While Li worked on his homework at his desk, Meilin sat on his bed, throwing worried glances at his way: Li had forgotten to kick her out. After a little while, Meilin started her own homework, but stopped without making much progress. Suddenly, Meilin broke the silence as she spat out, "Li, you're such a coward."
"Fine," Li quipped before resuming his homework.
"Li, I can't believe you'd just give up like this. This isn't you. If there is one thing you have, it's determination. Once you see a goal, you would never let anything get in the way. So just snap out of it!"
"Forget about it," Li answered, not taking his eyes off of his homework.
"I'm not giving up on you, Li, no matter what. So you're coming with me," Meilin ordered while dragging him out of his chair.
"What are you doing, Meilin! Let go of me!" Li protested. 'I can't believe her nerve! Does she think she can just push me around?' Eventually, though, he gave in… for the sake of Sakura. He had to admit that he had absolutely no clue as to what he should do… and thus he bit his lip as Meilin called her mother, and she gave them a ride to the mall… as they looked in the gift shop, and picked out a present for Sakura…
After dinner, Li's mother gave them a ride to Sakura's house. 'This is it. This is my last chance. If I am going to make this White Day a special one, this is my last hope… So you better not blow it, Li Showron! Now what was I supposed to do? Help!'
"This isn't very hard," Meilin instructed Li, while they were still inside the car, parked just outside Sakura's home. "You just go up to the door, ring the doorbell, and ask for Sakura. Then you give her the present, and tell her, 'This is your White Day present.' Then you talk to her for a while. Got that? Once you're done, just call my mom and she'll drive you back."
Li said to himself, 'Yeah, right. It's easy for you, since you're not the one that is actually doing it.' He was tempted to stay inside the car, but Meilin gave him a glare and pushed him out, spilling him on the sidewalk. Before he could scramble back inside, Meilin slammed the door shut, and the car left. 'Here goes nothing,' he said to himself, as he checked inside his school bag to see that the present was still there.
The first few steps were easy: he rang the doorbell, found out, much to his relief, that Tori wasn't home, and went upstairs to Sakura's room. But the level of difficulty soon escalated, as Li was greeted with…
"What are you doing here so late, kid," Kero said.
"It's none your business, stuffed animal. I just want to talk to Sakura about something."
"What is it?" Sakura asked.
"You little toy, can't you just go away for a while? I need to talk to Sakura alone."
"If it's about Clow Cards, then I'm staying right here," Kero insisted.
"This isn't about Clow Cards. This is personal. That means you – " Li swatted his hand near Kero, motioning him to leave – "better butt out."
"Fine, I can take a hint. But if you do anything to Sakura, you better watch your back," as Kero opened the window and flew to a nearby tree.
When Kero was gone, Sakura asked, "So, what was it that you wanted to say?"
"Um…"
"Did you want to talk about today? I'm sorry," Sakura apologized.
"Meilin has a way with things, doesn't she? Always making a mess out of everything. Sometimes, I just wish she would just go away."
Sakura began to feel a little anxious – something wasn't right. She ventured, "Was that the reason you didn't come to the ice cream shop?"
"No."
"What is it, then?"
Li gave no answer. The pause lasted several minutes before Sakura asked, "It's about Clow Cards, isn't it?"
"Not exactly…"
"Li, are you leaving?" Sakura finally ventured.
"What?" The question hit him by surprise. The truth was that he dreaded going back, where his mother and sisters would be all too eager to pair
him up with Meilin. Not to mention the endless training exercises he had to do, and all the clan duties he had to perform. Li answered as honestly as he could: "Not yet. Not until all the Clow Cards have been captured."
"But you can't stay here forever. Besides, I could try capturing them on my own."
"No, your magic is too weak! You'll never be able to capture all of the cards by yourself. I have to stay until all of them have been captured." Li stopped pacing around the room and sat on Sakura's bed, next to Sakura.
"That means you could be staying here forever," Sakura commented.
Li turned to face Sakura and told her, "If it takes forever, I'll stay forever."
At these words, Sakura turned to face Li, with tears in her eyes. "Li…" she trailed off, while wiping off her tears.
Li turned his face away and closed his eyes. He could feel her breath on his face, which made him anxious… and then he was jolted as he felt her lips on his cheek. Reflexively he jumped up and wiped his cheek. "I have to go now," Li announced, "it's late."
With these words he grabbed his bag, rushed downstairs to make a quick phone call, and ran outside, slamming the door shut. 'This was a bad idea, Meilin!' Li said to himself. He took out the present from his bag, useless now – and impulsively tore away at the wrapping, revealing a small teddy bear. 'It was a stupid present anyway,' he told himself, tossing the bear back into the bag. But then, he remembered… he remembered that Sakura had kissed him. What had Zachary said? "…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." That meant… that meant… 'That means Sakura will never capture all of the cards,' Li tried to tell himself. Yet… what did she mean when she kissed him? Li now caressed the cheek he had so impulsively wiped a moment ago, and with his other hand, took the bear out of the bag again. 'I promise, one day, I'll give you this present…'
Li dropped the bear into his bag, and sat down on the sidewalk. 'Why, Sakura, why? Why couldn't I just tell you right there… why did I run?' Nothing mattered now, nothing! Sakura would never forgive him, not after what had just happened… not after what he had done. All he had to do was to… well, there were a number of things he could have done. But because of the one thing that he did do, he had lost her… he had lost her for good. Only if he had the power to turn back time… but now it was too late.
As Li saw his vision cloud over, he rubbed his eyes, and found them to be moist. 'Don't cry, Li. Only babies cry.' Yet the harder he tried to stop himself from crying, the greater the pressure became – and now Li was finding it more difficult to swallow. 'Why… why do things like this always happen to me?' Li closed his eyes tightly, in a stubborn effort to keep the tears falling, and everything turned black.
But wait, was there a light? As Li squinted in the face of a near-blinding light, he noticed the outline of a figure approaching him. Was it an angel? A friend? 'Neither', he decided, as he saw the figure more clearly, and saw it as Meilin. 'I can't let her see me like this! Run away, don't let her see you like this!' Li started to, but then the dam broke loose, and his tears began to flow freely. He felt ashamed of himself, even more so when Meilin whispered, "I'm sorry, Li… I'm sorry I put you through this." Why did his speech and his body fail him at this moment? Why couldn't he say something like, 'You better be sorry. It's your fault, Meilin!' And why did he let Meilin, of all people, put her arms around him? It wasn't supposed to be like this! Why couldn't he muster the feeling of revulsion, and push her down, as she deserved? Why, instead, did he feel his tears dry up, his pulse slow down, and the pain in his throat disappear? Why did he feel warmth radiating from the inside… as he felt his eyes starting to close?
Suddenly, Li's eyes popped open. He thought he had seen something move, out of the corner of his eye – was it from Sakura's room? Had she seen it? How much had she seen? No! She couldn't have! She would misunderstand; she would never know how he really felt about her… Li never felt as helpless as he did at this moment, as he looked back at Sakura's window… and continued to stare at it from the car window, as the image grew smaller…
As the image finally disappeared, Li put his hand by his side, feeling for the bear that he had taken out of his bag – the bear meant for Sakura, but never given. But as he did so, he heard a slight gasp – and he realized that instead of finding the bear, he had instead found Meilin's hand. No! Nothing but rotten luck today, and it was all Meilin's fault! Why couldn't she just leave him alone? Why couldn't he just get rid of her? He wished he had never known her…
'I just hope you realize that friends like that are precious, darling.' Isn't that what his mother had said? Boy, that showed how much she knew. Some 'friend' she was. She was so loud, so obnoxious, so annoying… and on top of that, she had ruined his day! 'Be patient… if you wait for her, she will change…' Like that would ever happen! Just how clueless could his mother be? 'And perhaps, your friendship will develop into something even more wonderful…' Li's heart jumped. No! That certainly wasn't going to happen; he would die first!
Ah, but if that was truly the case, then why was he still holding onto Meilin's hand?