What is love?
Summary: Still in depression from her breakup with her boyfriend, Sakura meets Syaoran in unusual circumstances. Will love blossom between the 2 individuals who don't believe in love? SS, TE
Legend:
- words - refers to thoughts
Hello! Yay! We got 7 reviews for our last chapter. Thank you to everyone that has reviewed and we hope that this chapter won't be below your expectations!Disclaimer: CLAMP owns CCS.
In the last chapter...
"And just to serve as a reminder darling, look at your desk later." Ami said, smirking.
The trio pushed Sakura as they walked on. Sakura felt herself falling, falling and falling. Yet, something was stopping her fall. Surprised she turned around only to face...
Chapter 3 – Formal introductions A pair of amber eyes stared into her own emerald ones. Slowly, her emerald eyes widened in recognition. -That's the rude bishounen who almost knocked me down the other day! -The bishounen merely looked down at her and said in a cold voice, "Hey, watch your step and get off me. I need to go."
"Matte! Your handkerchief…"
But before Sakura could finish, he had walked away.
"The nerve of that guy! He didn't even let me complete my sentence. Who the hell is he and what's he doing here anyway?" Sakura wondered.
- Ah, forget it. I might as well continue exploring the building now. It's most probably going to be a long time before they finish with their meeting.-
&---&---&
Sakura walked to her desk slowly. She had walked round and round the company and until she had known it like the back of her hand except for a certain area that she was not permitted to go.
Sakura stopped in shocked upon arrival at her desk. Her hands flew to her mouth as her eyes turned watery. There, in big bold letters, were the words 'SLUT' and 'BITCH' sprayed in red paint all over her desk.
Her eyes shut tightly as she felt her bottom lip begin to tremble. They had gone too far. It's not like they own Eriol-kun and I didn't even do anything! Even as she opened her eyes and stared at the graffiti again, her tears still threatened to spill. Sakura always couldn't stand people being mean to her, or rather, she was not used to it.
- I will not cry and I can't let Eriol-kun know about this. It will only worry him.-
So, slowly, Sakura got up and took long steps towards the toilet. She soon emerged with a wet towel in her hand and a determined look in her eyes.
An hour later, Sakura finally grinned. Though her arms and legs were tired and sore from the intense rubbing as well as the walking back and forth from the toilet, she had finally rid her table of the awful graffiti.
&---&---&
"Sakura-chan, I'm so sorry for leaving you alone for so long. I didn't expect the meeting to last so long. Our meeting started a bit later because the boss was late. Well anyway..." Eriol paused to catch his breath.
"Ano... I think you should catch your breath first." Sakura said smiling.
"Hai." Eriol said while nodding. "Okay, I'm fine now. So I'll bring you to see the big boss as of this company now. Please make sure you behave... He is quite distant to everybody except for Meiling and me, so please don't mind if he says anything rude. Shall we go?" Eriol warned Sakura.
"Hai." Sakura replied.
The two of them set off next to each other. An occasional laugh coming from Eriol.
"That slut, how dare she? Eriol's mine!" Serika said as she stared at them from her desk. Her eyes were burning.
"Serika... Remember our pact? Eriol's no one's. He's ours'." Maki said in a lazy tone while filing her nails.
"Hai, but I can't stand that bitch being around him." Serika replied angrily.
"Don't worry, we'll take care of her. It's 3 against 1. Besides, we can always ask my dad to help. He won't say no to me." Ami reassured her good friends.
"Hai… She'd better not dare to try anything. If she tries to seduce my precious Syaoran too... I swear, she's going to get it from me!" Serika swore determinedly
"It's us Serika, we all like Syaoran. But I'm not worried about the bitch getting Syaoran because of his attitude. Let's discuss this later, if we can't finish our work today we can't leave and if that so, we can't go to our pub as planned." Ami said calmly.
&---&---&
Sakura stared in awe at the gold plate at one of the doors. Meiling's and Eriol's ones had been silver so this office obviously belonged to the boss.
"Hi Asuka-san, is Syaoran in? I have to talk to him." Eriol asked politely.
"Yes, he is inside. Please wait for a moment." The secretary said while picking up the phone and dialing some numbers.
After a while, the secretary spoke, "Sorry to keep you waiting, you may go in."
Eriol nodded as he knocked sharply on the door and it was followed by a quick response. "Come in".
Sakura stepped in tentatively and gulped, this was the big boss she was talking about. If she offended him, she could say goodbye to her job.
"Syaoran, this is Sakura Kinomoto my new secretary. Sakura, this is Li Syaoran my boss." Eriol introduced them.
"Hi," Sakura greeted nervously, not once daring to look at his face.
"Hi." A cold and sharp reply came.
Sakura was alerted by this voice. -This voice sounds familiar, it sounds like…like the bishounen!-
At that thought, Sakura quickly looked up, and indeed, it was the bishounen. He was looking straight at her, with his pair of cold amber eyes.
"It's you!" Sakura blurted out, shocked.
"It's me what?" Syaoran asked, in an annoyed and cold voice.
"You're that guy who almost knocked me down that day! And you didn't even apologize to me at all! Oh my, but then I'm also sorry that I knocked into you earlier and all and didn't even apologize... But you didn't let me have the chance to apologize!" Sakura mumbled extremely quickly until she didn't even know what she was talking about.
"You guys know each other already?" Eriol asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Well, kind of...."Sakura replied looking at him.
- I can't believe that he is the big boss of this company! -
"Whenever? I don't remember knowing you. We only met twice, so don't conclude that we know each other." Syaoran answered in a cold voice.
"I'm sorry." Sakura said in a soft voice, as she lowered her head.
Seeing this, Eriol quickly said, " Well, since I have already introduced you to each other, I guess Sakura and I should head back to our office to do our work. See you later!"
"Wait! What about your handkerchief? I can return it to you tomorrow since I don't have it with me now." Sakura suddenly remembered.
"Just throw it away or something. I do not want any stuff that has been used by a stranger." Syaoran said as he turned his attention back to his papers.
- Sheesh, what kind of attitude is this? Who does he think he is? The boss? Oops, he is. Hehe... - Sakura blushed inwardly as she realized the stupidity of what she had just thought.
And so, they left Syaoran's office and returned to Eriol's.
"Are you ready to start work now?" Eriol asked
"I'm ready anytime!" Sakura said readily.
"Okay, first of all, you know all the basic things that secretaries do right? Well, at this company it's basically the same. You handle calls for me, sort out some documents and bring in a coffee every morning and if u like, with breakfast too! Hehe... You also have to be present at every meeting." Eriol explained smiling.
"Okay, got that. Anything else?" Sakura asked, nodding.
"Hmm... Nope. Anyway, I should warn you. Stay away from the 3 girls who like to stick together.They are Serika Matsuura, Maki Tamaki, Ami Kirisawa and they call themselves B3, which they refer to as Beauties 3, but we all refer to it as Bitches 3 behind their backs." Eriol said, laughing.
- Is it the girls whom I met just now? It sounds a lot like them - Sakura thought to herself.
"Why?" She asked curiously.
"They have the biggest obsession with Syaoran and...erm… me. We simply can't stand them. Worst thing is, one of their dad's is an important client of the company and we can't afford to offend him so we don't fire any of them. My previous secretary was scared away by them."
"I see. Thanks for the warning Eriol. Don't worry, I won't leave because of them." Sakura reassured him, while deep in thought.
- So they have a crush on Syaoran too? Weirdoes... Who will like people like him? - Sakura thought.
"Ano Sakura-chan, have they come to look for you for trouble?" Eriol asked concerned.
"NO! Er…I mean no, of course not… Erm... I dun even know who they are. Yeah… so…" Sakura replied unsurely while looking away. She was never any good at lying.
- I must not let him worry for me - Sakura thought.
Being friends for so many years, Eriol could sense whether Sakura was lying without having to read her mind. "Alright, if you say so…" Eriol replied, not believing a word of what she had said.
- If she doesn't want me to know, I will just have to look out for her at all times. I do not want anything to happen to her - Eriol thought.
"Well. I've to go back to work now. There're quite a few documents left behind by the past secretary as well as some new ones. Just work on the ones which say 'urgent'. The rest can be sorted out later. Ja!" Eriol said.
"Okay. Bye!" Sakura said.
Eriol entered his office and Sakura was left at her table. The table was rather messy with several files with 'urgent' on it. Sakura worked on it diligently and soon felt like someone was staring at her.
She looked up and saw a girl who was about her age. Her long ebony hair was let down. In all, she was a beauty. Though it wasn't quite possible, and though Sakura couldn't really believe it, she could have sworn that she had seen stars in that girl's eyes.
"Excuse me?" Sakura asked nervously feeling quite uncomfortable under her intense stare.
"Oh! Sorry, I'm Tomoyo Daidouji." The girl introduced herself.
"I'm Sakura Kinomoto." Sakura replied nervously.
"May I know where Li Syaoran's office is? I need to see him urgently." Tomoyo asked politely.
"Erm... You take a right turn at the corner there and just walk straight. There should be a gold plate at his door there with his name on it." Sakura replied.
"Okay. Thank you so much." Tomoyo replied as she walked off.
Weirdly enough, Sakura could have sworn that she had heard a squeal of "KAWAII" from that girl as she turned the corner. - What is it that is kawaii? -
Sakura shook her head and resumed her work. The girl didn't concern her anyway.
Time passed, and soon it was 6pm. Sakura gave a sigh and prepared to leave. Eriol was right, working here was very demanding. It was far worse than her previous company. But at least there were no disruptions. The entire building here was spacious and barely a sound could be heard at any one time.
She walked to the elevator and just as she heard the distinct sound of the elevator coming, that very girl whom she had met earlier ran in.
"Konnichiwa! It is such good timing!" Tomoyo said to Sakura.
"Konnichiwa. Huh?" Sakura asked, wondering what she meant.
"I couldn't help but notice that you're the perfect build and size and have the KAWAII-est features for my designs. Are you interested in being a model?" Tomoyo asked hopefully.
"Modeling?! Me?! You want me to be a model?" Sakura exclaimed, not believing her ears.
"Hai, don't you worry. You can keep this job but you'll only just have to spend an occasional weekend at my place to try on some outfits. And don't you worry, it pays very well." Tomoyo reassured her.
"But...But..." Sakura replied unsurely. She couldn't believe it.
"No buts. Here's my business card. Give me a call when you've made up your mind. It's been nice talking to you. Got to go, ja ne!" Tomoyo said as the elevator reached the ground floor.
"..."
- What on Earth just happened? Should I accept this job- Sakura asked herself softly as she looked at the card. - So she is a designer -
&---&---&
Still slightly taken back by the modeling offer, Sakura reached her house.
"I'm home! Naoko-chan, are you there?" Sakura said in a bright and cheery voice.
"Hi Sakura-chan, where have you been the whole day? I thought you were jobless? " Naoko asked, her head buried in a book.
"Naoko-chan, remember I had something to tell you yesterday? That thing is that I got a new job as a secretary in the Li's company." Sakura replied.
"Oh... Wait a minute! Did you say the Li's company!?" Naoko lifted her head and stared incredulously at Sakura.
"Yep. Why? What is the big deal?" Sakura asked wondering why Naoko reacted so strongly towards her announcement.
"Why?! Haven't you heard of the Li's company, my dear Sakura-chan? It's the largest company in the world with branches in America, China and practically the entire world!" Naoko exclaimed excitedly. "I can't believe you are working there! It is everyone's dream to work there!"
"Nani?! No wonder the building is so big!" Sakura exclaimed.
"I also heard that there are 2 bachelors working in that company and they are the most important people in the company. Everybody is hoping that they can be close to them as they have both the looks and money." Naoko said.
- Oh, no wonder there was such a long queue that time at the interview and the girls all dressed so skimpily. What they're interested in isn't the job but the man -
"Oh yeah, isn't that Eriol's company too? I heard that he is working there." Naoko recalled.
"Yup, and I'm his secretary! And he is one of the bachelors that you have mentioned!" Sakura said happily.
"Oh really? Then I guess it must be really hard on Eriol, since he has such an assistant." Naoko said jokingly. "Eh? Eriol is one of them? I didn't know that!"
"Hey! Anyway I can't believe it! I'm working in such a famous company! Then I guess I should turn down that girl's offer then." Sakura said thoughtfully.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Naoko asked curiously.
"Well, earlier in the office, there was a weird girl asking me if I wanted to model for her clothing. I told her I'd get back to her. This is her business card." Sakura explained. "But then I guess I should turn down the offer and concentrate fully on my job now."
Naoko took the business card and her eyes widened as she almost let out a squeal.
"Sakura-chan! It's the Tomoyo Daidouji! The most famous designer ever! I'm a fan of her clothes! Haven't you ever heard of her?" Naoko exclaimed loudly.
"Really?! No, I haven't heard of her. Is she that famous?!" Sakura asked. She couldn't believe it. First she was working in a famous company and next, she might be able to work as a model for the famous designer, Daidouji's clothes?
"Sakura-chan... Where have you been living these years? These names are all so famous! I can't believe you haven't heard of any of them. You'd better not quit your job nor turn down her offer! I can't believe how lucky you are!" Naoko warned Sakura.
"Ano... Naoko-chan..." Sakura said unsurely.
"Sakura-chan! This is a great chance for you to make a name for yourself." Naoko cut in.
"Fine. I'll call her then." Sakura was helpless against her friend.
Even as she picked up the phone, she couldn't help but wonder, why had Tomoyo wanted to see Syaoran.
End of Chapter 3Hehe... It isn't that much of a cliffhanger this time is it? Thanks for the reviews once again! Please remember to review our story.