Val:Thank you all! Thank you so so much for those extraordinary reviews! I read each and every one of them carefully, and I knew the last chapter was very successful! Your reviews are SUPER important to me for I need feedbacks to keep me motivated. Just like the last few chapters, my gratitude goes to those who read my story but didn't review as well. Please tell me if you want a reply for your review.
Complications-Chapter 4
Sakura was, one word, confused to why her little fall on the ice--an exception along with Mike--could provoke such an intense and dangerous glaring showdown between Mike and Syaoran. Not only that, why on Earth was Syaoran Li offering his help? Still as confused, she reached out her hand towards Syaoran's out-stretched arm, that looked firm and attractive to the eyes of every audience in the skating rink, with only one purpose to get up from Mike and the cold ice.
'Don't...Don't do it. You're hurting yourself again.' an inner voice deep inside Sakura flowed into her head.
She stopped in the midst of her reach. Then, as suddenly, a new surge of pain struck her body like lightning. Her heart felt like it was going to explode any second. She couldn't breathe, couldn't hear, couldn't smell, basically she blanked out the noisy background of the skating rink and could only feel the painful pounding of her heart that can shatter her heart into thousands of pieces.
Her unaware private self-defense and sharp instincts inside of her told her to stay away from Syaoran Li, the man who broke her heart with an easy strike almost 1 year ago.
She withdrew her hand from the direction towards his and backed her whole body away from him hurtfully.
"Tomoyo, a little help please," she pleaded in a whisper that was just loud enough for Tomoyo's distance.
"S-sorry," Tomoyo skated over quickly and pulled Sakura's now-fragile body up.
"Wow, she's quite the idiot, rejecting Syaoran Li's offer like that." Then murmurs started to overflow the skating rink.
"My Syaoran Li!"
"Bitch!"
"Look at Syaoran's face. He's so hurt!"
"Slut!"
With the help of Tadashi and Hikaru, Mike got up with ease. Movements occured amongst the crowd, except for Syaoran who stood frozen on the spot like a broken male version porceline doll. His shoulders dropped low and his beautiful but messy chocolate brown hair covered over his closed-amber eyes. Majority of the crowd soon rushed over to his side to comfort him without hesitation, while the left-overs returned back to skating without caring a bit.
"Sakura, are you alright? You look awful!" Rika cried out worriedly. She held Sakura's face between her gloved hands. Her other friends gathered around her with worry as well.
The Sakura they all knew was broken, fully broken. This was a repitition of what she'd looked like after her breakup with Syaoran Li. This was the exact expression...lifeless was the word.
"I'm okay," her voice was just louder than a whisper.
"I don't know why but my heart was racing so fast back there like it was going to shatter."
"Tomoyo, you should take her to the cafe outside, Sakura needs some tea," Mike suggested, staring ahead in Syaoran's direction with impatience. Tomoyo nodded and followed the other girls and Sakura towards the exist. The five guys were left.
"Buddy, are YOU alright?" Rei tapped Mike's shoulder lightly.
"No I'm not."
"I know you're mad at him. We all are. But, chillax alright. We don't have to do this here," Rei tugged on his sleeves harder this time when Mike wanted to run.
"Let go of me NOW!" Mike tried to pull free. Then, the other four all grasped onto him with their full force.
"Mike, you can't do this here!" Rei yelled.
"MIKE! Listen to Rei," Hikaru yelled as well.
"FINE!" Mike stopped his pulls.
"SYAORAN LI!" he yelled above the calming voices of the fan crowd.
The girls stopped shortly after, and each of them made way between Syaoran and Mike. Syaoran looked at him dangerously, "Yes?"
"You fuckin' bastard! Don't you EVER show your face with Sakura around, or else I'll beat you up even if it means to fight past your damn body guards!"
With one last deadly glare, Mike stomped off follwed by the other guys, each showing him his fist.
The crowd around Syaoran silenced for a few minutes but no later, erupted into rude comments.
"Are you kidding me? Syaoran, he can't possibly beat YOU up! You're too good for him!" a girl shrieked in disgust.
"Yeah! You're too good!" the others agreed.
"In his dreams!" a soloist with brunette pixie cut and big boobs called out.
"Sexy, what's your name?" Syaoran walked towards her with a genuine smile. The tip of his finger lifted up her face. "Jade," she answered possessively.
"Why don't we go out for dinner tonight?" he whispered into her ears.
"Yes," the girl answered with a crooked smile.
"Sakura, tomorrow's Saturday are you free?" Tomoyo asked on the way to her awaiting shiny limo and cool-looking body guards.
"Of course, why?"
"Well, I read about a new cafe yesterday in the magazine. Their deserts looked delicious so I was wondering if we should try them out tomorrow."
"YUP! Let's go! I'm dying to try new deserts!" her always-joyful personality was back to normal after the skating rink incident.
"Alright. I'll pick you up tomorrow at 11:00 then," Tomoyo waved goodbye as one of her body guards opened the car door.
"Bye!" Sakura waved back.
At the Cafe
"This cafe looks so cute. Look at the waitresses! They're all wearing maid uniforms!" Tomoyo whispered to Sakura excitedly. The cafe they were in, called Maid Latte, was designed to be a western-style maid cafe with everything decorated into cute and maid-like designs. At noon, it seemed, there were very many people. Perhaps, it was because it was Saturday and the weather was extremely nice for an early-February day.
"Could I have the Green Tea Piece and an Angel's Love for her please," Sakura ordered their cakes to the well-dressed maid waitress who had short black hair.
"And would you like it to be served with some drinks?"
"Yes. A Strawberry Creme Frapacino and an espresso for her. Thank You." Sakura handed the menu to the waitress.
"So, this seems to be a good place to hang out. We should come here with Mike and them some other time," said Sakura.
Tomoyo smirked. "Yes, of course."
"What's with that smirk?"
"Nothing."
"Tomoyo, what are you trying to imply?"
"Nothng Sakura. I just find you and Mike make a really good couple. That's all." Tomyo leaned back against her chair.
"You know very well that we're just friends," Sakura unintentionally blushed.
"I know Sakura. However, sometimes friendships could turn into love when you're not aware of it."
"So? We're just friends, though."
"What I mean is...don't you think Mike has feelings for you that are a bit more than normal friendship?" She leaned towards Sakura and whispered softly.
"N-Not at all," Sakura blushed.
"See, I can tell that you know I'm right about this."
"Well...Tomoyo. I guess I can never keep secrets from you, huh?"
Tomoyo looked pleased that she knew all of her best friend's secrets.
"I am aware of his actions sometimes, but I will never date him. I am just great friends with him, that's all," Sakura explained.
"Some suggetions. Sometimes, you need to keep some distance from him even as a friend so that he won't get the wrong impression. Make sure you do it carefully without hurting his feelings, though."
"Yes," Sakura nodded understandingly, and she looked up from the glass table. "Our deserts are here!" The awkward atmosphere was suddenly broken when the waitress walked towards their table with their deserts and drinks.
Sakura knew for sure that Mike had feelings for her. However, no matter how prominent that admiration was, she would never date him because she only thought of him as a friend. They shared a strong friendship that will never change. Even though she was so sure of it, sometimes she just seemed to forget that they had to keep the "distance" that Tomoyo was mentioning. They were always too "close" for normal friends.
Val:Well, how was it? This chapter was probably the shortest in this story so far. I cannot promise that this will be the first and the last one for short chapters, though. Sorry! This time, I finally updated this story on time! Maybe you guys can forgive me for writing such a short chapter? LOl please read and review!