Chapter 7: A Cure for a Broken Heart

Previously…

"Because I thought if I'd stay a little bit longer, I'd see the loving Syaoran that Hana loves so much. But I guess I was wrong…" she answered, her voice choking as she tried her best to swallow to the sobs that threatened to come out. She didn't want Syaoran to see her cry; she didn't want him to know that what he said had affected her greatly. "I promise to never bother you again."

And with that she summoned the Fly Card and left.

She left Syaoran's room; the boy had stayed there on the spot where he had been standing when he was talking to Sakura. On his one hand was Hana's broken collar, and on the other was his white handkerchief with bloodstains all over it.

The next day arrived soon, and with people dreading its arrival. As expected the rumor regarding Syaoran's infidelity had started to spread and got wilder as it moved from one person to the next. But Syaoran and Meiling, having already expected this, decided that the best course of action was to show a united front and maintained innocence regarding the matter.

The kiss was just a kiss. It was a friendly kiss on the cheek, nothing more, nothing less. And that's what they kept telling themselves and anyone who would be stupid enough to ask them.

Keeping up with the act, of course they continued to practice their usual routine of Syaoran walking the other to her classroom, and later have lunch, then go home together. It was best to act as if nothing has changed. Because nothing has changed.

Once Meiling has settled into her classroom, she immediately walked towards Sakura's desk.

At this everyone in the classroom stopped and waited for what will happen next with baited breath. Will there be a fight? A slap? Should someone call the teacher? Should someone be recording this to post this later on the net? No matter what the question was popping into their classmates' head, not one moved.

Sakura only looked up and smiled at Meiling, despite the fact that she was also unsure as to what will happen next. "Yes, Meiling?"

To her surprise, and everyone else's, Meiling simply leaned forward and with delicate fingers tilted her chin upwards—and a kiss on each side of her cheeks. And with a clear voice said, "I never got to thank you for helping me resolve my fight with Syaoran, thank you for talking to him yesterday."

A little bit unsure, Sakura nodded her head and answered her with the standard "You're welcome." Meiling smiled once again, and headed off to her seat, and everyone returned to whatever they were doing previously.

Tomoyo, who momentarily stopped by Meiling's actions, continued towards her table beside Sakura. Seating herself properly before muttering to Sakura, "It seems that Meiling and Syaoran has discovered a way to kill the rumors. I must admit that was a pretty smart move."

Sakura turned Tomoyo with a questioning look, but instead of receiving an answer she was simply given the time to contemplate the answer for herself.

'Meiling kissed me…and she thanked me for helping her resolve her fight between Syaoran? But I never—OH! I get it! They're making it seem as if the kiss that Syaoran gave me was for the same reason that Meiling had given me the kiss as well.'

Recognizing the shine of clarity on her best friend's eyes, Tomoyo nodded, "Yes, it was truly clever of them. And they're putting up a really good front, I won't be surprised if this rumor dies out within this week."

"Yes, but I also have to play along."

"Will you?" Tomoyo asked in a nonchalant manner as she hid the fact that she noticed the sad tinge in the other's voice.

"Just because I'm playing along, doesn't mean I'm denying the truth from myself. I don't want to get in trouble as much as they do, but I'll be playing along for a different reason than theirs."

Just as Tomoyo was about to ask, Mr. Terada entered the classroom to formally start their homeroom. "I think we need to continue this later."

Sakura only nodded with a smile on her face.

And it may be a surprise, but the smile she has put on her face is not a mask. Because after last night's event, she was able to realize something. Something that lifted her spirits, something that made her forget the pain of Syaoran's words.

Without much rumors going around, the day continued slowly as usual for the students as they listened to their teachers, worked on their exercises, and jotted down their homework. Lunch came quickly after that, and the promised talk between two best friends commenced underneath their favorite spot.

"Okay, tell me what happened."

Sakura did as she was asked, recounting from when she saw Syaoran standing in the rain up to her using the Fly card to get back home.

"But I realized," Sakura continued, "that I'm only feeling this pain because of Hana. Remember Eriol told us that the spring contained the spirit of a wolf and it is that spirit that entered my body and is causing me to transform? So I'm guessing that it's like I have two personalities within me. And it's Hana who was in love with Syaoran. I just confused my feelings because I was feeling whatever Hana was feeling since we share the same body. The reason why my heart jumped after he kissed me was because Hana was excited by the affection of her master, and I only cried last night, because Hana was crying.

"So in reality, this really has nothing to do with me. I'm not the one who is hurting."

"So… you're really okay?" Tomoyo asked, her lunch still untouched as she waited for Sakura to finish her story.

"Yup!" Sakura answered as she opened her bento started to eat with gusto. Everything was so much clearer, especially now that she has classified and organized the mixed and confusing feelings she was having.

Two souls in one body was a hard matter, but she figured she could deal with it.

Tomoyo smiled back and started eating from her lunch box as well. Their conversations returning to normal as well talking about the latest costumes that Tomoyo has designed and scheduling a photo shoot for said costumes.

Now that Sakura's feelings has been sorted out…what about Hana's broken heart?

Syaoran was also having a normal day, no one ever questioned him regarding the Kinomoto affair and he had his scary persona to thank for that. No, he wasn't really mean and scary towards his classmates, in fact he got along with all of them. But they also knew that sometimes he can be scary, and with a black belt under his name, everyone knew not to mess with him unless they can defend themselves.

Li Syaoran can happily say that the rumor had died down on his side and everything has gone back to normal.

As soon as his lunch with Meiling had ended he headed to his locker to retrieve his books where hee also found a small note inside. Checking to see if anyone around the perimeter was watching him, and once he was sure that no one was he opened the letter and was surprised to find that it was from Sakura.

He wanted to ignore it, after all didn't he just promise himself to stay away from Sakura? But another part in his mind told him that he shouldn't because Sakura deserved a chance to speak with him and say whatever she needed to say.

Not wanting to remain in his mental debate Syaoran immediately crumpled the note dumping it into the trash can while noting himself that he had a meeting with the Card Mistress later after school at the rooftop.

But the reason he supplied himself with as to why he chose to meet with her was not because he wanted to hear what Sakura had to say and it certainly not because he wanted to cause anymore trouble on Meiling as he already did, the only reason he had was that he wanted to see her.

Author's Note: I hope you don't mind this short chapter, when I tried to update this, I realized that I had a big problem. And that was the fact that this fic seemed to be going nowhere…and fast. All because everything was happening too quickly and I was writing without a plan.

So now to correct it without having to do a total re-vamping of the story that you came to love, I decided to make things go slow with the development of the relationships. So tell me if my pathetic attempt worked or if you're just really happy to know that I updated. XD!

The next chapter will be better. I assure you.