Chapter 1: SAYORAN LI
It was a new experience to all of us. First we thought it wasn't a real thing. But we got the actual wind of it only when Mr. Chang arrived. He was great. He didn't have any awkwardness or as far as that goes, no problem in being what he was to us then. Don't get me wrong; he was guide through the tour. It was strange to be talked of something, which is so hard to believe. But the success of Chang lay in that he said it in such a matter-of-fact manner that it seemed that he had actually seen those ancient wizards make man out of stone. That's what they did, apparently, around 2000 years ago.
The cave was full of the carvings and statues all indicating what they did for a living. They did it only for the king, so that his army was never out of soldiers and kitchen never out of cooks. It seems they burned all the utensils and recipes of this man-making just after they went out of business. So, sadly for us, we'll never know how to make a man out of stone.
If I did know, it'll be used to make a date for me. I'm 19 and I've not been to one date in my whole life, excepting, of course my childhood, which I don't remember much. But face it, how much fun can a girl under ten get from a guy! But these thoughts were not bothering me much. Words of Chang, which made many laugh, especially Guoen and her friends, still ring in my ears. They were: 'Everything is possible by magic'. Does the thing known as magic exists anywhere, except possibly, in children's books?
With these thoughts I went back to our dorm. I had expected Yui to be there waiting impatiently as she is to leave today. She'll be angry for sure, I thought, because she can never bear my absent minded attitude. She had asked me to hurry. I hurried from the steps to the room. I opened the door to find Yui lying in the couch obviously in no hurry. 'Sorry I'm late,' I said automatically. 'Oh, that's ok! I'm not leaving.' 'Why not?' I asked wondering whether I should sound annoyed or happy. 'To give you company, why else?' she said thoroughly annoyed. I knew that she badly wanted to go but I was so happy that I didn't try to dissuade her. I merely asked her 'Seriously?' She nodded and continued watching TV.
'Where were you after the bus stopped?' she called out once I got into the room to change. 'I couldn't find you or Cheyen anywhere, so I...' I trailed off sure that she'll figure out the rest. Actually I hadn't had bothered to look for them. I just wanted some solitude to ponder upon the trip and the theme of what Chang said today. I was again knit up in my thoughts about magic and stone-men, when Yui came into my room. She had a strange smile on her face. 'Cheyen said that the much-awaited arrival' she cleared her throat importantly and continued, 'of Guoen's pen pal is coming this term to join here.' 'You mean...?' she nodded. 'But, he'll need a while to catch up, wouldn't he, I mean...' I asked. Yui shook her head impatiently. Then it clicked, 'How's Cheyen?' 'Well, jealous, as he always was, ever since she started talking of their long-online chats,' she said looking a bit tired. 'But why? She made it clear that she doesn't want anything to do with Cheyen anymore in their high school days, right?' I don't have first hand information about this love-affair since I'm met these two exactly 2 and a half months ago but Yui had told me so much of it that I felt I was there when Cheyen and Chel Guoen broke up.
Cheyen and Guoen were friends ever since junior classes. When they reached their teens they decided to be more than friends. Later Guoen attended a family meeting where she met a really distant relative of hers, a woman, whose name no one was able to supply me with. She had a son who was a depressed type person, but awfully good-looking. They became friends and his mother realized that a girl-pal would be a nice change. They mailed each other and occasionally met during holidays and when Guoen was allowed a laptop of her own, they chatted and emailed each other. Of course she was good enough to tell all this to Cheyen, but he says it's because of him that they grew apart. Finally in the second last year of senior high they broke up but continued to be friends. When the last year came, she became one of the popular-people groups, against whom Cheyen and Yui were working then. However Cheyen objected to it, Guoen never listened and finally she said something awful to him, which, Yui herself doesn't know, and they separated forever.
It was a ridiculous love story and Yui said that she had witnessed no genuine attachment between them. But it's quite obvious that Cheyen is still crazy about her. Well any guy would be, she is a terrific-looking girl. She is quite tall, slim with long legs and clothes, which conveniently showed off her legs. But what capture the attention of most is her hair and the peculiar manner in which it lies even after continuous class hours. But what I could never understand is the enmity between Yui and Guoen. They weren't friends even when Cheyen were their mutual friend. I used to think they were jealous, but face it, Guoen never seemed to be crazy about Cheyen anyway. Yui's stand was that she was as terrible to fellow human beings as she is now to me (she's horrible to me) but Cheyen says that she was a wonderful person, who never hurts a fly (I think he's exaggerating though) and everything is because of the guy whom we're all going to meet real soon.
What Yui was worried about now was that she'd have to put up with all her descriptions about the handsome new boyfriend. However the 'cool-group' tries to avoid me, they can never totally leave Yui and Cheyen out. Let's consider Yui for instance, she's cool, beautiful, talented, smart, and is even in the college soccer team. But she had the old rebel spirit, which simply refused to accept posh community to which Guoen belongs. It had gone well for me though - she is apparently attracted to losers. Cheyen is also very similar - he's the director of the college sports club, a position, which is usually given only to third years or above, and he's also in basketball team. I don't know how Guoen's new boyfriend looks like, but in my eyes, Cheyen is terrific-looking. Cheyen was kind of happy ever since he became the director, since Guoen had suddenly remembered how nice it was to be in his company back in high school. Of course things're going to change.
After two uneventful weeks, during which I had to endure consistent groans from Yui, saying that it's my fault that she's still in the college, the classes finally began. I always look forward for the classes to start, it's not that I love to study; it's the time I get to be with friends. For the past 6 years every holiday except the summer, I was forced to stay in the boarding house to whichever institution I attended then. The last two weeks of this holiday alone did I get to be with someone I like. Yui knew very well about this and that's why she volunteered. After the tour I hadn't had seen Cheyen and when I saw him in my first class, I noticed a distinct change not only in his attitude but also his appearance. It then occured to me that, whatever Yui says, Guoen does have a very dear place in his heart.
He gave a very weary 'Hi' when he came to meet Yui and me during lunch hour. 'Caught your beauty with the beast?' Yui asked in a most nasty manner; she was always mean to him as far as Guoen was concerned. He didn't answer, he merely looked. 'So, he came?' I asked rather cautiously. 'No, it's either tomorrow or... I don't know why you asked that question, Sakura!' he said looking furious. 'Surely he doesn't care?!' Yui retorted rolling her eyes. 'No, I don't and...' he looked around apparently lost for words. 'If you didn't care, how did you know whom she was talking of, when she asked whether he came?' Yui said and strangely she looked angry too. 'I shouldn't've come here,' he said and added as he was leaving, 'it's none of your business, anyway.' 'Why're you so mean to him?' I asked a bit scared seeing the angry expressions on both the faces. 'He's torturing himself for a girl, who's totally horrible to him and to the society. Someone has to bring him to a normal condition,' she said with the same terrifying look. I didn't bother to contradict her. I've heard her shout at him on phone in relation to the subject, whenever he called.
We were having a quiet lunch when we heard some loud noises from nearby bench. Chel Guoen was there with her friends - a group of boys and girls who were included under the title - popular and who were not Yui or Cheyen. A guy in that group, Tai Dee, one of the few humane people, has a major crush on Yui and have tried to ask her out a fair few times, but had become quite dry in throat when near her, so always unsuccessful. They were evidently discussing about Guoen's friend, since we heard the words fourteen, online and soo-cute in the same sentence. Many of the people around were friends from school so all knew quite well about Guoen and this guy. Yui, who is always trying to avoid them, seemed to be listening quite keenly. 'You eavesdropping?' I asked in a whisper. All I got was a 'shh'. I rushed through my lunch trying to shut my ears against all evils and got up. To my surprise, Yui too had managed to eat with the same speed as I together with eavesdropping. As we walked to the hall I asked, 'Any success in acquiring information?' She muttered something about me having to use normal language and replied, 'Yep, his name - Sayoran Li!' It was a strange name, yet I thought it was a nice name. Yui obviously didn't since she immediately commented as though reading my thoughts and contradicting, 'What a stupid name!' She didn't stop there, she continued to mutter, hardly audible except a few broken words like - Half-Japanese, love-recovery, blast her!
We had two hours continuously Coordinate Geometry after lunch and by the time recess came nobody seemed to be able to move or talk. I myself nearly fell off the chair three times during the class. Someone was singing a lullaby by substituting some cute words with perverse ones. Only person who seemed interested in talking was Guoen and that too to Yui. I, with all the tiredness, strained my ears and edged a little closer to the seat. I generally don't appreciate overhearing, but let's just say my curiosity got the better of me this time.
I didn't get the introductory remarks. First word I heard was tomorrow. I could only too well guess what came before. Yui didn't look as interested as she was during lunchtime. It's either the lunch or that now Guoen knows she is listening. Yui always said that Guoen came to talk to her out of mere irritation. But I knew why she did that. She wanted to lure her into her gang ever since I've been to college. From what I've heard, she wasn't too nice to Yui in school. Yui is now way too precious. She is a girl with stunning good looks, great studying capacity, good in sports and only factor, which irritates Guoen is her being friends with me. It was a phenomenon, which no one could understand. Partly that way why I was always interested in their conversations, I always felt that Guoen is trying to steal my best friend from me.
I could only hear snatches of their conversation. I would've been able to hear the whole thing, but then it'd be too obvious. I heard his name told twice - Sayoran - which I thought was a great name. And besides that how he always wanted to study somewhere close to her and he's ecstatic now that his wish had come true. She continued saying how she had cured him of the depression, which hung over him after he lost a dear friend, 'I think the poor kid drowned' she said. Then he lost something, which I couldn't catch properly. Thankfully, as my neck was hurting due to the craning, the teacher for our next class, Differential Calculus, walked in.
I bombarded Yui with questions regarding the great-name-guy once we were in the room. Strangely Yui didn't seem to have the interest she had during lunch. Maybe she doesn't like to be told, she may like to learn things by overhearing. Still I got some information from her. All her answers began with Guoen said... He, though half-Japanese, knows all languages besides Japanese, is cute, had a great friend when he was very small, whose death almost drove him crazy. He never talks of that friend, since, oh then Guoen remembers, he doesn't remember much, presumably due to treatment for his mental depression. 'Basically,' Yui added, 'She doesn't know much about him.'
That night Cheyen came and it was marvelous how these two can interact normally after a fight. It's not once or twice, but I've witnessed it many times before. After he described his trouble with two new kids who wanted to join their team, we soon got into the subject of Guoen. I was prepared for the worst, but I was in for a surprise. Yui was soft towards him and he naturally appreciated it, though looked at her as though she had flipped. He finally said that it hadn't had affected him as much as he thought it would, but I wasn't totally convinced.
Either he was hiding from others or he didn't attend the classes, but we got to see this special guy only during the second recess. Yui, Cheyen and I were walking towards the sports club office to see Cheyen's photo among all the honorary members who ever got involved with the club. Cheyen was in an elevated mood because of this and we knew neither Guoen nor Sayoran was in his head then. It was a sad change when both together with a few of their gang appeared in front of us.
It's not possible for me to describe what I felt when I saw him. He was one of the best looking guys I've ever looked upon at. But that's that. It was something else. I'd a strange sensation, it's so hard to describe, I was kind of happy but sad and extremely anxious; for what, I'll never know. Due to my short stature, it's quite probable that he didn't see me at first. Only when Yui moved out of the way, he saw me. It seemed to me that he was a bit shocked. He stared at me hard into my eyes that I soon found myself sweating. He looked away only when Guoen pulled at him and introduced Yui to him. Yui was practically exuding with annoyance. She said 'hi' to him quite cordially. 'She's in our girls' soccer team,' she said; it was too obvious that she wanted Yui to be pleased.
'And this is,' she said pulling Sayoran towards Cheyen, 'Cheyen Ono.' She said with a sly, smirking smile. He stared at both of them but not with a pathetic expression of a betrayed boyfriend, I observed with delight, but with 'I've got better things to do' manner. He was busy then anyway, he said something, which might have been 'hi' and then said quite cheerfully to us, 'see you guys at lunch,' and sped off to the office. Guoen didn't look too pleased at this. 'We have exactly 8 more minutes for the next class to start, I've to take you to so many more places,' she said in the sweetest of voices and dragged him away.
Back at the class I kept thinking about Sayoran that it took me a few seconds to realize that Yui was talking to me. 'How rude!' she said practically fuming with anger, 'She didn't bother to introduce you!' Strangely that had occurred to me only then. But what's new? 'Why should she do that anyway?' I asked quite frankly. 'Because,' she said vehemently, 'because, you're a human being who happened to be there!' I gave her a cut the crap gesture and almost drifted into the dream world, when she again spoke, this time in a malicious hiss, 'And was that guy worth it? He's so vindictive!' This time I didn't feel like letting it pass. 'Why do you say that? He didn't even talk to you!' 'You can know such things, Sakura - either he's rude or our Chel Guoen hadn't been able to totally eradicate mental depression out of him!' she said.
I didn't feel that was fair, but there was no use arguing if your opponent is Yui. 'And,' she said again in her hissing and spitting tone, 'Why did she have to give an elaborate detail of my life - what I do, where I live...!' 'You haven't had figured out that yet?' I asked, feeling happy that I had managed to see something she had obviously missed. 'What do you mean?' she said leaving the angry voice. 'She takes you to be her rival. She's this perfect girl and you're another perfect girl. She had interest in many guys, most of them who had something for you - take for instance Tai Dee!' I said enjoying every minute of it. She shook her head impatiently and opened her mouth to retort. But I began again, as I knew I'll never get a chance again, 'And she wants you to know that now she's a bit more perfect as she's having this gorgeous guy, who's not affected by you (she must be quite confident in his faithfulness!). She just wants you to know that;' I added quickly, 'and besides, she never totally hated you ever since college days!' Yui looked away. She needed time to ponder upon it.
After the class, I discovered that this wasn't what she was pondering upon. She smiled at me mischievously and asked in a low teasing voice, 'So, you think he's gorgeous?' How did I get into a fix all the time? I was hoping to make fun of her and now the ball is in her court. 'That's the general opinion, isn't it?' I said trying to sound casual and offhand, but I could feel myself blushing. 'I didn't feel anything! Of course I could see he was good looking but I wasn't affected enough to comment upon it,' she said looking terrible smug. 'Look, I was just making a comparative study, whereby...' I started trying to look at least remotely smug, but she interrupted, 'Trying to confuse me with complicated language again, Sakura?' I kept quite. My precise way of speaking was always of great annoyance to her. 'Leave that, Sakura,' she said as we approached sport club office, where she had to meet the soccer team coach, 'You kind of reacted in a strange way when you saw him.' She looked very serious. Was my expression that obvious?
'You're imagining then,' I said hoping that I wasn't blushing. 'Well, you'll have to go by yourself today, I've got some practice,' she said as the coach came. She waved and went with the coach to the grounds leaving a very confused me. I walked back home having similar thoughts on my mind. She looked kind of serious when she said what she said. Did I look stupid or as though drooling over that guy? I obviously have no possible feelings towards him - for God's sake, I met him only a while ago. Then why again did I feel so queer when he came by?
I was feeling awfully tired by 7 'o' clock at night. I couldn't concentrate on my assignment and whenever I caught myself awake, I was thinking about either Sayoran or what Yui had said. I decided to go to bed early. I changed into my pajamas and crawled underneath my sheets and said good night to Kero, who was sitting on top of my bed. Kero is a stuffed toy, presumably a teddy bear, whom I remember having with me, ever since I was a small child. Since I can't remember my childhood, I don't really remember how I got him. I used to talk to him regularly until I became Yui's roommate, since, that practical-freak, hated me doing that. She was one unimaginative kid. But she does have great grasping power - I thought dully before going into a deep sleep.
Though I slept soundly that night, so soundly that I didn't hear Yui come in, my sleep was interrupted by a strange dream. A really tall guy, with his long hair in a ponytail, with specs was standing in front of me. He was smiling pleasantly at me. He was dressed in an elegant black cloak with subtle blue embroidery. He slowly came towards me and bent a bit to reach my shoulders. And he said in a low voice, 'the time will come soon'. I was puzzled and I realized that I wasn't alone. Just beside me, on whose shoulder rested the other hand of the tall man, was a puzzled-looking Sayoran Li.
I woke up shortly after. I was no longer feeling sleepy. I looked at my alarm clock, which was set to ring at 6 'o' clock, whose luminous hands, showed that it was only 4:05. I got to my feet and went to the toilet. I stared at my reflection on the mirror and talked to myself in my head. Was I that knit up by him to see him in my dreams the first day he had arrived? Am I obsessed with him? I can't have, I met him only today, no yesterday. I tried to justify my feelings by saying that it was his oddity and not his person, which is having such a tremendous effect on me. He was strange and that's all… but now...! It sounded highly improbable in my head; leave alone in Yui's ears.
For I had this habit of telling her everything that's happening in my life. It was due to lack of other company, mainly, but Yui meant a lot to me and her reaction also meant an equal lot. But she'll make fun of me in this situation. Come on, I said to myself, you have to learn to keep things from her, for she evidently doesn't keep you for her confidante. That was so true that it hurt. There have been many new things in her life, it's quite evident from her attitude of late, though I'm not as good a character-judge as she is, and she never speaks anything out of the ordinary. It's always the same things - how her practice was, how she was told of by a certain-professor, how Cheyen is angry with her, etcetera, etcetera...
With my mind made up, I went back to the bedroom and decided to finish off my assignment, though the deadline was two weeks later. The light in the room was already on and I found Yui sitting up on her bed. 'Couldn't sleep!' she said with a wide yawn. I was wondering, if it was a question or a fact, but I knew it would be the latter, since she had sleeping-problems. 'Why not?' I asked, I myself sensed a coldness in my voice (I had suddenly become quite angry). She sensed it, of course, since she looked at me in a reproachful manner. I became deliberately soft and settled down beside her and asked, 'Wasn't the practice enough to tire you out?' 'Nah!' she said and I noticed that she did look a lot tired. I suddenly felt a surge of sympathy within me. She was a bit insomniac and of late, she had become terribly sleepless. 'I can't sleep, Sakura, I just can't!' she said. 'But you seemed to be when I woke up,' I said. 'Yeah, but it was a transient sort of thing. I was half-asleep then,' she looked even more tired. 'Did I wake you up?' that was the last thing I'd like to have done. 'No, no. I'd have woken up anyway,' she said. I knew just the thing to cheer her up - my dream.
She was good enough to listen the whole thing without making any unwelcome comments upon it. But the moment I was done, she began - 'I knew it, you have a crush on him.' That sounded really freaky. 'You think so?' I asked trying not to get testy. She smiled at me the way a mother would to her mischievous child. 'Yeah, Sakura has her first crush!' she said trying to look proud. 'Who was the other guy, again?' she asked. 'I don't know...' I said wondering if it was some guy I'd seen before. Then it occurred to me that I forgot to mention what he had said to us. 'What did he say to you?' she asked, her eyes gleaming with interest and curiosity. 'The time will come soon,' I said. She closed her eyes, as though deep in meditation and said, 'So, it's what I feared it to be.' 'What?' I asked. She opened her eyes and stared at me for a while before saying, 'You're nuts and obsessed not only with Sayoran Li but also with magic-stuff. You shouldn't have gone for that stone thing.' I knew that she was joking, but I felt terrible at those words. She looked sharply at me and said, 'You don't take it seriously, do you?' 'No,' I said with a deliberate calmness, 'I merely narrated, since I'm in the habit of saying everything that's happened in my life to my friend.' I also added, 'Unlike some others.'
We didn't speak much, and I was aware that I made her see that she doesn't say much about her life to me. I did feel quite satisfied, but also I felt terrible in hurting her. She had too much problems - lack of rest, too much obligations in form of studies and co-curricular activities. I put on the table lamp on my desk and started reading the book I had taken from the library for the purpose. I was about Commercial Arithmetic and there can't be a more boring subject in this world. I had already prepared the introduction. I looked through the list of subtopics. First one was 'Earliest Applications'. Suddenly I had an image of someone chipping entries into debit and credit columns engraved in a giant slab of marble. Yui has a point, I thought, as I went through the index.
I had apparently fallen asleep midway and woke up when the alarm sounded. It was six and I found myself with face plastered against the book – to be exact on page no. 196. I got up and noticed that Yui was fast asleep regarding my uncompromising alarm clock. I stopped it and closed the book and decided to wash up. When I returned Yui was still sleeping. I wished her well and went to the restroom. It was empty if you count out Lisa who was sleeping on the couch, evidently an effort to complete her assignment. I went up slowly and looked at the book she was referring - it was too high for my standards. She also had a lab manual beside her. I thought why she needed it, since our practical was not to start in the near future.
I found the statistics notebook, which belonged to me, which I had forgotten to take back. I tried to study, but the images of Sayoran and that long-haired guy from my dream kept disturbing me. I knew it was stupid, but nevertheless, I couldn't help it. I wondered if Yui'd be mad at me, when she wakes up. I had a right to be mad, I tried to justify myself. Yet all these were making a mess of my head that I let out a little scream and brought the note really close to my face and tried to make myself study, merely to make my mind busy. This woke Lisa. She gave me a contemptuous look (she doesn't belong to Guoen's group though) and walked into her room with her stuff.
Next few days in class, I saw Sayoran all the time and all those times I experienced that inexplicably queer feeling. And all those times I had to bear with Yui's taunts. Yui also wasn't having a nice time, since Guoen brought him to her all the time as though it's a great honor. I happened to be with Yui many of those times so I noticed that he wasn't too happy with that either. He smiled rather awkwardly and excused himself away if Guoen held him there any more that 5 minutes.
We weren't the only people who really didn't appreciate his coming. Most of Guoen's girlfriends weren't too happy either. They didn't say anything to her, obviously. But it was evident that they all took immense interest in this guy and Guoen sort of was always there. How nasty of her! And then there is poor Cheyen. He seemed to have been recovering, but somebody tore off his photo from the board and the authorities said that they'd have to investigate before they stuck a new photo there.
The most terrible incident, which had occurred that week, was the introduction to practicals. We only had to deal with Physics. That explains why Lisa was reading the lab manual; she must've known it beforehand. Our lab partners were selected and unfortunately it wasn't according to the alphabetical order of names. I'm really fond of neither Jin Konto nor Shine Kyle, but I thought them to be angels when I knew who my partner was - Chel Guoen. I wasn't the only one who was disappointed. Guoen too didn't seem to be happy. Apparently she had hoped that she'd get Sayoran Li. Yui got Sayoran Li. Though I didn't think that it's awful, Yui obviously was really angry.
'Of course, Guoen came up to me and gave a horrible speech regarding how disappointed she is and how that and how this! And apparently she thinks that I have a crush on him!' she said seething with anger. 'You? Why does she think like that?' I said trying not to laugh, because Yui was looking more than just murderous then.' I don't know. Midway she just said that many others'd like to be his partner and she just asked casually: come on, wouldn't you be glad that he's your partner?' Yui was still fuming. 'Wait a minute, you are his partner!' I interjected. She smiled a bit maliciously and said, 'She didn't know it then.' 'And you told her...' I asked though I knew Yui would be only happy to make it sound as horrible as possible. 'That she needn't worry about anything since I'm his partner!' she said looking jubilant.
After that she was in a nice mood - nice enough to sympathize with me for having, to quote her, 'that thing' for a lab partner. Well, I did deserve all the sympathy she gave me, for all Tuesdays and Fridays proved to be utter horror to me in the future. Those were the days we had Physics practical. I remember coming home so depressed that I forgot to ask how Yui's partner proved to be. Yes, for ages, I was in no mood to do anything. Maybe due to my experience that day or the day before or because of the dread of what I was to face the next day or day after that. One might feel that I'm exaggerating. My pride doesn't make me list everything Guoen said to me and to the supervising professors.
Something, which I gathered in our, what 4th class together was that, evidently she had understood my problem with Sayoran. She too took it to be a crush, but in a way totally different from how Yui took it to be. She scorned me and went to the extent of saying that a person like me has no right to keep any hope as to have the attention of a guy like Sayoran. It hurt me, but I didn't show her that. Actually, I managed to make it show that I am unaffected by her comments and everything until that one day came.
Many of our Professors absented themselves that day except a few. So only those batches having professors were made to do the practical. Our professor, Mr. Len was also absent. But he managed to keep a substitute - a student doing his major in Physics in the same college. He was an amiable-looking guy in his twenties. He introduced himself; he was Yukito Tsukishiro and said that we needn't be too disciplined that day. All of us obviously liked that guy. He kept his word and rarely visited us that 3-hour period.
One thing about Guoen was that she was quite hard working. So, when I thought of taking this opportunity to meet with my friends, who were free, she insisted that we remain and do our work. 'You obviously don't care, but,' she added in a superior sort of tone, 'I do appreciate if I'm further in our experiments than others are!' She meant what she said, since she rarely gives me an opportunity to take the reading. The few times I had, it was because she got bored.
Anyway, she needed help that day and we did it together quite cordially and I thought finally we're bonding. But this first-nice-lab of mine ended in disaster when Sayoran came in. Of course his professor wasn't present then. Suddenly Guoen lost interest in her work. He came in quite furtively and said 'hey' in a secretive manner. I immediately looked at the experiment, and kept my face as much concealed from him as possible as I knew my face wouldn't be the normal color then.
More than just being embarrassed in front of a good-looking person, I felt a pain deep inside me. It must be due to Guoen's presence. I wanted to get away and I knew a perfect plan. I could pretend that I realized it only then that if Li was free that means Yui is also free. And that I'll hang out with her for a while and well, what comes to my mind then. When I got up from this reverie I could hear some strange sound. Not wanting to think what it could be I decided to make my presence known. I don't exactly remember what sound I made but whatever it was I caught Guoen's attention.
'What're you doing there?' Guoen asked in an amused manner. Something was pounding against my ears when I heard her and I looked up at her. I tried to smile and say all that I had well rehearsed in my head. I'd have succeeded had not my gaze wandered to look at Sayoran. I was momentarily frozen, for he was standing really close to me. I really don't think how I reacted, but I think I gaped at him for several minutes. I don't remember his expression either. My mind churned and twisted with his face in the centre. All the same my mouth was trying its level best to say what I had planned. It didn't come out and after a few minutes of staring I realized how embarrassing I must have appeared then.
All I managed was, 'I'll be going,' and I walked around the table to reach the door when Guoen called out, 'You going? Don't want to hang around with your dream man?' All the while I hadn't had heard him breath one word. Stupid of me, I turned around. I think I wanted to see him again. Sayoran momentarily broke his gaze to stare at Guoen puzzled. 'Sayoran,' she said still looking at me, 'It slipped my mind to tell you that someone here has... Well, I guess it'd have spoiled the scene if I had told you.' My gaze wasn't steady and may be my eyes were playing tricks at me; I thought I saw a vague grin upon his handsome face.
Of course I didn't stay there any longer. Since we had only one theory class more that day I directly went to my room and feeling disgusted at myself I started screaming. I called my image on the mirror all bad words I knew and I could invent. More than anger, embarrassment or grief, what I felt was some sort of a disappointment. All the time I was screaming I kept thinking, how could he let her say all those horrible things without saying anything? And, I wasn't sure of this one, he smirked. Then I asked myself, why shouldn't he? Anyone would, right? Somehow, I had hoped that he would react in a different manner.
I soon got tired of all this and fell on my bed and was soon asleep. I woke up, after one and a half hours, when I heard the door open. When I had my first wisp of consciousness, I said to myself, Yui needn't know about this. I got up, stretched convincingly in front of Yui, who was unpacking her stuff. 'I didn't feel like staying much longer after the lab,' I said to Yui who had her back turned to me. She suddenly turned to face me and said quite loudly, 'For God's sake, Sakura, Li and I do lab together!' I took a while to penetrate properly.
I took a while to penetrate properly. After a while I said with all the coolness I could muster, 'Big deal, you found out!' 'Yes, Sakura,' she said in her usual hiss-and-spit tone, 'it's a big deal and I'll make her see it!' It was so awkward a situation that we didn't speak for a while, if you count out the occasional grunts emanating from her mouth. 'How did you find out?' I asked after a while. 'I told you, Li told me!' she said. 'He tells such stuff to you?' I asked getting an awful picture of him laughing while describing how stupid I looked then. 'He said he wanted to tell her off before she could do any damage, but it occurred to him later and he wanted to apologize to you!' she again started another round of calling her names, while I interjected and asked, 'Are you sure?' 'Yeah. Why? Did he also...?' she asked furiously. 'No, of course not!' I said. So he's sorry and I'd have felt better if he'd apologized then. 'Of course I gave him a piece of my mind for not doing anything!' she said again.
'So, you're in good terms with him now,' I asked both out of curiosity and for the dire necessity of a subject-change. Her face broke into a smile and she nodded, 'I wanted to tell you that, but you've been preoccupied with... with your problem.' 'So, how's he? As you had expected, a snob?' I asked. 'He's ok! He's awfully shy and extremely introvert!' she said, 'I'm trying my level best to squash those characteristics out of him!' 'Good,' I said uncertain of what to say. 'I think he's sticking with Guoen because he's scared of her,' she said looking as though she meant it, 'And, I forgot, it's true what she proclaims of all the depression thing and stuff. She helped a lot apparently!' I couldn't imagine how a person as vindictive as Guoen could do anything to improve the state of mind of a young teenager. Of course, he is good looking, that justified her actions.