Act 17, Winter

Christmas was to come in less than a week now. Even the dreary town had looked much warmer and friendlier with the dancing lights and elaborate decorations that brought color to the dull scenery. Funny that the other people didn't notice there was something misplaced, that their auras anyway didn't reflect the warmth of the holiday.

The girl briefly closed her eyes, waiting for the gesture to interrupt her reverie. This practice had become a therapeutic routine for her.

There was still no snow but Tomoyo was shivering despite of her over-sized coat. The former heiress was grasping its meticulously hand-stitched lining when she realized that the expensive wool never belonged to her. The masculine coat was borrowed, and it didn't feel right that she was using it again.

How about the scarf? Doesn't it still smell like Eriol Hiiragizawa?

She instinctively brought a delicate hand to her neck, settling carefully on the soft indigo scarf wrapped around there. Sandalwood scent stubbornly stuck even if she had used the scarf often.

She blinked.

There was that intoxicating scent that wafted through her most sensitive of senses when she gingerly made that slight movement to adjust the warmer, reminding the raven-haired girl of how it only belonged to her senpai.

She blinked again.

A picture of how Eriol had stood too close to her in the subway train flashed before her eyes. The unwelcome distraction was as infuriating as her teasing imagination that it prompted her pulse to quicken.

"!" At her exasperated utterance, the boy standing nearby started in surprise.

Tomoyo muttered an apology as she colored. Closing her eyes wouldn't push her thoughts of him at the back of her mind.

She was sure because it had happened before.

A shiver ran through her body and the hair on her nape bristled, but the cold draft wasn't what caused them this time. She had turned her back away from the street now, gaze dropping to the clear window of the electronic shop when she sensed that somebody was watching her.


Sakura was flustered when she had called him after lunch the very next day. His cousin had explained in an almost incomprehensible manner how her unexpected meeting with her manager would keep her busy for a few more hours. He had no idea that she even left for Tokyo that morning.

"I'm on vacation, oniichan. I thought they were serious when they gave me the break. But I guess they really don't seem to understand the concept of vacations!"

It was not normal for Sakura to complain because, besides her uncanny understanding of things, she knew what she got herself into when she accepted the modeling job. But he guessed that she was probably just upset about having to cancel her afternoon plans this way.

"Nee...would you do me a favor? I'm supposed to go shopping with a friend, and I have no way of telling her that I won't make it. Would you see her and apologize for me?"

Eriol might as well envision how Sakura's pout looked that moment.

"Onegaishimasu."

He couldn't help but think that maybe it was Sakura's way of pulling him out of his personal exile. However, Eriol didn't particularly believe there was much it could do to lift his mood but he acceded anyway. He actually owed Tōya's imōto for keeping him sane in the quiet family house. It was ironically difficult to meditate with his music when there was no one else around. He badly needed to see something stimulating besides the four walls of his disturbed mind.

He found himself diligently driving in Hakata not a little later, nearing the town plaza where most the shops had centered. Parking the car was easy in spite of the rush of shoppers, and thankfully, it didn't take him long to spot the electronic store where this girl, Aya, should be waiting for his cousin.

There was a boy standing beside a petite girl in a messy coiffure and a coat two sizes bigger than her frame.

It was somehow hard to focus on the image before him if the passing breeze kept on ruffling his bangs to his eyes.

Before he could take several more steps closer, the boy was now walking away just as the dark-haired girl turned to face the window display of the televisions on sale. Sakura hadn't exactly given him an exact reference of what her friend should look like, but the girl in front of the store seemed like she was expecting someone.

Nobody else was waiting where the girls should meet, and it was almost five o'clock.

Eriol was about to call out when the televisions suddenly flickered with static. It took the confused girl a few seconds to realize what was happening. There must be a camera that was capturing the scene right outside the shop because there was no mistaking the clear image on the televisions.

She blinked rapidly at the multiple faces before her.

He could swear his heartbeat stopped at the sight of that beautiful blushing face on the largest screen.


She felt her panic rising rapidly when she saw her captured face, a thousand possibilities devouring her all at once.

Oh, no. That didn't just happen. Okaasama is definitely going to find me.

Tomoyo could taste the bile creeping in to her throat, threatening to spill further in each passing second. A delicate hand rose to her mouth as she fought the vomit. The world seemed to spin uncontrollably in her eyes.

It was hard to even trust her own disguise, and now this carelessness could cost her freedom.

Gomen Sakura.

Without hesitation, the former heiress did what she knew best.

She ran.


It can't be. These were the only words the pianist's mind could articulate before this girl tore herself away from the window and darted to her left, the coat billowing after her despite its weight.

His own shock wouldn't allow his voice to come out.

Wait!

The girl was going to disappear if he didn't come out of it soon.

"Matte!"

Unfortunately, she wasn't stopping at all as if she didn't register his call, still blindly fighting against the tide of other busy shoppers.

How slim were the chances of finding her this way?

His temples throbbed painfully and his skin prickled in anticipation.

Thankfully, the rest of his body reacted faster than his brain ever could that moment, a sure hand reaching the girl's shoulder in no time.

"Let me go! I'm not who you think I am!"

She was hysterically yelling at his startling touch as she tried to pull away.

Eriol struggled to make her understand that he wasn't a stranger while he firmly held her quivering shoulders still. She was squirming in his hands, trembling like a trapped animal.

"Daidōji-san, please. It's me."

When her eyes met his, he didn't expect to see horrified grey eyes instead of clear amethyst. Her ebony hair had come undone at her struggle and only then it struck him that it wasn't what he remembered it to be. The cascading tresses were cropped in a length too short now.

Did he make a mistake? How could this terrified woman before him look painfully like his kohai but not quite so? Was he beginning to imagine any girl with dark hair and pale skin as Tomoyo Daidōji?

Perhaps he was just imagining again. Maybe he really was obsessed now. There was no other logical explanation.

But this young woman's tensed shoulders eventually relaxed at the dawn of dazed recognition, eyes wide and glassy.

"Hiiragizawa-san?" It came out as a pitiful whisper that pierced his heart.

No. He was right after all. He wasn't seeing things, because after all only she could look so vulnerable like that.


Tomoyo couldn't believe what she was actually seeing.

Am I hallucinating?

Could she be too desperate that she was delusional now?

Is this really—

"Hiiragizawa-san?" Her eyes stung not because of the whipping cold.

"Kami-sama, it really is you."

Her small and trembling hands found the plains of his chest before her fingers curled, grasping what they could frantically seize. She couldn't remember why she was out that afternoon anymore or why she was running back to her apartment. It was so surreal, his presence in Hakata after all this time.

Had he known she was going to be in this place, waiting for him to find her? His face was hard to read but those bright sapphire eyes wouldn't lie. He was just as relieved to see her again.

"I found you at last," he sighed his utter relief, his declaration the most pleasant music in her ears.

There was no stopping those tears from spilling to her face this time. She couldn't care where she was at the moment, couldn't feel the dense Winter snow finally descending on this part of Fukuoka. She had been alone to care about anything anymore.

"Yokatta," she whispered brokenly, falling against him with her usual reserve forgotten. The heavy weight in her chest was lifted. "Honto ni yokatta."

She never cried like that in years.


Quick notes:

imōto - little sister

matte - "Wait."

Kami-sama - God

honto ni yokatta - "I'm really glad."