Chapter 2
Sakura looked through the huge pile of folders on her desk. She bit back a yawn as she opened the next one. Part of her job was to recruit the right models for the upcoming fashion show and pick six for the commercial photoshoot in two days. She blinked her eyes tightly a few times, trying to stay awake. She'd read through sixteen files already and scrutinized every little detail of every photo.
When someone knocked, she straightened her back and stretched. Kohei came through the door with a few more folders in his hands.
Sakura groaned. "Ugh, don't tell me…"
"Sorry to do this to you. A few more applied for the photoshoot this morning," he said sympathetically. He came over behind her and massaged her shoulders. "Tired?"
She nodded and closed her eyes. "Mm, that feels nice. Thanks honey."
He bent down and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. "Let's go out for dinner tonight. We haven't done that in a while. Somewhere not so far so we can come back to work if we need to."
Sakura stood and turned around to face him. "Sure. What do you feel like eating?"
He moved his hands up and down her arms. "Uh…let's go for curry. But I've got a few more things to finish before 6. Is 6:15 ok?"
She nodded. "Fine with me."
They stood almost eye to eye, so it was easy to stare into his eyes. She stared into them now, grateful that he was there for her. They never failed to make her feel safe. It was one of the reasons why it had been easy to say yes to his proposal.
She had never before met a man who loved her as much as he did. Her mother often told her that it was better to marry someone who loved you more than you loved them, because that way, you would never have to worry about him cheating. And that was definitely the case with this one.
"You'll never cheat on me, will you honey?" She asked playfully.
He laughed. "I think you'd kill me if I did."
"Aw, you know me so well," she said as she hugged him.
:::
Two hours later, walking side by side, they held hands as they looked for a curry restaurant.
After dating for six months, Kohei had popped the question on the night of her birthday dinner. He'd brought her to an indoor garden of sakura trees and golden lights blinking all around them. When he took out the small box, she began to cry. And amidst the tears, she managed to say yes.
That was only three months ago. Kohei liked to move things along and Sakura was the type to follow, not take the lead. Though engagements usually lasted a year for most couples, theirs would only be five months long.
"That place looks good," he pointed to a restaurant.
"Let's go there."
When they walked inside, Sakura glanced around. She'd never been to the place before, but it seemed awfully close to Syaoran's company. She wondered fleetingly if he ever came here.
"Does this table work for you?" The waitress asked.
"Perfect," Kohei replied, pulling the seat back for Sakura.
"Ah!"
Kohei glanced up.
"It's Syaoran," she pointed to the brown-haired man sitting by the window on the opposite side of the room. Across from him was a blonde woman. Curious, Sakura turned to Kohei. "Can we go say hi?"
"Sure."
"Hey Li!"
Syaoran looked up and smiled. "Oh it's the green-eyed lovebirds."
"How's it going?" Sakura asked, eyeing the blonde not so subtly.
Knowing where Sakura's thoughts were heading, Syaoran said, "Mariko, this is Sakura, one of my best friends, and Kohei, her fiancé. Guys, this is Mariko, one of our new interns starting this year."
"Ohh, intern…" Sakura said with a smile. "Nice to meet you, Mariko."
"Hello, nice to meet you," she said, standing up and exchanging bows with them.
"You don't mind if we join you, right?" Sakura sat down on the chair beside Mariko.
"Well, it'd be rude to kick you out now that you've made yourself at home."
Ignoring him, Sakura pushed Kohei over to the seat beside Syaoran. "Sit down, honey."
"Sorry for intruding," he said apologetically.
"No worries."
Mariko leaned forward and smiled at Sakura. "You're best friends with someone this pretty, Syaoran?"
Sakura laughed with delight. "I like her!"
"Since how long ago have you been friends?" She continued.
"Uh…even before high school."
"That's amazing," Mariko murmured.
Without even looking at each other, they simultaneously said, "Not really," which got a laugh out of the other two.
"It is," she insisted. "I mean I lost contact with all my school friends eventually."
"Yeah I've only kept in touch with one guy from high school," Kohei said. "But you should meet the whole group. There are seven of them."
"Really?!" Mariko exclaimed.
"Actually…" Sakura began.
Knowing exactly what was coming next, Syaoran cleared his throat and looked away from her.
"There used to be eight of us, and we were always a really, really close group of friends, as in the type of friends who tell each other everything. And we experienced everything together, so you'd think people would value that friendship and those memories like they were gold, but hey you know, unfortunately not everyone sees it that way, especially one whohad a memory relapse or something after leaving for London, and for eight years never even once contacted us so we all thought she'd gone missing or maybe just completely disappeared from the face of the earth altogether, but actually, actually, it turns out she seemed to be fine all these years, and she's got all her limbs and she's still got her smile and her brain still works just fine, and how do we know that? By suddenly bumping into three of us and asking if we could gather everyone again for a nice, big reunion. All the while acting like those eight years meant nothing."
Her voice had gone up about two decibel levels in the span of that monologue.
Mariko's mouth slightly opened.
Kohei blinked. "What? Who?"
Sakura's face was red. Not only was there bitterness but now it had escalated to anger. Anger that had been buried for years and was now resurfacing.
"Who is this? How come I've never heard of her?" Kohei asked.
"Because she's been gone for eight years. And I'd forgotten about her," Sakura muttered. "Until this morning when Syaoran told me they saw her last night." She grabbed Syaoran's glass of ice water and downed it.
"I know you said you'd come to the reunion," Syaoran spoke up mildly, "but maybe it's best you skip this one out. For everyone else's sake."
"No. I'm coming."
"Can I come?" Kohei piped up.
"Yes. You can come and meet her yourself. You know," Sakura began, grabbing some bread from the basket and dipping it into Syaoran's plate of curry sauce. "If she didn't lose contact with me, I might've asked her to be my maid-of-honour."
"Stop eating my food and order your own," Syaoran snatched the last piece of bread hanging off of Sakura's mouth.
Uncomfortable with the sight of them sharing food, he took Sakura's arm and pulled her ever so slightly closer to him. "Yeah let's do that." He knew they were close, but he was never a fan of it.
Unaware, Mariko laughed. "You two seem like brother and sister."
"Everyone says that."
"There were eight of us who'd known each other since junior high, but I've known Syaoran since we were in kindergarten," added Sakura. "Our parents are best friends too. We're kind of stuck with each other for life, aren't we?"
"Unfortunately."
That earned him a slap on the head.
Growing interested in their relationship, Mariko inched forward and rested her elbows on the table. "That is so cool. I've always just seen that in movies but I've never met real-life best friends who are of the opposite sex. I mean, it just seems impossible."
As Kohei ordered for him and Sakura, Sakura continued munching the food from Syaoran's plate. "What is?" Syaoran asked absently as he slapped her hand away. "Stop it."
"For a good-looking man and a beautiful woman to be best friends without ever falling for each other."
Sakura suddenly stopped chewing the bread. Syaoran almost choked on the piece of broccoli he'd just thrown in his mouth. Kohei swiveled around.
Syaoran coughed several times.
"No, no, no," Sakura began the denial with a hand up. "Never. We're proof that it is possible."
"Yes." Still recovering, he coughed again. "We've been friends for 20 years and I've never seen her as a woman. Ever. Believe me Kohei."
Missing the irritation that briefly flashed in Sakura's eyes, Kohei continued to scrutinize him.
"Hmm…that's interesting," Mariko said with a teasing smile.
Recovering, Sakura cried vehemently, "No, definitely not interesting! It's weird, ok? Don't ever say that again!"
"Yeah, yeah, let's move on and forget that conversation just happened," Syaoran said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.
::::::
After Sakura explained in detail what had happened to Tomoyo all those years ago to Kohei, he decided to skip the reunion and give the group their private time. Sakura had protested, saying that it didn't really matter, but in the end agreed with Kohei's decision. Mostly because she anticipated going ballistic and making a scene and that was something Kohei did not have to see.
It was 5pm and Sakura stood outside her building door, waiting for a certain amber-eyed man to arrive and pick her up. Not known for her patience, Sakura grabbed her phone for the twentieth time and checked if Syaoran had called or texted. She had been waiting for ten minutes already. Just as she bit the bullet and phoned him, his car drove into the entrance roundabout in front of her building.
"Sorry I'm late," he said before she could say anything. "There was a fire at my building."
She sat at the passenger seat and sent him a dry look. "Really? That's your excuse?"
Innocently, he said, "What? Fire happens."
When they were on their way, he asked, "So you're calm now? You're not going to go crazy like you did at the restaurant the other night?"
"I didn't go crazy."
"…"
"That wasn't crazy."
"Just don't make a scene."
Sakura crossed her arms in front of her chest stubbornly. "Don't you think I deserve to be just a little angry?"
"You do, but not in a public, happy occasion. Never the right place, Sakuchin."
Only two people ever called her by that nickname – Syaoran and Tomoyo. It came from Syaoran. Then Tomoyo had heard it once in junior high and used it too.
"Yes I know. I'll just ask some questions when the opportunity comes up. Right?"
"Right."
She rolled her shoulders as though preparing for a fight. "How's everyone getting there?"
"We're picking up Eriol. Hiro's carpooling with Taka. Naoko's on the train I think."
"Good. It's too bad Rika's in Australia."
"Send her a picture."
"Mm." She glanced out the window, tapping her fingers on the armrest to the music.
After a good block of silence, she spoke up again, "Sho?"
Sho was in turn Sakura's pet name for him. She was the only one in the whole world who ever called him that. It originated from their pre-kindergarten days when he tried teaching her his name and she couldn't mimic his pronunciation of his name so properly.
He glanced at her.
Sakura met his brief gaze. "Remember that night before Tomoyo left?"
He nodded.
"I'd never cried so much in my life. I was the last to say goodbye and hug her and we promised each other we'd stay in touch somehow. And I wondered for what, two years, what had happened. But nothing. Tomoyo meant a lot to me. And she threw it away just like that."
He'd been there to witness it all, so he took her hand now and squeezed it in comfort. "I know."
:::
About fifteen minutes later, they arrived at Eriol's apartment building and he was standing by the front gate. Though a ball of nerves himself, Eriol tried to be optimistic as he jumped into the backseat.
"Hey guys!"
"Long time no see, friend," Sakura greeted the navy-haired man. "How've you been? How's work?"
He squeezed her shoulder in warm greeting. "I'm good. Work is the same as usual, keeps me busy. How've you been Kino? How are the wedding plans going?"
"Oh I'm great. The wedding plans are definitely going. I've been working with our wedding coordinator everyday to finalize everything, so it's been insane. I haven't had much of a break the last few weeks either."
"The fashion show is coming up right?" Syaoran asked.
"Yeah. I've been doing a lot of overtime. If Kohei and I didn't work together, I probably wouldn't see him until the wedding."
"Aw what a lucky guy," Eriol grinned. "Look at you getting hitched already. Man. It's still unbelievable. Can you believe it Syaoran!? Sakura, the youngest, the baby of the group, getting married."
"Yeah it's weird," he said with a head shake. "I see her every day and it's still weird."
"What's so weird about me getting married?" She remarked.
Known for not being able to express himself well, he just said, "It's just weird."
:::
Two minutes passed since Syaoran had parked the car. He glanced at his rearview mirror and caught Eriol releasing a breath. He turned to Sakura who was also trying to calm herself. How he ended up with the two people who were most stressed about this evening, he didn't know, but now he cleared his throat to get their attention.
"We're here, so…let's…go in."
"Right."
"Yeah."
Hopeless.
Syaoran led the trio into the restaurant and almost became nervous himself. The way they were acting, it seemed like they were walking into someone's funeral. He thumped their backs in support.
"Hey guys," Syaoran said first at the sight of Naoko, Hiro, and Takashi.
Eriol's stiff posture loosened visibly.
"Oh thank goodness," Sakura said with great relief as she plopped beside Naoko. "I was so nervous. I thought she was here already."
While they all still kept in touch, over the years it had become more difficult to meet up as often as in their younger days. The last time they had gathered like this was maybe two months before.
"Look at that rock!" Hiro remarked. He said this the last time too when she had just gotten engaged. It wasn't that big.
Sakura laughed. "Stop it."
"You're actually glowing," Naoko said with a huge smile. "Can't wait for the big day, can you? I'd be going nuts if I were you."
"I've been so busy with a lot of things so the days are going by very fast," she admitted. "I am slightly going insane though. I don't get much rest."
Takashi walked behind the other three men sitting at the table. Resting his arms on Syaoran and Hiro's shoulders, he announced, "So I'm seeing Megumi again tomorrow night. That was a great goukon, wasn't it?"
"Only for you," Hiro muttered.
"Yeah…I'm never doing that with you losers again," Syaoran said.
Eriol remained quiet, preoccupied with thoughts of what may conspire tonight.
Taka shook Eriol slightly. "You okay man?"
"Yeah I'm fine," he answered absently.
"Hi everyone."
A/N: Hang on for the ride, folks. This is gonna be a long one!
