Beautiful9

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You are beautiful

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Meilin was checking her calendar, "Wow, I can't believe I've been gone for a month now." She smiled at this accomplishment.

She's been living on her own for a month now. Working as a waitress at a small restaurant and has been on the look out for XiaoLang, in case he was looking for her. She was also on the look out for the man in her dreams.

So far all she'd figured out about him was that he was tall, had black hair, and smelled like vanilla. This was going to be harder than she thought. "Maybe it really is all a dream," she thought to herself. "I mean he only shows up in my dreams." Sighing loudly she closed her eyes as she imagined his arms around her.

"I still haven't gotten anywhere on the pendant thing," she scolded herself. "I need to find that kid again. But what I really need is to talk to his brother." She frowned, concentrating hard. "But he didn't seem to like me asking questions about his mother." Suddenly an idea popped into her head. "I can ask the father!"

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It was one of the few days off of work when she was cruising the same street she got her pendant. She was wearing both the hairpin and pendant proudly. It matched perfectly with her red hair and blouse.

She looked for their stall and casually walked over. "Hello," said Meilin.

"Hello," said the older brother.

Meilin smiled, "He doesn't know who I am," she thought to herself. "Is your father here?"

"No, I'm the only one here today. Perhaps you could come tomorrow, he will surely be here."

Meilin didn't know why but he sounded so familiar, "OHMIGOD!" she screamed as she turned around.

"Excuse me? Are you okay?"

"Yes. Yes. I am just dandy. O-Okay, I'll be back tomorrow. Umm… Thank you…" stammered Meilin as she stalked off.

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She wasn't watching where she was going and walked into someone, "Sorry," she said as she returned to concentrating on the dream guy.

"Meilin?" said the person she walked into.

Meilin was surprised to see that someone knew her, she didn't even tell her boss her real name, and instead everyone called her "Lynn."

"Is that you?" said the same person. Meilin turned around slowly. "Ohmigod! It is you!"

"Sa-Sa-Sakura…" stuttered Meilin.

"Meilin! I can't believe it's you!"

"Yea… Same here."

Sakura pulled Meilin into a bear hug. "We missed you soooo MUCH!" she said as she squeezed Meilin.

"I uh… can't… breathe."

"Sorry, I'm just so happy to see you. I can't wait to tell Li."

Meilin's heart almost stopped, "What? You can't."

"Why not? He's been looking for you for like a month now. He's so worried about you."

"Oh, he thinks I can't handle it being on my own. He thinks I need to be baby-sat."

"Meilin, that's not what I meant. Can we go somewhere to talk?"

Meilin looked around to see if they could go anywhere where Sakura wouldn't be able to find her again. "Yeah, follow me."

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Meilin led them to the same little café she's seen her and XiaoLang before.

"You know, Li and I always come here."

They sat outside close to the building. "Yeah?"

"Yeah, but lately he's been busy so we haven't been here for a while now."

"What's he doing now?"

"Oh, he's all into his training and he's always doing something. But we're here to talk about you. Where have you been? What have you been doing? Why did you leave-"

"-It's a long story," Meilin cut Sakura off. "I've been doing okay. Don't worry about me. I left for a lot of reasons."

"You know, after you left Li tried kicking your parents out of the estate."

"What?"

"He was pretty angry at them."

"What?" repeated Meilin in disbelief.

"They didn't leave but now they live in a really small house."

"What?"

"Yeah, now Li and I live in your house."

"What?"

"Don't worry, we didn't touch your room. It's exactly as you left it."

"What?"

"Meilin, we want you to come back and live with us."

"What? Wait, no."

"Well, not forever, you know just until you get married or something."

"Sorry, but I already have somewhere to stay so you guys can change my room all you want."

"Meilin listen, Li didn't really tell me why you left. He just vaguely said that you were sad and needed to go away. I still don't understand why."

"Sakura, you wouldn't understand. Everyone loves you and they need you."

"Try to make me understand then."

"Fine, my parents hate me. My family thinks I'm just a burden. And I'm no use to anyone."

Sakura looked at Meilin with a new face, not pity but understanding, "I do understand. Maybe not as much as you do but I get it. That's why you left?"

"Yes. I needed to find somewhere that I wasn't me."

"But you are a wonderful person." Tears came to Meilin's eyes. She looked up to see Sakura's eyes also filled with tears. "You have helped me when I needed help. I have been such a bad friend. I have never helped you before. You haven't ever needed me to help you. I thought you were such a strong person. You never needed anyone's help. You could do everything yourself."

"Sakura, you won't tell anyone that you saw me, right?"

"I-I… no. I won't tell anyone as long as we get together every week, okay?" Sakura said with a smile on her face.

Meilin hesitated but also smiled back, "Deal."

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Meilin watched as her friend walked off into the distance. It had been a very, very long day, and it was only 2 in the after noon. "Should I go back and talk to that guy some more," she asked herself. "Is he really the guy from my dreams?"

Getting up with courage she walked back to the same street she had just been a while ago.

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"Oh, hello. My father still isn't here."

"I… uhh… I'm not here to see your father."

"Okay, then can I help you?"

Meilin hesitated and wasn't sure what to say or where to begin so she started from the beginning. "Do you remember that girl that your brother told you wanted to meet you in a small restaurant like a month ago?" He looked at her suspiciously. "Well, surprise! It's me, Meilin."

"Excuse me?"

"See, I've got the pendant and hairpin."

"Oh, now I remember. What do you want?" he said uncouthly.

"I wanted to apologize if I offended you. I didn't mean to say it like that, it just came out wrong."

"Fine. Is that all?"

"I-I guess…"

"Don't bother asking my father about her. He doesn't even talk to us about her."

"I'm sorry. I should be going now." She turned around and started to walk away. She made it about 20 feet before she came back.

"What is it now?"

"Can I smell you?"

"Excuse me?"

"Umm… I know it sounds kind of unusual, some strange annoying girl asking to smell you but I just need to know if you're him."

He gave her a strange look and shrugged his shudders, "I guess, but only if you leave me alone afterwards."

Meilin leaned in and he smelled like…

[End of CH 9. I know I'm evil for leaving this chapter as a cliffhanger. But I'll probably put the next chapter up right after this one. I tried putting up the last chapter last night but the server was down. L I was sad. Do you guys think the Sakura-Meilin scene was too sappy or not sappy enough? I'm not the touchy-feely kinda person. This is an attempt to be. But new chapter coming soon, I promise!]

[July 18, 2003]

[I almost have the tenth chap done. well, 50% done. it'll most likely be up by tomorrow. if not then by wednesday. better get back to typing.]

[July 20, 2003]