GOING ALL OUT!
Chapter 3
Third note to self:
Returning favors can be a gift of God if it's for a special someone...
Or a curse from hell if it's for a man named Daisuke
A month ago...
"When in front of a client, don't forget to smile. Even if she's being difficult."
"Got it."
"Give 'em that hot wink we practiced earlier. The girls will really love that. I'm a guy, but even I melted when you did that. Haha."
"Oh God..."
"And oh! Right... I know you're a woman magnet and all, but I hope you don't forget that there's always a thin line between a host and his client."
"Daisuke..."
"You can't bring your clients home. And you are definitely not allowed to have se—"
"Daisuke!" Syaoran finally shouted, rubbing his temples. "What kind of person do you think I am?"
"A gigolo?"
"I won't do that!"
The man with the shoulder length blonde hair in a low ponytail and a suit unbuttoned up to near his chest shrugged and nonchalantly returned to waxing Syaoran's hair. "Maybe not now. But you used to play around a lot. I'm just worried for our customers."
"God... Are you serious? That was all in the past! When I was a little bit... not myself..." Syaoran then walked to the standing mirror in the dressing room and turned red as he stared at a reflection of his unkempt look while wearing a black ribbon tie and a pair of black pants. "And what the hell's with this 'uniform'? Why do I have to be freaking shirtless?"
"Didn't you see all the other guys out here? Everyone's dressed like that."
"This is what you call dressed?"
"Last time, I looked, yes."
Syaoran folded his arms. "Then why aren't you dressed like this?"
"Uh, duh? I'm the manager," Daisuke said it matter-of-factly. "Anyway, you got good abs. And you should share those good-looking abs."
The shirtless guy pulled his face. "Oh, God... Why do I feel a bit disgusted hearing this from you..."
"I'm just stating facts," his friend teased with a smirk.
"Can't I just take the bartender job?"
Daisuke raised an eyebrow. "Why the bartender?"
"So I could at least hide behind the counter."
"Right," he snorted. "You'll still be shirtless either way. And stop complaining. You won't have to worry since I haven't told anyone your real name. And it's only for one night. This job is basically your punishment for flirting with my ex, and you returning the favor since I forgave you."
"Hey! She was the one who came on to me. And I was drunk!" Syaoran griped. He remembered the night after a tiring day from work when he and Eriol were invited to hang out with Daisuke, who was their old friend from the same university. Syaoran thought they were going to spend the night with just the three of them until he saw a girl sitting right next to Daisuke when he and Eriol arrived to the bar together. He apparently overdid himself and got too drunk, so he decided to go out for a bit for some fresh air. Unbeknownst to him, the girl followed far behind him with intentions he never expected.
He thought she was loyal to Daisuke with the way she praised her boyfriend and acted all cuddly with him while they were having drinks inside. But his opinion of her changed when he was brought out of his drunken state with a forced kiss on the lips. He only realized that his lips were already being 'sexually harrassed' after a drunk and wobbly Daisuke caught on to them, unfortunately. Daisuke was supposed to slap the girl in his anger, but rather than slapping the girl, his wobbly feet caused him to slip and accidentally land a heavy hand on Syaoran's face instead.
Daisuke and his girlfriend broke up the next day.
"Why am I getting punished again for something I didn't even do?" Syaoran kept complaining as he was being pushed by Daisuke towards the door. "What you did to my face was already enough. And it hasn't even fully healed yet!"
"I already put enough makeup to cover it. And it's not just about my ex. I'm also punishing you for your God-given looks."
"What?!"
The door opened, and Daisuke gestured his hand to the exit. "Ready to shine, Mr. Host?"
Syaoran rolled his eyes and groaned. "Let's just get this over with."
"Crap. I don't think I can keep doing this," Syaoran muttered darkly as he was hiding in the corner of the backroom. He couldn't help but cringe as he remembered all the fake smiles and forced 'seductive' gestures he had to make for the sake of his cursed job.
The blonde manager crouched down to his level. "C'mon, man. You're doing a pretty good job for your first time. Girls are starting to pour in after word of the appearance of a mysterious nameless host!"
"That doesn't really make me feel any better," Syaoran said surly. "And by the way, mind telling me why he is here?" He pointed at the tall man with dark-blue hair, a pair of silver-framed spectacles atop his handsomely sharp nose, and a black tailored business suit standing on the other corner of the room.
Daisuke guiltily scratched his head. "Uh... about that..."
"In exchange for letting you off early from work today, I asked Daisuke to let me take a peak of the new you," Eriol answered instead with a good-natured smile. "And that was a pretty cute 'sexy' dance, Syaoran. Your client looked very satisfied," he teasingly said, followed after with a soft laugh.
Syaoran grumbled. "So you were watching..."
"Of course. It was good entertainment." Eriol approached Syaoran and fixed the black bowtie around his neck. "You were a natural, by the way. You sure you don't want this as a part-time job?"
He clicked his tongue. "Bastard."
"I think you're forgetting that I'm your boss."
"Before you became my boss, you're originally my friend, you traitor," Syaoran made a quick retort. He couldn't believe Eriol made a deal with Daisuke behind his back.
Eriol smiled smugly at him and shrugged. "Good point."
"Daisuke-san?" One of the half-naked hosts peeked into the room. "A new group of ladies requested the service of mister 'anon'."
"'Anon'?" Syaoran asked Daisuke.
"'Anonymous'. He's referring to you. You're a nameless host, remember?"
Eriol made a low whistle. "Wow. You're becoming quite popular."
Syaoran felt more irritated after seeing Eriol's conceited smile. "You better make sure no word of my name AND this night goes out."
"Hey, ladies," Syaoran greeted with another forced yet lovely smile as he was approaching his new clients. His jaw was definitely going to cramp from smiling all night. "How are you all doing?"
"Oh my gosh. Look at 'em muscles!"
"Looks like the ad's true! He's totally hot!"
A few drops of sweat fell from Syaoran's forehead after overhearing the girls' embarrassing mutters and giggles.
'What ad are they talking about?' he suddenly thought as he took a seat with them.
"So, mystery man, how should I and my friends call you?" the long brown-haired lady asked him. She looked like the leader of their group with that amorous but intimidating stare. "We were told you don't bear any name."
"You can call me any way you want, miss—"
"Just call me Nakuru," she winked.
"Then, Nakuru-san," he greeted with a smile.
The other girls shrieked as they watched him giving Nakuru a gentle kiss on the hand.
Chiharu, another girl in the group with brown hair in a side-ponytail, sat next to him. "Anon-san!—is it okay to call you that? I heard the other hosts refer to you that way—is it true what they said in the ad? That you'll only be here today?"
"I'm sorry... Ad?"
"Akizuki-san saw it in the shop's FaceLook page a few days ago. Something about a special limited-time service."
"I... I see." Syaoran could feel his veins popping in his fury as he was putting up a smile. "I didn't know they already put up an advertisement about me. No wonder I'm seeing so many beautiful ladies today," he said, eyeing the shop's manager across the bar with a sarcastic grin.
Daisuke felt shivers run down his spine as his back was being stared at.
"We were pretty excited when we saw the ad," another one of the girls said. "It said a lot of cute things about tonight's mystery host."
"We've been wondering how he'd look like until we saw you. Who knew the description would actually be so on point!"
"Oh, right! Please take these chocolates!" one of the girls handed Syaoran a cute blue paperbag embellished with ribbons.
Though confused, he still accepted the gift. But he wondered what might have brought them to give him such a thing when it wasn't even Valentine's. Plus, they were in a club. Was it normal for clients to give hosts chocolates out of the blue?
"The ad says you love them."
"O-Oh, the ad did? ...What a wonderful surprise." He gave the club manager yet another killing glare before returning to face the girls with a gentle smile. "Right. Thanks for this, beautiful."
Syaoran didn't really want to know what else the ad said about him, but he was a little curious as to what it could be after hearing the girls' comments. "So what else did that 'ad' say that about me? I'm quite intrigued... Could you maybe let me in on the rest of the details?" he pretended to flirt, inching his face closer to Chiharu.
"O-Oh! Um... sure..." Chiharu, blushing, nervously took out her phone and searched for the shop's page in FaceLook. She later handed him her phone to show him the actual post. "This here's the ad," she said, pointing at the picture.
Sounds of bones cracking floated in the air.
'What the fu—'
Syaoran could barely crush the phone in his hand as he was reading the supposed description of the mystery host, a.k.a. HIM.
Have a whole new experience with our special Mystery Host!
Only available this coming Friday from 4PM to 12AM
Feast your eyes in a whole new definition of "handsomely manly". His tantalizing eyes and gorgeous smile will make you melt in just one fell swoop!
Let your gazes fall into an infinite whirlpool of "hot" when you meet his face... and his bodeh...
He shivered as he read the first part of the ad. It was hard to tell if Daisuke was able to write that ad because of his own attraction towards his abs or maybe he was just too stupidly creative to even come up with such ridiculous phrases.
He surely hoped it was the latter.
He was starting to feel nervous about how more ridiculous the next part would be, but he decided to push himself and read some more.
About our special host of the night:
He loves chocolates.
He has a gentle (and flirtatious) character.
The deep color of his eyes will take you in completely.
He oozes a lot of manly pheromones.
He knows everything that has got to do with 'tanned scrumptious meat'.
'Tanned scrumptious meat? He couldn't be referring to my...' Syaoran pinched his nose in his frustration. 'I can't bear to read any more of this crap.'
"Anon-san? Are you okay?" Chiharu asked him worriedly. The disgust on his face must have started to show already.
Syaoran forced out a laugh before quickly returning the phone to her. "Please take it back. I think I've had enough internet for today."
Everything he read was just absolutely cringe-worthy. He wasn't sure if he still had enough patience and self-control to read the rest of what was written in the image post.
"So, is it true, anon-san?" asked Chiharu.
He tried to recompose himself and smiled. "What is?"
Nakuru inched a bit forward to him with a playful grin. "The girls and I were just recently chatting about the last part of the ad. About your 'active sex life'." And she smiled teasingly. "Must be fun."
The chestnut-haired man fell silent.
He let out a very suppressed and dry laugh. "I wonder about that." His smile slowly cracked as a grim thought appeared in his head.
'Daisuke... I swear I'm going to murder you.'
Wanting to divert their attention to something else other than his overly-sexualized body and his sex life, he finally decided to ask, "So, anyway, what would you girls like to drink?"
"Sakura's taking a bit long..."
Syaoran heard Chiharu say as he was returning to the girls' table with a tray of their drinks.
'Sakura?'
He handed each one of the girls a glass half-filled with ice and began to pour wine into each one of them as the sound of the name kept repeating in his head. He knew only one girl named 'Sakura' in his life so far, and he was confident that she definitely wouldn't be the same person the group of girls were talking about. After all, the 'Sakura' he knew wasn't the sort of person to come visit a place like Mucho Macho.
—Or at least, that was what he thought of her.
"Maybe I should go look for her?" the brunette with short and wavy hair looked worried.
"Don't worry, Sasaki-san. She'll be back soon," Nakuru said. "I'm sure it was her brother who called. He's probably taking his time lecturing her. He's got quite the sister complex, in a way."
"Speaking of Sakura, she's coming over right now!" Chiharu exclaimed excitingly when she saw her friend walking back to their table.
"Oh." Nakuru gently shoved Syaoran's hand when he was about to fill the last glass with wine. "Please don't fill this glass. That girl's brother will kill me if I let her drink in a place like this."
"I... I see." Syaoran was starting to feel a little similarity between this Sakura and the Sakura he knew. Back in the days, he used to overhear Sakura complaining to Tomoyo in the classroom about her protective brother. "Would some juice suffice?"
"Yes, that will do."
He smiled. "Got it."
And at the moment he turned his head, both he and the girl named 'Sakura' immediately froze upon first glance. At a single glance, he found a similarity in the way she looked. That auburn hair, those emerald eyes, and that same shy look on her face. She could have been a different person, but no. Everything about her looked and felt all too familiar.
When he finally realized that his eyes were definitely not deceiving him, he became completely startled, and more so horrified, at the thought that someone he personally knew came and saw him in the most embarrassing night of his life.
Unless—
...She forgot about him...
"Li-ku—"
'Okay. Crap. She remembers!'
"So you're the lovely lady your friends call 'Sakura'!"
He had to cut her off. He wouldn't dare let her say the rest of his name.
"Glad you're here to join us, hime-chan~"
"E-Eh?"
The auburn-haired girl later fell into an awkward laugh as she found her seat beside her short wavy-haired friend. She probably noticed the tone in his voice, and how much he wanted to stop her from saying anything unnecessary. She brought her head down, obviously doing her best to avoid his gaze.
'Why'd she have to be here...' he later grumbled in his thoughts as he was pretending to enjoy the drinks with the other girls. He wasn't only annoyed that someone who knew him had to appear in the worst time. He was also startled to see her in that kind of place, and wondered if the seemingly innocent-faced girl he had known in the past actually became interested in such a thing.
But despite feeling unsettled in his current situation, he couldn't help but tilt the corner of his lips into a small smile. Her hair was longer, he noticed, being that it finally grew beyond her shoulders, just a little above her chest. Her bangs weren't too long and were also neatly swept to the side, enough to show the beauty of her eyes. Back in middle school, she would always sport that short hairstyle with thick full bangs. Surprisingly, when he met her in the same high school, she also retained the same hairstyle. Not that he didn't like it. It was also cute before.
'But she looks so much prettier now...'
Suddenly, he was reminded of the situation he was in. He may have managed to stop her from saying his name, but he still had another problem to take care of. He needed to find a way to make sure she would never spill out anything about their chance meeting and, most especially, his very presence in that obnoxiously muscle-filled den in the middle of the red light district.
If anyone from his family found out about that night, he couldn't imagine the worst that could become of him. He was already disowned in the middle of his college life after his endless rebellions against his family's hopes and future plans for him. But it never meant he was off the Li family's radar. Any trouble he'd create could still stain the Li name and their large-scale business. And should that time come, he would hate to be summoned by his family again.
His head started to sweat, thinking of a proper way to explain his situation and coax Sakura from spouting anything about seeing him that night. And when he saw her stand and overheard her saying that she was going to the comfort room, he just knew that it was possibly the best time to go and confront her. But he was nervous. And blood was rushing into his head. It had been so long since they had a proper conversation. It would be fine if she was just some random classmate from before. It would be so much easier for him to talk to her. But that wasn't the case.
In his past, Sakura was a special presence to him.
He knew he had to muster his courage. So he stood up, excused himself from the girls, and rushed to the backroom to find anything that would cover his top.
And finally, he went to where Sakura was.
At that very moment, Syaoran didn't know that things were about to turn for the worse later in the night. He had no idea that they would have another awkward meeting in the next days to come. And he had absolutely no clue that the chances he once lost to get to know her more would return to him by fate or mere luck.
He didn't know that that very night was only the beginning of a whole new different chapter of their lives.
Present day...
"So?"
"What 'so'?"
Eriol sat on the corner of Syaoran's desk. "Where did you go with my SUV? And returning it so late in the night. Or should I say, early in the morning?"
"Can we please talk about that later, shachou-sama? I'm busy."
He snickered. "My secretary's being very polite today."
"Shut up."
Syaoran was currently occupied with arranging the new list of schedules he had to set for their company president after having been bombarded with calls from numerous potential company partners and clients alike. But as much as he would like to concentrate, his lack of sleep kept driving his thoughts elsewhere, more specifically, to dreamland. And to add to that, having his annoying boss around, who did no more than criticize his work and tease him at the same time, was of no help at all.
"Syaoran, you typed Tanaka-san's name wrong," Eriol said, pointing at another mistake his secretary made as he was writing an invitation.
"Fuck—er, I mean... Right, got it. Thanks." He moved his face closer to the computer monitor as he was writing the rest of the letter. His tired and sore eyes were beginning to squint as he tried to force his brain and eye muscles to work to the bone. After he finally finished writing the invitation letter that also explained a project proposal, he took off his glasses and sat his back on the chair, heaving a sigh. "Shachou, could you check?"
Eriol moved the computer monitor to his direction and stooped down a little to read the letter. He held a very cool expression on his face while he was at it, making it hard enough for Syaoran to distinguish if there was anything wrong in the letter he wrote or if everything was just right.
"Syaoran," Eriol called as he fixed his glasses atop his nose.
"Yes?"
"You really should have just stayed in Mucho Macho."
Syaoran's eyes twitched. "Should I take that seriously or is that a metaphor?"
Eriol softly laughed and ruffled Syaoran's hair before he passed behind his chair and walked towards the door to his own office. "You should take the rest of the day off and get more sleep. The letter you just wrote proves you really need it. I also took a peak at the list you made. It was kind of a mess."
Syaoran looked down with downcast eyes. "I'll go get coffee instead. I wouldn't want the others to think I'm being treated specially just because I'm your friend."
"Maybe I wasn't making myself clear." Eriol placed a hand on his forehead and sighed. "Then, I'm going to say this as your boss. You're performing quite terribly today so I'd rather you go home and take a rest. If I let you stay here any longer, you're just going to make more problems for us, most especially for me. I wouldn't want to hear another complaint from one of our prospective clients just because I wasn't able to attend our 'supposed' meeting, which, must I remind you, is something you forgot to add to my schedule last week when you also looked as tired as you are now."
Syaoran became completely stunned and speechless.
His boss's words could sometimes sound too frank whenever he talked like the president he should be. He was normally soft-voiced and calm, but when the situation truly required it, he would immediately shift to his strict and serious counterpart. And he was often that way with Syaoran lately.
Eriol's words may have stung him a bit, but he understood where his boss was coming from. He was a little hesitant at first to follow Eriol's advice, but he was also self-aware that his exhaustion was already reaching its limit.
"Alright, I understand. Thanks for today then, shachou."
Eriol finally showed his victorious grin. "That's a good boy."
Syaoran rolled his eyes. He hated it whenever Eriol treated him like a well-behaved dog.
After he went and took his coat, he realized that he was missing his key card to the condo. He looked around every place in the building where he might have possibly dropped it, but to no avail. Giving up, he returned to the top floor where both his and Eriol's office were located.
Eriol looked surprised to see Syaoran return after a mere few minutes. "Don't tell me you're still planning on staying for work."
"No, not that... I couldn't find my key card."
Instead of making a light joke of his friend's situation like he always did, Eriol looked at him with more concern. "You've really been a mess this whole day. You even lost your key card." He briefly took off his glasses to rubbed his nose off of his frustration and quickly put them back. "I know you've been very tired since last week, which is why I told you to just give Sunday a rest. But what did you do? You left yesterday past five in the morning and returned at around three or four AM today, giving you just about one to two hours of sleep. Are you trying to destroy yourself?"
"It's not that..." Syaoran muttered, his voice slowly falling.
"Syaoran, talk to me." Eriol sighed tiredly, taking off his glasses once again and finally placing them on his desk. "Is this about Meiling? I know she's been calling you lately about returning to them. Is that the reason you've been out of it? I can talk to your family again for you, if you want. Just please stop going home late, wasting and tiring yourself out like yesterday."
Syaoran ran a hand through his hair as his face scrunched in annoyance. "I wasn't wasting the night with some girls like I did before, alright? But it's true, I've been spending a few nights out. Though this time, I was just walking around or eating at random stands near the condo. I only wanted a breather. And about yesterday..." He averted his eyes while trying to come up with a few words. "Yesterday was different."
Eriol's eyes looked at him intently while he crossed his arms. "Please do enlighten me."
Syaoran ended up raising his hands, finally wanting to give up. He would hate to hear more lectures from his mother of a friend. "Fine. I'll tell you where I brought your car. I helped the Kimono's, alright? With some kind of housework."
"Kinomoto?" Eriol paused to think. "Wait—you don't mean that girl? Could you be talking about that Kinomoto?"
"Y-Yes..." Syaoran looked away embarrassed after he realized what he just confessed. "She... needed my help."
His friend looked utterly speechless at first but his face soon formed a huge grin. "Haha, wow... I see... alright. I understand now," Eriol said, finally feeling relaxed. "So you met her again, hm? But you should have just told her you were busy or some other excuse. You needed the break."
"You know full well that I couldn't let that chance slip by." Syaoran shyly scratched his head and looked away, trying to hide the blush on his face. "Besides, yesterday was good therapy. It took my mind off a lot of troublesome things."
Eriol smiled happily as he watched his friend. "So, how was it?"
"Huh?"
"How was it? Spending a whole day with her?" Eriol said smiling, placing his hands together over his desk as he inched forward, interested to know the details. "Did you have fun?"
Syaoran rubbed the back of his neck. He looked down into the distance with a warm smile as he recalled how he got to enjoy the longest time he was able to spend with Sakura so far. "After yesterday, I realized something..."
'I really missed her.'
If there was one thing Syaoran dreaded about going home earlier, it was that he had to commute back home. Usually, Eriol would share him a ride to and from work since he was currently living in the same condominium space as his boss-slash-friend. But now that he had to leave work earlier and since he didn't bring his own car, he really had not much of a choice.
Eriol ended up letting Syaoran borrow his key card under the condition that he would have to make sure to stay awake when Eriol goes home. But he wasn't confident he'd be able to keep himself awake so he also asked his friend to give him a wake up call before heading home.
He looked at his watch and noticed that it was already hours past lunch break. He started to wonder if there was still any possibility he could run into Sakura buying lunch or eating outside even though it was already that late. Their office buildings were only a few blocks away. It could be a pretty long walk from each other, but even so... it was still only a few blocks away, he kept convincing himself. It was possible for them to pass by each other midway anytime. One could never know when luck could fall upon them.
Since he still hadn't eaten anything for lunch, he stopped by a convenience store to get himself a quick bento box to eat at home. There were many choices to choose from, but he couldn't really care less. After all, convenience store food weren't so much of a delight to him. For Syaoran, their only purpose was to fill up his empty stomach. He wouldn't really call himself choosy per se since he would actually eat anything that looked edible. But growing up in an affluent environment most likely caused his taste buds to be more difficult to please. Dim sum and sushi were an exception though.
As he lined up by the cashier, waiting to be attended, he took out his phone from his pocket and checked for any missed calls or unread messages. There wasn't anything new, and particularly nothing from Sakura.
'Why would she even contact me at this hour?' he sighed as he thought to himself. He felt even more dispirited when he also asked himself why Sakura would even want to contact him at all.
The two of them were done with the favors. He already paid back her kindness in keeping the 'secret' to herself by helping her family the other day. With that said, she wouldn't have any more reason to call him again.
But he liked hearing her voice.
He recalled the other day when Sakura called him so early in the morning. Her voice was soft, shy and really awkward. He couldn't stop grinning the whole time they were on the phone. She was cute, was what he thought. Many years may have passed since he last heard her voice, but he could tell that she was still the same kind-hearted Sakura he knew back then.
"That would be 400 yen, sir."
"H-Huh?"
The cashier gave Syaoran a weird look. "The bento set. It's 400 yen, please."
"Ah! Right..." Syaoran snapped, finally returning back to reality. As he was taking out his wallet, a thought suddenly went into his head. 'What if I called Sakura?' Instead of waiting for a miracle that she'd call him, he could instead ask her out to lunch. She was most likely still in her office after all. 'But what if she already ate?' His thoughts were all muddled inside his head.
"Sir? Your payment, please?" the cashier was starting to get annoyed.
"Oh, uh... I won't be paying."
The cashier looked at him incredulously. "Excuse me?"
Syaoran turned red in his embarrassment. "W-What I meant was—I'll be returning this! Sorry for the trouble!"
After he went and returned the bento back to its shelf, Syaoran took out his phone again. He scrolled through the long list of names in his phonebook until he found the name 'Kinomoto Sakura'.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
"Okay... Let's do this."
And he finally pressed the call button.
Bzzzt! Bzzzt!
"GenMax will be sending someone over by Wednesday to check the progress of the website," Nakuru said to her team as she was looking over some documents. "Aside from the UI, what else is ready for presentation?"
"I think we can go over the static pages," Chiharu said. "They're the easiest to build, so the QA team won't have too much problems with that."
Bzzzt! Bzzzt!
"Alright. Other than that? Anything more impressive to show them?"
Another one from the team walked towards his computer and scanned through the unfinished code snippets on his computer. "I'll see if I can finish working on this part of the..."
Bzzzt! Bzzzt!
Sakura kept fidgeting on her toes as her phone continued to vibrate inside her pocket. She wanted to excuse herself for even a minute just to answer the call and tell whoever it was to call back later. But she was a little embarrassed to speak up, most especially since Nakuru hated being interrupted during their stand-up meetings.
Bzzzt! Bzzzt!
"Kinomoto-san," Takashi called out to her in a low voice, elbowing her on the arm. "Is that your phone vibrating?"
"Y-Yeah," she whispered back. "Is it too loud?"
"Not really. But don't you wanna answer that?"
Sakura shook her head. "You know Akizuki-san doesn't like being interrupted."
"Don't worry. I'll cover for you."
Sakura took a quick careful glance at Nakuru and one of the developers who were discussing on the unfinished store page of the website. "Is it okay?"
"Yeah, don't worry about it. I'm sure the meeting's gonna be finished right after they're done talking about the store page."
"Okay, thanks Yamazaki-senpai!"
Sakura quietly sneaked out of the area and ran to the small pantry on the same floor. She smiled thinking how her senpai at work could actually be so kind and dependable at crucial times, despite his idiotic smiling and carefree attitude.
As soon as she reached for her phone, she was surprised to see Tomoyo's name appear on the screen. Her best friend rarely called her at that hour, knowing that she might be busy at work. Sakura anxiously wondered what could be making Tomoyo call her all of a sudden.
"Hello? Tomo-chan?"
"Sakura-chan! Are you busy? Did I disturb you?"
"N-Not really! I'm good," Sakura nervously said as she scratched her cheek. She wouldn't want to let Tomoyo know the truth, knowing that it would worry her a lot.
"That's great! I worried there for a moment. But never mind that! I have something I really, really need to tell you."
Sakura became curious about the tension hidden beneath her friend's high-pitched voice. "What is it? Did something happen?"
"Do you remember what I told you about yesterday? About the photograph session I had to go to?"
"Oh, right!" Sakura said remembering the plans she cancelled with Tomoyo. "I was supposed to go with you yesterday. Sorry about that."
"No worries! I understand you had to help your father," Tomoyo assured her. "Anyway, I thought it was just a regular photoshoot arranged by okaa-san. But then I found out this morning that it was going to be my matchmaking photo!"
"Hoeee!" Sakura couldn't believe her ears.
"Crazy, right?" Tomoyo complained. "No wonder I was dressed in a kimono. It was so surprising that I just had to tell you immediately!"
"But why all of a sudden?"
"Looks like we're already at that age," Tomoyo said despondently. "And my family owns a big business so an heir is much expected. Okaa-san said she sees me having only little interest in relationships so she had to make a choice."
"And so, she ended up making that choice, huh..." Sakura couldn't exactly agree with the sentiment that being around their age should compel a person to find a partner. Growing up, her father always told her that both time and heart must work together to find one's special someone. But she supposed it was different for people bearing huge responsibilities like her best friend. "So, what do you plan to do now?"
"Okaa-san said she already arranged for me to meet someone next weekend. And that's the other reason why I called you," Tomoyo said.
"W-What do you want me to do?"
"Please come with me, Sakura-chaaan!"
"HOEEEE?!"
"Pleaaaase," Tomoyo begged again. "We're going to meet in a family restaurant so maybe you could sit somewhere near our table."
"But why bring me?"
"I'll need your opinion on the guy as well! I'll make sure to get a lounge table so you can safely snoop behind us."
"I don't know, Tomo-chan... It feels like I'll be intruding on someone's privacy," Sakura commented, feeling both guilty and scared of what she was being asked to do.
"You won't be intruding because I'm giving you permission."
"Oh, Kami-sama..." Sakura slapped her forehead.
"Please, Sakura-chan? For me?"
After a few moments debating with herself, Sakura furrowed her brows and finally gave in saying, "Okay, fine..."
"Yaaaaay! Thanks, Sakura-chan! I'll contact you again soon for the rest of the details."
And with that, the call finally ended.
Sakura dragged herself to the nearest chair and sighed exasperatedly as she heavily dropped her bottom to the seat. Many thoughts immediately went into her head after her conversation with Tomoyo. Just recently, she had been enjoying her chances of meeting Syaoran. Her heart was beginning to experience the same excitement she had in middle school when she first realized that she had fallen in love with him. And she felt so much younger again. But after learning of Tomoyo's arranged marriage meetings, she was suddenly dragged back from her dreamworld to reality: a twenty-five boyfriendless-since-birth adult, working in a company, blending in with the rest of the middle-class society.
"Like Tomo-chan said... Maybe we really are already at that age..." she muttered to herself.
When she felt her phone vibrate once, she thought it was Tomoyo, sending her the details on the exact time and place of her 'reconnaissance mission'. But as soon as she opened the screen and saw the name 'Idiot Muscle Host', she was immediately brought back to life to her shock. It was only then that she noticed that Syaoran had already sent her many messages, probably from the time her phone started vibrating from Tomoyo's call.
02:31 PM
Idiot Muscle Host: Hey sakura! You busy? I tried calling but i couldnt reach you
Idiot Muscle Host: I know its late but was wondering if you ate lunch already? Im hungry hehe
02:35 PM
Idiot Muscle Host: I haven't eaten yet and i got off early from work
Idiot Muscle Host: Let me know if you wanna join. My treat
02:47 PM
Idiot Muscle Host: Im walking to your office while finding a nice place to eat. Let me know if you're good
02:53 PM
Idiot Muscle Host: You must be busy huh. Sorry if im disturbing you...
Idiot Muscle Host: I'll be eating here at Starbux. Ground flr of the building across yours
02:58 PM
Idiot Muscle Host: Join me when you're hungry, k? Im bored by myself haha
"HOEEEEE!"
Sakura panicked. She didn't notice Syaoran was trying to contact her for that long! And her brooding and self-contemplating even added to the time he had to wait!
She quickly texted back: Sorry, Li-kun! Just read them now! Be there soon! ミヽ（。＞＜）ノ
"Kinomoto-saaaan," Takashi called as he peeked in to the pantry. "Meeting's been over a while ago. You can safely go back now."
"SEEEEENPAAAAAIIIIII!" Sakura and her close-to-tearful face dashed at Yamazaki and gave him a quick embrace. She then clapped her hands together and tightly closed her eyes as she horribly begged, "Please let me off for a few more minutes!"
"Hmmm..." Takashi rubbed his chin. "As your senpai, it is my duty and my responsibility to ensure our kouhais work properly and efficiently."
"But you let me off just a while ago?" Sakura reacted, starting to get confused about the direction of her senpai's 'sense of responsibility'. "A-Anyway... Please! Just for today! I'll stay late to make up for lost time! Promise!"
"Help me with Mihara-san and it's a deal."
And Sakura shook hands with him without a second thought. "Deal!"
"Late."
Sakura was panting heavily as she dropped to her seat across a dark brown-haired man, crossed-leg on his own seat while busy fiddling with his phone.
"Sorry! I'm... finally here... Li... kun..." Sakura greeted in between her breaths.
"Pfft." Finally, Syaoran's eyes looked at her from above the screen of his phone. "What happened to you? Were you chased by some wild boar or something?"
"I panicked, okay?!" Sakura retorted before drooping herself over the table. "I didn't notice you were trying to contact me until a while ago. Sorry for making you wait," she said apologetically as she slightly raised her face from the table.
"Don't worry about it. You were at work so I get it. By the way," he pointed a finger at her hair and continued, "some of your bangs are standing."
"W-What? Really?" Sakura quickly went to get her phone to check her reflection on the screen.
"Must have turned like that while you were rushing to get here," he said, laughing.
"Oh, geesh... This is so embarrassing." Her face turned red as she was fixing her hair.
"Anyway," Syaoran said as he was trying to pick his wallet from his briefcase, "hungry?"
Sakura looked at him regretfully. "Sorry, Li-kun, but I already ate..."
Syaoran became wide-eyed for a brief moment, caught by surprise. And he laughed it off later while letting go of the wallet, realizing how stupid he was for forgetting. "Yeah, figures. Just thought it wouldn't hurt to try and ask."
"But wait a minute! You mentioned in your message that you got off early from work?" Sakura asked out of curiosity.
Syaoran embarrassedly rubbed the back of his neck. "More like I was sent off early. I was making a lot of mistakes earlier."
"Oh my gosh..." Sakura covered her mouth. "I'm so sorry! It's my fault! It's because of yesterday, isn't it?"
Syaoran smiled. "Don't worry about it. I was really happy you asked for my help yesterday. I was trying to find a way out of my misery."
"Misery? Are you having problems with someone? With your family? Or from work?"
Syaoran noticed the gloom starting to appear on her face. He waved off her worries and chuckled. "It's really nothing to be worried about. But thanks, anyway, Sakura."
"I-If you say so..." Sakura still looked at him worriedly. Something told her he wasn't completely fine at all. "Then, since we're already here, I'll go get myself something to drink. How about you? Americano?"
"Yeah, sounds nice. You're paying?" he joked.
"Yes. Be right back!" And Sakura quickly ran off to the counter.
"W-WAIT!" Syaoran shouted, quickly standing up to catch up to her. He didn't expect her to go that fast. "Sakura! I was just kidding! And I already ate!"
Later...
"You didn't have to treat me..." Syaoran quietly said as he was slowly spinning the spoon on his cup of coffee. "Thanks, though."
"It's for everything you did for us yesterday," Sakura cheerfully said and took a sip of her strawberry milk tea.
"Are we going to keep returning favors?" Syaoran laughed. "This will never end."
Sakura laughed along with him.
As she was taking another sip of her drink, she noticed Syaoran's deadpan eyes as he continuously played with the spoon on his coffee. Her eyes glanced a bit at his cup and found out that he hadn't seem to take even a sip just yet. She worried if there was really something weighing on his mind.
"Li-kun, is something wrong? You haven't drank your coffee at all. If something's troubling you, maybe I can help? You can talk to me about it."
Syaoran irritably scratched his head. "Hey, Sakura. You've been calling me 'Li-kun' for a while now. Did you forget what we agreed on yesterday?"
"Ah! R-Right! Sorry..." Sakura noticed how he clearly dodged her question. But other than that, she felt embarrassed about the first names. She honestly almost forgot about the deal they made. "Then, uhm, I'll call you Syaoran?"
He smiled. "That's right." He finally took his cup of coffee and brought it to his lips. He quickly stuck his tongue out after having drank too much, realizing that it was still too hot. "W-What?" he laughed asking when he saw Sakura holding in her chuckles.
"You forgot it was still hot?"
"I'm already too hot. What else is there to notice?"
Sakura laughed even more as she covered her face, feeling too embarrassed for him. "Oh my, Kami-sama..."
"Can't handle it?"
"Please stoooop!"
Syaoran laughed at her funny reaction. "Yeah, I'll stop. Just thought it would make you laugh."
After setting aside the cup, he crossed his arms on the table and laid his head down, looking far across Sakura. Again, Sakura noticed, his eyes suddenly became expressionless as he was staring off into the distance. He looked tired. And it was probably not just because of the other day. Something else was wearing him out.
"Li-kun—I-I mean, Syaoran! Maybe you should head home. You look really exhausted."
"Hmm... Just a few more minutes." And he closed his eyes.
"Uhm, okay..."
Sakura obediently followed and sat still on her seat. She would gaze at him from time to time and wondered if he was sleeping? Or just pretending to take a nap with his eyes closed? And from time to time, she would also look at her watch, then glance at the building across the cafe. She didn't take note of the time when she got there. And she hadn't noticed how short or long had already passed since she stayed there with him.
At that moment, when Sakura was starting to get conscious of the time, Syaoran had already opened his eyes, watching her quietly. He noticed her gestures and the worry she carried on her face. After seeing her like that, he finally sat back up and ruffled his hair.
"Sorry, I must be troubling you," he said, feeling guilt-ridden.
Sakura quickly shook her head, her face turning red. She worried if she looked too obvious a while ago. "N-No! Not at all!"
"Come on, don't lie," Syaoran said, chuckling. "I noticed you kept staring at your watch and looking over at your office across the street."
"Sorry..." Sakura shyly brought her head down.
"Please, don't. I'm the one who owes you an apology for keeping you here." And he smiled. "But thanks, Sakura. I feel better now. I guess going out of my way to see you was the right choice."
Sakura became speechless. Only her cheeks responded with a blush.
Syaoran finally stood up and took his briefcase. "Come on, I'll take you back."
Sakura waved her hands. "Oh, you really don't have to. It's just across the street."
"Let me do at least this much in exchange for the coffee." He smiled warmly. "Consider it a return of favor. And once we get there, you can think of something else again to also return the favor to me."
"This will really never end, huh?" Sakura asked and softly laughed.
"Yeah, maybe not," he said half-jokingly and smiled. 'I hope it never will.'
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Yes, yes, YES! FINALLY I'M DONE WITH THIS FREAKING CHAPTER!
Sorry about the late upload! I was supposed to upload last week (to follow my once-a-month upload sched), but I had to revise a lot of things in this chapter. You won't believe just how many versions I came up with just to make a good follow-up to the previous chappie. And a special thanks to Nami (who commented for chapter 2) for giving me some great ideas!
As you might have noticed, this chapter focuses more on Syaoran's POV. This is to start giving readers an idea about his background and side of the story. I don't want to rush things. I want to make the flow of their relationship grow as naturally as possible.
Anyway, once again, I hope you guys liked the story. More secrets and twists await! Feel free to leave a review! Makes me happy to know how readers feel ;)