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: Hello everybody. I hope you're enjoying the story so far :) I'm really happy about all of the favorites and follows that I have on this story and I'm not even near done with it yet ^^ Please review when you're done reading, I love reading all of them. Keep it up! And I'll keep it up as well!
By: Shinigami 42-42-564's Friend
Friday, November 19, 2010
November nineteenth two-thousand-ten; that was the first time we saw drops of snow. Actually, not just drops, that wasn't the right word, but a bombardment of snow. Tomoeda is projected to have two to three inches of snow tomorrow, said the weather analysts. That was so load of crap. There ended up being a bit over a foot of snow.
When I made my way down to the first floor rotunda of my fancy apartment, I approached the front desk and asked the old guy running it if we were expecting any more snow for the weekend.
"It should stay about the same, Syaoran-sama," he said. His name was Wei and he was probably I would guess in his seventies. The man was old and wise and looked weak but I could tell he was as healthy as could be—especially if he chose to stand all day long. Yes, he chose to stand all day long. He had his chair but never sat.
"Thanks a lot Wei," I muttered and began to head out.
"Have a good day."
Thankfully the front of the apartment and the sidewalks were shoveled. Waking up this early for school I didn't expect people to be up earlier to get rid of the snow. But from the first glimpse of things, Tomoeda looks like it gathers about the same amount of snow that China does.
I've always enjoyed the snow. The cold never bothered me and I always loved the beauty of snow. I remember in China I always saw light of all colors everywhere. The snow on the ground gave a beautiful white glow that lit up even the darkest of nights in China.
"Syaoran-kun, good morning!"
The sound of that voice took me aback; it was Sakura. She stood in front of me with a light fur coat along with high boots and brown mittens. I looked behind her to see if anyone else was with her, but no one was; she was alone.
"G—good morning," I started. "I mean what are you doing here?" I rose my voice as I just suddenly remembered that her home was on the complete other side of Tomoeda past the school already. There was absolutely no reason for her to even be passing by on her way to school.
Sakura smiled and giggled as if she expected my reaction. "I woke up early and came all the way here and this is the welcome I get?"
"Ha! What'd you expect? But no really, why are you here?"
"To walk with you."
I paused for a moment. She answered my question, but at the same time she didn't. "Okay that doesn't really help me here."
"Think of this as a thanks for walking me to school back then."
"Hah? But that was my thanks for—never mind, we're going to be late, come on let's go."
The Taste of Salt
I have to say, walking with Sakura was quite awkward this time around. Last time I walked her to school it was actually planned, but I didn't know if I should take this as sweet or creepy. I checked my phone as we were walking and I didn't even receive a text about it. I told her that she could've at least texted me the night before.
"I actually didn't think about it until this morning when I woke up aha," was her response to me as we walked.
"You're really dense, aren't you?"
"Well I'm sorry for coming all this way!" This time Sakura raised her voice. "I chose a bad day too, my neighborhood isn't plowed yet."
"Since when did your brother let you start walking by yourself?"
"Just a few days ago," Sakura said and stuck out her tongue at me. Was this some kind of taunt? I didn't get it; maybe it was a Sakura thing.
"Stick that tongue out again, I dare you." Just as she did, I scuffed a hand full of snow from the side and balled her in the face.
"Why you—" Sakura stopped halfway in her words to cough out the snow that had gotten in her mouth. Poor girl, I almost felt bad, but it was quite funny. After she recovered, Sakura tried to chunk some snow at me, but I avoided them.
"You shouldn't be walking by yourself," I then said. "It's dangerous for you."
Sakura wiped off a small piece of snow from her mouth with her sleeve and eyed me. The look from her eyes was different than what she usually showed. Even though I only took a quick glimpse, I could tell that she looked at me with some sort of sad . . . but more irritating look.
"You don't have to treat me like that," she said after a long while with an aggravated tone.
I read the tone of her voice and swallowed hard. "S—sorry . . ." I said and turned away.
"It's okay. Neh, Syaoran-kun."
When I heard those low whispered, I turned back to Sakura, but regretted it entirely as my face was met with a giant pile of cold slush.
"Take that!" I heard from Sakura.
I shook off the snow and wiped my face with my sleeve. When I regained vision, Sakura was already up ahead of me.
"Come on, Syaoran-kun!" She yelled. "We're going to be late!"
I cursed and mumbled to myself. "This girl . . ." I grabbed a chunk of snow into my palms and started chasing her.
The Taste of Salt
When we got to the school, out faced were wet with snow and mud—I can assure you that. As hard and tiring as it was running in the cold all the way to school, I had to admit that I enjoyed it. The girl knows how to have fun.
But as we entered the school's front main doors past the gates, I heard a loud horrifying scream as if someone was being killed. The next thing I saw was an Eriol came running at us. I cuffed my ears and as he came up to Sakura and I his face was frozen with dismay.
"What, did you kill someone?" I said uncuffing my ears.
"Y—y—you and Sakura-chan . . . why are you walking with her to school again!"
"I don't know," I said. "Why don't you ask your highness herself? She's the one who came out of nowhere and appeared in front of my home."
Sakura giggled like she knew Eriol was going to go on a jealous rampant. "Aha, good morning, Eriol-kun."
"Whaaa! If you needed someone to walk you to school, you could've just ask me!" Eriol wailed.
"No, it's not like that."
"What? You mean you two are—"
"No!" I yelled. "It's not like that either!"
"I was just using this walk as a thank you for walking me to school a while ago, that's all." Sakura added a smile at the end. "That's all!"
Eriol fell quiet and stared at the two of us for quite a long time. I was about to ask what was wrong with him until he finally turned around and walked away without saying anything—to us at least. I heard him mumbling stuff, but I wasn't quite sure what they were. I sighed and turned to Sakura who was giggling to herself.
"Way to make him jealous," I said. "You're evil."
"What?" Sakura retorted. "It's not like I planned it!"
"Sure, whatever" I muttered and proceeded to change my shoes from my locker in the mudroom.
In the mudroom, which was in between the school's entrance and the school's first lobby, there were fifteen sets of lockets. Mine was in the middle so I always had to count from one side over. Sakura's was actually right behind mine on the other set of lockers.
"Well," I said after switching shoes. "I'll see you at lunch then."
The Taste of Salt
This was just another usual boring day of school. Because of the snow, the four of us had to eat indoors instead of setting up a picnic like we always did outside in the courtyard. Luckily though, the school day ended fast.
At the end of the day, Tomoyo decided to walk Sakura back home. The face on Eriol when he found out that I wasn't walking with Sakura was a priceless one. It's like his life had just been saved from an eternal gloom of darkness.
It was a Friday so I didn't quite want to go home yet. This made me accompany Eriol back to the arcade that he loved so much. The walk there was quiet though. When I told him that I was going to follow him to the arcade, he merely gave me an "okay" and that was that. No retaliation, no nothing from him. Even as we got there, he jumped exchanged his bills for coins and started playing random games.
The arcade was big, and as expected on a Friday, was full of students from all over Tomoeda. I could tell because everyone around my age had different uniforms on. I exchanged a small bill of mine for gaming coins as well and played a shooter game. Sad to say I wasn't as good as Eriol in them. Even though everyone around us was enjoying themselves and being loud, Eriol was still quiet . . . very quiet. Was something wrong with him?
"Hey, kid," someone said from behind us. We turned to see a boy our age with his buddy right next to him. Based on his uniform, I could tell he wasn't from our school. "You're Eriol, right?"
Huh? They knew Eriol?
"What of it?" Eriol said.
"I heard you're the best arcade racer here. How about a race?" The guy sounded very tough. He was a lean guy with dark black hair. His face didn't show any innocence though, but rather a face that showed eager and determination. His buddy, on the other hand, was kind of short and scrawny. He looked like he could be beaten up in a fight to someone like Eriol.
Eriol took a moment before answering. "I guess so. Sure."
"Since you're considered the best, how about a wager? The loser hand over their ID Card."
This proposition got Eriol to jump quite a bit. The ID Card was the Initial D card. The card was like a memory card for consoles, where the user would insert the card into the arcade game and build their record and vehicles through matches.
"What? No! I'm not going to do that, are you crazy?" Eriol retorted.
"What?" The other guy exclaimed. "What, the great Eriol is afraid he's gonna lose or something?"
"That's not the point!" Eriol turned away. "Come on Syaoran, let's go."
"Looks like he's afraid of losing," said the scrawny guy. "He's no match for you anyway."
"Yeah," the bigger guy said. "It would've been a waste of my time anyway. That guys' a wimp."
Suddenly, just as fast as he turned away, he turned back. "What did you say?"
"Aw come on, Eriol," I started. "You seriously can't fall for something like that." But it was too late, he was already provoked. I guess when it came to being bullied; he'd always back down and just take the hit. But Tomoyo and Sakura were right: when it came to games, Eriol wasn't going to back down. I sighed as they found their seats in the Initial D game and started their race.
I went over to Eriol's side and watched from over the shoulder. I had a bad feeling about this, but Eriol was king, he would just win and we'd be on our way.
The two inserted their coins, then their cards, and then chose their vehicles. The next thing was choice of map and they both agreed on the hardest map. The map looked surprisingly familiar though. It took me a couple seconds, but I remembered it as the map of the final race in the third installment of Fast and Furious, Tokyo Drift. I wasn't really into cars, so I can't say if I enjoyed the movie or not when it played in China.
"Let's hurry this up," said Eriol.
"Right," said the other guy. "I want that card of yours."
The race began.
The Taste of Salt
At the end of that race . . . Eriol lost. Immediately after he lost, Eriol ran out of the arcade. I had to chase him down.
"Eriol, wait!" I yelled as he crossed an intersection. The light turned red, but since there were no cars, I bolted through. For a nerd, Eriol was quite fast—through the snow especially. I tried guessing where he was trying to run off to, but I couldn't. I just didn't know Tomoeda enough to even have a thought of where maybe he was going. I thought maybe he was heading home, but his home was in another direction.
After another minute of chasing him, I found myself back at the park—Penguin Park. This time though, I manage to catch up to him. Just as we passed the giant penguin that was the icon of the park, I reach out and got a hold of his hood, and then pulled and tackled him to the ground.
"What on Earth is wrong with you?" I screamed. That was then I noticed liquid running from his eyes. It wasn't snow—no—it was tears. "Eriol . . . are you . . . crying?"
Eriol wiped the tears from his eyes with his sleeve and said, "So what?" His voice broke up because of the tears. "Just leave me alone. Go home!"
I sat up straight as Eriol seemed to have struggled to get up. "Eriol, it was just a game, come on! You honestly can't be crying about losing one game."
Eriol fell silent. He didn't keep eye contact with me and only looked at the snow. "Shut up . . . you don't understand." His tone of voice was quiet and brusque. Suddenly, it seemed as if his sadness had a mixture of anger in it.
I grabbed a handful of snow and chucked a snowball at him right in the face. "What are you talking about? It was just a card; you can always get another one!"
Before I could even react, Eriol furiously wiped the snow off his face and scraped a chunk of snow at me. I turned to the side so it only got one side of my face, but this chunk of snow he threw at me had some ice in it and man did it sting.
"Shut up! It wasn't just a card; it was my escape from this hellhole!" Eriol screamed.
This time, I fell quiet. Hellhole? What was he talking about? Slowly, Eriol got up, and I followed on after.
"Games," Eriol began. This time tears were streaming non-stop from his eyes. "They were the only thing I was ever good at. Being the person that gets bullied in school for such a long time, I always used gaming as my escape from reality. There, in games, I was king! Especially at that game, Initial D. I've been building my record and that card up for years! So you see? It's like it was a part of me! It was what saves me when I need it! I use it not only for fun, but to get rid of my hate, my anger! Being bullied, even Sakura-cha—"
Eriol stopped himself from trying to finish, but I had already caught his last word. Sakura? "What . . . what do you mean? You . . . you hate her?"
"Forget what I said," Eriol quickly said and started to walk away.
"Hey now, stop right there!" I exclaimed. "Eriol . . . you're really not happy, are you?" I thought Eriol was walking away, but he instead just walked to a swing, wiped the snow off it, and sat there. I followed and stood next to him.
After about a minute, Eriol wiped the last bit of tears he had in him and took in a deep breath, trying to recover from crying. "Don't be a fool," was the next thing he said. "Of course I don't hate her . . . but sometimes she gets me angry."
Makes him angry? That almost made no sense to me at all.
"Do you two . . . get into fights a lot or something?" I asked. "If so that's just basic relationship and friendship stuff so get over it."
Eriol shook his head. "No, it's nothing like that. You know you can tell how much someone means to you by how happy they are around you, right?"
I didn't know where he was getting at, but I agreed and said, "Yeah, I know that. Of course."
"But you know . . . how sad someone gets over you is also a sign of how much you mean to them."
It was a weird way to think about it, but I suppose he was right. When you find someone you really enjoy being with, they make you really happy. But if that person ever dies, you become so struck, so heartbroken, and the way you show affection towards them isn't laughing or smiling anymore . . . it's crying and wishing that they'd come back.
"I can see what you mean," I said. "But . . . I still don't get what you're trying to get at about her."
"I remember, twice—once before I confessed to Sakura-chan, and another shortly after—where she collapsed and had to be rush to the hospital. Both times, she never woke up until the day after; and both times, I sat by her bed crying, crying, and crying!" Eriol took a hold onto the rings of the swing and squeezed hard. "I thought I'd lost her both those times . . . I didn't want to lose her."
"I'm sure those moments were horrifying moments for everyone," I said.
"When she woke up those two times, I was the first thing that she saw. All she did was smile, laugh, and thanked me for being there for her."
I took the story in a well as I could. "Okay, but I still don't get what you're trying to say."
"I remember I had a couple incidents after that last one. Once time I got into a car accident; another time, I got beat up behind the school—both times I had to be rushed to the hospital. I was actually unconscious after the car accident. Both times, Sakura-chan came that night to the hospital to visit me. But . . . she came with a smile. It may not make sense, and it may sound selfish, but a smile? When she was in the hospital near the brink of death, I was balling my eyes out! And when it comes to me being hurt, I can't even get an Eriol-kun, are you alright?"
I understood now. He was trying to see if Sakura cared for him as much as he did for her in a different kind of way. It's kind of like when you're in a relationship; you don't always want to be the person to call or text first. It'd be nice if it were the other way around every once in a while. Eriol just wanted the same feedback from Sakura that he gives to her.
"As you can tell though," Eriol continued. "Sakura doesn't have time to be sad. No matter the circumstance, she always stays happy. Even if things are bad, she'll find a way to look at the bright side and stay happy. I've known Sakura-chan for as long as I can remember and to tell you the truth, I've never once seen her cry or seriously sad. It's like . . . I could die, go away from this world, and she'd still find a way to look at some sort of happy side."
"Hey now that's a little bit too far!" I retorted. "Look, I understand you completely and where you're coming from, but to say that she wouldn't be upset over you dying is . . . that's just wrong! You should never be thinking about that!"
"I know. I understand that. And I know that Sakura-chan can't afford to be feeling sad because of her illness. She needs to stay strong and happy as much as she can before . . . well, you know."
The conversation died for a couple minutes. Eriol began to slowly swing himself and I brushed off the swing next to him and took a seat.
"Well, you know," I started. "It may not be crying for you, but there are times where she gets very protective of you. Like the time we first met and I stepped on your piece of paper. She yelled at me for just a piece of paper, like, sheesh, really?"
For the first time today, Eriol laughed. It was as if he never cried and we were just having fun conversations. "Oh yeah, that's her alright. We've had plenty of moments like that together."
"I haven't known you guys for that long, but trust me; she does care about you, a lot. She spends more time with you and has known you more and longer than anyone else. Losing you, I know for sure, would leave a dent in her."
I expected maybe another giggle or clumsy reply from Eriol right away, but he said nothing. Instead he kept quiet and it was like the aura around us changed; and it wasn't a good change too. I felt chills that weren't from the cold and I could tell that Eriol was thinking really hard about something. Just as the conversation had started to lighten up, I could feel it begin to get heavy again.
"Hey, Syaoran," Eriol began, taking a long pause before continuing. "I'm moving."