Hello readers! Just as I promised here's the 15th chapter. I didn't sleep last night just so I can finish this chapter. I know you hate cliff hangers so I'm doing my best to appease you.
Title: Remember me?
Author: sapphire-Lady-of-the-night
Chapter15: I don't have to remember
She had fainted right there in front of Yelan and everyone, Tomoyo told her. She also said that Syaoran witnessed everything. Does he remember now? What do I care? I don't give a damn if he remembers or not. I'm going to forget him. I'm going to forget him completely just like what he did to me.
It's not his fault he forgot you…
Hello! He remembered everything except me!
He forgot about Japan too!
Well that's because his stay in Japan is connected to me! Duh!
Why are you blaming him now?
…
The question echoed in her mind. She can't answer it. But her thoughts were broken by a knock on the door.
"Come in" Sakura said sitting up.
The door opened to reveal her boarder, Eriol. He was bringing a basin and a face towel.
"Hey how are you feeling?" He asked.
"My head still aches." Sakura muttered.
Eriol smiled. "Course it still does! You've soaked in the rain!"
"Is Tomoyo alright?" Sakura asked remembering she had soaked with her.
"Yes… fortunately she's fine." He smiled again sitting down on a chair beside her bed.
"She told me that… you're already…" Sakura faltered.
"So she you finally told you huh?" Eriol smirked.
"So how did you ask her?" Sakura asked.
"Well…" He grinned. "I caught a video of it if you want!"
"Really? How'd you do that?" Sakura frowned.
"Well I placed the camera on a tree and then waited for Tomoyo to come to school." He grinned. "If you remember I was there the moment you walk in the school gate."
"Oh! So that's why you're so early!" Sakura couldn't help but smile. "So you were that sure she'd say yes for you to plan it like that?" Sakura asked.
"Well I made sure of it! I've been waiting patiently."
"Don't play with her Eriol" Sakura eyed him seriously.
"I'll have to deal with myself, Tomoyo and you if I'd do that." He grinned.
"Good thing, you know!" Sakura grinned but almost immediately winced.
"Lie back. You need as much sleep as you can get." Eriol said. Sakura smiled at him gratefully.
"Hey I still have to watch that video!"
"Don't ya worry I won't throw the tape away!" Eriol smiled.
"You better not!" Sakura said lying down.
Eriol noticed box beside the bed.
"What's this" he asked.
"Oh that! I forgot I'm going to throw that today." She yawned and almost immediately fell asleep as her head touched the pillow again.
Eriol placed the wet face towel on her forehead.
"Rest for a while Sakura… while you can." He looked at her sadly. He got something from his pocket and placed it on the bedside table. It was his recorder. He pushed the play button. The music Sakura produced with her violin floated in the air.
He got up and went towards the door to open it but before he can the knob turned. Eriol stepped aside for the person to get inside. The opened door revealed Syaoran and Tomoyo.
It seemed that they were arguing. Eriol's gaze darted from Tomoyo to Syaoran. Eriol guessed Tomoyo was preventing Syaoran from getting in. Eriol gave Tomoyo a reassuring look. She sighed and walked down the stairs.
They stood there face to face. Neither of them spoke. Eriol could see pain in the other man's eyes. Syaoran's eyes went towards the sleeping form of Sakura.
"She just fell asleep, don't wake her" He muttered as he passed him. Eriol followed Tomoyo and went downstairs.
Syaoran stood there alone in the doorway. Slowly he walked towards her. He could hear the music playing on the tape. He dropped to the seat Eriol must have occupied a while ago. He sat there studying her. Her thick lashes fanned her cheeks. He reached to trace one perfect eyebrow. Then as if he was burned he took his hand his away.
He heard everything she said. He perfectly recalled her words that stung him so much.
" I just wanted to tell you... that from now on I won't be crying over him. Because I don't love him anymore! He completely forgot about me and I will forget him!"
"I don't love him...anymore"
He confronted his mother then and there after the whole scene. Eriol who just arrived right after Sakura fainted helped Tomoyo, carry Sakura inside. He was so angry to finally know that Sakura was his girlfriend and they never mentioned a thing about her when he recovered from the accident.
Even before his mother told him everything, there was a dull ache in his chest when he saw Sakura cry there under the rain… when he heard her words… The dull ache worsened when his mother told him about his past with Sakura. God! How she must have suffered!
The music stopped. Silence reigned in the room now. His gaze fell to the box beside the bed. He opened it and found photo albums. He picked one. Just as he was going to open it he heard Eriol's recorded voice.
"You're going to be sick if you continue to be like that"
Sakura's reply came next.
"I'm already sick inside Eriol. Not physically maybe, but emotionally I am. I'm very sick, there's no cure for it."
"Actually there is. If you'll only permit yourself to be healed then you will be"
"Perhaps I don't want to be cured."
"You think he'll love you if you continue to be like that? Do you think that will solve your problem?"
Her answer made Syaoran clench his hands. He could hear the pain and the tears in her voice.
"… No… still… it hurts so much… so mu-"
"Do you want to talk about it? There's a certain relief in talking you know"
"I don't want to trouble you with my problem."
"You already have."
"It's a long story…"
"We have all night"
He heard Sakura's sigh and then the story followed…
"When I was four his— Syaoran's family migrated here in Japan."
That long? His stay in Japan was that long? How come he didn't remember it?
He opened the album and saw the pictures that made him tremble. He saw the pictures of his childhood… with this girl… this precious girl in front of him.
"We became friends, although… not right away."
Syaoran smiled at a picture which showed Sakura and him standing outside the house he was currently in.
"He rejected the friendship I offered… and I was starting to hate him."
Is that how she is feeling now? Starting to hate me? Or worse she already hates me…
What Eriol said next was very true... until these last few days…
"Somehow I couldn't imagine you hating somebody. You always seem to be lacking in strength to hate somebody."
Sakura's answer made him smile.
"Iie…I do hate, I just don't show it… anyway unexpectedly he managed to banish my growing hate for him. I was being bullied in school and Touya wasn't there to protect me, Tomoyo had not yet arrived, then he came to my rescue. He fought the bully and when he was finished the bully was trembling hard with fear."
The momentary smile on his face sled off on her next words.
"Since then we were always together… eventually we fell in love… those days were my happiest… but then came the day when everything changed. He was going back to Hong Kong for vacation with his family… there he had an accident… that turned my world upside down. He forgot about me, about Japan."
Upside down indeed. Why didn't they tell him Dammit!
"Why don't you tell him about yourself?"
"His mother made me promise that I wouldn't tell him anything. She said forcing the memory back might harm him…"
Syaoran gritted his teeth. He knew his mother was just doing what she thought was right. But dammit her over protectiveness is just too much! It's choking!
"So he fell in love with another girl, and you'll continue like this forever?"
He waited for Sakaura's answer but there was just a pause then the recorder clicked. He never heard her answer.
"So I guess you'll not continue... I cannot blame you and I won't ask you to if that'll only hurt you more." He whispered.
His gaze went back to the album in his hand. He flipped through it. All pictures showed another life he had beside the one he had in Hong Kong. Most of the pictures when he was younger showed that he was scowling most of the time. But Sakura was always by his side with that cheery smile of hers.
One particular picture showed him in a school uniform in front of a school he recognized as a neighboring one near this place. He was scowling and Sakura was clutching his hand. Meilin was frowning at Sakura while Tomoyo held Meilin's hand.
He smiled at the picture. Another showed he was in a festival. Sakura was wearing a Kimono. They were around ten years old. They were standing in front of a booth. Sakura was holding a big teddy bear and he was holding a toy gun. It seemed that it was a prize he won from the shooting booth that was behind them.
There was another picture that was taken on the same day. They were still in the festival but this time there was a tall guy with black hair, glaring at him. He frowned. Who could this guy be? Maybe this is Sakura's Oni-san.
But among all pictures there was one that really caught his attention, the one picture that made him drop the album.
The picture was taken in the cherry blossom circle and there staring up at him was the couple he saw in his dreams. So it was them…
He looked up and stared at the sleeping girl right in front of him.
All this time…
She had suffered so long…
He remembered the pained look he always notices in her eyes, the longing that was forever present…
He sighed.
All this time he was the reason…
The way she stared at him in the plane made since now… the tears that flowed from her eyes there in the cherry blossom circle… it all made sense now… The time when she kissed him at school…
It made sense why he felt something strong towards her the first time he met her scratch that the first time he met her after the accident. Yes they had a past… but will they have a future?
He closed his eyes… why can't he remember?
Why did he forget her?
Why?
He opened his eyes and saw emerald ones staring at him.
So here we are, we are alone
They stared at each other.
This weight on your mind
Her eyes held emotions like they want to say something…
I wanna know, The truth
Yet her eyes held hostility
If this is how you feel
"I don't love him...anymore"
Say it to me
He didn't know why it hurt him so, to hear her say those words to his mother.
If this was ever real
Everything happened so quickly he was finding it hard to believe that this was real, if he didn't know any better he would say that this some sort of joke his mother cooked for him. But his mother was most unlikely to do that sort of thing.
I want the truth from you
Give me the truth even if it hurts me…
"Gomen…" Syaoran wanted to say everything that's on his mind but sorry was all he was able to force out of his throat.
Sakura smiled ruefully. "So Tomoyo said you witnessed my outburst."
"Yes…" Syaoran answered looking at her sadly.
"So now you know the answers to your questions I suppose." Sakura said evenly.
"No." Syaoran said. "some questions maybe, but there are still questions that are left unanswered."
"And those are?" Sakura arched an eyebrow.
"Will you answer them if I ask them to you?" Syaoran said grimly.
"I'll answer what I can." Sakura said coldly. His question however caught her completely off guard.
"Will you be my friend again?" Syaoran said. "I know I have no right to ask you after all what happened… still…"
Sakura's lips trembled.
"What will my friendship mean to you?" Sakura said spitefully. "I am nothing more than a neighbor to you right? Why don't you ask Kari instead! She means the world to you right? No don't answer that I don't care who means the world to you… anymore."
Syaoran was silent for a minute. When he finally spoke his voice was soft.
"I cannot blame you for feeling that way. When I asked or rather forced out the truth from my mother, I wondered why I failed to remember you of all the people. I had a life in Hong Kong without any knowledge of you and even when I finally met you I still failed to remember.
"So I cannot really blame you if you hate me now. I can understand if you'll throw my offer of friendship away…just like what I did so many years ago. "
At the look of surprise on Sakura's face he shook his head.
"No unfortunately I still don't remember a thing. I heard from the tape recorder." He said gesturing at the tape recorder on the bedside table.
"So I ask you once again… will you be my friend?"
"Answer my question first. What will friendship mean to you?"
"Do you know that you make me smile Sakura? Do you know that most of the time I think of you? Do you know that you haunt my dreams and even when I'm not dreaming your eyes still haunt me?" He said preferring to call her by her first name now.
Sakura's eyes widened.
"I may not remember my past with you, but I don't need to remember to know that you are a very special person. You do something to me Sakura… and I don't want to loose a person such as you." Syaoran answered. "Dakara… your friendship means a lot to me, it means my peace of mind, my smile… and possibly the air that I breathe into my lungs."
Sakura was silent for a while. She stared at him and Syaoran couldn't read her expression.
"I…don't know Li." She answered still not calling him Syaoran despite what Syaoran told her about calling him by his first name.
"I understand." Syaoran said grimly. "I don't want to force myself on you… but know I won't give up on you." Syaoran said standing up.
"Well I guess I'll have to leave you to rest." He said walking towards the door.
Sakura laid back on the bed, a small smile on her lips. She heard the door close.
You're happy…
No I'm not!
There's no sense denying it you can't fool yourself!
I'm not denying anything. He has not remembered me still.
Didn't you hear him? He doesn't have to remember to know that you are special.
I don't want to jump again. No not again!
We'll see
Yes, we'll see…
"I may not remember my past with you, but I don't need to remember to know that you are a very special person"
His words remained in her head as she fell into another slumber.
Dakara- So
A.N. Sigh! I finally finished the chapter but not yet the story. Do you feel the story ending? Does it seem ending to you? Would you have guessed that it's already ending if I haven't told you? Well review please and answer my questions please!