Chapter 9: First Class Ticket to Hong Kong
It's been another week or so since Syaoran stopped seeing Sakura. It was a horrible act on his part, but the fact that he had shown Sakura his weak side of being sick, made him feel incapable. In a couple of days, Syaoran would have to go back to Hong Kong to celebrate his mother's birthday. He knew that when he does go back to Hong Kong, he would never be able to come back to Sakura. For he had a duty as a prince and his rightful duty as the next king of Hong Kong; yet he also had a duty to his heart.
He packed his things from his apartment, when he got a phone call. 'Please, don't be who I think you are.' He pleaded with the inanimate object. He reached for the phone and answered it.
"Hello, mother." 'Wrong, yet again, Syaoran.' "What brings me the honor of your phone call, mother?"
"Well, son. Since, Eriol and Tomoyo are already here after their honeymoon, I was thinking of inviting my dear friend, Sakura. A sweet child, that girl is. Please, do ask her and if indeed she wishes to come visit this poor, dying old woman, do escort her to the airport and bring her here to Hong Kong with you. Oh, please, son." This was unexpected. He didn't know what to say.
"Son? Son? Xiao Lang? Are you still there?"
"Yes, mother. I'm here. Of course, I'll escort Sakura to Hong Kong. Well, I got to go. I will speak with you later, mother. Bye." He hung up. Yelan had a plan and grinned widely as she hung up the phone. She believed this might be the best birthday year yet.
SAKURA'S APRATMENT
DING DONG!
"Who could that be?" She walked out of her kitchen to answer the door. "Well, nice to see you again, Li-kun." She said, surprisingly calm.
"Yeah, hey, long time, no see. So, I'm back to 'Li-kun'?" He asked, still standing outside her porch.
"Well, what to do expect when you cut yourself off from any means of communication? What? You didn't have decency to call or come visit? Well?" She crossed her arms. "Don't tell me you've been busy. I've heard that one too many times before." She was ready to close the door on him.
"Wait." He stopped her. "Could I just come in and talk with you?"
"Whatever." She held out the door and once she closed it, Syaoran turned her around and embraced her with the most loving, tender hug he has ever given anyone.
'I missed you, Sakura. I'm sorry that I've caused you so much. Please, just know that I needed to collect myself. I didn't want you to see me so messed up. Sakura, please forgive me." He tighten his hold on her. Tears began to fall one by one, each containing a memory of him and her.
"Oh, Syaoran. Please, don't…" He felt her trembling, he brought himself to see her. She was crying. Worry engulfed his face.
"Sakura… what don't you want me to do?"
"This! You can't just expect to barge into my apartment, thinking I'll ---" He interrupted her with his lips on hers.
"Come with me." His eyes weren't even open.
"Where?" She whispered out.
" Hong Kong."
"What?!" Her eyes were wide open. "I can't just--"
"No, it's not like that. I just want you to meet my family, it's my mother's birthday. She wants to see you Tomoyo and Eriol's already there." He smiled. "Please?" His smile began more boyish. She smiled.
"Ok." She gave in.
"Thank you." He said, gently brushing his thumb on her chin. "You better pack right now, we're leaving in two hours." He gave her an apologetic smile.
"What?…" She gave him a confused look.
"No wasting time, sweetheart. Time waits for no one." He patted her butt to move along. She giggled, then stopped.
"Wait," Her smile was devilish. His expression was puzzled that almost made Sakura laugh. "I think…" She slyly moved closer to him. "Time will just have to wait for this." She grabbed his face and kissed ever so gently and stopped when just he was about to deepen the kiss.
"Hey…" He opened his eyes.
"That's punishment for not calling me for more than a week. " She giggled and happily ran to her room to pack.
"Amazing…" Syaoran said, very astound.
Syaoran and Sakura went to the airport that day and when they were seated, Sakura quickly fell asleep within fifteen minutes of departure. Syaoran asked the stewardess for a blanket and when she gave him one, he covered Sakura, making very cozy and smile. Syaoran laid a very secure arm around Sakura as she drifted into her dreams. It couldn't have been more than an hour when the pilot announced that they will be landing in some airport in a little town, saying that the airplane couldn't go any further due to bad weather. He asked for all passengers to exit the plane and stay in the airport's hotels, and enjoy the free games at the lobby, commentaries of the airline. Syaoran woke Sakura up and told her about what the pilot had said. When they arrived at the airport's hotel, they were only given a one bedroom complex. They didn't mind, but they went straight to the gaming area.
Syaoran offered Sakura a drink.
"Thank you very much sir. " She was very drunk.
"You're very welcome ma'am. It was my pleasure." He was too, but not as much. This was the first time Syaoran has ever gone over his limits of the number of glasses of alcohol. They laughed, hardily. As for Sakura, this was her first time to have a drink, ever.
The next morning, Sakura woke up with the most annoying migraine. She moaned as she got up. She didn't really want to get up. She was going to bury herself under the covers when a knock came from the door. She went to answer the door.
"Good morning." She greeted him with a smile, yet the migraine had hardly helped her at all.
"Good morning, Mrs. Li. I have come to inform you and your husband that the weather has cleared up and your flight is in two hours." The gentleman said.
"Oh, thank you, sir." She went to find a tip for the courteous bellboy. "Mrs. Li? Oh, about it's because this is under Syaoran's name." She found a bill and handed it to him. His face brightened.
"Thank you, Mrs. Li." He smiled as it was given to him. She smiled and noticed something shiny on her finger. She stared at it and tried to focus on what it was. "Is everything already, Mrs. Li?" She had a strange expression on.
"Oh, yes yes. Thank you." The bellboy left as she closed the door but continued to stare at it. "How did this get here?" It was a ring. A diamond ring. Not on just any finger, but her ring finger! There was a wedding band just over that diamond ring! She gasp. Her eyes widened. She searched the room and saw a muffin basket wrapped around it with a card from the hotel. She reads the card.
"'Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Li. We are absolutely honored to hosted your wedding here at International Airline. We hope you can enjoy the muffins we have sent you. Please, enjoy the rest of your stay here at International Airline. Best wishes. Sign, Hotel Manager!' " She covered her mouth in astonishment. SHE'S MARRIED! She heard something stirring from under the bedcovers. She slowly approached the lump in the bed with worry in her face. She immediately threw the covers to see who it was. She gasped! It was Syaoran in his boxers! She saw the wedding band, similar to hers, on his ring finger. He was waking up. She screamed making Syaoran wide awake with a huge headache to boot.
"Man, what's the big deal?!" He covered his ears. She tried to catch her breath.
"Big deal!?!" She grabbed his left hand and brought it up to his face along with her hand. It took him some time to register what was happening. "WE'RE MARRIED!!!" She was panicking. He was as shocked as she was.
"We're what?" He didn't want that answered. She just threw her arms up in the air. "When? I mean, all I remember from last night was getting drunk. And then we followed …." He smirked at the short moments he remembered until he remembered the very moment Sakura went with him to the wedding chapel with a bunch of Elvis and Priscilla wannabes. Then he smirk turned into a face of a man on fire. "How could we have done this?" He immediately got up and searched through the messy pile of paper lying on the coffee table.
"Yeah, like I can answer that!" She sarcastically said, helping him go through the papers, frantically. Syaoran found a very fancy looking paper. "I can't believe this is happening! I shouldn't have gotten drunk! I just don't get drunk!!"
"Well, four glasses of wine in a row can really get to you, apparently." He handed the certificate of marriage. She was speechless. "I guess that means we're married … honey?…" She glared at him. "Ok, ok. Too soon? I get it."
For the next hour or so, they sat in silence. Syaoran ran his fingers through his hair and rubbing his achy head on the couch, while Sakura sat on the floor still staring at the marriage certificate. She began breathing unevenly. She got up, looking as if she was going to cry.
"Our plane leaves in an hour, we better start packing." She said, almost trembling.
"Sakura, we'll work this out. We'll find a way."
"Find a way? Like what, Syaoran? Divorce? That seems like a perfect solution for every regular marriage gone bad, but we're not any regular marriage, Syaoran! We got married when we were drunk! What kind of marriage starts out like that!" She began to cry. All her dreams of having the perfect wedding with the perfect husband all shattered right before her eyes.
"Sakura." He held her, closely. "Please, don't cry. I hate to see you like this. Please, don't cry. We'll work this out, ok? We don't have to get a divorce, we can get this annulled. I promise." He held on to her, tighter. He said that to Sakura, trying to make her feel better and convince her that everything's going to be okay. But he said it as if he was trying to convince himself more than he was to Sakura. What he said had sort of stung him, but he had to make that promise. He knew Sakura would never have imagined her wedding like this. Something she couldn't remember ever happening. He would do anything to make Sakura happy. Even letting her go off to marry someone else after getting this annulment. As long as she was happy he said to himself, with or without him there.
They packed in utter silence and walked down to the lobby and to the airline gate. When they arrived to their plane seats, they also rode the plane in silence. Both were hit pretty hard with the news that they were married. Within less than two hours, they arrived at Hong Kong Airline. Syaoran helped Sakura step out of the plane.
"Thanks..." She said under her breath, barely glancing up at him. He didn't say a word. She kept her anger under wraps. She continued to look down and when she decided to look up, Syaoran wasn't in front of her.
"Syaoran? Syaoran?" She looked around. "Great." She sighed still looking around, all she saw was a large group of girls, probably waiting for someone famous or something.
"Pss, Sakura." Someone whispered. Before she knew it, someone pulled her into a phone booth.
"What are—" She was shushed. She took a deep breath. "What are we doing here?" She forced herself to whisper. He didn't answer, he continued to look straight above Sakura's head. "Let me ask you again, what are---" She was interrupted by a forceful, yet gentle kiss. As they were kissing, the large group of girls ran passed the booth. Syaoran heard whispers about how a couple should 'get a room'. Regretfully, he broke the kiss and quickly looked around. He glanced down to see her facial expression (she was confused-mad) but quickly grabbed her hand and led her to the escalators of the airport. They were now in the second floor. When she cooled down a little bit, she finally looked up when Syaoran stopped abruptly in front of her. Sakura's nose hit Syaoran's broad shoulder.
"Ow! What'd you do that for?" She rubbed in her nose to ease the instant pain and looked up at him. "First you kiss me out of no where and now you ---" She stopped whatever she was going to say and saw him looking intently forward, almost a look of fear Sakura has never seen on him before. She looked towards the direction he was, sort of half-heartedly. What she could see from a distance was several small figures approaching them, quite rapidly.
"Who are they, Syaoran?" Her body instantly froze when Syaoran squeezed her hand as if to reassure her that the worse may yet to come. Unknowingly, pushing her gently behind him. Her eyes automatically became fixed on the figures that were steadily growing. Squeals and squeaks became coherent.
"Syao-kun!!!" Before Sakura knew it, she was swarmed with five preppy middle-aged women. Observing her like she was a hurt bunny they found in their backyard garden.
"Li! Why didn't you tell us you were bringing this cute girlfriend of yours? You never bring any of your girlfriends home… well, this home. I mean." One of the women asked, rhetorically with a laugh.
"Meiling! Don't you mean wife?" Another announced. Sakura now became motionless and speechless. She didn't even realize Syaoran had pulled her away from the crazy women and held on to her hand tighter.
"Yes, Syaoran. Exactly, when were you planning on telling us this sort of news? This doesn't happen everyday, you know." Another older, more wise-looking woman stepped forward. "Don't tell me you've already made me some grandchildren?" She suddenly smiled and opened her arms up to him. Surprisingly, Syaoran had hugged her back, slipping his hand away from Sakura now-cold hand. Sakura felt nervous and all alone. The attention swiftly went on Sakura.
"Well, hello there. " She greeted her, warming.
"Well, I guess this is really unnecessary, but everyone, this is Sakura… my wife."
