He was six years old when he met her for the first time; him with his chestnut hair and brooding face, and her with her auburn hair and eyes that brightened when she smiled.
"Okay, everyone," the teacher grinned as she clasped her hands together in a too friendly way. She said, gesturing to a pile of the strings of yarn all tangled together in the desk, "I've got all these here for you to tie to the wrists of the people you want to befriend! Let's all make lots of friends, okay?"
Troublesome. This was all troublesome. He wanted to go back to Hong Kong instead of here.
He could feel his tears welling up and he willed it not to fall, bracing his hands on his lap as the other children started to tie the yarn to each other's wrists. He saw some of them give him a hesitant glance and he glared at them, making them hurriedly turn or run away and one of them even cried. He didn't care. Let them hate him.
"Li-kun!" He jolted and looked up with eyes wide - a girl looked back at him with emerald eyes, smile radiant and bright. "Li-kun, aren't you going to tie one to someone, too?" A curious cock of the head.
He frowned at her and was about to reply when she gasped, "Could it be that you can't understand Japanese? Is that why you've been so quiet?"
"What? I can!" he sputtered. She blinked - twice. Then she giggled, "I see! Li-kun, you look funny when you're surprised."
He felt heat in his cheeks and he rubbed it as if to make it go away, confused.
She took his hand gently, oblivious to it, and wrapped a red string of yarn around his wrist. "Here," she tied it in a ribbon and smiled up at him. "Let's be friends, alright?"
He blinked. "..Friends?"
"Friends!" She gestured to herself, "My name's Kinomoto Sakura. You can just call me Sakura. Can I call you Syaoran-kun instead?"
He nodded slowly, then he took one of his strings, too, and tied it on her wrist; a lot of different colored strings were already wrapped around it, though, and he had to tie it near her elbow.
Sakura's eyes widened and he felt the heat radiating again, "It's just that.. because you tied one to me, too, I figured it'd be polite if I did, too. Just that. Nothing else."
Her smile broadened and her eyes seemed to sparkle. She laughed, "Okay!"
He smiled a small smile back.
Then he felt everyone else's eyes staring at him. And a lot of them approached.
"Let's be friends, too!"
"If Sakura-chan will, then I will, too!"
"So you can smile!"
"You know, I've always wondered what it's like there in Hong Kong."
He looked at Sakura in disbelief and she gave him a sheepish smile.
And for the first time since Syaoran arrived in this foreign country, he laughed.
But maybe that was how their fates were tied.