Summary: Eriol, a prodigy in the making who is always bullied; Syaoran, a transfer student from China with a troubled past and no friends; and Sakura, a beautiful girl full of nothing but optimism and always half full rather than half empty. As if life wasn't hard enough, when their lives intermingle and two boys fall for a girl, who's only supposed to live until her graduation . . . well, this is their story.
a/n: and here is chapter 7! Sorry if the story seems to be moving a bit slow. I'm really skeptical about the pace of stories and I really hate it when drama or slice-of-life type stories all of a sudden jump into a sudden climax. I like to try and develop my characters appropriately based on how long I believe my stories will be (I believe a good example would be my short-fic "The Howling Wolf in Cherry Storms" how I developed my characters that matched the length of the story. And if you guys haven't read that, please read it! Everyone has so much good things to say about that story! It's on this account too).
I won't say how long this story will be (mainly because I'm debating how long it should be at the moment) but hopefully you guys are enjoying my story so far. I will say, though, that things are beginning to pick up a bit : ) so hopefully you guys enjoy the ride that I hope I'll be taking you on. Don't forget to review my chapters and tell me what you think so far! Thanks and enjoy!
By: Shinigami 42-42-564's Friend
Thursday, October 7, 2010
I don't know why, but I always found class boring. When the teacher lectured, it sounded like the same thing over and over again. Eriol, however, enjoyed it or forced himself to enjoy it. He spent every minute of class taking down notes. Right hand going down and left, head going down and up to the chalkboard, and pages flipping every other minute.
Everyone else was in between me and him.
When the lunch bell rang, everyone got out from their seats and proceeded to their lunch doings. I, like always, made my way outside to my usual spot. After I passed a couple classes in the hallway I heard a "Hey you!" I wasn't sure if that Hey you was for me so I didn't care to turn. As I took another few steps, the voice—which was a girl voice—called out again.
Finally I stopped and turned to see if that voice talking to me. A girl with light brown pigtailed hair with a hint of rose-color made her way up to me. I felt like I've seen her before, but I couldn't remember when or where.
"It's you!" She exclaimed.
"It's . . . me," I repeated.
"You came into my restaurant the other day at the mall, The Flytrap's Cove, remember?"
It took me a moment to register what she said, but when I did, it all clicked. She was the other greeter next to Yukito.
"O—oh! Yeah, you were next to that guy when I came in," I said.
The girl laughed and nodded. "Glad you remember. I didn't expect you to be here in this school. It would've made things a lot easier if you had your uniform on."
I remember yesterday before going to the mall, I had switched out of my uniform. "Y—yeah, I switched before going there."
"Oh yeah, my name's Mihara Chiharu, I'm a third year. From the looks of your uniform, so are you."
"Y—yeah, Li Syaoran." I was really low on words here.
"Now that I think about it," she said, "I sometimes see you with Sakura-chan, don't I?"
"You're friends with her?"
"Not especially close, but we're in the same class."
"Oh . . ."
Chiharu smiled. Her smile was quite beautiful actually. Elegant as any other girls smile I've ever seen.
"Well, I'm going to go get some lunch. I'll see you around, Li-kun!" she said.
"Alright then." After that, we separated.
That was an awkward encounter. I was hoping to have said a bit more, maybe even drag he conversation a bit longer than it was, but all of that failed.
I made my way outside into the courtyard again. As always, a picnic blanket was set up right in front of my bench and Tomoyo, Eriol, and Sakura were sitting on it with picnic baskets and other fancy stuff, ready to eat.
I sighed at the sight and sat down in between Sakura and Tomoyo. Sometimes I tried sitting in between Sakura and Eriol just to get him to be jealous, but he started to learn and started sitting close enough to Sakura so there wasn't a gap I could sneak in.
"You're a bit late!" Sakura exclaimed.
"S—sorry," I said. "I ran into Mihara-san."
"Chiharu-chan? You know her?"
"No," I said shaking my head. "I just ran into her at the mall yesterday."
"Ah, so you went to The Flytrap's Cove? My brother works there too!"
"Yeah, I met him too."
"And . . . Yukito-san works there too!"
Sakura slapped her cheeks with her hands and puffed them upwards. She seemed to have been fanaticizing about Yukito in her head. Did she like the guy or something? Either way, Eriol looked kind of jealous of the thought of Sakura thinking about him.
"Oh my, there she goes again, dreaming about Yukito-san again," said Tomoyo. This really got Eriol flustered with jealousy, I could tell easily because he began to eat his bento without even looking at Sakura. Not only that, but he was quietly mumbling stuff to himself as well.
After humming Yukito's name a couple more times, Sakura began to lean towards my side and eventually landed on my shoulder. This caught me off guard. I wasn't used to this. I honestly didn't really feel comfortable with her leaning on me like this. I looked at Eriol and he immediately made some kind of weird choking noise as he saw her leaning on me.
I tried shoving her off, but she just kept leaning onto me. Every time I pushed her up and she came back down, she seemed to have added extra weight. For a small girl it seemed to have been some sort of dead weight or something like she wasn't alive and just a corpse.
"Hey now," I said, "get off me, I want to eat too."
I looked towards Tomoyo for assistance. But she just stared. That was then when I noticed something about Tomoyo. She wasn't laughing. She wasn't smiling. This was definitely a time for her to be smiling and laughing, but she wasn't. Instead, her face was quite serious and showed worry.
"Li-kun," said Tomoyo suddenly, "check her breath."
"W—what?" I exclaimed, but I didn't argue back much after. I held Sakura up and, as her head bobbed to the side, held a finger in front of her nose . . . no air. "Hey, wake up . . . wake up . . ."
"Sakura-chan?" Eriol suddenly sounded worried as well.
"Li-kun!" Tomoyo yelled in a panicked voice. Suddenly my heart raced and I began to have a panicked feeling. "Carry her, quick, we have to get to the nurse's office now!"
The Taste of Salt
I didn't know where exactly the nurse's office was because I never quite had to use it yet, so I carried Sakura in my arms while Eriol and Tomoyo led the way. We ran our fastest. Because it was still during the lunch hour, there was quite a bunch of people in the hallways and lobbies. Each one stared at us with worry as we ran pass them.
There were three nurses' offices in the school, one on each floor for convenience. But the biggest and most Emergency required office was on the first floor—luckily, because I wasn't sure if I'd make it carrying someone up flights of stairs.
When we got to the nurses office, Tomoyo slid the door open with force and yelled, "Help! Kangochi-san!"
Without even another second, a lady with long purple hair and glasses put on her stethoscope and wheeled over to a medical bed and said, "Quickly, put her down here." It was like she had been waiting for this moment.
Without hesitating, I did what she told me and set Sakura down on the bed. I stepped back with Tomoyo and Eriol. I was frantic. Honestly, I was scared. I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know what to do. Did Sakura really just fall unconscious? I looked into the faces of Tomoyo and Eriol and they both had the same faces. Their faces were worried, scared, and fearful . . . but at the same time it also said, "Not again." Were they really used to something like this? Is Sakura used to something like this?
I don't know what the nurse did. But she stuck needles into Sakura and hooked her up onto a couple monitors. I guess one was a heart monitor and the other was to measure pulse and blood pressure. For a nurse's office, the machines and medicine here were hi-tech . . . almost hospital level equipment . . . no . . . they are hospital equipment.
"Kangochi-san here is a nurse from Tomoeda's Emergency Hospital. She, and this room here, was build a couple years ago specifically for Sakura-chan," said Tomoyo. "Well . . . this room's used for anyone with a big emergency, but a lot of the times, Sakura-chan's the only patient."
I looked at Tomoyo. This room and this nurse were here because of Sakura? Was this entire school build and changed to be around Sakura? Is her illness really that bad? Is it really true?
Eriol pushed up his glasses and sounded as if he was holding back tears. "Every once in a while . . . Sakura-chan collapses with no warnings. This is the first time this school year though."
"What?" I turned to Eriol."You mean she'll have more incidents like this?"
Both Tomoyo and Eriol slowly nodded.
"She'll be fine," said the nurse, "She's breathing calmly now." But she didn't wake up.
The end of lunch bell rang.
"You three should head back up to class, I'll watch her from here. I'll call her brother to come pick her up as well."
"Thank you so much, Kangochi-san," praised Tomoyo.
The three of us went to the door. When we slid it open, a crowd of people were outside as if they were waiting for us.
"Is Sakura-chan okay?" someone asked.
Tomoyo nodded. "She's fine for now."
"Thank goodness," someone else said.
The crowd breathed a sigh of relief and began making their way back to class. I was about to follow Eriol back but then I stopped and stared back at Sakura who was still in care with the nurse. I watched until Eriol turned the corner before going back into the nurse's office.
"Of all the years I've never seen you before," said the nurse. She then giggled. "But then I guess that's a good thing if I never see you."
I cleared my throat. "Oh . . . I'm new this semester. I'm a transfer from China. Li Syaoran."
"Oh, so you're the one she was talking about."
I flinched. "What? She talks about me?"
The nurse nodded. "Sakura-chan has weekly check-ups every Monday mornings with me. She mentioned you once or twice—her newest friend."
"O—oh . . ."
"Though I have to admit you're kind of lucky that she's a kind-hearted girl . . . it's not everyday someone decides to still be friends with you after you tell them to drop dead." I swallowed hard. The nurse gave out another giggle. "It's okay. If she's your friend, that's all that matters. I'm sure you care about her now too anyway . . . you're the only one here after the bell."
"Well, I was just wondering . . . what is her illness?" I asked hoping for an answer.
The nurse sighed. "No one knows. All we know is that slowly, her body's shutting down on her. Like Eriol-kun said, she falls unconscious every once in a while, she'll start to get sick at random moments—sometimes even dangerously sick. She even had to go through a kidney transplant surgery a couple years ago."
"R—really?"
The nurse nodded. "Well, I have to call her brother now. I'll be back." She wheeled into a corner of the room and pulled white curtains around area.
When she left, the room got quiet. But it gave me time to think. I've always contemplated that maybe Sakura's illness was just a hoax, or that it wasn't' as bad as everyone's been saying it was. But now . . . it looked like it really was bad and not a hoax . . . it was scary. I thought . . . someone was almost on the verge of death on me . . . or at least Tomoyo and Eriol made it sound like it. But they were used to it. They were scared and worried just like I was, but they acted fast and knew what to do . . . I just hesitated.
A few minutes later, Sakura began to move. Her eyes opened and she weakly looked around the room. "Oh, I'm here again," she mumbled to herself. This situation apparently wasn't a surprise to her. She turned her head just slightly and saw me. "Oh . . . hello Syaoran-kun. This is your first time seeing me like this huh? I'm sorry you had to see me like this. I'm sorry if I caused you any trouble." Her voice was mellow . . . soft . . . dying.
"Oh . . . no it's fine," I said.
"Did you . . . did you already know . . . about me?"
"Um . . . well, yeah."
Sakura forced a laugh. "Oh that Tomoyo-chan. Always telling people when I keep telling her not to."
"How are you feeling?" I asked.
"I'm fine. I'm used to this."
That didn't really help me feel any better.
"What day is it today?" she asked.
"Thursday," I answered.+
Suddenly she had a disappointed face. "Darn it. I still haven't gotten a present for Tomoyo-chan's mom." Her voice began to sound a bit more normal.
"You know it's her birthday tomorrow?" I asked.
Sakura looked at me with a smile. "Of course I do, dummy! Why wouldn't I? I also remember it because the most magical day of my life happened about a week before her birthday."
"Really? What happened?"
Sakura sighed and waited about a minute before saying, "Two years ago, I had failing kidneys. When we applied for a kidney transplant, I was too far down the list . . . I wouldn't be getting one until it was too late for me. But then suddenly, there was a kidney that opened up to me. And so I was able to get the surgery done a few days later. If it wasn't for that kidney transplant, I wouldn't have been able to be with Tomoyo and her mom for her birthday party. It was one of the best nights of my life."
Just like the nurse said. The kidney transplant. After hearing that story, it made me smile. It made me smile because it was heartwarming. To think that Sakura could've not been here in front of me now, but because of a miracle kidney transplant, she was still alive.
"I miss Tomoyo's mom though," Sakura continued. "After her birthday party that year, she moved to America to expand her toy company, so I haven't seen her since."
"Really? So Daidouji-san decided to stay here instead of move with her mom then?"
Sakura nodded. "Yeah, she and her butler stayed. So now we just send our presents to her through mail."
"Hey, if you want, I can get something for her in your name!" I offered. This offer honestly came out of nowhere. I also felt bad because she wasn't able to get anything in her current condition.
"Really?" Sakura seemed excited and happy at my offer. "That'd be great if you can! Thank you!"
"D—don't think of it as too much, though. Think of it as repayment for feeding me that one time."
Sakura giggled. "Oh, that's fine! Hmm last time I just wrote her a letter . . . Oh! I know exactly what to get her!" Sakura gestured me closer. When I got closer, she whispered into my ear.
I quickly pulled away and whimpered a, "Haaaaaahh?"
Sakura laughed. "Trust me, she loves them! They were her favorite shows back then!"
"I . . . I suppose . . . fine, I'll get one. First thing I do tomorrow after school"
"Thanks!"
After the nurse got a hold of Touya, I went back up to class as Sakura had to rest. About an hour later, Touya came to pick her up to go home. How did I know? Because everyone in the classroom came rushing to my window side of the room when someone yelled, "Hey, Sakura-chan's leaving!" Was this girl really that famous here at this school? Was she really cared for that much? Did everyone seriously know about her sickness? If so . . . why was she only close friends with Eriol and Tomoyo? I even began to wonder, with all of these people that knew her long before me, why am I the one to usually be with them and not anyone else?
The Taste of Salt
Friday, October 8, 2010
A Kamen Rider action toy.
That's what Sakura wanted me to get. I was reluctant to buy one, but I decided that I had to. So after school, I rushed my way back to the Venus mall and mazed my way around and found one of the many toy stores. I ended up buying a Kamen Rider Decade figurine. Honestly I wasn't the biggest fan of Kamen Riders. In China they weren't the thing to watch, but I guess here in Japan they were everything.
Today Sakura didn't come to school. I wasn't surprised though, I guess. After what happened to her the other day, I wouldn't expect her to be in school.
While trying to deliver the toy I bought I made one mistake: I forgot that I had no idea where in America Tomoyo's mom lived. So I had to find Tomoyo to help me mail this to her. When I found my way out of the mall, I thought about which direction Tomoyo's house was. I honestly didn't know. I had no clue.
But if luck ever struck me hard, it struck me now. A bus pulled up at the other end of the block, and Tomoyo walked out of it. No way I thought. My luck just can't get any better. I started to sprint towards her. "Daidouji-san!" I called. She didn't hear me. I slowed to a jog when two other guys approached her. The two guys were Touya and Yukito, both holding their bear presents that they bought for Tomoyo's mother. That was when I noticed that Tomoyo had her basket of flowers that she had bought for her mother as well. Were they meeting together to mail the presents out today?
As the three disappeared around the corner, I went back to a sprint and zoomed pass people in my way. When I turned the corner that they disappeared on, I caught then getting onto another bus. "Hey, hold up!" I yelled, but they didn't seem to hear me. When I got to them, they had already left on the bus. I was already out of breath, but I had to follow them.
I found a bus directory on the bus stop bench and found the bus that just stopped. I looked up its next destination. I wasn't quite sure where it was so I asked a local and they told me exactly how to get to it. It wasn't too far from here so I started jogging again.
It took seven minutes, but the next stop was only about a mile and a half down. By the time I got there, Tomoyo and the two guys had already gotten off because I could see them walking in the distance ahead of me. They crossed a couple streets and entered through a fancy steel gate at the corner of another street.
Tired as I was, I slowed down and walked the rest of the way, wondering what they were doing and where they were going. When I made it to the steel gates that they entered, there was a large engravement on a tablet on one of the steel doors. It read, "Tomoeda's Grand Garden." A garden?
In the middle of the doors was a small stone trail that lead inside the garden. I followed it and destined into this mysterious place. This was definitely another part of Tomoeda that I've never seen before. As if traveling forty minutes from my house to the mall wasn't far enough.
I followed the trial and ventured deeper into the garden. The sun was still pretty high up into the sky, but because it was the afternoon, it would be setting soon. "I'd better find them before it gets too late," I told myself.
The stone path split into many other directions, but I just held my breath and stayed on the straight path. I had already lost the three. The deeper I went into the garden, though, the more uncomfortable I became. The garden didn't really look much like a garden. Sure, there were tons of flowers, but they were all bundled together—half were already dead as if they'd been sitting there for a long time.
There were also a lot of tablets . . . stone tablets that stuck out of the ground. I twirled around once and took a scan around this large garden. Everywhere, I saw a plateau of stone tablets that were surrounded with flowers. Everything looked beautiful . . . extremely beautiful. But for some reason I just didn't quite feel that I was as beautiful as it looked.
"Li-kun?" I heard a voice behind me.
I turned to see Tomoyo standing in front of me. "Oh, I've been looking for you. I wanted to give this to you, it's from . . ." I trailed off as Tomoyo looked like she wasn't even paying attention to me. Instead, she had her eyes heavily to the side. "Hey . . . Daidouji-san . . . what is this place? The Grand Garden doesn't really look like a garden . . ." I stopped myself.
It all made sense now. Everything I saw just seemed to suddenly click. I felt so stupid. This was something that even the youngest of kids could've gotten and understood faster than I had. The gravestones, the flowers, the dead flowers, and the Grand Garden . . . Tomoeda's Grand Garden—
Was a cemetery.
"D—Daidouji-san . . ." Tomoyo still had her eyes gazing toward the side. "Don't tell me . . . your mom is . . ."
