It's finally Saturday, so, as promised, I've got a new chapter.
This one you get to see Tomoyo's POV!
Sakura's POV
Crap! Oh, crap, crap, crap! I'm so late! Syaoran is going to kill me!
My eyes shoot back to the clock hanging on the wall behind me. 8:05. I haven't even left the house yet! Stupid unreliable alarm clocks.
Pulling on my jacket, I throw myself out the front door and jump down the front steps. Zipping down the streets, I try not to think too hard about how pissed off Syaoran probably is right now.
Turning the corner along the side of the school's brick wall, I, yet again, nearly run into someone. I take the turn hard and fast, and by the time I look up and see the figure fifteen feet ahead of me I'm going to quickly to stop.
"Look out!" I make a failed attempt to stop. I know it won't work but I try it anyways. I lean back and put all of my weight onto the brake.
The person turns in time for us to crash into each other head on. It happens in mere seconds after that.
My outstretched arms come in contact with something sturdy, but my feet continue on, sliding right in between the other persons legs, and sending me reeling backwards. Instinctively I grab onto the broad shoulders in front of me to keep myself upright, but in the end we both go tumbling, me first.
Mid-fall I feel an arm wrap around me and my upper body presses against theirs. I hear a thud as we hit the ground. Or, rather, the person holding me hits the ground. Their knees and right arm hit the ground very painfully, I imagine. There's a groan and I can tell my savior is male. Well that, and that my chest is pressed against his and I can feel that it's flat and sturdy. The arm holding me against him prevents me from taking any damage from the fall besides my bottom. My arms are wrapped around his shoulders at this point.
Slowly, I feel him lower me until my back is against the sidewalk. He leans down with me, and then pulls his arm out from under me. I remove my arms from around him and he pushes himself up a little. FInally, I see his face.
No way! "Li," I squeak.
"The one and only," he sarcastically repeats the line I once used on him.
He groans, head down and eyes pinched shut, as he brings himself up onto both of his hands. His shaggy chocolate hair partly hides his face, but I can still see as his eyelids rise to reveal amber eyes. With one hard blink, he brings his head up and meets my gaze. I can see lines between his eyebrows as they tug together in a wince. After a second he realizes how close we are, something that came to my attention the moment I realized who he was. Our faces are inches apart.
"Well, this is awkward."
I grind my teeth. Way to state the obvious, genius. "Then get off me."
One of those smirks of his appears. How can he be so calm in this situation? "I think I'm rather enjoying this. You should see your face." I don't think I want to know how red it is right now.
"Get the hell off!"
He gives me a suggestive look. "Oh, someone's feisty."
"So help me, Li, you may be some highly trained martial artist, but I'll knee you where the sun doesn't shine if you don't move your fat ass!" I'm embarrassed just saying it, but it's all I can think of. I'd never actually have the guts to do it.
He feigns a look of hurt. "You'd ruin my chances of ever having children? That's a little cruel, don't you think?"
Oh my- when I get my hands on this bastard.
I shove myself up, almost bumping noses with him, but not quite. His eyes widen at the sudden closeness, and I take the opportunity to give him the most threatening look I can manage. "Don't test me, Li."
Whatever I did does the trick.
I think I see Syaoran's face turn a little pink, but he pulls himself off of me before I can be sure. He coughs, lifting his arm to cover his face. It's scratched from the pavement. I push myself upright to get a better look at it. "Are you okay?" I look back into his eyes.
"Peachy." His face is indifferent.
"But your arm."
He turns it around, examining it. "It'll be fine in a day or two." It falls back to his side.
I start to try standing up, only to slip and fall froward. Of course, with Syaoran right in front of me, I never hit the ground. He reaches down and pulls me into an embrace. My face meets his chest and starts to heat up all over again.
Syaoran pulls me all the way to my feet and then takes me by the elbow.
"Grab onto my arms." His voice is soft this time as he guides me.
I take his arms, mine now overlapping his. Pulling my head away from him, I keep my face turned down to watch my feet. Thank goodness for the autumn breeze; It's the only thing keeping my face even a little cool.
As I steady myself, he asks, "you good?" All I can do is nod, not trusting my voice.
He slowly lets go and pulls his hands away. Fully dropping his arms down, he says, "well, at least you didn't run into the wall this time around."
Embarrassment gives way to shock. Is he serious? I look up to find him smirking again. Ugh! Just stop it, now.
As much as I want to stomp away from him angrily, I can't, so I cross my arms and skate past him. Approaching the gate, I throw a glance over my shoulder to find him still standing there, only now he's turned around facing me. He watches me with a blank stare.
"Hey!" He blinks as if coming out of a trance. "You gonna keep standing there like an idiot?"
He shoots me a dirty look, but follows.
Syaoran's POV
Near the end of the lesson, Sakura suddenly shoots her head up like she's remembered something important.
"Hey," she says to get my attention. Doesn't make much sense, considering I'm already looking at her. She's supposed to be listening to what I'm explaining to her.
"Hi." I say it just annoy her. Successfully, might I add. She gives me one of those 'what-the-heck?' looks.
She just shakes her head after a moment, and continues what she was going to say. "I just remembered! What the hell was up with you yesterday?"
I think back to the day before. Oh great. I already feel like shit for not being more considerate of Chiharu's feelings; I don't need Sakura reminding me of how much of a douche I was. "What," I grumble, dreading what she's about say.
"Don't you 'what' me! What were you thinking? When someone tells you that their parents are getting a divorce you don't go and say something stupid like," she pulls her head down and says in a snooty voice, "'you told her first?'" Sakura points at the space next to me to indicate 'her'.
I feel an imaginary vein pop. "I hardly think it's your place to lecture me. Are you two even friends?" Looks like that set her off. Remember how I said she was feisty?
"We're coworkers. I'm allowed to look out for her." She shakes her head trying to cool herself off. "Anyways, you need to apologize." Like I wasn't already going to.
"What are you: my mother?"
Her face turns red. "Y-you-" She clearly doesn't have a comeback. Sucks to be you, Sakura. Muahaha. "Gah!" She shoots up from her seat and storms off.
Wait- what? Where the hell is she going?
"Where do you think you're going," I call after her.
"I don't know!"
Well, that sure explains a lot. "You forgot your things."
Suddenly, she's walking back to where I am. "I knew that!" She grabs her things and stomps back over to the door, struggling to hold everything.
At this point I'm resisting the urge to laugh. I almost want her to leave so that I can. Unfortunately, I don't last very long.
When she reaches the door, Sakura is unable to open it due to all the books in her arms. The sight causes me to make a 'pft' sound. She hears me and turns around. "Shut up!" This girl is a riot.
She somehow manages to open the door and then storms out. I kind of wonder where she's going. Then the five minute bell rings, and I have my answer. The same place as me. The dreaded classroom. Well, off I go. Shoot me now, please.
All throughout class I can feel a dark aura emanating from the person in front of me. I'm just thankful our seats aren't switched. I think I'd fall over dead from all the death glares she'd give me. At least in front of me, she can't actually look at me. Still, it feels like there are eyes in the back of her head.
I'm relieved when the lunch bell finally rings. I slip out of the room before anyone else can even move.
Opening the door to the next class over, I find both Takashi and Chiharu inside. Seeing Chiharu looking like nothing ever happened makes me both relaxed and on edge at the same time. Talk about conflicting emotions. I walk over to them slowly, and Takashi catches sight of me first.
"Syaoran!" He waves to me. Chiharu looks over to me.
"Hey, Takashi." I look down at Chiharu. "Mihara, can I talk to you?"
She looks unsure, and somewhat shocked. She glances over to Takashi, who shrugs. Her eyes meet mine again. "Sure. What is it, Li?"
"About yesterday," I start. "I didn't mean to seem inconsiderate. I'm sorry if I offended you." I really hate apologizing, but in this situation it seems like the right thing to do. Takashi is my best friend, and he and Chiharu go back before I even knew him, so I need to keep peace with her. Not to mention, Takashi is totally in love with her; And probably vice versa. Plus, I was a total ass yesterday.
Chiharu and Takashi both look shocked. Probably because my apologies are so uncommon. Chiharu recovers enough to speak again. "It's fine, Li. I know you didn't mean to. I actually find it kind of funny."
I raise an eyebrow. "How so," I find myself asking. I can't think of anything even remotely 'funny' about it.
She looks at me knowingly with a half smile on her face. "As much as you claim that you don't want anything to do with her, you still focus on all things Sakura."
Sakura's POV
When lunch rolls around I tell Tomoyo to eat lunch with Rika and Chiharu without me. I use the excuse that I have to finish something for tutoring, which is kind of true. She leaves reluctantly, and I head to up to the rooftop to eat my lunch alone. The truth is that I want Tomoyo to be there with Chiharu and everyone else. I'd like to be there for her, too, but I'm not sure that's the best idea.
Chiharu, Takashi, Syaoran, and Tomoyo make up a group of tight-knit friends; A group that I, too, used to be part of, but after I cut ties with Syaoran, the group started to split. When Chiharu stopped speaking to me, it basically left me isolated, with Tomoyo as my only connection to the old group. Luckily, Tomoyo managed to maintain her friendship with both parties. The incident was before Rika moved here, and since Takashi is so close to Chiharu, naturally we didn't continue to interact.
Basically, I can't eat with them.
I finish my lunch about fifteen minutes into the break, leaving me with a whole forty five minutes left with nothing to do. I decide to head to the library to crack a book for the rest of lunch.
Entering the library, I find it rather quiet. I head down one of the rows and scan the books. Reference section. Yuck! Get me as far away from here as possible, please. I quickly hustle my way over to the teen fiction area, and begin to browse my options.
No. No. Maybe. N- wait, should this even be in a high school? Baffled and somewhat disturbed, I shove the book back into its place on the shelf, and pull out another book that looks less- er- mature. Ah, much better. The cover of the book has a dragon on it, so I think I should be okay to read it without my face turning into a tomato.
Leaving the row, I go to sit down at an empty table in the back. I open the book to the first page and begin to read. I didn't actually look to see what the book is about, but so far it seems interesting enough.
I've only been reading for about five minutes when I hear the chair in front of me being dragged across the floor. I look up. My gaze is met by a pair of deep brown eyes framed by large wire glasses. The face of an intellectual woman looks down at me. I almost mistake her for a teacher, but she's wearing the school uniform, so she must be a student. She smiles brightly, and tilts her head to the side a little, her bob cut hair swaying.
"Do you mind if I sit here?" Her voice is so mature!
I shake my head. "Not at all. Go ahead."
She quietly takes a seat, and pulls the chair in. I look back down to my book, but watch through my bangs as she pulls a journal from her bag, opens it to a blank page, and starts to write.
After a minute, I'm startled when she speaks. "I can see you watching me, you know." There's a small smile on her lips when she lifts her eyes to look at me through her bangs as I'm doing to her.
I'm filled with shame. "Sorry," I say, trying to look down at my book again, but then look up at her again, this time lifting my head a bit. She mimics my action. "It's just that- well- you look like a teacher, but you're wearing a uniform. Are you a student?"
She giggles. "I get that a lot. Yes, I'm a student; Just a senior."
No way! I shoot up in my seat. "Really? Same. What class?"
"I'm in 3-A."
"Wow, that's right next door to me. I'm in 3-B. How have I not seen you before?"
She shrugs. "I suppose you could say that I just blend well in a crowd. My name is Naoko Yanagisawa, by the way."
"Oh. I'm Sakura Kinomoto. Nice to meet you." I find myself smiling. It's always interesting meeting new people like this.
"Likewise." Her eyes move down to my book. "So, I don't mean to pry, but what are you reading?"
"Ugh, I don't really know." I hold up the book to show her. "I just picked it up off the shelf because it looked normal enough."
Her eyes light up when she sees the cover. "I've read that one before. It's a wonderful book. The characters are likable, and the plot is unique." She speaks with a sense of passion. I can feel her love for the book just through her voice.
"I only just started, but it seems interesting so far. I'm not entirely sure what it's about, though. I assume there's a dragon in it." I look at the cover of the book again.
A frown forms on her face. "Didn't you read the summery?"
I sheepishly shake my head. "No, I saw it and figured it would be interesting, so I just sat down and started reading."
She tisks. "Bold move. Want me to give you a rundown?"
I can't help but sigh in relief. "Would you? It's kind of nerve wracking having no idea what's going on."
Her head bobs. "Sure. So, basically-" She proceeds to give me a basic idea of what the book is about.
I don't realize how long we're just sitting there talking until the warning bell rings. I lift my head up in alarm.
"Wow, already? How long have we been talking?" I glance over to the clock. "Oh my gosh!" I look back to Naoko with an apologetic gaze. "I'm so sorry, I totally kept you from your work."
This time she shakes her head. "Nah, I'm just writing something for the fun of it. No biggy, and besides, this has been really fun for me." I feel a little thankful hearing this.
"Me, too. We should do it again sometime." Naoko seems like a really nice person, and when I talk to her I feel all my worries just fly away.
"Sure. I come here everyday during lunch, so feel free to sit with me anytime."
I can't seem to stop smiling. I just met someone new, and now we're already talking about meeting up during future lunches.
"I'll be sure to stop by every now and then." It'll probably end up being more often than just 'now and then'. Who knew the library was such a good lunch spot? "Do you wanna walk back together?"
"I don't see why not. Are you going to check that out?" She nods to the book in my hands. I look down at it and debate.
"No, I think I'll leave it. Gives me an actual reason to come here and talk to you." Not to mention that I don't have time to read a book in my spare time.
I get up and set the book back on the shelf. We then proceed to head out of the library and to class together. When we reach Naoko's classroom I wave goodbye and head next door to 3-B.
I'm still smiling as I walk through the door. Tomoyo is already back from having lunch, and watches as I walk up.
"Have a good lunch, I take it?"
I nod and plop down in my seat. "I did, indeed. You should have lunch with Chiharu again tomorrow." I don't want to seem like I'm trying to get rid of Tomoyo, but now she can actually go be with Chiharu without me being lonely.
"Are you sure?" Tomoyo is always hesitant about leaving me alone.
"I am. She needs you more than I do right now. Besides, there's a book that I want to read in the library."
She looks a little relieved. "Thank you, Sakura." Even though Tomoyo tries not to show it too much, she's really worried about Chiharu.
"Don't mention it."
When I arrive home after work, I find Touya in the family room watching T.V. Glancing around the room, I walk up to him and sit down. "You seen dad today?"
A look of distaste crosses his face. "Does it matter? He's probably off at some bar again." Yeah, probably.
I lean back against the couch. "So, have you heard back from that job yet?" I try not to look to anxious.
His eyes light up. "Right, I almost forgot." Touya picks up the remote and mutes the T.V. "They just called earlier today." He turns to face me.
"So? What did they say?" He stays silent for a moment just to see my reaction. You're killing me here, Touya!
Finally he speaks. "I got the job."
I shoot up from my seat and dance around the room. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I don't really even know who I'm thanking, but I'm too relieved to stop.
Touya's laughter comes from the couch behind me. "Calm down, kaiju."
"Don't call me that!" He disregards my protest.
"I don't start up work there until the Monday after next."
I sit down again and pull my knees up to my chest. "Maybe, but that's not too far away."
He sighs. "Yeah, I guess." He looks me in the eyes. "As soon as I start working there, you're cutting back on your hours, alright?"
I roll my eyes. "Yeah, I know." It's not like I enjoy working from sunup to sundown. The only reason I do it is so that we can pay the bills.
"Good. Now, go eat something and get to bed." He's so demanding.
I get up reluctantly and head off the the kitchen. Looks like I'll be having leftovers again tonight.
Syaoran's POV
Friday is one of my favorite days of the week. Why? Because, it's right before Saturday, and Saturday is the weekend. So, as I trudge to school this morning, I just think about tomorrow.
Upon my arrival, I find Sakura standing in front of the gate holding an umbrella in her hand. Weird part is that it's not raining.
"What's with the umbrella?"
"It's supposed to rain this afternoon," she states.
"Yeah, well it's still the morning, and nothings falling. Why is it open?"
She just shrugs. "I got bored, so I opened it."
Wow. She's so strange sometimes. What am I saying? All the time.
I shake my head and stroll past her. Just keep walking, Syaoran.
"Hey, wait a minute, Li." She rolls up next to me. "Did you talk to Chiharu?"
I stop walking, and she follows suit. "Look, Kinomoto. I don't know how to put this nicely, so I'm just gonna say it." She turns to look at me. "It's really not any of your business. Maybe it was once, but not anymore." I can see her expression change. She's not angry anymore. Well, she is, but now it's because I've hurt her. I hate it when she looks like that, even now, but I don't let it get to me. "So, stop nagging me like you and Chiharu are suddenly best friends again."
It takes all of my courage to turn away form her and head into the building.
Sakura is quiet throughout the lesson. She mainly just nods in understanding, and when she doesn't know something, she glares angrily at the paper rather than asking me. At first I just let her be stubborn, but after a while of us getting absolutely nowhere, I have no choice but to step in.
"If you don't know how to do it, you can just ask."
"Who says I don't know how to do it?" She defensively raises her voice.
"You've been on that problem for the past five minutes, and you've written two things."
She thrusts the paper at me. "Fine, then show me what the hell I'm doing wrong."
I take the paper from her and set it down facing her again. "Alright, but first you need to take a deep breath and focus."
She grumbles under her breath for a moment, but when I give her one of my don't-mess-with-me looks, she glares at me and gives in. Her eyes drift closed and she inhales deeply. Then she exhales. When she reopens her eyes, I can she the frustration slowly dying off.
"Good, now look at me." Her eyes meet mine and I feel my breath catch in my throat. Focus, Syaoran! I pull myself back to reality before she can notice. "You need to concentrate on what I'm trying to teach you. If you have a question, you need to ask. Got that?" That concentration part is also for me.
Sakura nods.
"Okay, then. Let's try this again." I lean forward and begin to explain to her how to do the problem.
Sakura's POV
Syaoran has been re-explaining old material to me like nobody's business. He's really good at it, to be honest. Even though I feel uncomfortable around him, and sometimes want to slap him across the face as hard as I can, he still manages to get the material through to me. It's actually pretty impressive. Not that I would ever say any of that to his face... Well, I mean, technically, I kinda already did, but come on! He got me to do a math problem correctly on my own after less than an hour. That takes some serious skills. If he weren't going to inherit the Li Corporation in Hong Kong when he's older, I'd say he should be a teacher.
When we wrap up the lesson, he begins to leave ahead of me, and I have to muster up all my courage to call out to him. "Li!" I almost don't want him to stop and turn around, but he does. Oh, what am I doing? "About earlier," I begin slowly. I have to force myself to look him in the eyes. "You were right." I see his eyes widen. Yeah, I'm just as perplexed as you are. Why am I doing this again? "It's not my place to say anything. It won't happen again." You can be sure of that, though. No way am I touching anything even remotely related to the past with him ever again.
He studies me for a moment, before nodding and turning to leave. I keep my distance as I follow him silently to class. My eyes stay trained on his heels the entire time. Left. Right. Left. Right. Stop. We enter the classroom. Class starts a few minutes later.
When lunch rolls around, I scarf down my food and head straight for the library. It takes me a little longer than yesterday, so by the time I get there Naoko is already seated in her spot from yesterday, writing in her notebook. Her hand flies across the paper at lightning speed. I almost stand there and gawk, but manage to walk up to her instead.
As I set my empty bento box down on the table, her hand stops and she looks up. "You're back!" She smiles brightly.
"Yeah. Gotta find out what happens in that book." I turn and walk down the isle the book is in and pull it off the shelf. Sitting down again, I open the book to the page I was on and begin reading.
Time seems to fly as my eyes skim the pages. Somewhere around forty minutes later, the bell rings. My eyes dart to the clock. "Darn it."
In front of me Naoko speaks. "Can't pull yourself away?" I look to find her giving me a knowing smile as she sets down her pencil.
"Yeah. I just finished this chapter, and it's a total cliffhanger."
"Well, I guess you'll have to wait until Monday to find out what happens."
I groan, but shut the book and put it back. "This is going to be one long weekend."
She simply lets out a carefree laugh, and we head back to class together.
Tomoyo's POV
"Say, Tomoyo, where is Sakura?" Rika's voice snaps me out of my daydream. I'm sitting in classroom 3-C with Chiharu and the others, eating lunch. It's only the second day that I've had lunch with them and not Sakura, but I can't stop wondering how she's doing.
I look up at Rika. "She's having lunch by herself today. She said something about going to the library to read a book." When Sakura told me she was okay with me having lunch with Chiharu again, I was grateful to say the least. I've been worried about Chiharu all week, so Sakura insisted I have lunch with Chiharu.
"Why do you ask?"
"It's just that you two always eat lunch together, so I was wondering if maybe she wanted to eat with us."
My mind races. Sometimes I forget that Rika wasn't in Tomoeda before Sakura's split from the rest of the group. Lately, so much has been happening, and Sakura has been interacting with Chiharu and Li so much that Rika's observation only seems natural.
"Oh, er-" I glance over to Chiharu. She watches us quietly. "I don't think that's the best idea."
"Why not? I mean, I know that Li-kun-" Li's head zips in our direction- "and Sakura-chan had that falling out of theirs, but I don't see why she can't have lunch with us."
Li lets out a dry laugh. "Falling out? Is that what she calls it?" Takashi smacks Li's shoulder with the back of his hand and indicates for him to stop talking. Li grumbles something incoherent and turns to look out the window again.
I focus my attention on Rika again, who's watching Li in confusion. "It's kind of-" I try to think of the word- "complicated." Her frown only seems to deepen.
Suddenly Chiharu leans forward and speaks. "It's alright, Tomoyo. She's going to find out sooner or later." Chiharu turns to face Rika, and when she speaks again. her voice is serious. "Since pre-school up until about five years ago, Sakura and I were really close friends."
Rika's eyes enlarge listening to Chiharu's words. "You, too? What happened?"
Chiharu has a troubled look on her face. "I don't know if you knew this or not, Rika, but Sakura doesn't have a mother." I see Li's eyes drift over to Chiharu. "She passed away when Sakura was ten years old."
Rika looks down, appearing remorseful. "I'd heard rumors about it, but never really thought much of it."
She returns her gaze to Chiharu, who lowers her voice a little. We're huddled close together like children telling ghost stories around a camp fire. "I don't want to go gossiping about all the details, but Sakura's family took it pretty hard. She changed afterwards. She was in a really dark place for a while." All of us are watching Chiharu at this point. Hanging on her every word. Pretty bizarre, considering the rest of us already know what happened. "Anyways, Sakura used to always come to Tomoyo and I for consoling, but after a while I couldn't take it anymore."
"I understand, but that's all in the past now. Can't you two try to work it out?"
Chiharu frowns like she doesn't know what to say. Then, Li's voice interjects from his spot beside the window. "It might not be my place to say this, but Sasaki has a point." We all look at him totally bewildered.
Chiharu pokes at her food anxiously. "It's not like we can just suddenly go back to being friends again after all this time. Anyways, how can you say that so lightly after it happened to you, too, Li?"
Li's expression hardens and his face seems to become darker. "I never had a say in what happened with Sakura and I. You, on the other hand, did. It's clear that she still thinks of you as a friend. There's nothing holding you back from rekindling that friendship with her."
Chiharu remains silent for a moment, and then finally says, "Can we stop talking about this?" I watch thoughtfully as Chiharu turns away from us.
What Li and Rika have proposed is something that I have not dared allow myself to wish for. If Sakura and Chiharu did indeed go back to being friends, I wouldn't have to choose between two sides. Sure, Sakura might not want to eat lunch with us if Li is around, but he's tutoring her already, so it's not like they don't know how to be in each other's presence.
I allow my gaze to wander to where Li sits, now quietly eating his lunch and looking out the window as if nothing happened. It's strange hearing him talk about Sakura, especially knowing everything about that went down between the two of them. They used to be so close. She would go to him, rather than me, sometimes. Then everything changed. Sakura had told me all of the things she went through during those first few months that he wasn't there for her. She told me all of her deepest darkest secrets, and to be honest, knowing them sometimes makes me feel suffocated. I can't imagine what it must be like for Sakura to feel that firsthand.
The rest of lunch is spent in silence. None of us know what to say. When the bell finally rings, I can almost hear a collective sigh of relief pass over our little group. What we've been talking about really isn't the sort of conversation you have during a school lunch.
When Sakura shows up in our classroom, Rika, Li, and I have already returned. She sees Rika first, then her eyes drift Li and I sitting in the back. She walks down the isle and speaks in a low voice, stopping in front of my desk. "What's with the long faces?"
I'm too tired to speak, so I simply shake my head. It's not like I can tell her, anyways. I have this rule: don't go repeating what you hear from one side to the other. If I did that, everything would come crumbling apart. It's hard being the one in the middle. One wrong move and I could be the cause of a full blown war.
Sakura's POV
I was right. By the time the final bell rings, it's pouring buckets outside. I mill quickly through the hallway to my locker. It'll take extra long to get to work today. I won't be able to blade with the water on the sidewalks, and the umbrella in my hand, so I'll have to walk.
As I'm making my way out the front door, umbrella in hand, something catches my eye. Or, rather- someone. Chiharu stands under the outside overhang, just barely out of reach from the pelting rain. I have a silent war within myself before walking up to her and saying, "wanna share?"
She looks over at me, startled. Then she looks confused. I point to the pink umbrella in my hand. Her eyes travel down to it, and realization passes her face.
"Oh, um. . ." She glances to the sky beyond the overhand, and then back to me. "Sure." I can hear the hesitation in her voice, but decide not to think much of it.
So, together we head to Twin Bells Cafe, walking shoulder to shoulder under the bright pink covering of my umbrella.
I've realized something as I write. My chapters are getting longer and longer. I have to split the next one into two. Very sad.
What'd you all think of Tomoyo's POV? Like it or not, she's going to be in it more as the story progresses.
You also met Naoko in this chapter. Pretty happy about that, myself.