Chapter 11 : The Return (Part 2).

"Bad news, Tomoyo...I might not be able to go to work tomorrow." This was Syaoran's opening statement upon calling Tomoyo. He was sitting on his bed as he whispered everything he says on the phone while looking at his back to see if Meiling is listening to him.

"Really?" She asked him. "That's bad! You have the schedule of my meetings for tomorrow and this coming weekend..."

Don't worry," he responded. "I'll be sending your schedule through e-mail. And by the way, I have a favor once I go back to work."

Tomoyo sighed with relief. "Okay then. But anyways, your voice seems to be husky. Why can't you go to office tomorrow? Did something happen after your relative's visit? Are you sick?"

"To tell you honestly, Tomoyo... Yes. I'm sick. " he replied. "I'm so sick. Capital S-I-C-K! Sick!"

"Oh..." she reacted. "That must be the 'other' meaning of that word. What did your terror grandmother do to you?".

"I will let you know once I go back. In the meantime, I have to face a big ordeal here." He said

"All right, then. I wish you luck." she said. "My dear, I know how unlucky you are with women."

Syaoran got irritated "I don't know but could you please have some pity for me?"

"I'm just kidding." she told him. "Just let me know when everything's good." Both hung up after their conversation. Syaoran looked back, then he saw Meiling. "So, how long have you been standing there and listening to my call?" he asked her.

"Don't worry. I am not a wire-tapping specialist. Besides, why should I listen to my future-husband's phone calls from afar?" she answered. She tried to sit besides Syaoran, but he stood up and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Meiling followed him. "By the way, the savings account that your grandmother had opened for you, she now put it under her name. You can no longer withdraw anything on that account without your grandma's permission" He went back to his bedroom and looked at the window. "Your inheritance will also be removed if you don't do what your grandma wants." Syaoran did not react, as if he doesn't hear Meiling. "You should not do this to me! I am your fiancee!"

Syaoran shouted. "Your just my cousin!"

- "Yes!, I'm your cousin!" she answered back. "And you will marry me."

"I don't like you" he said.

- "This is our fate, Syaoran! We have to follow our family tradition."

"Then, I'll break that stupid tradition."

- "I'll let you learn how to love me."

"Seriously? Then, I'm telling you, I won't! I love you as a cousin, but I will never love you as my fiancee."

- "I'll make sure you'll learn how to love me."

Syaoran looked at her eyes and told her - "Love is a natural feeling, Meiling. You don't force people to love you. Don't waste your time on me and find someone who will love you more than I will."

But Meiling refused. "But how about your grandmother? She's old and you should respect her. Plus, You know her. She had a strong influence within our family and I'm sure she will punish you hard if you don't follow our tradition!"

"I can deal with her." he said. "I've been independent from my family since I was a kid, until now. I can live without my grandmother."

- "How about me?"

"You're just forcing yourself to love me because you're afraid of my grandma! You're a grown-up now, Meiling. You can live on your own"

- "You don't understand!" She shouted. Syaoran looked at her. "...You don't understand..." she repeatedly said, with tears on her eyes. "I'm doing this for you... if you're not scared at your grandmother, then I am. I am scared for you because I care. I care for everyone... She will definitely hurt my family if I don't follow what she wants, and she will do the same to your family. You know it! She has control over our relatives, one word from her and our families will be displaced from this clan..." She gets closer to Syaoran, then she said. "I care for you...For your family...and for mine, as well...So please, let's do what she wants."

Syaoran smiled, and tapped Meiling's head. "You hadn't changed a bit." he said. "You're still the Meiling that I knew - a fainthearted person. I am not scared of what will happen to me, and I'm sure grandma won't hurt my family nor yours. So please, stop using your family for your delusions. I won't marry you. " He went straight to his closet and changed his clothes. "I'll just go outside. I just found a new apartment and I'll have to talk to the apartment manager so that I could move right away. I will carry some clothes and belongings but I will leave some for you. You could live here on your own, I don't care. I just want to stay away with you and grandma. And oh, by the way, I want you to know what I always tell grandmother - I am a wild grass. I will grow anywhere, no matter how many time she picks me up from the ground. Thanks for your concern, though."

He went outside. Meiling looks at him until he closed the door. Meiling the felt something strange. The mix of anger and confusion, flowing through her body, as she starts to get furious. "I'm not a coward, Syaoran. I will show it to you." She said to herself. She then picked up her phone and called someone. "Hello, grandma..."

It was lunch, Tomoyo and Yuji were in the office taking their food, and talking about Yuji's reaction towards their trainees. "I know you knew some of them through their name." Tomoyo said. "I also noticed that the ladies were amazed upon seeing you. You definitely are charming!"

"Don't say that!" Yuji responded. "I might end up dating one of them. I'm warning you, you might become jealous if that happens."

"Swear, I won't." Tomoyo told him, Both of them giggled. Then, she asked Yuji about his first impression with some of their employees. "I saw that you had conversations with some of our employees. What do you think about them?"

Yuji answered. "So far, so good. I enjoyed talking with them. But I noticed this glass-wearing guy. He looks weird! Is he our trainee, too?"

"Yes, he is." she said. "He might look weird to you, and don't think of him as a crazy person. We've consulted his condition thourgh a specialist, and we found out that he has Savant Syndrome. It's a psychological disorder, but even if that's the case, he doesn't bring harm to people. As a matter of fact, he's nice! He's also good in class. You could ask Kouichi about him. By the way, his name is Eriol"

"Well, I feel uncomfortable seeing him. He really is weird." says Yuji.

But Tomoyo defended Eriol. "There's a saying, Don't judge a book by its cover. You still don't know him so I suggest for you to talk to him. I'm sure you'll be pleased because he's really a gentle person. Plus, you'll be a part of this company, soon. Don't you want to leave a long-lasting impression to all of our employees?"

Yuji sighed. "I think that's a lot of work. But All right then, I'll try."

"Good" said Tomoyo.

They continue enjoying their lunch together when suddenly, Yuji's phone rang. His mother is calling him. He picked it up. "Hello, mom?"

"Yes Yuji." his mother responded. "I'm so sorry, I have to call you. Are you having lunch there?"

"No, mom... that's okay." he replied. "What's the matter"

His mother explained to him why she called. "Well, I'm not sure but... I'm cleaning the attic room to throw some of your father's stuff. However, I found something on one of the chests there. It was an old notebook, and inside were some pictures of your father when he was young."

"That's wonderful!" he said. "It's nice to see father's old pictures. We could actually put it in our family album -"

His mother interrupted him. "It's not only your father's, Yuji."

Yuji's forehead wrinkled, as he didn't get exactly what his mother means. "W... what, mom?"

"I saw a picture of him, together with a woman, and the woman on the picture... it looks like she's pregnant." his mother said.

Yuji joked her mother. "Mom, maybe it was you when you were still young. It's just that you didn't recognize yourself on that old picture because you are more beautiful than before!"

But his mom explained. "I'm not joking, my son. There's a date on the photograph, and it was taken in 1984. You were born 3 years after."

Yuji deeply thought of something. "So... it means..."

"Maybe this is the picture of your older brother's mom." she said. "I also looked at the notebook, and I don't see any reference about the woman in the picture. But I guess we could use this to find your brother, so please come home early so that you could look into it. I also called your little sister, and she said she will be here early."

Yuji looked at Tomoyo, and she looked curiously to him. Then, he went back to his mother. "Okay. I'll look into it. I'll meet you before dinner...Okay, love you mom. Bye!"

"What's that?" Tomoyo asked.

"Well, I think I'll have to go home earlier..." Yuji told her.

"There are a lot of things that we will to today, espcially our schedule for tomorrow. But If that's personal, it's fine. What time will you go?" she asked him.

"Around 5:30" he replied.

"Okay, then." Tomoyo said. "I'll be doing something, that's why I'll be staying here at the office until 8. I'll ask somebody to help me with some of our paper works. In the meantime. Let's enjoy our lunch!"

"Sure thing!" Yuji told her.

It was afternoon, the class had ended another day and the trainees had already left. Eriol will be alone in cleaning up the whole classroom because Chiharu asked him to excuse herself. She has to go home earlier since she'll be meeting her brother at the airport.

"I guess it will be late at night when I go home..." he told himself. But as he enters the classroom, he saw Tomoyo doing something. She's trying to create a dessert without any cookbooks, or any guide. Just the ingredients that she had and her skills. Eriol stood as he watches her. He was amazed, with the way she chops, mix the ingredients together, and with the way she moves. She's like doing a masterpiece, showing her passion with what she's doing. When she's done, she saw Eriol standing outside the class. "Oh, Eriol!" she said. "Aren't you going home?"

"Um!..." Eriol reacted "Yeah... I was tasked to help clean the classroom. Chiharu won't be here...S... she said he'll meet her brother at the airport..."

"No way." Tomoyo reacted. "You may go home now, I'll just asked other to clean the classroom."

But Eriol refused. "No...They asked me to help, so... I'll stay..."

"Are you sure?" she asked him.

Eriol smiled. "Yeah...I am..."

Tomoyo doesn't have a choice. "Geez! You're such a good boy. Anyways, as a reward, you may taste this." Eriol approached Tomoyo, while she prepared the food she created which was placed on a small dessert glass, and gave it to Eriol. "That creme brûlée is made with mangoes, and it has a kick of peppermint."

Eriol grabbed the glass and tasted the dessert she made. "It's delicious!" he told her. "I like the fusion of the creme and mango...and the peppermint gives the cool feeling... It's heaven on every bite!"

"Thanks for the compliment." She said.

Then, Eriol placed the dessert in the refrigirator. "I'll eat it once I'm done cleaning..." He grabbed the dirty utensils to clean, but as he was about to put it in the sink, Tomoyo stopped him. "Oh, no! I'll clean it!"

Eriol told him not to "You shouldn't be doing these...Your clothes might get dirty..."

But Tomoyo insists. "I don't care if my clothes gets dirty. Besides, I've used these utensils so let me do the cleaning."

Eriol knows he couldn't stop her, so she lets her get the used utensil. As she approached the sink, she stepped onto the wet portion of the room and she loses her balance. Eriol sees her falling. "Tomoyo!" He tried to catch Tomoyo. But just as he catches Tomoyo, she bumped into his chest. The impact was strong, he too loses his balance. Both of them fell.

Yuji is about to leave the office. He's fixing some papers on his folder when he heard a noise coming from the other room. He thought that it was some utensils fell to the floor that's why he assumed that it came from the training room. He also remembered that Tomoyo was inside that room. "Tomoyo..." He felt worried because the noise was too loud so he rushed in to the training room to check Tomoyo.

Meanwhile, inside the training room, both of them were lying on the floor. Eriol's arm were wrapped around Tomoyo's body, as if he was hugging her. "What happened..." she asked herself, then she realized that she was lying on top of him. She tried to rise just to check if Eriol was okay, but as she tried to raise her head to get up, she didn't realized her face was so close to his. Tomoyo felt her heart beats fast as her lips had almost touched his lips. Then, she slowly stood up and looked at Eriol's face. His eyes were closed as his head hit the floor. Her heart beats faster as she look closer, and tried to touch his innocent face. All of a sudden, he starts complaining that his head hurts. "Eriol!" She was confused on what to do as she tried to wake him up. "Are you okay? Does your head hurt?"

Yuji entered the room. "Tomoyo! What's happening?" He finds Tomoyo behind the center kitchen . But he was stunned when he found her, because Tomoyo was on top of Eriol.

Jealousy is in the air? Hahaha!

Anyways, Thank you, L-Elf, UnitedOsprey1991, montclaire06 and La criticona for your feedback. I appreciate. it.

It's my exam next week, but I'll try to give you an update next week. Thanks for reading, and wish me luck at my exams!