Disclaimer: "Cardcaptor
Sakura" and related characters belong to Clamp, not me.
Author's Notes: Well, this is
the 1st time I have embarked on such writings and I have to say is
that while there are views to both sides of this question, I only put up a few
of them. That does not mean that I have totally disregarded your point because
it is just as valid as the rest, but I will need to manipulate your arguments
that it doesn't sound like yours. So, in order not to do that, I think I will
like to omit out that. Please read and give your comments, both good and bad,
and if you think that there is some amount of truth in the points, please urge
your friends (who don't believe in long-distance relationships) to read this.
Dedicated
to those who answer my question on my uncompleted work, 'Destiny'. (I prefer
not to name people. It's not my custom.) Also for my best friend, Jo and
Anderaina who introduced CCS to me. Finally, to those who want to be convinced
that there is such a thing as long-distance relationship.
Do You
Believe In Long-Distanced Love?
Many people tell me that long-distance relationships do not last. After being apart for months and years, the love between the couple will wane and die once they are miles apart. Even if one party remains faithful to the other, the other will not be able to receive and reciprocate the affection back. Love, which feeds on mutual support and assurance, cannot survive by just wanting it to. In fact, I used to believe that love doesn't last in long-distance relationships.
So my friends, both male and female, who study abroad, will always declare the choice of single hood rather than brace the pain from the two-edged sword of love and emotions. When love is so readily available, it is like the taste of sweet honey milk, warm and comfortable. But when love is being restrained by boundary, it is like a bee comb except there is no honey in it.
Thus, a few years back, when I came to Japan at only ten years of age, I had no plans and no ideas that I would be involved in one. After all, the main motive that I had left my homeland to a place where I would have to learn a new language was for the Clow cards that Clow Reed had left behind. I knew I was there to get something that used to belong to my ancestry and I fixated my mind on achieving it.
The Clow cards, which I had predicted, had been released and the potential power I knew too well from the documentations that I had read since young. But, the worst thing, at my young, impulsive stage of mind, was that Cerberus had appointed Sakura Kinomoto to get back the cards, and this Sakura is to be my love in Japan when my homeland is in Hong Kong.
When I challenged her on our first meeting, in my mind was the overwhelming message of 'I want the cards'. She was, again due to my young, strong-headedness at that time, a weakling and incapable of such an important task. Nothing, absolutely nothing told me that I would fall for this cheerful, warm and caring personality.
There were many encounters, each differing in degree and intensity, depending on which card is at play. The competition was extremely strong when I first arrived, but in successive card-captures, the competitive spirit was dying. Sakura respected my capability and by the time she captured the Move card, she had won the respect in my heart.
Of course, there is another person who used to love me a lot. We are cousins, and we studied marital arts together at an early age of four or five. Without her, I think I will have never been able to profess my love to Sakura before my leaving Japan. Thank you, Meiling.
Sakura accepted the fact that we, meaning Meiling and I, were engaged. Throughout the capturing of the last few cards, she had taken a role as an autonomous friend, helping us, but more with Meiling, especially in the Twins card. But dense as she is, she fails to realize that in my heart, there is emerging a new love or at that time, emotion.
Everyone noticed this new emotion in me, all except Sakura of course. When I just see her standing by herself and the presence of peace on her face, a gushing feeling will shoot up from my chest to my face. My heart will beat faster than normal, like a horse stampeding across the meadows. My face will turn red, so red that I have to shy away at times.
I felt this responsibility to protect her. Although I could not pinpoint the exact reasons but gave the excuse that we need her to seal the cards, but distinctively, she is no longer the weakling as I have perceived her to be.
There is also another person that draws me closer to Sakura through his planned 'coincidences'. Polite, powerful and able to draw himself close to Sakura, he has made me instinctively jealous of him. Eriol is that 'he' and he provided me with many lessons on becoming strong through a calm mind so that I can protect the one that I love.
Ultimately, you will question on why I digress to mention this long account about knowing Sakura and the people around her and me. Eriol was the origin for my staying on after the Judgment, and if I have not done so, I will not be able to confront the fact that Sakura meant a lot in my heart. Tomoyo is always trying to arrange opportunities for me with the help of Meiling, or I would have been afraid to confess my emotions to Sakura because I fear that she would find it difficult to accept me after being rejected by Yukito.
It sounds so ideal to you about my feelings for Sakura and that practically it will not be possible to be so steadfast about how you feel. But do not be misled. When I do confess to her and she is about to make her reply, I have to leave for home, and that may mean never seeing her again. Although the establishment of my feelings to her had been strong and it is still the same, distance will have to become a problem for us. How strong will our long-distance relationship be when we just accepted each other? Those who have known each other for long periods of time end up breaking off after they cannot meet due to their nationality or country they are in. How much more can we expect?
But Sakura is different. I think, without her, our relationship will not have gone that stable for so long. She possesses the hope that I will return to her, and which I intend to keep. But in the meantime, even though we cannot see each other, we survive through emails, telephone calls and letters. They form the greatest comfort when we receive news from each other.
Of course, there are times when life catches up with us and robs us of our time for these types of communication. But own hearts are joined together strongly by the encounters we have together. The scarf is a symbolic reminder of her and I refuse to take it off even when under the sun. She too tells me constantly that my bear is always with her, telling her that I'll always support her even though I'm not physically there to help.
My example again may belong to the fictional world of fantasy and imagination and in a realm of utopia. I can't deny that, because everything is so perfect and we are together and everything. People around us don't seem to be same. But I want to highlight this point that no relationship can survive without love and love needs nourishment from mutual trust and assurance. A long-distance relationship is just like any relationship, except with the problem of distance between the two parties. You will have to put in a little more effort than that of normal relations. If you out rightly declare long-distance relationships as 'mission impossible', what makes you so sure that a normal one will be a piece of cake?
Have I convinced you? That I do not want to know. It's a question you will have to ask yourself. But for me, I know that this long-distanced love between Sakura and I have grown while we are separated and we can proudly state that we will be closer when we meet again soon.