By the time he got to his tutoring session with Kinomoto, he was frustrated beyond endurance.
"Do you know anyone with a pearl bracelet?" he asked her when he sat down.
Sakura looked startled but gave the thought serious consideration. "Several people," she replied. "Tomoyo had two, at least."
Feeling that this route wasn't going anywhere, he latched onto her more interesting comment. "You always talk about your friend Tomoyo, but I've never seen her. What happened? Did she move away?"
She stared at him, then at her homework, and he had the horrible feeling that she was about to cry. "Do you remember," she said in a very small voice, "I was out of school for a while? It was because Tomoyo died. And I saw it." She looked up at him, her green eyes sparkling with unshed tears, and tried to smile. It came out bitter and watery. "The funny thing is, she died because she followed me out at night. It was my fault."
He looked at the table, at his fingers as he played with his pencil. "My cousin has followed me everywhere since we were four. Eventually," he put his pencil down gently, "I gave up and just let her. Even if I told her to leave me alone, she didn't listen. Ever." He looked up and met her eyes again. "Would Tomoyo have listened if you'd told her to stay home?"
"Not unless I was mean," Sakura said, the tears falling steadily down her cheeks.
"I don't think you could be mean if you tried," he replied. It was true -- in the little time he'd known this girl, he'd never seen her be rude or petty.
"Thanks," she sniffled, laughing a little.
"It wasn't a compliment," he retorted, but he was smiling too.
When she saw him out, she remembered something. "I didn't see Meilin at school today. Is she ill?"
"She went home to Hong Kong yesterday afternoon." He saw her stunned expression. "You told me something hard, so I'll reciprocate. Meilin and I were engaged. I broke it off yesterday."
Sakura couldn't help the gasp that came out.
He shrugged. "I meant to for years but never had a good reason. Even when I had a reason, I didn't have the nerve."
"What was the reason?"
He gave her a small smile. "Private."
"Sorry." Abashed, she looked away. But she had an idea about his reason -- someone he'd been kissing a lot lately.
She realized how close they were, standing on either side of the doorframe. It was much closer than sitting across her livingroom table with books everywhere. She could feel a breeze on her face and turned into it, trying to cool her cheeks. She remembered how warm his arms were, how safe his chest, how soft his lips. It made her want to quiver, but she brutally supressed the emotion and kept her distance.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Kinomoto," he finally said.
She stood for a minute after he was gone, thinking silly thoughts, then turned and went inside.
I'll try to post all of the story before Saturday the 1st, so you may get many new chapters added on Friday. This is because my wedding is this weekend and my honeymoon is next week, and however much I want to get this all up for you guys . . .the honeymoon cabin doesn't have a computer.