Summary:Star-cross lovers meets for the first time after years of being just five minutes behind.
Five Minutes Behind
Chapter 1 – A Typical Day
Time: 6:30 am
"Oh my god! I'm late for work." After violently waking up to her obnoxious alarm clock, Sakura desperately gathered the scattered papers she was working on last night and stuffed it in her briefcase. Had a quick breakfast and left the building trying to catch her bus. Yes, trying, because she never makes it. Each day at about 6:45 am she reaches the bus stop just as the bus rolls away. If only she is able to wake up 1 minute earlier, everything would be fine. She won't have to be late for work everyday and her boss wouldn't need all those Halls© stocked up just for Sakura. What she needs is a second alarm clock, that's right, a second one would work, that is if she doesn't break it in her morning fury.
As Sakura comes to her decision, the second bus stops in front of her and she gets on it without hesitating.
Time: 6:25 am
Slapping his alarm clock shut, Syaoran slowly sits up from his sleeping position and ruffles his dark brown hair. Another boring day lied ahead of him. Same bus, same route, same work, same people; everything was the same everyday from morning to night. Whatever, he needed money to keep his flat and his job had a good pay. So he grabbed his coffee and morning paper before he left for his bus. It was like this every morning. He would reach the bus stop at 6:40 am, the bus would arrive about 5 minutes later, and he'd travel to work. One word: Dull.
Ten minutes later, he arrived to the building where he worked as the Research and Development head, on the 10th floor of the building, right next to the Accountant Department. It wasn't a horrible job with a horrible pay. It was just unexciting and monotonous.
Time: 7:00 am
Sakura's job starts at 7:00, but at 7:00, she's still on the first floor waiting for the elevator. As if she wasn't late already, the traffic of the building is just unbearable. The elevator just needs to stop at every single floor, and she works on the 2nd highest floor of this 11 story building! It wasn't until 5 minutes later when she reached her floor, right next to the Research and Development Department.
Fresh out of University with a bachelor degree in law of accounting, she decided to start as an accountant trainee to gain some experience before she goes for her masters. However, life is never perfect. It never happens the way you want it to no matter how hard you try, because right when she steps in the department, her boss, like a predator waiting for its pray to fall in its trap, is literally standing by her seat, waiting for her to arrive.
"Sakura Kinomoto! You are 5 minutes late again! If this keeps on going, I will have no choice but to fire you! Understand!" Samantha Choi, her boss, strutted to her room before slamming her door, not even waiting for Sakura's miserable "understood, and it will never happen again". This scene happens every single morning, so it was nothing new to her and her colleagues anymore.
"Hey Sakura, don't mind her, she's just going through menopause or something." Tomoyo, her friend since grade school, is always there for her. They even ended up applying to the same company without knowing it beforehand.
"Thanks, but it's ok, I don't think she'll fire me just because I'm always late. Besides, I stay a little longer after work to make it up." Once Sakura laid her belongings on her desk, she grabbed a tea before commencing her daily work.
Time: 7:05 am
Everyday on this particular second of the day, Samantha would always shout at one of the juniors in her department. After a month or so of this regime, Syoaran should've gotten use to the noise next door, but her shrill voice is just too much to handle. Shuffling a few papers on his desk, he got ready for the daily meetings for department heads, talking about God knows what. When he reached the elevator, Samantha was already there waiting for the elevator.
"Morning Sam."
"Morning Syaoran. How's your morning?"
"Better than yours. You should give your trainees a break sometimes. Oh the elevator's here" There was a moment of silence before Syaoran continued, "They're new to this stuff. Take it easy on them."
"So you heard…"
"Oh yes, every morning."
"Yes, every morning, my…discussions with my trainee."
Wittily, he said "crystal clear," before exiting the elevator.
Time 12:30 pm
Stretching her arms tiredly, Sakura gave a great yawn. "Tomoyo, where do you want to eat lunch today?"
"I can't today, I have so much stuff left to do…can you grab me something from the caf?"
"Sure no problem. Be back in 10" Sakura quickly raced to the elevators and pressed the 2 button before letting the doors close. When she arrived to the cafeteria, she hastily ordered 2 salads before rushing back to the 10th floor.
Curious, she asked "What's keeping you from lunch?"
"Samantha gave me a shit load of data to enter before 5 today." Taking a bite of her salad before continuing, "I've only done a quarter of them in 2 hours. If I don't finish it today, I'll give her an excuse to fire me for that coffee incident."
"What coffee incident, you never told me about it."
"Well…I sorta spilled coffee on her last week. Apparently, it was right before her date."
"Samantha Choi is capable of finding a guy? I thought her attitude would get in her way…who's the guy?"
"I think it's one of the department heads in this company or something. He must be crazy."
Time: 12:35 pm
Just as he finished typing the sentence on his file, a knock came from the door. Syaoran gave a rough "Come in" before it opened to reveal Samantha.
"Hey Syaoran, lets go out for lunch."
"No thanks, I was thinking of going to the caf today."
"Mind if I join?"
"Sure." So he stacked his papers before strolling to the elevator with her. The short ride was travelled in complete silence. It wasn't until they reached the cafeteria before Samantha broke the silence.
"So…how was your weekend?"
Time: 6:05 pm
Sakura gave a great yawn after finally finishing her work for the day and was contemplating on what to do. Tomoyo was at a dinner with her mom, so she couldn't possibly go out with her tonight. All her other friends were probably out on dates with their boyfriends. Being the last single ones in the group wasn't fun. But life is life. Maybe someday a nice guy will drop out of nowhere and she could start from there.
Glancing at the clock, she saw that she could still catch the 6:08 bus, so she swept all her belongings before racing to the elevators, just missing it as the doors closed. Guess she'd have to take the one at 6:13. It wasn't like there was somebody waiting for her, right?
Time: 6:00 pm
Taking a quick look at his watch, Syaoran noticed that he has worked over time yet again, so he gathered all his belongings and locked his door before walking into the awaiting elevator. Just when he was pushing the button with the hand that was holding his keys, his keys dropped. So he bent down to pick them up, barely catching a glimpse of high heels on the other side of the elevator doors.
Samantha Choi was actually the step sister of his friend Eriol. It's not that she is intolerable. She is rather nice inside, that's why they've also been friends for quite a long time. The problem with her liking him is that he doesn't like her at all. When ever he sees her, he can't feel this desire or even attraction towards her. He's been dropping hints lately, but it doesn't seem as if she's getting it.
When he at last reached the lobby doors, he saw that the 6:08 bus had just arrived, so he jogged towards it just before it left and took a seat near an old lady that seem to be in her 80's. He thought she was dozing off, but was proven wrong when she suddenly spoke to him. "You shouldn't always be in a hurry, sonny. You'll always miss out on things that way. Look at the beautiful scenery tonight."
Indeed it was beautiful. The cherry blossom trees where just in bloom, and the petals drifted like light pink snow onto the concrete road.
"Thanks." But the old lady made no reply. So he kept silent until they reached his apartment building.
"Late from work as usual Li-san?" It was the security guard of his apartment building.
"As usual, Hino-san." He said with a slight smile.
Time: 6:13
Waiting for the bus in a chilly night was not her thing. Yet she always ends up in this freezing situation. She quickly hopped into the bus as it arrived and took a seat near the windows. Though spring was slightly colder than summer, it was generally her favourite season of the year. Other than the fact that her birthday is in spring, she loved watching cherry blossom petals drift by as they where lightly blown off from their tree branches, like a child moving away from its mother after they have fully bloomed.
When she has reached her stop, she casually walked off with a smile and enters her apartment building, where a voice brought her back from her reverie.
"Sakura-san, there's a gentleman waiting for you in front of your flat."
"Do you know who he is, Hino-san?"
"I don't know but he came here with suitcases."
"Suitcases?"
"Yes, do you want me to go up with you just in case?"
"No, it's okay. I'll manage. Good night Hino-san." With that said, she entered the awaiting elevator. Maybe she should have asked the security guard to come up with her after all. She was freaking out more at each floor the elevator travelled up. On the first floor, she thought it was maybe someone she knew paying her an unexpected visit. On the second floor, maybe it was just a prank. On the third floor, she thought it was a robber that maybe has probably left. On the fourth floor, it was maybe a stocker. It almost gave her a heart attack when it suddenly "dinged" to signal that she was there to her doom, the fifth floor. What she saw was worst than the imaginary stocker she had thought up of.
"Onii-chan, what are you doing here?"
"I need a place to stay for the week."
A/N: Okay, so this is the first chapter. Hope you guys liked it. Anyways, I'm going to keep this story short because of my incompetence in writing more than 5 chapters, so about 2-3 chapters for this story. For those that are still looking forward to "The Great Betrayal" and "Theodore", so sorry but those are discontinued until I could convince myself to write those again. Once again I apologize about those stories.
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