Oddities in Oak Trees

-Four-

One of the things that Eriol Hiiragizawa knew and loved most was money. So when he found out that one of the richest guys in school wanted to ask him a 'favour', he knew right away how much he wanted.

"20,000 yen. Cough up or scram."

"That seems like a lot." Takashi scratched his head as he tried to compute the difference between that and how much he paid Blondie Sakura the other day.

Syaoran appeared hesitant, eyeing the thirteen-year old boy who exasperatingly continued to suck on his Popsicle stick, treating it as if it were some sort of cigarette. "10,000 yen's all I've got at the moment."

Eriol frowned at this. "Come back when you've got enough."

"Wait!"Syaoran rummaged through his pockets. "10,010 yen?"

Eriol thought about this for a while, as if ten yen made all the difference in the world. "Tell you what, I'll take it… but!"

"But?" the two high school seniors asked in unison.

The youngest of the three smiled slyly as he popped the icy treat out of his mouth. "I heard there was this blonde lady you have been talking to…"

Takashi narrowed his eyes knowingly (not that this action could be seen) and elbowed the Popsicle-wielding boy. "I knew it! You're interested in her, aren't cha?"

"No!" Eriol held up his right hand to Takashi's face, his other hand adjusting his glasses, albeit Popsicle still in hand. "I mean, in some ways, yes."

The situation was turning out to be more suspicious than Syaoran would have liked. Said boy pressed his lips together, deep in thought. "It doesn't matter anyway. I just need what I need."

"What is it you need anyway?" Takashi asked, hands on hips as if mocking a prepubescent girl.

"I know what he needs," Eriol interrupted whilst throwing away the rest of his dessert in the trash bin.

"What a waste!" Takashi slapped his palms against his forehead, looking longingly at the discarded ice treat.

"What he needs," Eriol continued loudly before lowering his voice significantly, "is a girl." He sniggered as he continued, "that's what you seniors always ask to have, anyway: a lady. Now I'm not a ladies' man myself, but I do have my resources. He took out a magazine from his bag. It showed a well-endowed girl winking at the camera. "Things like these that boys your age are too afraid to buy, I've got. Of course, the 10,000…no, 10,010 yen is exclusive of the fee for it."

"What! Are you serious? We can easily—!" Takashi got cut off by an eager Syaoran.

"I'll take it!"

"WHAT!"

Syaoran looked at the bewildered Takashi, confused. "It's not like we can buy magazines like these."

"Too embarrassing?"

"No, too telling."

"Do tell me what's too telling about it. You know what, never mind. We can find things like these on the internet!" Takashi sighed loudly, "What a waste of time!"

"Take it or leave it!" called out the slightly disappointed Eriol. "You know, I was only kidding about the magazine!" But it fell on deaf ears.

…Well, one pair of 'deaf' ears.

Syaoran looked pensively behind him as he and Takashi walked away, ready to get whatever it takes to be not weird. He stopped their brisk walk, making the slant-eyed boy beside him jerk a little bit from the sudden halting of movement since he was yanking Syaoran's right arm all along.

"I'll take it!"

Now, Syaoran was not the type of boy to resort to all means to change his usual behaviour. He was accustomed to the way he was and he hated change, so it was out of character for him to associate himself with anyone who would gladly change him. He eagerly ran back to where the freshman was standing, waving his wallet in the air.

"Geez, dude! Are you that desperate to get some chick?"

"She's not just 'some chick'", Syaoran yelled back, panting a little bit. He was really out of shape from drinking all those lattes. "She's Sakura Kinomoto!" he yelled again, his hands cupping his mouth as he did so.

"C'mon!" Takashi acted out as he performed an elaborate gesture of dragging his feet towards where Syaoran and Eriol were. "What do you know about her anyway that makes you like her so much?"

Syaoran frowned a bit at the query. He liked her, and that was that. He didn't realize he needed another reason to do so. He rested his chin against a palm, his elbow resting on the opposite forearm. He looked at the clouds and envisioned them as bunnies hopping from one mystical blue pool to another as they wiggled their tail in delight. The battle between the rabbit clouds and the tree monsters that poked up, trying to invade their domain, had just ended. They formed a truce, it seems. He nodded pleasantly at the thought that the so-called war in his mind had ended peacefully, not minding the fact that he had, once again, got side-tracked into his own little world.

Takashi sighed loudly. "There he goes again…"

Eriol was busy counting his money until he looked up and saw just how far away Syaoran had gone to in his own world. "You do realize that every time you do that, girls will just step away one inch at a time until they're a good few feet away from you, right?"

That statement made the brown-haired boy look down and away from the clouds, his mouth slightly agape. "I hadn't realized…"

"Now you do." Eriol folded the paper bills into his pocket, satisfied that they had reached a mutual agreement. "Alright, I have the ultimate weapon to help you out. Meet me at the school gate at exactly four thirty. Don't be late or else I'll be gone once even a minute has passed by."

Li Syaoran never really knew what he got himself into right then and there, but he was willing to bargain whatever he had. Strange boys like him seem to lack common sense, but their decisions make perfect sense to them anyway so it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks.

There were certain moments when Sakura Kinomoto didn't know what to do. Now, as she stood outside the café she frequented, she braced herself, not really having an idea on what was in it for her. Would he be here? Oddly enough, she wanted to see him. She wanted to apologize.

It was precisely twenty-eight minutes past four when she had entered the café. If she had just arrived a few minutes earlier, then she would have encountered a certain silver-haired boy by the name of Yukito passing by in front of the café and into the bakery he worked for. Certain events happen for certain reasons, there is a saying, and there is also one that involves time: time is of the essence. It is the heart of all things in this so-called line of destiny.

Sakura found herself seated near the window. And oddly, yet again, she didn't bother to look across towards the pastry shop parallel to the café like she always did. She hadn't even thought of it.

You know what most people reading this are thinking right now (probably with you included): she's finally falling for a certain peculiar boy by the name of Li Syaoran. Well, she might be starting to like him, probably might not be starting to like him but might be just curious. The almighty 'might' is what separates this situation from definiteness.

Oddly (once more), she tapped her left foot fifteen times against the wooden floor of the coffee shop. Wonder where she got that habit from?

"Li Syaoran," he answered once asked what his name was, his hands placed rigidly on either side of him.

"This," nodded Eriol towards the girl beside him, "is my girlfriend Tomoyo Daidouji."

Syaoran stiffly bobbed his head up and down before bowing earnestly. "It's nice to meet you."

"I was kidding!" Eriol waved his hands dismissively in the air. "She's my half-sister."

Syaoran maintained his bow, all the while partly yelling another "It's nice to meet you."

The girl by the name of Tomoyo bowed in return, wondering when he would stop bowing. "It's nice to meet you as well."

Eriol placed his hands on the older boy's shoulders, subtly signalling him to stop bowing. "She is the ultimate weapon I was talking about."

"How does she qualify as the ultimate weapon?" Syaoran wondered out loud, a bit surprised that he had asked audibly.

"Well, for one," he motioned at the pink headband Tomoyo was wearing, "she's a girl."

"…Well? What else?"

"That's about it."

There was a moment's pause before Syaoran's eyes brightened up. "Perfect!"

The raven-haired girl took one long look at the odd boy, observing every detail that was visible to the eye. "And who is the lucky lady you're trying to impress?"

"Her name's Sa—…"

"It doesn't matter." Eriol waved his hands in the air dismissively once again, "what matters is we get this job done by six. I have a curfew, you know."

"You'll need this." Tomoyo handed out an earpiece and a small microphone she clipped on the collar of Syaoran's inner shirt. "Say every word I dictate to you."

"This… should help me right?"

"Of course!" the lavender-eyed girl nodded emphatically.

"You'll get your money's worth," Eriol added.

Oh, how he was getting his money's worth.

He never would have guessed that the girl that Eriol had set up to help him would be his object of affection's best friend. None of them did, it was supposedly pure coincidence. But coincidences play in the hands of fate, and fate plays with the lives of people.

Sakura Kinomoto fidgeted in her seat, a worried expression on her face. Was he coming? She sipped the last few drops of her hot coffee, looking at the red clock that read two minutes past five. If he wouldn't go to the café, she didn't know how else to contact him.

"…Sakura!" a familiar voice called out. Mentioned girl looked towards the direction of the voice.

It was Yukito.

You're probably wondering why it would be Yukito, when there was this long paragraph previously that described how destiny goes and that she missed him by a few minutes earlier. Well, fate decided to play another game.

"Hello?" the way she said it came out more of a question than a greeting.

"He…Hel…lo…" He panted. Yukito had just run from the bakery to the coffee shop. It was a short distance, but he wasn't the same runner that he used to be back in high school. He took a moment before exhaling loudly. "That was hard. I guess I can't just sprint like that from one place to another."

"What is it?"

Yukito pulled out a small plastic container from his apron's pocket. "These… these are for you."

She looked at what he had handed out, shockingly unresponsive to it. "Thank you… may I know what's inside?"

"Yesterday…" he was visibly uncomfortable, "Yesterday, the old lady said that you were looking for the strawberry shaped cookies."

"…Oh. Yes, I was."

"So, I brought some. For you."

She looked at Yukito and then at the plastic container and then back at Yukito. "Again, thank you." She smiled at him, not really knowing why she felt so… indifferent. It was the first time he had given something to her, and yet she was unresponsive to it. Where were the sparks? Where was the magic?

Magic… when had she felt that, again?

"Well then, see you." Yukito shyly waved goodbye.

Sakura Kinomoto looked at the cookies, dumbfounded.

And then she watched as Yukito bumped into a boy with messy brown hair who, in turn, was apologizing profusely. "Sorry, sorry!"

Sakura continued to watch as the same boy with messy brown hair awkwardly marched towards her, arms tautly following the movement of his legs. She giggled but stopped herself from doing so upon remembering how upset the boy was when she had laughed at him the other day.

There was a short pause before he started speaking. "Hello, name of girl. How are you?"

"Name of girl?"

Upon realizing his rather idiotic mistake, Syaoran took a few steps forward, trying to correct himself. "I mean, hi!" he smiled, one of his dimples showing in the process. "Hi."

"Hello." She responded with a slight wave of her right hand.

He briefly turned away, his eyes shut. The green-eyed lass didn't know it, but he did so to restrain himself from being too giddy. Why did she have to be too cute?

"Umm… listen, I really have to apologize for what I did before."

He swerved around, fingers stiff and in a stance where he looked like he was about to run as he bent his knees. "…Before?"

"When I…laughed."

"Oh," he said, still in about-to-run pose.

"It wasn't because I was making fun of you! I—I'd never do that. It's just…" she blushed a little bit at how silly she sounded. She did not know how much this affected Syaoran as he tried his very best not to bite into a table napkin to stop himself from hugging her out of the blue.

"It's… okay… do… not… mind… at… all…" he said through clenched teeth, his eyes almost in tears from how tight he bit.

She smiled appreciatively and fidgeted again in her seat. "Would you perhaps like to go somewhere else? It is a bit crowded here."

"Yes… please…" and then he rushed out of the café, without hesitating to keep the door open for Sakura, of course. Those were orders from his earpiece.

He breathed out audibly as they exited the coffee house, his right hand on his chest.

"Are you okay?"

"I am fine, thank you. Where would you like to go?" he sounded robotic, but he wasn't a very good actor and he couldn't act naturally with someone spoon-feeding him his lines.

"I already decided where we'd go to last time so I think it would be fair if you decide where we go today." She smiled earnestly.

His face turned redder and redder, he felt like he could melt anytime soon. If he fainted, he could always blame the heat. But then again, it was winter so it wasn't that hot. It wasn't hot at all.

'State a nearby location where you can talk. Remember, you don't have any money anymore, so choose wisely. Also, it is thirty minutes until curfew, so please hurry up.' The voice of a younger boy could be heard from the earpiece. Syaoran guessed it to be Eriol. He thought for a good fifteen seconds before he decided on taking her to the park he happened to stumble upon the other day.

They fumbled through the snow as they reached their destination. The snow wasn't that high yet, and it never got to be too high in Tokyo anyway. Still, they wanted to avoid any tripping for they were both very clumsy people.

Nonetheless, Syaoran tripped.

Let's spell it out again: T-r-i-p-p-e-d.

Tripped.

He recovered as quickly as he could, like the last time. But there was one dire thing that he had lost along the way.

"…Earpiece!"

"Huh?" Sakura looked at a panic-stricken Syaoran, who was strangely clinging onto his ears like his life depended on it. She didn't know that it really did.

"I… uh… lost something."

"I'll help you find it, what is i—?"

"No! I mean, it's fine! I—it's not that important anyway!"

Oh, but it was. What would he do now that he lost the only thing that could help him act like not himself?

He shuffled through the snow, searching at random places before he decided to just give it up. He was hopeless as it is, anyway.

He glanced at Sakura, who was waiting patiently in the cold, a worried expression on her pretty little face. Why did he have to be so pathetic? He desperately would have wanted to show her how much he could change for her and be the guy she could like, but he just had to fail at it at the most dire times.

And that's when he had a few flashbacks of his life, how he was so different from everyone else that he got bullied in school and even had to trouble his mother by going to the psychiatrist even though he knew he didn't really need to. His mother had said that those sessions were there to help him, but how could they have when all the questions centered on how he felt, and how he felt was 'normal' at the time?

Normal. How he wanted to be so, but he didn't know how anymore when all this time he thought he was very much that. It dawned upon him after a longer while as he continued to look for the earpiece. He was embarrassed of himself. He couldn't even go a day without thinking too much and subsequently isolating the people around him.

Syaoran hung his shoulders in defeat. "Sorry… I won't keep you waiting any longer." He could feel the warmth crawl up to his face.

Damp.

Why'd it feel so damp?

He held his fingers to his face, salty tears coming down on his reddening cheeks.

Was he… crying?

He hadn't cried in so long, he almost forgot what it felt like.

But there he was, crying. Right in front of his crush.

And crushes like Sakura Kinomoto didn't come by every day for boys like Syaoran, who were too preoccupied with their own thoughts to notice anything else.

"Oh! What is it? It's okay; if it's that important, I'll help you look for it! So please, don't worry about it!" She looked around the ground, not really knowing what she was searching for.

Syaoran could feel his bottom lip quiver as he sighed and let a few teardrops fall some more. It wasn't that it was important anymore. It wasn't that at all.

He was just too embarrassed.