A/N: Thanks for all the reviewers! Please review again…

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Chapter 2: The Bully

So it was time to go our separate ways now. The game was over. I beat her. I got to know that she is Touya's sister. It's time for me to leave but I don't want to yet.

Sakura turned to go but I stopped her. "Wait," I called and grabbed her hand. She was looking at me, confused. "Why don't you want me to be nice to you?"

She thought about it for a moment then opened her mouth to speak up. "Because I want to be mean to you," she replied. "If you will be nice to me, there will be no fun being mean to you."

I laughed at her answer and she glared at me. "That is so childish," I said to her. "But as I said, fine! Nothing will change."

She smiled at that and kept walking towards the parking lot. I stayed at the field for a while and practiced soccer for a bit more. I saw Sakura's car passed by the field but I did not get a glimpse of her being in the car.

Why do I care anyway? She probably does not live with her brother. Touya's team is on a tour around Japan right now, competing with other teams. Man, I wonder if she ever mentions me to her brother. Not that I want to be proven important to her.

But c'mon! I tease her around so much and who will a little sister turn to? Of course, her brother! I had just ruined my name to my idol.

I feel good beating Sakura in a way. And to think, she had learned from the best. Maybe she had let me win but I don't think so. She looked so tired while we were playing and I had to admit—that was my advantage.

I wonder why she's tired.

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"Not again," I groaned sitting up from my bed. It was 11 o' clock in the evening and the phone in my room was ringing. Dad probably had gone back to work by now. "Onii-chan?" I said, answering the phone.

"It's Li," the caller said. How did he know my number? "Your brother calls you this late?"

"Sometimes, later than this time," I yawned and stretched a bit. "Why did you call?"

"To tell you that we got in the fashion show thing and photo-shoots start at 5 in the morning tomorrow—rooftop of the building," he said.

I gasped. I was finally awake now. "Dude! It's 11 in the evening!" I shouted. "You're telling me that I only have five hours of sleep?"

"Yes," he answered calmly.

"Why so early?" I asked. "It's a fashion show. No one will watch it early in the morning."

"We're not having the fashion show yet," he said. "We need more photos for posters and all those crap before the show. The actual show would be on Wednesday."

"Wednesday is a weekday!"

"And?"

"What about homework?"

"You'll manage, Kinomoto," he said softly. "I'm in this too. You're not alone."

"Glad to hear that," I said, smiling. Syaoran would be sleeping late like me. He would suffer like me. He would be so sleepy the next day like me. He probably would be in detention unlike me. I laughed inside.

"That's all I want to say," he said. "Sorry for waking you up, by the way. The staff was too shy to call you so they asked me."

"Yeah whatever," I replied and yawned once again. "Good night."

"Sweet dreams!"

I hung up.

Syaoran Li just called me in the middle of the night. Wow. Wait, that's being nice! And he said he's not going to be nice to me. I don't want him to be nice to me. Who knows I might fall for him and then I'll get hurt.

Yes I know, it is part of life but I don't like getting hurt. I hate it.

It took a while for me to get back to sleep but I dozed off anyway thinking of the one and only Syaoran Li.

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She is late. The staff is now thinking that I chickened out and did not call her last night. Where is she?

The director was approaching me again and I bet he would ask me where Sakura is and I would have the same answer again: I don't know.

Before I got more frustrated from waiting, Sakura came. Her hair was a pretty mess but she still looked nice. She was panting when she had reached the set.

"Sorry I'm late!" she said loudly for everyone to hear. Everyone muttered "it's ok" then started fixing her up.

It was that time that I noticed that her make-up artists were not putting so much make-up on her. They did not even put lipstick on her lips. It was really quick.

When everything was set up, we were told to pose and act "sweet". We hesitated for a while but then did it anyway. A flashing word composed of three letters appeared on my mind: J-O-B.

I realized that the director was after the sunrise. The sunrise was our background and most of the shots were taken when we were acting like we were about to kiss. We had not talked yet at all during the photo-shoot. We just improvised and played along with what the other was doing.

After an hour, the sun was up the sky and everyone was admiring how beautiful it was. We had two breaks and in neither of those, I didn't have the chance to talk to Sakura. It was not like I need to talk to her anyhow.

The sun was not too bright and not too hot which was good. Maybe I could play soccer later or maybe I can just work out or jog around the park.

After another thirty minutes, the photo-shoot was done. We changed from numerous outfits to another and it was totally tiring. Maybe I can slash the soccer and the jogging now.

Sakura changed back to the clothes she was wearing when she came.

I fought the urge to talk to her but I could not help it. We were both going at the same direction: to the elevator. The whole staff was left behind fixing things up and we both went ahead of them so we were the only ones in the elevator.

She smiled at me when she had seen me get in the elevator but she never spoke up. I saw her yawn from time to time and I couldn't help myself from smiling.

"Not much sleep huh?" I finally said.

She looked at me and I noticed her tired eyes. "Touya called tow hours after you called," she replied then yawned softly again. She covered her mouth while doing so. "He talked about the dinner their team had and I had no choice but to listen."

"He loves you huh?" The question turned out so stupid. Why do I always look stupid in front of Sakura? Good thing she didn't regard it as stupid.

"Well, I love him," she replied. "He's my brother. Li, I will really appreciate it if you don't tell anyone else about him and me."

"You can trust me," I assured her.

The elevator beeped and opened for us. Lobby. We are going again at the same direction. Again.

It seemed like Sakura was heading to the canteen of the building. She didn't have breakfast as well?

Sakura turned towards my direction when she realized that I was following her.

"You're going to eat too?" she asked me. I nodded. "Cool."

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"Can I sit with you?" Syaoran said, holding a tray with a sandwich and a hot chocolate on it. I nodded, taking a sip from my own hot chocolate.

We didn't talk for a while but instead minded our own business filling up our bellies. We were the only ones at the canteen. It was a pretty huge place with many tables and chairs. The executives who do not have time to go to their home during lunch breaks eat here. Models eat here too. It was seven-thirty in the morning and commonly, the office people would just be coming by this time.

I don't know why but Syaoran had just spilled his hot chocolate on the table. He was fast enough to stand up so none would go to his clothes.

I laughed at him and he just simply glared at me. He walked up all the way to the counter to get tissue paper. When he was gone, I saw a bunch of male models coming in.

The motorcycle models. The hardcore. All their eyes were on me as soon as they entered. It was obvious that they were not expecting someone at the canteen so early. Maybe they didn't know that the boss of the company was there too because they confidently approached me. Like they always do.

"Good morning, Kinomoto!" Akira said—the "most handsome" among them all. "You're early. I heard you joined the upcoming fashion show?"

"What is it to you?" I said, not looking at him.

"Well, I'll be watching," he said, smirking. "That is—if you win with the photos that would be submitted. So… how's school going?" he asked casually. He knows about my scholarship in Seijuu High School and he does not know about Touya.

"School's ok," I answered.

"What about your grades? I heard that if you get C's, you'll lose your scholarship. Boohoo, Kinomoto. No more education for her. She would just model as long as this company thinks she has the shine."

"And that would be forever," I heard Syaoran's voice from behind me. Akira and his friends were surprised to see him. "This company would be hiring Kinomoto as long as there are clothes for her to model."

"Good Morning, Mr. Li!" Akira greeted. "How nice of you to save this little girl from bullies."

I glared at Akira and was about to say something but Syaoran cut me off. "Did you say 'bullies'?" Syaoran said. "Excuse me, Mr. Horibashi, but I don't have to save this little girl from any bullies. In the first place, you are not bullying her because I am the only one who can bully her around. Understand?"

I saw Akira glare at Syaoran for a moment then forced a fake smile. "Of course, Mr. Li," Akira said. "So long now, Kinomoto!" He bowed his head towards Syaoran and left us to go buy something from the counter.

I watched Syaoran wipe the chocolate spill on the table and finished up my own while doing so.

He's being too nice. Seriously. I can't take this. I need to stay away from him as much as possible. If this is a little game of his, I'm losing.

I had lost my control the moment I had lost the soccer game yesterday. I could not just ignore him. I could not just counterattack his insults at me because he hadn't insulted me yet.

So far, he had been utterly nice.

Super nice.

Way nice.

Too nice.

So nice.

All equal to an opposite Syaoran that I had known of since forever!

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"No, you can't just leave!" I told Sakura as she was going out of the building after we had eaten our breakfast.

"Why not?" she asked.

"We have another photo-shoot by 9!" I said.

She had not spoken to me about the male models and what's her relationship to them or whatever. She hadn't at least thanked me yet.

"I'm sick of it!" she blurted out which appeared as a surprise to me and herself.

"What!" I said exasperatedly. "Kinomoto, you know you can't quit. What are you saying? What is up with you?"

Everyone in the lobby was looking at us so I decided to drag Sakura to a corner near the bathrooms.

"Let me go! What are you doing?" she said to me.

"Trying to figure out what's up with you," I answered. "Ok, so you came late for the 5 o' clock photo-shoot. Those models came teasing you then you just left when we're starting to get along?"

"We never had gotten along."

Well, it seems to me that we did.

"I told you that you knowing that I'm Touya's sister would change everything," she said. "Just look at you! You didn't scold me for being late. You played along and didn't complain during the "sweet" photo-shoot. You didn't command me to get you some tissue paper. You made the rude models walk away! That's not you, Syaoran."

"Who am I to you then?"

"Someone who teases me around and thinks that I am nothing more than someone you can step on," she replied quickly. "And besides, you said you won't be nice to me! You said nothing will change. Too bad Syaoran, it seems like you're going against what you said."

I didn't want to reply on that so when she walked away, I didn't call her back.

She was right. I am going against my words. I'm being nice to her. But it's not like I'm always mean to her. Sometimes, I leave her be and ignore her.

But something in me just makes me be nice to her. And you can't blame me. She can't blame me. I had won against her. For the first time. A sweet victory. And I think I deserve a prize: make her fall in love with me. That will be a sweeter victory.

And come to think of it, she's having mood swings. Must be her monthly thing. Girls.

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A/N: To be continued… Please review!