Déchiré

He was cold, arrogant and indifferent. She was kind, sweet and clumsy. Both of them, with secrets of their past.


"I heard your mom was with him again. How does your dad feel about it?"

Sakura tried to shut her ears from the voices around her. But it didn't work. The voices kept on tormenting her already troubled mind. Finally, unable to take it anymore she got up, abruptly. Instantly, she regretted her action. The world suddenly became a spinning carousel. Grabbing on to the nearest thing, she tried to stable herself. The thing turned out to be a person. Strong, warm hands wrapped around her small, petite ones to help. Instead of being grateful, she muttered a "Get lost."

Drunk and troubled, she left the bar, leaving behind an unrecognized 'saint' and her 'friends'. Little did she know, the 'saint' was to be very well-acquainted with her in the near future.

XXX

"Sakura? Is that really you? Oh dear God, what have they done to you?" Tomoyo Daidouji, daughter of the famous ex-designer cried out in worry.

Cold, hungry and tired, a half-dead girl was brought into the humble two-room flat, taken in by her best friend. Well, ex-best friend if you count in the fact that she hadn't contacted her in seven years.

As Tomoyo rushed around getting warm water, filling up the bath, preparing the room… Sakura stood in the middle of the hallway feeling more disoriented than she had ever felt in her life. Everything was a mess. Her life was a mess.

And it was just about to get messier.

XXX

"I would like to get a job," Sakura stated one morning in the presence of Tomoyo and her boyfriend, Eriol. Both of them stared at her incredulously.

"What are about university?" "Are you out of your mind? You just escaped a family crisis!" Both boy and girl cried out.

"What family crisis, Tomoyo?" Sakura looked at her with wide-innocent eyes. Tomoyo looked down with an 'Oh, right' face. Sakura had already informed them of her future plans. Forget her family (or what was left of it), move on with whatever she had (dignity and friends), and get a job. Everything was to be a brand-new phase. She even became best friends with Tomoyo again who having had her own share of bad experiences, decided to aid Sakura in her new life.

"But what about university, Sakura? Tomoyo was always telling me that her best friend had great dreams to get to Business University and come out tops," Eriol added in concern. Although Sakura had just met the man, she sensed that he was a good man but with his own secrets. But what surprise was that to her, from that day she ran away, she decided to hide with herself the thousands of lies that had surrounded her.

"Opportunity cost, Eriol. Something has to be forgone in order to gain something else. You can't have it both ways."

Eriol kept quiet. This girl was pretty determined in moving on with life and he wanted to help, having heard the difficult stories these two girls had gone through, he felt like a big brother to them, only he had developed special feelings for the dark-haired one.

"Well, I guess the only thing we can do now is show our support," Tomoyo sighed in defeat. Sakura nodded her head enthusiastically. "And," Tomoyo took the hint, "we'll help you look for a job as well." Saying that, she took Eriol's hand into her own to illustrate who the 'we' was.

"Thank you!" Sakura smiled.

XXX

Glancing at the mirror, Sakura smiled at her reflection as her best friend tightened the pony tail at the back of her head. "Thank you guys, you have no idea how I appreciate this."

"Good luck then, for your first job. I thought that secretary would fit your image quite well. Well, Eriol looked into the pay details and I've approved of the salary as well as the safe location. Because of our inside source, you can skip the interview! But that'll mean your behavior will be heavily scrutinized."

Eriol appeared at the door, "It's a pretty long distance, and I can send you there."

Touched, Sakura smiled but shook her head, "No thank you Eriol, there is a reason I woke up at six in the morning."

Eriol chuckled in embarrassment, "All right."

XXX

Once Sakura emerged from the underground tunnel, she took note of her surroundings. After 21 years of comfort, she was suddenly thrown into the real world to face life with her new-found friends, without family. Sighing at the drastic turn her life had made, she turned around and headed straight into the building, or rather, curb. Tripping, she let our a small scream as a shiny black car stopped suddenly in front of her.

Unable to register what had just occurred, Sakura remained frozen on the road. A flustered chauffeur got out the car, asking if the lady was alright. It took awhile for Sakura to register that the lady was her.

Suddenly, a dark opaque window rolled down, revealing a chiseled face with eyes hidden beneath a pair of sunglasses. "Watch your step, woman. Frank, get back in and drive," he ordered the driver who gave an apologetic bow to Sakura before returning to the car.

Sakura bit back the string of words she was about to throw back at the man. She tried to persuade herself that the man having rolled up his window was lucky enough to dodge her insults. She promised herself that she was no longer going to be the girl she was brought up to be. Spoilt, useless, helpless, pathetic. She was a changed woman.

Picking herself up, she looked down at her bruised suit. "The boss will just have to make do," she said to no one in particular as she dusted herself off and carried on into the building.

XXX

"And so, if you have any problems, just contact me. Try not to disturb the boss," the nice lady from the counter told me as she brought her tour of the office to an end. "You can remember your way back to your desk?" Sakura tried to look confident and gave a quick nod. "That's good. Now, the boss will be in later. He has yet to be informed of his new secretary and he's off to get his must-have coffee since his secretary isn't here to do it for him. Well, now that he has one, good luck!" She winked and left.

"Right, where was my desk?"

XXX

"Sir, our stocks have gone up but our rival is threatening to pull everything down. We've got to come up with a plan," a hurried-looking man tried to tell his boss.

The immaculately-suited man stopped in his tracks, took off his sunglasses and peered into the other man's eyes, "Well, indeed you have to come up with a plan. So, may I ask you why you're still standing here, telling me about your I-have-yet-to-hear-about plan!" The older man looked scared stiff for a moment before bowing low and dismissing himself.

Exhaling sharply, the young man returned his sunglasses to rest on the bridge of his nose as he carried on his way towards his office. "Sir, your new secretary-" the nice lady tried to inform him.

"What secretary?" As those words left his mouth, the just-returned sunglasses got knocked of his face and the cup of coffee in his hand got knocked out, sending numerous brown droplets raining onto the carpet. "What in the name of-"

He glanced down at the culprit. At the same time, the fallen looked up. Emerald clashed with amber. "YOU?!"

END CHAPTER 1


I haven't written in ages. So, whatever goes... By the way, the title means 'Torn'.