T minus 166 days

"You were right."

Syaoran tilted his head to look around his notebook at his roommate. He was lying on his bed reviewing his notes for his test that afternoon in his engineering class. Eriol, on the other hand, was sitting sullenly at his desk, though his thoughts were nowhere near the work he was doing.

"About what?" Syaoran put down his notebook, straightening up on his bed.

Eriol turned around in his chair, looking up at him in remorse. "I should've stayed in psychology."

Syaoran shrugged, "there was a reason you switched majors. You're here now, that's what matters. What's with the sudden regret?"

Eriol frowned deeply, "Maybe I would've had answers."

Eriol was talking in rhymes again. Syaoran prodded, "To what?"

"To...to people. Maybe I could understand people." Eriol elaborated vaguely.

"But you do," Syaoran replied, still confused, "more than most of us anyway. You see things that we don't."

"Same with Tomoyo."

"So you're both observant people." Syaoran rolled his eyes. "Just tell me, Eriol, what's going on?"

"Tomoyo and I had a fight."

"Oh, really?" Syaoran responded in a voice opposite of his words, giving his roommate a sarcastic look.

Ignoring him, Eriol continued, "It was worse than usual."

"No." The roommate maintained his sarcastic tone.

Eriol glared at him, "Okay, it was about Sakura."

"Ah." Syaoran expressed his understanding. So that explains the 'worse than usual'. Tomoyo usually forgave quickly, never one to worry about the petty things, but when it came to Sakura, it was a whole different story.

"I don't know how to reconcile with her." Eriol sunk in his chair.

"Aren't you and Tomoyo partners? Just casually bring it up, 'I think we should have an arch right here. Oh, by the way, hey, I'm sorry about Sakura and our fight.'"

Though the comment should have emitted a light chuckle from his friend, there was not a sound. Instead, Eriol responded listlessly, "we're not...she's still avoiding me."

Syaoran's jaw nearly dropped. "It's been two weeks, Eriol! That's two weeks you could've brainstormed and came up with ideas and started a sketch -"

"Simmer down, workaholic." Eriol interrupted with a roll of his eyes. "Tomoyo's not like you, she doesn't separate the professional and personal life."

Syaoran frowned, leaning back further into his pillow. "What did you say to her?"

So Eriol told Syaoran. The fight had gone like this:

It started with Tomoyo complaining about Sakura's relationship with Josh...for the umpteenth time. Eriol has been patient with her for the past three months but it was starting to give him a headache.

"...and she's all 'hehe sorry I have a bad memory' and she's asked me every detail of our hanging out just because ONE guy was there - aka, YOU! And I'm just all, bad memory? Yeah, right. I swear she doesn't need to defend herself every time she's not hanging out with him." -

"She's talking about Josh." Eriol explained.

"I know." Syaoran had spoken immediately, a hint of deep irritation in his voice.

-"He's controlling her!" Tomoyo exclaimed at last.

Eriol looked up from his notes at the ensuing silence, noticing that she had expected a reply. "Maybe he's overprotective"

Tomoyo scowled. "That's a nice way of putting it. What would he need to protect her from? Her own friends? I've been protecting her for the past six years!"

"He's just jealous." Eriol shrugged. "He knows Sakura is well loved and he's scared someone's going to steal her while he's not looking."

He should've stopped at this point, because Tomoyo crossing her arms was a big red warning sign. "So you're defending him now?"

"I'm not-I still disapprove of him, Tomoyo, look, I switched from a psychology major-"

"Yeah? Then why don't you analyze his raping tendencies for me huh?"

Eriol sighed, knowing where this was heading. "Tomoyo..."

"Do it."

Eriol thought of all the rumors surrounding Josh. See, Josh was a charismatic character, most of the time. He had a lot of female friends. One of which Tomoyo knew. So Tomoyo asked her about him. And it wasn't long after Josh had met Sakura, about three months ago, that Tomoyo's friend had an experience with Josh. She told Tomoyo how it had gone down. Josh offered her a ride to her apartment, and assuming it was out of kindness, she accepted. Before she got to her apartment however, Josh stopped the car at the side of the road and locked the doors. He then - and Tomoyo's friend would rather not go into the details - strongly coerced her into doing him sexual favors, needless to say, suck his dick. She refused, and threatened to call the police, but he was adamant. Stronger than she is, he took her phone and threw it out the window, to be run over by a car. She was locked in his car, with nowhere to run, and no one to call, he said, she might as well. She refused strongly, and only when she finally agreed but at a later date, did he let her go. Of course, after that, she had cut off all ties with him, and not shown up to the later agreed date.

After that revelation, Tomoyo asked around, finding other female victims and former friends of Josh's.

Eriol didn't know what to say. "He's…he has needs, and he's...not shy about his dick…?"

"No, really? Why doesn't he just join a frat? I'm sure there are many drunk skanks to rape and better yet they won't remember."

"The rumors haven't been proven."

Tomoyo looked at him in offense, "My friend gave me a first hand testimony, she was almost raped, that's pretty real!"

"Tomoyo," Eriol sighed, "you know I'm grasping at straws here."

"Fine you know what, I hate him anyway, but why, WHY is she dating him with full knowledge that he has attempted rape of scholarly, naive, FRIENDS of his, why? She's going into a relationship where she knows she has a very likely chance of becoming a rape victim."

Eriol frowned, stating to the best of his ability, "That shows that she trusts him, and she accepts him for who he is, and that's also a reason why he wants to hold on to her so tightly."

"you're not answering the question, Eriol! Why is SHE with him?"

Eriol rubbed his forehead, thinking back. "He's nice to her, she's told you this, they were good friends and she thinks its just a label and they still have that friendship, they're just closer and..."

"It's one thing to be friends, another to have a man tell you who you can or cannot hang out with, who you can or cannot allow in your apartment, and to question your every social interaction with others when he's not present. Why isn't she suffocating, Eriol? It was bad enough she's friends with him but to become his girlfriend - I wanted - I want her to break up with him. I want her to turn him into only an acquaintance. But everytime I bring it up, she's disappointed in me. I don't approve of him and I don't think he's a safe person to hang out with! Why doesn't she understand?"

"Maybe she likes him to some degree, maybe she's willing to look past his faults because she likes him." Eriol threw his hands up in frustration. "Maybe she's disappointed in you because you're starting to tell her what to do like he is."

Tomoyo's look was dark, her voice shook with anger. "Don't you dare compare me to him."

After that, not a word, not even a look.

Syaoran was silent for a while, contemplating on the revelation.

Eriol turned back to his desk, but place his forehead on the cold faux wood surface.

"Maybe you could make it up to Sakura first." Syaoran finally spoke up.

Eriol snapped up and looked at him, excitedly as if he had just solved all his problems. Then a he paused, "but I didn't offend Sakura."

"You kind of assumed what Sakura felt. Maybe you could just explain it to her, and maybe she'll explain it to Tomoyo, and just work from there."

His roommate contemplated the idea. "That could work, I guess." Eriol turned back to his desk, turning on his computer.

"You're welcome," Syaoran called out half-jokingly as he picked his notebook back up.

"Yeah, thanks." Eriol responded in an unappreciative tone, though his smile said otherwise. He asked suddenly,"Hey, aren't you gonna see Sakura today? You've been meeting up with her almost every other day for the project right?"

Syaoran shrugged, not taking his eyes off his notes, he spoke carelessly - though it he did care - "She has work, and then she made up some excuse to cancel. Probably couldn't find another girl to accompany us."

"Oh, 'cause you're a guy and -"

"Yeah." Syaoran cut off. Not watching his mouth, he muttered, "we're just doing our project, I'm not about to rape her."

Eriol half-chuckled, "everyone's annoyed with Josh's rules, huh."

"It's inconvenient for the other girls." Syaoran stated.

"Yeah, yeah." Eriol waved at him dismissively, not fully accepting his excuse.

Syaoran couldn't quite let go of the conversation yet though. He glanced up from his notebook distractedly to speak to Eriol, "Did you know she's doing work-study?"

"Sakura? Yeah." Eriol shrugged nonchalantly, "so?"

"When she has classes she goes and works for six hours, and the days she doesn't have class she works twelve hours." Syaoran stated, "Isn't that a bit much?"

Eriol shrugged again, "I guess she needs the money. You don't get paid much being a Starbucks barista. Eight dollars an hour makes-"

"Working six hours for three days a week, twelve hours for three days, that's 54 hours a week. For four weeks, that's 216 hours, which makes her earning about two thousand dollars in one month!" Syaoran calculated quickly, expressing his incredulity. "That's twenty thousand a year alone!"

"Show off." Eriol muttered playfully, but responded, "Tuition here is almost forty thousand if you count food and supplies. You gotta do what you gotta do."

Shaking his head at Eriol's nonchalance, the roommate finally voiced his concern, "I think she's overworking."

"Someone's concerned about Sakura, hm?" Eriol's eyebrows rose suggestively. When Syaoran didn't respond, Eriol continued, making a point, "Are you gonna pay her tuition?"

With a grim set to his lips, Syaoran looked back down to his notebook.

"Exactly." Eriol nodded in finality, turning back to his desk, commenting, "We all have our own debts to pay off."

It wasn't until a week later that Syaoran was able to see Sakura. It was unexpected however, since both near graduating students were busy with their other classes - Syaoran especially.

He had just finished his Foundations and Constructions Technology exam, walking out of the Clow Engineering building when he stumbled upon a familiar figure aimlessly wandering around.

His first question was, "are you lost?"

Her emerald orbs snapped to him in surprise, her whole body twirling to face him. "Syaoran!"

She looked much like a child who had just found her parents after wandering off in the supermarket for too long.

Syaoran gave her a half-smile, still confused about her presence. He repeated, without much preamble, "are you lost?"

Sakura scratched the back of her neck sheepishly, "I-um-no-but yes -ish."

He only stared at her blankly, half-smile still present on his face from amusement. He decided to approach her from a different angle."Were you looking for something?"

"Uh…" Sakura looked as if too sheepish to reveal her real intentions. She held an index finger up. "The Clow Engineering building!"

Syaoran nudged a thumb behind him, "it's right there." He half turned towards the building, fulling extending his arm. "I could bring you if there's a place you needed to go…" His voice indicated that he didn't think she had any reason to go, but offered his help anyway.

"Oh, no," She waved her hand at him dismissively, brushing a hand through her hair uncomfortably. "I don't need to go there anymore."

"Oh...kay…" Syaoran was completely befuddled at this point. Unsure of how to proceed from this awkward conversation, Syaoran decided he'll do what introverts do best. He ran a hand through his hair, messing it up a little. He spoke quickly, "Good luck finding whatever you need to find, I'm gonna go, I guess - unless you need me. Nice seeing you." He hiked his backpack higher on his shoulders, moving away from his friend, still processing what had just happened.

Sakura seemed to have been doing so too, for after a minute, she ran and called after him. With furrowed eyebrows, Syaoran turned to her voice to find her next to him again. He stopped with a questioning gaze.

"I was looking for you." She finally blurted, her cheeks reddening a little.

"Oh." Syaoran was completely dumbfounded, as if such a thing has never happened to him. He subconsciously looked around her for a tag along - as there always was when he met her. "You didn't have to come all the way to East campus."

Seeing his gaze, Sakura laughed dryly. "I just came from work, and this wasn't much of a detour, and I feel bad we haven't been working on our project."

"Oh." Syaoran glanced at his watch, noting that the hour hand point at five and the minute hand point at six. He tilted his head a little as he commented pointedly, "I'm about to go get dinner." But when Sakura grimaced, he remembered that she had a boyfriend and that would be inappropriate. He corrected himself, "right. Um - I -" He held out his palms to show emptiness. "I didn't bring any-"

Sakura shook her head, interrupting, "no - no - this was a surprise, I didn't expect you to bring anything."

Syaoran thought of a solution quickly. "I'll scan it." At Sakura's questioning tilt of her head, he explained, "I worked on some stuff. I'll email it to you."

"What stuff?" Sakura thought of how unproductive their last few meetings had been, only brainstorming ideas. She had finally suggested one that Syaoran said they could use but he couldn't possibly have…

"Your idea," Syaoran elaborated humbly, "I put together a list of materials we'll need to use, what our structure should have, and other engineering stuff to make it work."

Sakura immediately turned apologetic. "Syaoran, you shouldn't have! And to think I hadn't contributed-"

"You came up with the idea." He stated as if that was any work at all.

"-but that's- still! You don't need to be working on this stuff by yourself!" Sakura crossed her arms angrily, "You make me feel bad!"

"I had some time." Syaoran looked away suspiciously.

"Lies," Sakura caught him. "There's no such thing as free time for a double major - especially in engineering! You had exams almost every week this semester!"

Suddenly, he was on the defensive. "How did you know that?"

Sakura clapped her hands over her mouth, looking like a deer caught in headlights. Muffled, she replied, "a little bird told me?"

"It was Eriol." There was no question in his voice.

She dropped her hands, changing the subject subtly, "So about that stuff you were working on," she frowned, declaring humorously in a authoritative voice, "as your partner, I hereby declare no more of that work-by-yourself thing."

Syaoran rolled his eyes, but neither agreed nor disagreed.

"Seriously." Sakura frowned, "But okay, since you already did the work, I'll accept it this time. I'd feel even worse if we don't use it."

"Alright, I'll email it to you tonight," Syaoran shrugged, "probably late."

"It's okay, send it anytime." Sakura waved her hand.

There was that awkward moment in the conversation again. This time it was Sakura who broke it. "I gotta go," she smiled sadly, turning almost reluctantly, "see you around, I guess."

Syaoran smiled in response, nodded his head, turning away too. "Yeah." He responded quietly. With a wave of his hand, he turned completely, parting from her without a look back.

Sakura turned in the other direction smiling to herself as she walked back the way she came.

True to their word, barely an hour later, Sakura did see Syaoran around. But Syaoran hadn't seen her. She was strolling down the lively Fujitaka Street with her boyfriend, considering their dining choices for dinner.

As she glimpsed through the window of a noodle shop, she caught sight of familiar mahogany tufts and a strong, but reserved form in a booth near the window. At a second glance, she confirmed that it was indeed her partner, and noted with a hint of sympathy that he was hungrily devouring a big bowl of noodles with only the air as company.

In the back of her mind, she could almost envision herself comfortably seated in front of him, cheerfully munching away.

"Sakura?" The grip on her hand tightened. Distractedly, Sakura looked away from the window and up at the sea-blue eyes of her boyfriend. Josh glanced in the noodle shop in confusion, trying to see what she had seen. "Do you wanna go in there?"

She had almost said yes, taking a third glance at the lonely form, the now empty bowl, and the empty golden eyes staring straight ahead at the equally empty seat in front of him. Sakura looked back at her boyfriend, smiling despite the conflict within her, "No, let's go." She pulled their intertwined hands forwards as she skipped ahead.

.

.

.

So guess what I forgot to do last night….haha sorry

Work-study: A college program that helps students earn money while in college to pay for tuition and other college fees; this program helps students find jobs inside the campus.

Personal note: The argument between Tomoyo and Eriol about Josh and Sakura? I'm taking that from a real-life situation, in which I'm the Tomoyo, and I just don't understand why. If you have any insights into why someone would date such a character, please enlighten me. Note that after that argument, however, everything is fictional.