Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of, or anything to do with CCS. This goes for all chapters
Full Summary:
Kinomoto Sakura is a successful writer who at the moment is having a bit of writer's block. After taking into consideration the words of advice her editor, Sasaki Rika, had for her, she decides to write the story of why she is so introverted. Although it's advised against, Sakura is steadfast and keeps with the idea. The agency approves and Sakura is happy.
But things take a turn for the worse when Rika tells Sakura that the agency wants Lauren to have some inspiration in the form of the people who have affected her life so negatively.
Coming face to face with her past demons in the flesh is something Sakura has avoided the past five years. Now that she is being forced into the situation it will either make or break her writing career.
Which will it be?
Who I Am
Chapter 1
She was starting to get really annoyed with her editor. Three full manuscripts; eight starters: all of which had been rejected.
"You need to get more in touch with yourself, Sakura. Your ideas are running dry; if anyone read anything you've given me so far, they'd be able to tell that. Your writing tells your readers who you are. Tell them who you are."
The auburn haired beauty recalled the words of her editor, Sasaki. The woman had a first name, but she couldn't recall it at the moment. She always called her Sasaki and nothing more. That was all her editor permitted.
Licking her full lips, she took a sip of the sweet tea that was set before her in a fine china cup, and pulled up a blank document on her word processor. Emerald coloured eyes gazed at the blank screen, thinking, thoughts coming and going, the first more fleeting than the next.
Tell them who you are…
A rueful smile twisted her lips.
You want me to tell them who I am, do you?
Fine, then.
Slender, tapered fingers flew across the keys, thoughts pouring on the once blank screen.
Several large, brown boxes littered the once vacant room. On each was marked the name 'Sakura' in bright red permanent marker, indicating that these belonged to her. Allowing herself to stretch, she took the bright pink hair tie on her wrist and tied up her mid-back length auburn hair, continuing with her task of moving into her dorm room.
At eighteen, she was in her first year of university. She decided to go to a different university than all of her close friends and, seeing how this school was in Tokyo and she lived in Tomodea, it was too far for her to commute back and forth. Luckily, she had the right average that gave her a spot in residence. As she opened the box containing her bedding material, there was a knock at the door. Startled, she looked up at a pale-faced girl at the door.
"Hi! My name's Tomoyo. What's yours?" she asked, still standing in the doorframe, the sunlight reflecting off her raven coloured locks, blue eyes shining with hesitance and curiosity.
"Hi. My name's Sakura," she told the girl with a bright smile. "Are you my roommate?"
"Unfortunately, no, I'm not. But mine isn't here as of yet, so I thought I'd go around and see who the other freshman were," she replied.
"Oh. Did you want to come in? I just got here so the place is still looking a little bland…" she trailed off, casting her gaze round about the room.
It was relatively small. Two twin sized beds were on the beige carpeted floor, maybe six feet away from each other. There were two closets a foot away from the end of the beds and past the second bed was a room where she presumed the bathroom was. The walls were painted white but there were several corkboards where students could pin up anything they liked. There was one desk, sitting against the wall beside the door.
"Sure. Maybe I could help you out a little bit with settling in. I've finished my room." She stepped into the room and went over to Sakura's box of bedding, unpacking it. In the meanwhile, Sakura opened another that was marked clothing and proceeded to hang up clothes or, place them neatly in the tall plastic storage container with several drawers that stood beside her night table to the right of the bed.
As they worked, they filled the room with light conversation and heavy laughter, getting to know each other, never knowing that they had just forged a friendship that would last the majority of their lives.
Three people stood at the front desk of the lobby. Several boxes rested beside a young girl who was with ruby red eyes and a mass of thick, straight, black hair. She looked about eighteen years old; the average age of a freshman. The young man with her had only a single box, a duffel bag and a backpack with him. He looked a year or so older than her.
"I'm sorry?" an annoyed, male voice asked. "What do you mean, young lady?"
"Yeah!" another annoyed, but much more feminine voice commented.
"This is the co-ed building. And if I recall correctly, there was a really hot girl that will be your roommate," the receptionist told him in a sing song voice, grinning suggestively.
"God, must you continue to play these cruel jokes on me?" the owner of the masculine voice mumbled to himself beneath his breath, running a hand through his chocolate coloured hair. Grabbing his key from the receptionist, he strode angrily away from the receptionist and the girl.
"Syaoran!" the girl called, signalling to the butler who held her things to follow after her. But the man named Syaoran ignored her calls, and stepped into the first elevator available, closing it behind him before she could reach him in time.
She gazed at each paragraph critically. Something wasn't right; something was missing. But judging by the time, she would have to take what she had so far with her in order to make her meeting with Sasaki. Doing just that and logging off of her computer, she grabbed her keys, locked the door to her two bedroom apartment, making her way to the underground parking lot. As she got into her sleek Saturn Sky sports car, she proceeded to drive to the café where she and Sasaki met everyday at 3:00 for the past month.
"Sakura, on time as usual," a woman with shoulder cropped chestnut hair remarked with a pleasant look on her face. She sipped her iced tea slowly, nodding in Sakura's direction, indicating that she should have a seat. "So, what do you have for me?"
Sakura handed the two pages over to her editor, explaining the idea that she had.
"You told me to tell them who I am, so I will. This is my story," Sakura leaned back on the chair, enjoying the cool breeze that played with her long hair.
"You mean the story that tells everyone why many call you a cold hearted bitch?" Sasaki asked, amusement dancing her in russet eyes as she raised a thin, delicate eyebrow.
"More or less," Sakura grinned, leaning in closer from across the table. "So what do you think?"
"I'm not sure this is a very good idea, Sakura. I mean, I know you obviously haven't changed any names, and this might get a bit too personal for you. You're introverted as it is. When people start reading your life story, imagine how it will feel," Sasaki advised.
"I'm not weak. I can handle it," Sakura glared in the older woman's direction.
"As your editor, I'd say go for it. It will be very emotionally driven and will sell like crazy. But as your friend, I'd advise against it," Sasaki told her with a soft look in her eyes that Sakura did not see often. Sakura brushed off the surprise and the tender emotions she wanted to reciprocate.
She dropped a few bills on the table and stood up.
"But don't you know Rika? I don't have any real friends anymore," she told the woman bitterly before walking away.
Arriving back at her apartment after her meeting with Sasaki, Sakura changed into a pair of boxers and a tank top. She tied up her hair and opened a couple of windows to allow the breeze to enter the apartment. It was hot, much too hot for her taste. Despite that, she still poured herself another cup of sweet tea. Opening her lap top, she logged onto her computer and continued to write.
"I can't believe this. I told them if I got a roommate, I wanted it to be a guy. I'm so sick and tired of these damn girls," Syaoran murmured beneath his breath.
Walking down the hall, he heard feminine laughter coming from an open door; more precisely, his open door. Groaning inwardly and muttering about girls and their friends, he knocked on the door.
"Hi?" a beautiful girl, he had to admit, greeted him. She appeared to be tall, although he couldn't quite tell since she was sitting. She had a pale complexion, long dark hair and light azure eyes.
"This is room 202-A, right?" he asked hesitantly, praying that it wasn't.
"Yup, come on in! You must be my roommate! My name's Tomoyo, what's yours?" she asked brightly.
Well, at least it was an apartment styled residence like he requested and not dormitory styled. He cherished his privacy.
"You can call me Li," he told her gruffly, readjusting the strap of his bag, and stepping into the room.
"Oh, um, all right. This is Sakura by the way, she lives right next to us," Tomoyo introduced the other girl cheerfully, as Sakura waved at him from the floor where she was drinking what appeared to be a slushy.
Now, this girl… something was different about her. She didn't have the fashionably long hair and wasn't dressed in the trendiest clothes. It looked like she opted for the comfy look; sweat pants and a t-shirt. She had a nice tan, probably from playing sports, and a really beautiful smile.
Just from looking at her he could tell she had a pleasant personality and was very warm hearted, very compassionate. She looked innocent and friendly. She appeared to be very easy going, down to earth and not caught up in materialistic things. She was an open book; he could tell all these things about her just from one look.
He could also tell she was so many things he wasn't.
But the thing that caught his attention wasn't her most feminine figure. Not her cute dimple that was only on her right cheek or her pearly white smile. She had the most stunning pair of emerald eyes. They seemed never ending and they pierced right through him.
He decided that he didn't like her. At all.
"Hi," he greeted before walking past them both and into the empty room. He gratefully saw that it overlooked the campus, since he enjoyed waking up with the sun, and slammed his door shut behind him.
"What a pleasant roommate you have, Tomoyo," he heard that girl, Sakura, comment to his roommate sarcastically. He furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance.
He hoped she wouldn't be here too often.
Sakura leaned back on her chair, arching her back and rolling her shoulders to work out the kinks that had developed in her muscles. Lolling her head from side to side, she leaned forward and was just about to continue writing when the cell phone beside her lap top began to vibrate.
"Kinomoto," she spoke into the phone, taking a sip of her tea again.
"Hey Sakura, I've got some bad news," she heard Sasaki sigh from the other line.
"What's the matter?" Sakura asked, worried. Sasaki rarely made phone calls that did not pertain to items that would affect business in a serious manner.
"I was talking to the agency about your new plot line… and they love the idea…" Sasaki trailed off.
"But?" Sakura urged her on.
"They think you need some inspiration," Sasaki told her and she heard the girl swallow on the other line.
"What kind of inspiration?" Sakura asked, furrowing her eyebrows, not liking where the conversation was going.
"Some inspiration as in the people who you're writing about," Sasaki answered after a moment's hesitance.
"I beg your pardon!?" Sakura screeched, standing up and knocking the cup over in the process. "There's no way in hell I'll ever ask for anything from them, let alone their help, after everything they've done to me!"
"That's the thing Sakura; you don't have to ask," she was greeted with another sigh. "I never did tell you that Li Syaoran is a good friend and colleague of mine, did I?"
Notes: Hey there everyone! I've had this written up for a while and was waiting for the right time to put it up. Originally that was supposed to be in August when I was finished with my last year of high school. But I thought why not? I have all of my exams next week and then two courses for summer school for the month of July. But I'll also be working in August and attending university in the fall. So please, don't badger me about frequent updates. I'll do what I can, but I guarantee nothing. I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter, and I'll be doing my best to make the chapters longer. Please drop a review to let me know what you think, okay? Thanks a lot and take care everyone!