The next morning, Li was still grumbling about the conversation with his mother from the night before.  'I know I should listen to her, but… she has no idea what I go though!  Doesn't she understand just how demanding Meilin can be!  I can't be safe from her for even one moment!'  In the meantime, Li looked out of all the windows in his apartment, just to make sure that Meilin wasn't there to pounce on him.  Once he was in the clear, he tentatively stepped out and looked around – no sign of Meilin.  Good.  Her mother must have told her to stop following him to school.  It was fortunate that Meilin's mother kept her in line, most of the time; otherwise, there was no telling as to what Meilin might try.  'Thank goodness Meilin's mother has some sense.  Now, as for my mother…' Li thought, as he found himself at the front gate of his school.

If the first moments of the day were to be any indication, it would seem that the sun had decided to shine on Li that day.  Not only did he lose Meilin, he managed to spot Sakura alone.  After glancing around to make sure that Meilin wasn't around, he went up to Sakura, and she likewise approached him.  They got a little too close, though, and Sakura nervously backed up a step, before asking,

"Li?  Uh… there's something important I wanted to talk you about…" Sakura hesitated, while playing with her hat.

"What." Li responded with a disinterested tone.

"Well, you see, uh… I …" Sakura was finding it difficult to continue, and it didn't help that Li decided to lean just a little closer right at that moment.  She was starting to sweat, her face became flushed, and she started to tremble… and Li was about to place his hand on her arm to comfort her, when…

Click!  The sound of a picture being taken could be heard, soon followed by a blinding flash, causing Li and Sakura to recoil away from each other.  "Madison!  What did you do that for!"  Sakura yelled in frustration.

"Oh, hi, Sakura!"  Madison said innocently, with bright smile.

"Madison, I was so close!  I was about to tell him something very important…"

"Aren't you glad I was here to capture the moment?  You guys look so cute!"

"Madison…" Sakura pleaded.

"Sorry I couldn't get out the video camera in time, but at least I got a great shot in!  This will make a great addition to my web site!"

"Madison, you can't!" Sakura squealed, as she jumped on Madison in a futile attempt to recover the camera.  Li could only shake his head as he walked away.

"Stupid girls," Li muttered to himself.  'That Madison!  She always gets in the way.  Sometimes, she's almost as bad as Meilin…' Speaking of Meilin, where was she?  Li hadn't seen her at the gate, which was unusual.  He remembered the times she used wait for him at the gate every day, and grabbed him or jumped on him when he came by.  Well, that is, until Li asked Meilin's mother to stop her from doing this.  'Who cares.  It's not like I want to see her anyway.'  Li convinced himself, but in truth, Li was feeling a little anxious.  Why?  He should have been ecstatic!  Wasn't this what he wanted?  'Well, maybe she's not at school today,' Li finally decided.

Meilin, however was at school; she had just been avoiding him.  And she also avoided him during morning break, talking to Sakura and Madison most of the time.  By lunchtime, Li was starting to lose his patience.  'What is going on?  Then again, why should I care?  Just forget about it!'  Li told himself, but curiosity eventually got the best of him.  When Li spotted Meilin, he pursued her and forcefully called out, "Meilin, what's wrong with you."

But Meilin ignored him, and walked away from him with increasing speed.

"Meilin, stop!  Tell me what's going on," Li ordered.

"Oh, really.  I didn't think you wanted to talk to me.  Isn't that what you told my mother?" Meilin responded spitefully, without bothering to face him.

'OK, maybe I shouldn't have said that…' but there was no way he was going to back down, not until he got to the bottom of this.  "What's your problem, Meilin!" Li accused.

"My problem?" Meilin said incredulously.  "Why is it a problem?  You always tell me to go away."

"It's about the Clow cards, isn't it.  How many times have we gone over this?  It's too dangerous to hunt for cards unless you have magic!"

"You'd like to believe that, wouldn't you?  It's not just about the cards – it's about all the other times!  You never talk to me, you never let me come over, and you hang up on me all the time.  Not only that, you threw away every single present I ever gave you!  And you're saying that I have a problem?"

OK, so she had a point there… and perhaps his mother had a point, also.  Besides, he had given his mother his word.  Though he desperately wanted to say, 'Your presents were stupid, anyway!' instead he bit his tongue and forced out, "All right.  I'll try to make up to you.  OK?"

Meilin suddenly turned around and whispered, "Really?" with a sweet smile.  Oh no, she was a bit too close… much too close…  'Move!' Li told himself, but found himself frozen, as she took hold of his arm…

Rescued!  At that exact moment, Sakura arrived, with Madison nowhere in sight.  Though this wasn't exactly the best timing, Sakura figured she might as talk to Li now, or risk becoming a celebrity on the World Wide Web.

"Li, there's something I want to tell you…" Sakura asked softly.

"Back off, Avalon!" Meilin snarled.  But at that moment Li struggled free, and answered, "Oh, it's you, Sakura.  What do you want?" with a piercing glare.

"Well, uh… did you know that tomorrow was White Day?"

Li and Meilin just shook their heads.

"Err… you see, White Day is a day when… uh…"

"Oh, White Day," someone interrupted.  It was Zachary, with his usual impeccable (?) timing. "White Day is a day when boys are supposed give gifts to the entire class, just like Valentine's Day," Zachary said cheerfully.

"Really?" Li asked, wide-eyed.

"Zachary," Chelsea warned him from behind.

"Well, I guess not every boy does it.  But that's just because they don't know how the tradition got started.  Do you want to know?"

"Yeah…" Sakura and Li answered simultaneously then glanced at each other in surprise.

"It happened several centuries ago.  A samurai warrior had to go off to war, and promised his lady that he would be back as soon as he could.  So she waited for him for years, but he wouldn't come.  Finally, the war ended, and all the soldiers came back, except for the samurai.  She feared for her loved one, and became very sick.  Everyone thought she was going to die."

"How sad…" Sakura sobbed.

"One night in early spring, the weather turned unusually cold, and there was a terrible snowstorm.  In the middle of the night, she passed out, and the doctor said she wouldn't make it through the night.  But by the next morning, she had miraculously recovered.  And when she opened her door, she saw her loved one from a distance, running toward her house, battling through the deep snow.  Once he came back, he spent the entire first day just waiting on her, doing whatever she asked of him.  At the end of the day, he proposed to her… and she kissed him and agreed to marry him.  He became so happy that he gave gifts to all of his friends… and that's how the tradition got started."

There wasn't a dry eye in his audience by the time Zachary finished telling the story, although Li scowled and rubbed his eye violently in a futile attempt to hide his tears.  Zachary continued, "Because of that, they say that if a boy spends the day following the wishes of the girl he really likes, and she kisses him at the end of the day, they will be together forever."

"Really…" Sakura sighed.  "I wish someone would do that for me…"

"You mean, you actually believe that story, Avalon?" Meilin snickered, confidently staring at Chelsea.  But Chelsea herself was wiping tears from eyes, and could only mutter, "That's so sweet…"

Meilin recovered quickly, though.  She took Li's arm and exclaimed, "Li!  That means you get to spend all day tomorrow doing whatever I wish!  Isn't this great?  I knew we were meant to be together forever…"

Li gulped, tore himself from Meilin, and stomped off.  "I have to go now.  Class is about to start," Li blurted out, completely oblivious to the fact that there was a good half hour left in the lunch period.