plus, her heart was beating so fast and her body felt so alert as if something bad is going to happen.

"Don't be afraid, Sakura." Says that voice again.

That's it! That's what She was feeling right now. She's afraid. She have fought with dangerous spirit cards before and have played the mysterious superhero in their city so many times and she never felt this scared for the last few years like it's as if a life of someone so important is at stake.

"I am your friend." Says that voice again.

When she heard her say that again, she felt a tug in her heart. The sadness stemming from deep inside her is surfacing through her eyes and now she can feel the warm fluid coursing down her cheek. Why does she feel so sad? It's similar to that feeling she had when she lost her mother.

"Sakura! Sakura!" She heard Keroberos screaming out her name over and over again. He sounded worried and then Sakura felt the ground shaking.


"Sakuraaa!"

When she heard that scream so close to her ears, she felt like her left eardrum was about to crack. Sakura bolted up to a sitting position on her bed and automatically reached for the nearest pillow and threw it hard towards where that scream came from.

Then she heard a thud where her pillow landed. "Ughhh... Aw! Is this what I get for being so concerned?"

That's when Sakura realized she just hit Keroberos with a pillow and the poor thing was now on the floor, under the pillow that covered his small form. "I'm so sorry, Kero. I didn't mean to do that."

The yellow-orange creature popped his little head under the pillow and looked at her with those concerned eyes of his that she found weird that they were eyeing her.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked.

Keroberos flew towards her, his little wings creating a flapping sound. Then he settled on top of the desk beside her bed, all the while never tearing his eyes from her face. "You were crying on your sleep."

"I am?" Sakura brought her hands over her face and she felt the wetness over her cheeks.

'Don't be afraid, Sakura.'

She remembers it now. In her dream, she was crying.

"That's the same dream?" Keroberos asked. He knows about her dreams. About that dream. "It's the third time. Something is up." He concluded. That's was Sakura's concern too. She doesn't normally have repetitive dreams. But when she does, they usually mean something.

"But what could it be?"

Keroberos exhaled his frustration. "I have to speak to Yue about this."

Nodding her head, Sakura tried to remember the parts of her dream. The voice. The smoke. Her emotions. It's the same thing every time.

"Waaaah!" Keroberos screamed once again, causing her to jump out of her bed to look for any sign of danger.

"What?!" She asked the little guy.

He pointed the alarm clock on her desk that says it's 15 minutes to 7 am. And then that's when she realized she only have 15 minutes to prepare for school! She screamed a little louder than what Keroberos did as she ran to the bathroom almost tripping on the carpet on her haste.


Tomoyo caught the timely separation of one dried brown leaf from it's grip from one of the trees in the school grounds. She followed the way it danced in the wind as it falls gracefully on the ground, joining other fallen ones.

It reminded her of her days in this school. Being a senior this year, this is her last year in High School. In a few months, she's going to leave Japan to pursue her College education in the United States. That's why she plans to make the best out of this school year with her friends.

Actually, she doesn't like changes. She don't like it at all. But there's something about it that gives her hope. Hope that something might happen in the future that will make her life more... interesting.

"Tomoyo!"

She turned to see Naoko and Chiharu waving their hands and running towards her direction. Ever since elementary, they never separated. They all went to the same high school together with Sakura, Takashi and Rika. "Good morning! I'm so happy to see you two!" She greeted them.

"Me too!" Chiharu was jumping with joy. "This is our last year at high school, so I am extra excited, I couldn't sleep last night." She said.

Naoko and Tomoyo noticed the shade of dark circling her eyes and though they were laughing at the excitement emanating from Chiharu, their worry beat them to it. "You need to sleep early tonight." Naoko adviced her.

"I will! I will!" Chiharu cheerfully answered.

Tomoyo looked around. Naoko noticed that and answered her unvoiced question. "Rika texted me she will drop by at Tomoeda before getting here."

They all know the relationship between Rika and Mr. Terada. They found out about it when Rika told them back in Junior High.

"Guys!" Calls that voice from behind Naoko and Chiharu. It was Yamazaki, running towards them.

"Where have you been?" Chiharu asked the boy who just scratched the back of his head, his knowing smile never leaving his lips.

"I've been here an hour ago!" He said.

Chiharu gave him a disbelieving look. "Yeah?"

"Shigeta from the student council texted me that he saw the class list when they went here yesterday to do a clean-up, and told me that we are all still classmates this year! How cool is that?" He looked so happy and it's contagious.

"Wow! Sakura and Rika will be so happy to hear this." Naoko said, as she held her hands together in glee.

Tomoyo is very happy too. She looks forward to seeing everyone later. But Sakura is still not around, so she pulled out her phone from her pocket and checked if Sakura texted her but there was none. So she sent her one, telling her that they are already at school.

"Let's go see the bulletin board! I'm so excited to see who's our homeroom teacher this year." Chiharu said and they started walking towards the building.

After Tomoyo inserted her phone back to her pockets, she moved to follow the three when she felt like she's being watched. That kind of creepy feeling where you feel goosebumps on your skin. She turned around to see if it was someone she knows but she was surprised to meet a pair of cerulean eyes looking directly at her.

She saw a guy around her age, surrounded by enamored girls from their school. Surprisingly, the boy was wearing their school's uniform too. He looked like a foreigner with those blonde and almost gray hair and blue eyes. He must be an exchange student. When he tore his gaze from Tomoyo and looked at one of the girls in front of him asking him questions, she shrugged and followed the others to check on the bulletin board.


Hanazono High School is quite far from their house. Unlike Tomoeda Elementary School before where she can just use her rollerblades to get to school, now she has to use the train. Although it's just a fifteen minute ride, it's still a hassle sometimes especially when she's really really late. And on the first day of school!

Keroberos kept on telling her how shameful it is to be late especially on the first day of school. And she's a senior now, so she must be a model student. Sakura only has that dream to blame.

'You can always use the Time Card you know.'

She remembered what Keroberos told her before she left, almost always tripping in her rush. But no, she swore to only use the cards for the benefit of helping other people and only for really really important and emergency situations. So no!

Sakura was running like she's in the Olympics. In exactly three minutes, the class starts. So she's leaping, and jumping and overtaking people just to get to the classroom in time, at least.

Two minutes!

Please! Please!

She's already at the entrance of the senior's building when she realized she doesn't know where their classroom is or what section she is this year. Then she heard a ding-dong, it was her phone's message alert tone.

While running to other side of the school to look at the bulletin board, she pulled out her phone to see two messages from Tomoyo. She opened the most recent one and she squealed in happiness when she read her message.

Classroom 2-A. Hurry up!

"I love you Tomoyo!" She uttered as she retreated and changed direction.

Thirty seconds!

She's almost there. It's like she's in a competition, her steps were long and wide and- Baang!

"Ouch!" She clashed on something. It was so fast and all she remembered was the feel of falling and then landing. But she didn't land on the hard and cold floor, instead on something soft.

"Can I stand now?" Asks that voice that sounds quite different.

When Sakura opened her eyes she realized she fell on top of someone! In a second, she was on her feet and apologizing to the owner of the voice.

"Sorry! I'm just in a hurry." Sakura kept bowing to the person so she didn't really focus on the face, until she heard a familiar voice behind her.

"Hey squirt, you're late!"

It was Touya's voice. So she turned to the person with an angry face. Can't he understand that she's a grown-up now? And that calling her names in front of other people is 300 times more shameful than it was before when she was still 10?

But before Sakura was about to say something, she wondered what Touya was doing in her school. He's standing in front of her looking so formal with some books on his hands and he's wearing glasses. He looked like a teach-

'I will be working full-time after this vacation.' Touya said while they were eating dinner at a restaurant in Okinawa where they went for summer vacation last month.

'That's good. Where?' Their father asked.

'At some school.'

So, this is the job he's talking about?

"You're late for your class and you knocked down my student causing a delay to our class too." Touya said that brought Sakura back to the present. "Get inside your classroom now."

Sakura turned to the other person who was listening to their conversation only to be transfixed by the boy's bright blue eyes.

Touya moved to walk to the next room, right next to their new classroom. He looked at her signalling for her to get inside her own classroom. That's when she remembered why she was running in the first place. Swallowing an imaginary lump in her throat, Sakura carefully peeked inside the classroom and noticed that no one was sitting at the teacher's desk yet and she saw Tomoyo smiling at her and waving her hand then pointing the vacant seat next to her as the raven-haired girl sat by the window.

She gathered all her strength and finally entered the room, preparing herself for an explanation.

"Sakura! You made it!" She heard Chiharu's voice.

"Our homeroom teacher is Ms. Hibino again! Isn't it cool?" Yamazaki said.

Wondering why the two was not lowering their voices, Sakura scanned the room but there was no sign of Ms. Hibino and their other classmates were busy in their own conversation about their summer vacation. "W-where's Ms. Hibino?"

"She went to the faculty room. We were supposed to have a transfer student from abroad in our class today, but Ms. Hibino said we are already full so she processed a transfer to the other class because they have one student who dropped out the last minute." Rika explained.

It must be the foreign student she clashed into earlier that they were talking about. But relief came to Sakura when it sank in that even though she's technically late, their teacher was late too... Hehe


"How's your summer, Tomoyo?" Naoko asked while they were walking with their bento's in their hands to have lunch in the grounds since the weather was nice.

Tomoyo smiled at the memory of her mother's face as she complains how there's too much seeds on the watermelon and that she's having a hard time separating them before she can eat her share. "It was fun." She said.

"You went to France, right?" Chiharu asked.

She nodded. "Yes. My mom brought me there since she also have some important business clients there."

"They went to a town called Saint Tropez. She sent me pictures of the Mediterranean Sea and the beaches, they were so blue." Sakura shared.

"Really? I heard so much about that place." Naoko said looking so dreamy as she probably imagines the place with her in it.

When the four of them reached the grounds, they started to open their lunch boxes and shared each of their own food to each other.

Tomoyo caught some familiar figure walking on the pathway towards the Science Department building and he looks as if he's looking for something or someone. "Sakura-chan... Isn't that Touya-kun?" She pointed at the direction of Sakura's older brother.

All five of them were now looking at him who's oblivious to the attention he's getting from them. Sakura's face soured. "Yeah. I just found out this morning too. He's teaching the class 2-B next to us. He doesn't live with us anymore so we see each other twice a week only now."

Unexpectedly, Naoko and Chiharu giggled at the news. "That's good. He's really handsome you know. It can motivate some female students to keep going to school." Chiharu said, almost blushing.

"There aren't that many cute boys in the school so..." Naoko shyly agreed.

"Ughh... He's going to make my last year at high school very challenging, for sure. He called me a 'squirt' earlier in front of that transfer student!" Sakura pouted which Tomoyo found so cute.

Tomoyo laughed at her best friend's cute expression. "I'm sure that's not true. It's probably just his way of showing his affection to you."


After their lunch, Tomoyo decided to visit the music club's room to see if the preparation for recruiting new members have already been going on. When she graduates, she will still donate more funds for the club.

Music is one of the best things that life had to offer. It's her sanctuary, her escape whenever she's lonely. She wants to provide music to people like her who needed a sanctuary too.

When she entered the music room, she was wondered why nobody was around. By the looks of it, nobody has been here since this morning probably.

Tomoyo noticed that the window by the piano was opened and walked towards it so she can close it. But to her surprise, she saw a figure lying so peacefully on the long stool that students sit on to play the piano.

She walked closer to see who it was so maybe she can tell him that this place is not a nap room. When she was close enough, she recognized the figure as the new transfer student who was sleeping so comfortably. She looked at his closed eyes and tried to remember the bluest eyes she's ever seen and how when he looked at her earlier, it's as if he recognizes her.

When suddenly the boy opened his eyes and she was caught looking at him. In surprise, she stepped back instantly and not noticing the pile of instruments behind her that got knocked down and the very big harp was just about to fall on her when strong arms pulled her away from it.

The loud sound of the instruments hitting the floor permeated the air for a moment and when it has died down, Tomoyo realized that the boy's hands were clasped together over her stomach from behind her. It's like he was hugging her with his arms really tight around her from behind.

"Gotcha!" The boy whispered and she felt him press a finger on her forehead and then everything went black.


Sakura doesn't want to do this but she has to. They're crossing paths anyway since she's going to the Science building and it seemed like Touya is going to where she's from. So even if she's still mad at him for what he did, she stopped herself.

"Have you seen Tomoyo?" She finally asked.

Touya looked at her seriously as if he sensed something was wrong. Sakura realized her anxiousness probably is too obvious. "No. What happened?"

"She didn't attend our afternoon classes. After lunch she said she'll only go to the music room. I went there just now and nobody's there. It's not like her to leave without saying anything." Sakura becomes more worried every minute. She has a different feeling about this.

"I have been looking for the transfer student too. He was gone immediately after the last period in the morning according to his classmates." Touya mentioned.

Sakura felt her heartbeat accelerating. Then her phone rang. When she checked, it was Keroberos calling from their landline at home.

"Sakura!" Keroberos called, his little voice laced with worry too. "The cards have all disappeared!"

Thank you so much for reading guys! This is my first story and please review, I want to know what you think of the story. I will update as soon as possible only if you say so, so tell me on the comments section. Mwah