Beautiful8

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Is that the way it is

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She didn't mean to say it like that but there was no other way to say it. Maybe she should go and apologize. She still didn't get what she came here for. So it was a good thing she found this job because it looked like she was going to be here a while.

[July 6, 2003]

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Meilin stared idly out the window. Clouds covered the moon and the stars. She couldn't see anything in the sky except nothingness. It was empty.

"What am I doing here," she asked herself. "So far I've got nothing. Wait, I got a job." She smiled to herself. "What would the family think now. 'You have a job!' 'Who would hire you?'" Meilin frowned and stopped thinking what her family would say if they found out she actually had a job. She began thinking about XiaoLang and Sakura. "They should be on their honeymoon now. And they'd probably be coming back to live on the estate. He was going to be the head of the Li household."

She filled her thoughts with XiaoLang and fell asleep on her bed.

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Meilin found herself running again. She could see XiaoLang clearly in the distance. She could also see someone else. He was taller than XiaoLang but that's all she could make out. He was farther then XiaoLang. She kept running towards XiaoLang but was always a step too short to get to him. The guy behind him had his arms opened and was waiting for her. She walked towards him and into his arms. He was so warm and comforting. He smelled like vanilla. She looked up but his chin kept her from seeing his face. She could see XiaoLang coming towards them but he stopped before he got to them. He looked sad.

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Waking up with a smile on her face, Meilin could recall her dream perfectly. She slowly rose from the bed, still thinking about the guy in her dreams. "He was so warm and smelled so good", was all she could think.

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She arrived for her new job earlier than she intended so she wandered the street. She could see a young couple in front of a small café. She looked closer and saw that the young couple was in fact XiaoLang and Sakura. Meilin quickly and quietly turned around. She kept walking towards the restaurant she was supposed to be by now. She didn't dare turn around, in case they saw her.

[July 16, 2003]

[Not the end of the chapter, but you guys deserve something. So this is as far as I am. I'll try to post the full chapter by next week Friday. I'm going camping, so I'm not even sure when I can update again. Pray for me, camping = no computer. *_* I will somehow have to make it back… if I don't get eaten by a bear. I always wanted to say that. Bye for now.]

[So this is the rest of the chapter.]

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"Ohmigod!" Meilin screamed in her head. "He-they are supposed to be on their honeymoon… I hope they're not trying to look for me! That's XiaoLang for you, tell him to not look for you and the first thing he does is try to look for you!"

Meilin walked in the small restaurant to start her new career as a… waitress.

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Meilin worked like se never worked before, well technically this was the first time she actually worked but she's never thought she'd ever work this hard before. She got orders and gave people their food. She cleared tables. She even washed the dishes.

When she walked out that day she felt like she accomplished something immense.

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"Maybe I should change how I look," she thought to herself as she lay on the bed. "I could maybe bleach my hair or just get it cut. Maybe I could do both! Get some new clothes. And just not look like the old me, this is the new me! A hard working and independent Meilin!"

She decided that tomorrow after work, she was going to go get her hair cut and not bleach it but get some red streaks. She wasn't going to get any new clothes though, she didn't have the money for it, yet.

She fell asleep thinking about her 'new look'.

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Someone that smelled like vanilla was holding her tightly. "You smell so good," Meilin said to him.

"Thanks," said a deep voice back.

"Have we met before? You sound familiar."

"Probably."

Meilin tried to look up but he was holding her in a way that she couldn't see his face. "What's your name?" Meilin asked him.

"You don't need to know," he said softly to her.

"But, I want to know."

"It's no use here."

"Here? Where are we?"

"Anywhere you want to be…"

*BEEEEPPP, BEEEEPPP, BEEEPPPPP…*

Unhappily Meilin slammed on her new alarm clock. *sigh…* "What a great dream," thought Meilin.

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It was getting close to the end of her shift as she saw XiaoLang outside the restaurant. He looked in but Meilin was already hiding behind one of the booths. When she got up again, he was gone. "That was close," she said out loud.

"What was close?" said one of her coworkers.

"Nothing… Just… Is my shift over?"

"Yea. My turn now…" she grumbled.

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Meilin walked the streets suspiciously in case someone jumped out from behind something and shouted, "HA! I caught you. Now you must come back! Mwuah ha ha haa…"

"Now, I'm just paranoid," she said to herself as she walked into a hair salon.

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But as she walked out she wasn't paranoid whatsoever. She didn't look anything like what she came in. She now had short, choppy, layered, red streaked hair. No one would be able to recognize her now, not even XiaoLang.

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Meilin was happy to go to sleep; she was looking forward to it since she woke up this morning.

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"You're back," uttered a deep soothing voice. "But, you don't look like you."

"Yea," Meilin said touching her hair, remembering what she'd done earlier. "I wanted to be a new person so I had to look like a new person."

"What was so bad about the old you?"

"My life."

"I see." Meilin clutched him tighter. "Cry as much as you want, I'm going to be here for you."

Meilin didn't even realize that tears were streaming down her face. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I'm here for you."

Meilin stopped crying as she smiled and stayed in his warm embrace. She didn't try to look up; this was all she needed, to be held by him.

*BEEEEPPP, BEEEEPPP, BEEEPPPPP…*

Meilin groggily slammed on her alarm clock.

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As she worked all-day she tried to remember his voice. He sounded so familiar. She was so sure that they'd met before, but where?

At the end of her shift she still couldn't figure out who's voice that was.

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[End of CH 8. This is a reasonable length for a chapter, right? I have no idea where I'm going from here, but it just flows as I type. Any ideas as to who this mysterious guy is? So you guys like her new look? This is how I want my new look. I'm going to be a rebel and go cut my long black hair like that. But maybe w/o the red highlights. My hair is long too, like past your butt long. Too long and annoying, I didn't cut it before because my mom wouldn't let me but I'm going to do it this summer because I need to be different for my senior year. No promises as to when I'm going to update this.]

[July 17, 2003]