Chapter Seven - Extra Ordinary Thing

A few months earlier

I parked my motorcycle, thinking about what she had just asked me to do.

The past month has been a crazy mess of just everything. It was far from the gasoline rainbow she had described, it was a combination of both of us wanting to get back together, then us not wanting to be together, to figuring out that it just couldn't work ever again, and then returning to step one.

She came up with this idea once to make sure I wouldn't become all crazy about her suddenly, because according to her, that's what got this mess started in the first place. Actually, I know I'm going crazy over her. Still, it was a strange idea, but an idea that seemed to be what she wanted. I mean, we've been long over - but I was willing to do it.

She was going to make me take pills that would erase our whole relationship from my memory. The ones she bought at Kyoto when I first met her. I would wake up and think that Sakura and I broke up the night before. I'd only remember Kaori from that one day I met her, and that would be it. She would've been that past tense friend that you meet and then they're forever gone from your life.

I was just hoping that this wasn't one of her sporadic impulses. I really didn't think those pills did anything either. They were just fool's gold, I was so sure of that.

Kaori arrived at my house at 8:30.

"It'll be like, well, we met that one day … but nothing came out of it." she said to me, her eyes showing some deep form of questioning. I'm sure she was just not sure anymore if this was the right thing to do.

"But Sakura and I split a long time ago. What will I think happened in that gap of time?" I asked. My fingers were tense. I was shaking.

"I don't know, Syaoran. Maybe it won't even matter. I mean, maybe you'll wake up and just think you guys just broke up. I don't know. Maybe all along, you'll think you were with Sakura." she responded. Uncertainty clouded her explanation.

"But I'll still remember you, I just don't remember us being together. I'll think I broke up with Sakura again … how will I know if I won't find you again?" I asked.

"Look at me Syaoran." she said, kneeling down right in front of me. For some reason, when I looked at her, I still had that feeling inside of me. Her eyes, still beautiful, glowed like raindrops bathing in an eternal sunshine. "Don't worry about it."

"I'm looking at you." I replied, taking a breath.

"Okay … so, do you want to do it?" she asked me, her head tilting to the side. "I mean, are you seriously willing to do this? I mean, maybe I'm just being impulsive again like you al-"

"Listen to me." I interrupted. "…I'll do it. I don't believe in this stuff, but if it makes you happy, then I'll do it."

"Okay, then lie down Syaoran." she said. She put a cup of tea next to me for me to swallow it down with. "If this all works out, well … you know what'll happen."

"You're not going to do it are you?" I asked her, getting on my back.

"Syaoran … yes, I probably am."

"Promise me something." I said as I held her hand. "Don't."

"Okay, I promise."

She was such a liar.

"Syaoran, close your eyes."

Okay.

One. Two. Three.

I can still remember her.

What am I doing?

If I forget about everything that happened between us two … then aren't I doomed to make the same mistakes again? Isn't this the same thing as killing off the Syaoran I had become while being with her?

They say that at the very moment before you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes. All the small bits and pieces of your life come racing from all directions only to explode in a rainbow of colors. For anyone, you would've expected them to see the billion and one different experiences they had lived through.

Well, in that case, I guess I was the exception.

I closed my eyes to the sight of wind chimes hanging from the ceiling, all to the melody of a music box that was missing one of its notes. Sakura loved that song so much.

Damn. What the hell am I doing.

It's the last time I'll be able to remember, and I'm thinking about someone else.

Kaori? Kaori?

You're so terribly impulsive, I swear.

Are you still there?

Why did I even agree to take that damn pill?

I don't think I remember our first date, or our first dinner.

Oh my god, Kaori it's actually working.

I don't want to forget you.

Kaori, I want to stop this.

I don't want to forget you.

And with that, I tried to hold onto that last image of her in my head. When I wake up, I won't remember anything about her. I'll think that I was with Sakura … that's what Kaori told me. All I have to do is think about Sakura. Right now. If I think about her, then I'll think that I just broke up with her. Or vice versa.

No, don't do that. Remember Kaori.

And then I saw it. Well, first I heard it - chimes. The ringing faded in and out of context, the sunlight shining down on my eyes. I was staring at those chimes as they swung like shadows hanging from a windowsill.

"Syaoran. I gave you so much time already. Look … Syaoran, I have to go. Just don't go and throw that box away like most guys would. Just promise me that much."

Sakura?

The box.

You put those wind chimes in there. You gave them back to me.

I kept them.

I kept my promise.

And with that thought in mind, I finally fell asleep.

---

I woke up on my couch, facing the ceiling. I looked around, wondering if someone was here. Nothing. Checking the floor, I found a cold cup of tea on the floor. I had been sleeping for awhile. Funny, I didn't remember falling asleep here.

And sitting in an empty apartment was something new to me.

I just wanted her to come running through that door again and jump onto the couch. It used to annoy me so much, but god, I would've done anything for her to do it again. Just the thought of her being here gave me so much comfort. Sakura.

The television became a box of moving images and I laid down on my couch staring at the ceiling. There were no stars this time, no dock. Just a white ceiling in front of me.

I turned off the tv, my tea still untouched on the floor. I took a deep sigh, wondering what I should do now. Life was so unscripted now. The weirdest part was that I felt like life was unscripted my entire life, but I guess you don't really know what that means until it really happens. That radical change that comes with your past two years being stored in an old shoebox.

I needed to get out of there. I had no reason to stay here anymore. I just needed some escape from that environment.

So, with a bag on my back, four sandwiches, and twenty four dollars, I jumped onto my motorcycle and drove far, far away. I always planned to come back, but I never did. I just kept going, the freedom of a paved highway having consumed whatever had been on my mind earlier.

And I really don't know why I didn't come back. Really, I guess it was just an impulse. Kind of like, when you see something one day and you know you just want it. I saw a movie once about a guy who traveled around South America with his best friend on a motorcycle and decided that he needed to change the world. Maybe I just craved that kind of adventure and used this as the perfect reason to start doing so.

Or maybe I was so desperate to change my life after losing her that I needed to take this giant leap of faith of something. I don't know. Something was calling me at the other end of this highway.

I was a hundred miles away, soaring with the wind racing behind me.

To be continued

Author's Note: Because I know this chapter will confuse somebody, basically, this whole chapter happened before Syaoran ran off in chapter one. Now, if you're still confused as to what happened, read it again! And don't forget to review! It makes my day when I check my e-mail and get review alerts.