AN: The author apologizes for taking so long to update but unfortunately she has not had a lot of time to work on this. She hopes that the chapter being so long makes up for it. The next chapter is in works but it probably won't be posted for a few months. Also, a huge thank you goes out to all the people who followed, favorited, reviewed, and read this story. This story is really important to me so it makes me happy to see that people like it.

Disclaimer: Does not own Hetalia. Is not funny enough nor does she have the time. Also does not own the amazing movie that is Yeh Jawani hai Diwani (which I got to see again recently and it's still amazing).

Part 3

Julchen was suitably impressed with the way Sakura was able to set up their tent and how she knew her way around the camp without instructions from Jett.

Julchen paused from their unpacking to stare at Sakura. It was a bit hard to believe that Sakura had experience with the outdoors but as people always say, seeing is believing.

"Where did you learn all of this? I can barely make a fire. Let alone set up a tent."

"Mama had all her kids become scouts so that we could learn useful things. She also took us camping trips a lot because she wanted us to get away from electronics and the like."

"Really? That sounds awesome. I wish my family was close enough to do things like that."

"It wasn't so much as us being close as it was Mama making sure to prepare us for every eventuality she could. She grew up in a very dangerous environment and she didn't want us to ever suffer the way she did."

"Hey Julchen, stop flirting with Sakura and go to sleep."

Julchen turned around and threw a pillow at the interloper.

"Shut up Al! I was just asking Sakura who taught her how to set up tents."

Al let out a low whistle.

"That's why the tent looks so nice. If you had set it up, it would look like it was about to fall. Good job Sakura. I should kiss you and ask you to take care of our Julchen because she obviously can't take care of herself in the great outdoors."

"Get out you idiot and stop flirting with Sakura. If you break her heart, I'll break you."

Al laughed as Julchen threw things at him to chase him out of the tent. She ran after him to make sure he wouldn't come back.

While this was happening, Sakura could feel her face become bright red from what Al had said to her. No one had ever wanted to kiss her. Even as a joke.

When Julchen came back to the tent, her hands were pulling at her hair in frustration. She noticed Sakura's faded blush and frowned slightly.

Julchen decided that she needed to actually talk to the girl and warn her about Al. And who knows? Maybe Julchen would finally make a friend with the same gender as her.

"Hey Sakura, do you want to gossip about boys?"

Sakura looked up in surprise. This trip really did have a lot of firsts for her.

Julchen had to be the first girl who wanted to talk about boys with her. Even Mei didn't want to talk to her older sister about boys. Her best friend Michelle was more than enough for Sakura's little sister.

Sakura quickly agreed. It would be nice to actually have a friend like Julchen.

"Of course but I would like to apologize beforehand because I've never had the chance to talk about boys with anyone."

Julchen sat down on her sleeping bag and turned to face Sakura.

"That's okay. I've never talked about boys with a friend before either."

"Really? Also you consider me a friend?"

Sakura's surprise was plastered all over her face.

"I've never really had friends that are girls before you and I only have a little brother. What about you? What's your excuse?"

Sakura sighed softly,

"I don't really have a lot of friends, and I'm not all that close to most of them.

I do have a best friend but he went out of state for college and he doesn't come back home all that often. Also, we usually talk through text or phone calls or Skype. And if there's something romantic in our lives, we like to talk to each other in person.

I'm not that close to my sister with our age gap and Mama's usually too busy."

"Oh… Well let's change that. I'm your friend now so we can talk about romance, boys, or anything we want."

Julchen smiled when she saw that Sakura nodded her head.

"So I'm going to start. I have some really important advice for you. Don't fall in love with Al. He doesn't believe in love and he's left a long line of broken hearts behind him because of that."

"I thought that might be the case. He seems like type. I'll do my best not to but unfortunately he may be my type. I hope not but it's possible," murmured Sakura.

"You have a type? If that's the case you tell me about yours and I'll tell you about mine."

Julchen and Sakura had never realized what it was like to have a girl to talk to. It was surprisingly nice. Both girls might have guy best friends but they had easily become a close friend to each other.

"Gather round people. I need to tell you the plan for the day.

Today we'll be splitting up into two teams and hike to this point on the map.

The team that get there first will get to relax while the losing team will have to set up camp and cook dinner. I may decide to be nice and just have the losing team cook but we'll see.

Now choose your teams and be quick about it."

Matthias felt no surprise with the teams that had been created. The minute Julchen and Al had been picked as team captains, it became obvious to him at least that this was the way the teams would turn out.

Julchen and Al had a long standing competition which Julchen was winning by one point.

Al would have chosen Matthias but Julchen got to him first. So Al chose Marianne because he knew it would irritate Julchen.

Julchen retaliated by choosing Sakura who looked a bit surprised but pleased at being picked.

Matthias gave Sakura a one armed hug to welcome her to their team but let go quickly when he saw Al glare at him. Al had a pretty scary glare.

Julchen acted like she didn't notice but Matthias saw her narrowed eyes and clenched fist.

She obviously didn't trust Al with Sakura. However, she just gave Sakura a big hug and stuck her tongue out at Al.

Sakura was a bit uncomfortable because she wasn't used to so much physical contact but she chose to laugh at Julchen's antics with Al and Matthias.

Al and Matthias both realized that whatever Julchen and Sakura had talked about the night before had caused them to become friends.

They both silently promised themselves that they would do their best to make sure the new friendship lasted.

They didn't have much time to dwell on their thoughts because with the competition's start Julchen and Al became bitter enemies determined to win against each other.

Al was confident that he would win this competition because Julchen had never been the best when it came to hiking.

Julchen had been born to be fast but this was a test of endurance more than anything and Al was the best in the trio at endurance challenges.

Julchen was good at this stuff but not as good as Al. After all, Al's mother would take him camping often when she was still alive. Those trips gave him a lot of practice with these woods.

"Al, do wait up. I would like to walk with you."

Al turned around to see Marianne with a flirtatious smile on her face that made Al smirk back.

"Of course. Anything for a beautiful flower like you."

Al just knew that his papa would be so proud of him and Arthur would probably complain about how Al was turning out to be just like his father.

"Oh dear."

Marianne stumbled making Al stop to help her.

She held her ankle but was still standing without favoring one foot over the other.

"My ankle. It hurts. I must have sprained it when I tripped."

Al knew, and Marianne probably knew that he knew, that she was faking it so they could flirt some more.

"Let me take a look at it."

Marianne sat down on a ledge and removed her shoe.

"Do be a dear, Al and massage my foot."

"Anything for you sweet Marianne."

Al was massaging Marianne's injured foot, when he noticed Sakura up ahead. Al's eyes narrowed.

It seemed that Sakura was better at more than just setting up camp when it came to the outdoors.

At the rate Sakura was moving, she would probably beat him and Julchen would have a two point lead over him.

That was not allowed to happen. If it did, he might as well consider the competition done and over with. He did not want to lose something he should be able to win.

Al immediately jumped up and ran after Sakura.

He could hear Marianne calling out his name from behind him but he couldn't care. This competition was way too important to have a loss caused by a nerd like Sakura.

Al yelled out,

"Hey Sakura! Wait up."

Sakura glanced back at him but she had this look in her eyes told him that she was not going to stop. She obviously wanted to win this competition as much as he did.

He ran after her until he finally caught up with her about 10 feet away from the goal.

He grabbed her shoulder which made her turn around and face him.

"What do you want Al? Please release me."

"Look, can we just agree on a truce and rest for a little bit? After we both catch our breaths, how about we race to the point and the faster runner wins?"

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him,

"Why should I trust you? I know that you only want to win. Julchen told about your competition with her so don't think I don't know how desperate you are."

Al was surprised that Julchen trusted Sakura enough to tell her about the competition. Julia Belischmidt was notorious for not trusting people easily. Especially not when the last time she trusted a girl, she had her heart broken.

It was interesting to see how quickly Sakura had found her niche in their little trio. She got along with Matthias, Al liked her well enough, and Julchen had taken Sakura under her wing and honestly Al didn't mind as much he thought he would.

"Come on. It'll be fine so let's just sit down for a bit. We'll race for the win and we'll have fun with it."

Sakura still looked doubtful but she let Al lead her to a rock that was big enough for the both of them to sit on comfortably.

Al looked at Sakura carefully and tried to figure her out. However, he got started thinking about her height.

She was at least a head shorter than him but when sitting down, she could rest her head on his shoulder if she really wanted to.

"So, why'd ya come on this trip? It doesn't seem like something you would do."

The fact that someone like Sakura wanted to come on this trip made Al curious.

What was even more interesting was Sakura's reaction to his question. Her eyes seemed to lose some of their brightness that they had developed during the trip so far.

"I love my family but everything I've done has been for them. I decided that I should try doing something for myself so I joined this trip. I'm glad I did because Julchen is a friend I would never had the chance to become friends with this adventure."

Al was surprised. Sakura had always been quiet when they were in high school. All of her friends were involved in the same things as her.

She had been part of the newspaper staff and even ran the paper her senior year. That was honestly one of the few things he could remember about her.

"I never knew you felt that way. I mean you've always seemed like the kind of person who was satisfied with what you did and with life in general. I always thought you liked having a simple life."

She gave a small laugh.

"That's because my mother taught my siblings and me that showing your emotions is a dangerous thing and it's better to conceal them. No one really ever saw them. Not even my family or closest friends, so it's no surprise you couldn't tell either."

"That actually explains a lot. Everyone just thought that you had lost the ability to feel because you would never show your emotions but Julchen always said that your stoicism was just a mask. That you were protecting yourself from the world with it."

"She was right. Now can you go back to flirting with that girl?"

"What's your problem with Marianne?"

"She's only good for flirting with. She has no substance. Or she acts like she doesn't."

Al looked at Sakura carefully before saying,

"Well it's not like she can be a girl like you."

Sakura looked indignant,

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He smiled at her softly.

"There are different kinds of girls out there. Marianne's the kind you flirt with but you're not. You're the kind that a person falls in love with."

Sakura was quiet as she thought about what he had said. No one had ever said something like that to her.

Before her embarrassment could show, she whispered,

"Can we just finish the competition now?"

"Okay. Good luck beating me."

He quickly made his escape and wasn't surprised with the aftermath. Al felt a bit bad about what he had just done but his desire to win was stronger than any guilty feelings.

Sakura tried to run after him when she fell. Al had tied her legs together. And while it was an easy knot to remove, there was no way for her to beat Al.

"You cheater!"

Al started walking backwards and smiled at her.

"We're not in school anymore Sakura. The whole world cheats so deal with it."

Julchen's team was in charge of dinner that night.

Julchen had noticed that Sakura was still upset about what had happened last night.

In fact, her mood had gotten worse. Giving Sakura some space to calm down had obviously been a bad idea. A really bad one.

It wasn't all that noticeable but Julchen realized that Sakura was the type to retreat into herself if she was upset. And that was exactly what the smaller woman had done.

Last night she refused to talk to Al and if given the chance, she avoided him and the rest of his team altogether.

This morning, Sakura refused to talk at all.

It worried Julchen to say the least. Julchen considered Sakura a friend and with Sakura refusing to talk, it was like high school all over again. They were just two girls who ran in different circles.

Every time Julchen tried to corner Sakura, Sakura would escape because another member of the trip would need help and Sakura had become the go to person for this portion of the trip.

Julchen was going to kill Al. She just knew that he had something to do with Sakura refusing to talk to her.

Sakura was the only friend of Julchen's that was a girl and she refused to lose her friendship with Sakura because of an idiotic boy. Even if that idiotic boy was one of her best friends.

Julchen waited until Sakura got on the bus so that she could sit next to her.

Sakura had chosen a window seat in the middle of the bus.

While Julchen was normally a back of the bus kind of gal, she sacrificed her norm sot that she could talk to Sakura.

Sakura was definitely surprised but her reaction was nothing compared to how Matthias and Al reacted.

The boys froze and their mouths fell open seeing Julchen willingly sit next to another girl.

Julchen smirked at them.

"Close your mouth boys. You might catch flies."

Matthias recovered faster than Al (which was rare) and pushed Al to make him move.

Al got over his shock but the look in his eyes made it clear to Julchen that she'd have to suffer an interrogation later.

"Why did you sit here instead of with your friends?"

Julchen was surprised that Sakura was the one to say something first but whatever. What mattered to Julchen was that Sakura talked to her.

"I am sitting with a friend. Now, you're going to tell me what stupid thing Al did. It obviously made you upset."

"It was nothing."

"I don't believe you."

Julchen really didn't. Sakura was the type of person to lie if it meant not having to talk about her thoughts.

"You and Al were the first ones to get to the goal after Jett and Al obviously won because our team was the one that had to cook dinner. Something had to have happened before that or else you wouldn't have been so upset about losing."

Sakura paused but her trust in Julchen was strong enough for her to tell the truth.

"He tricked me. No one has ever been able to trick me before, and trust me when I say that a lot of people have tried. Mama almost made me her heir because of that before she decided on my younger brother."

Even though Sakura had shared part of the problem, Julchen could tell that there was more that was upsetting Sakura.

"Is that what you're really angry about?"

"No… I think what makes me really angry is that for a moment I thought he actually considered me as a friend. Of course I was just deluding myself."

Julchen hugged Sakura.

"I'm definitely your friend and I totally care. After all, if the awesomeness that is me approves of you then you've got to be awesome."

Sakura froze in shock before saying,

"You took my hug virginity. Take responsibility."

Julchen was about to apologize when she saw that Sakura's shoulders were shaking in amusement. Julchen let out a laugh which caused Sakura to giggle and they both laughed at each other for several minutes.

Matthias had been watching Julchen and Sakura for a while and it just didn't make sense.

"I don't understand."

"There are a lot of things you don't understand. You'll have to be more specific."

Al didn't even bother to look up from his book.

"Really? That's what you have to say."

"Yep."

Matthias rolled his eyes,

"Of course that's what you'd say. I was talking about the fact that Julchen is getting along with a person who's the same gender as her and they might even be becoming that sister from another mister thing Julchen mentioned once."

That definitely got Al's attention. He even put down his book to look at where Julchen was sitting with Sakura.

Julchen's laugh was audible and from of the looks of it, Sakura was laughing as well.

Al rubbed his eyes to make sure it was actually there and Matthias nodded his head.

"That's exactly how I felt when I first noticed them. It's kind of hard to believe but it's actually happening. Julchen has female friend that won't destroy their friendship over a guy."

"I never thought that Julchen would ever find anything in common with Sakura of all people but it makes sense if we think about it. Matthias, do you remember how Sakura never really spent time with people outside the newspaper?"

Matthias made a sound of acknowledgement,

"Yeah, I remember. She didn't talk much and I remember the newspaper guys being really protective of her."

"Well, doesn't that mean that Sakura's never really had friends that were girls? Because if I remember correctly, Sakura was the only girl on the newspaper staff by senior year."

"Which means that she's probably just as awkward around other girls as Julchen. Al, that's either pretty stupid or genius. The two of them must get along because of that."

Of course if Julchen knew what they were thinking she would have beat them up for thinking that Sakura was her friend just because they were awkward around other girls.

"So Luddy found himself trapped up in the treehouse because he had forgotten how to climb down. The whole thing was made even funnier due to the fact that the treehouse had a rope ladder inside to help if something like that would happen. Opa had to go up there and show him the ropes. Literally."

Julchen's storytelling was making Sakura laugh because honestly, it sounded like something that her family would do as well.

A thought occurred to Sakura,

"Is Luddy short for Ludwig? Because then I think I might know him. Ludwig was on the newspaper staff in my senior year as a freshman reporter."

Julchen's eyes widened,

"Oh yeah. Luddy raved about you all the time and would always complain about how your second in command was such a lazy ass."

Sakura let out a little laugh,

"Yes. Feli has never liked working hard but he does a good job when he puts his mind to it. I knew what I was doing when I chose him to take over after I graduated. And it made it easier because Feli was the chief for two years before he graduated. Did you know that Ludwig and Feli are dating and have been since Feli's junior and Ludwig's sophomore year?"

Julchen quickly sobered up,

"I… I didn't know. I mean I knew Luddy was gay but I had no idea he's had a boyfriend for so long. Ludwig didn't tell me. I guess he was worried I would tease him too much or something."

Sakura felt really bad but before she could apologize, Julchen forced a grin onto her face.

"I guess that's what I get for being a brat when I was younger. Opa always said that I was an idiot for acting out so much when I was younger."

"If it makes you feel better, the only reason why I know that my little brother Leon is dating his boyfriend Emil, is because I accidentally walked in on them making out when they were supposed to be working on a project."

"Not really but I guess I understand. Your family doesn't really tell you much about their lives either. It seems like we have a lot in common when it comes to our family issues."

Sakura and Julchen shared a wry smile. Seems like the girl who became a rebel and the girl who became an otaku had a lot in common when it came to the root cause. They were both girls who felt like outsiders in their own families and homes.

"I'm beat. It'll be nice to sleep in a proper bed again. Even if it is a hotel bed."

Al stretched his arms far above his head before turning to look around the room he was going to share with his group.

Matthias had already laid himself out on the bed that Al would be sharing with him.

Julchen and Sakura were already unpacking things and seemed to be discussing something about some TV show that they both had enjoyed.

"Hey Sakura, since when were you so close to Julchen?"

Sakura glanced at Al before whispering something to Julchen and leaving the room.

Julchen sighed while Matthias was surprised that Sakura, who was one of the nicest people he had ever met, was rude to Al.

Al felt irritated. Sakura had no good reason to hold a grudge for what had happened earlier. It was just life. People cheat a lot, so why was she still mad.

"Al, I think you should go talk to her. She's in the lobby studying right now."

Al turned his eyes towards Julchen who had an unusually serious look on her face.

"Why should I? She's the one who needs to get over herself."

"Alfred Francis Jones, go talk to her. She feels horrible because of what you did so you better talk to her and actually figure out why.

I don't want my first girl friend to hate one of my best friends just because my best friend couldn't understand where she was coming from."

"Fine but if this doesn't work then I'm not going bother anymore."

Al spun around and he made sure to slam the door on his way out.

"Damn Julchen. You sure this is a good idea. Al seems pretty pissed off and Sakura still seems upset with him."

"They need to talk to each other. Al might get Sakura to open up about what's really bothering her and Sakura might teach Al that not all girls get upset because of petty reasons."

Al really didn't want to do this.

Sakura had already shown that she didn't like him so there was no reason why he should try to make her feel better.

However… Julchen really liked Sakura and Al owed her enough that he had to try to make this work. Even if it was only for one of the best friends he would ever have.

When Al entered the lobby, Sakura really was in a corner studying. It seemed like she was always studying during their free time.

"What are you studying so intently?"

Al had to smirk at the way Sakura jumped in surprise. It was actually kind of cute now that he thought about it.

Sakura's eyes narrowed at him. She was obviously suspicious of his reasoning in actually asking her what she was studying.

"I don't see how it matters to you. It's not like you care."

Al growled,

"What's your problem? You can't still be mad about the whole tying your legs together so that I could win thing. Do you just not like me? Is that why you always seem upset when I'm in the room?"

Sakura shook her head,

"That's not it."

"Then why? You obviously don't like me for some reason and I don't know what I did to upset you."

Sakura was obviously distressed with his questioning.

"You wouldn't understand."

"What wouldn't I understand?" asked Al softly.

The kindness in his voice caused Sakura to explode.

"What it means to be an outcast!? You're so lucky that you have a set of best friends and all three of you find it so easy to get along with people. And even if you don't, you have each other. You've never had to deal with feeling like you're an outsider with anyone. You have people you can talk to. You're allowed to show your emotions and you're not afraid to either. You know what life's like even when you can still have all the fun in the world. Well I'm not like that. Day in and day out I work hard just to be that perfect daughter and sister. I always act the way my mother and siblings expect and I don't ever really show them who I am. My own mother pushed me to inherit her business and I might have if my younger brother hadn't said that he wanted to take over and he proved that he would be good at it. It's unfair and I don't expect someone like you to understand. After all, what do you have to deal with? You can live your life how you want and you probably even have a dream that you know you'll achieve without major interference from your family."

Sakura was breathing heavily by that point.

Al raised an eyebrow,

"Feel better?"

She gave him a small embarrassed smile,

"Yes. Thank you for pushing me. I needed to let it out."

Al laughed,

"Yeah, no kidding. If you held it in any longer, you would have combusted," he held out a hand, "Come on. We should get back before Julchen sends an army after us."

Sakura took his hand and Al felt a jolt go through him. Her hand was so small just like the rest of her. He'd have to be more careful. Sakura was not someone he wanted to fall in love with. She deserved much better than him.

While he was trying to convince himself of this, he still didn't let go of Sakura's hand.

"Never again. No is going to make me visit Death Valley ever again."

"Whatever you say Matthias. We both know the only reason you're saying this is because your Nordic blood can't take the heat."

"It's not like you can take the heat either. Hell, you can't stand the cold at all and you don't like the heat."

"I can still take it better than you."

Julchen rolled her eyes at Al and Matthias. This was so typical of them.

"Boys. Come on Sakura, let's leave these two losers alone. We can enjoy Vegas without them."

Sakura nodded,

"They must have enjoyed Death Valley a lot if they're still talking about it instead of Las Vegas."

Matthias and Al looked on in shock as they watched Julchen and Sakura walk away.

"I had no idea that Sakura had so much sass."

"Neither did I, Matthias, neither did I."

Sakura realized that the first time since her father's death and Leon's birth, she was responsible for no one but herself. It was a liberating feeling.

However there was still a dark cloud hanging over her thoughts. Sakura realized that she had probably fallen in love with Al and she was going to get her heart broken.

Julchen probably suspected something but probably wouldn't say anything because she understood that Sakura was stronger than a heartbreak and that Sakura would move on from it.

Julchen and Sakura had reached the lobby in their quest to explore the hotel when Sakura suddenly froze.

Julchen looked at her friend and noticed that Sakura was looking at something in shock. Following Sakura's line of sight, Julchen was greeted with the stuff of nightmares.

Standing in the lobby, in full dragoness glory, was Chun-Yan Wang. A woman who was also Sakura's mother.

Julchen hissed,

"Sakura, what the hell is your mother doing here? Shouldn't she be in SF right now?"

Sakura was slowly recovering from the shock though she was still having trouble thinking.

"Yes. I don't understand why she's here unless she wants me to come home. I should go see what she wants."

Sakura felt cold all over. It looked like her trip was going to be cut short.

Her mother would definitely want her to come home and Sakura would have no option but to obey.

She steeled herself and walked towards her mother who was standing in front of the fountain in the lobby.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Al and Matthias had joined Julchen in spying on the mother and daughter.

To an untrained eye, it would seem like Sakura was calm but Chun-Yan was her mother and knew better.

"Hello daughter. Have you been enjoying your trip so far?"

Sakura nodded cautiously which prompted Chun-Yan to continue talking.

"Did you know that Leon's father and I met in Las Vegas while he was in denial about being gay? I'll have to introduce you to the man sometime. After all, he almost became your stepfather. Next time Leon visits the man, you should go with him."

Sakura stared at her mother. She had expected her mother to be enraged that her eldest child, the one she had raised to be the most responsible, had been reckless.

She had not expected to be told about one of the former men in her mother's life. Especially not the things about the first man Chun-Yan had a sort of relationship with after Sakura's father had died.

Noticing the look on Sakura's face, Chun-Yan smiled. The dragoness had confused another one with her brood in the past few weeks. She had forgotten how much fun it was to mess with people like that.

"I seem to have gotten really good at shocking my children lately. I will allow you to finish this trip but we will be discussing what I expect of you from now on. Are we in agreement?"

Sakura nodded her head in agreement. While she was surprised her mother was letting her stay with her friends, it was a relief that the worst that would happen was a talk about the new expectations coming from this… event.

"I agree to your terms but there is something bothering me. If you're not here to make me go home, then why are you here?"

Their relationship had always been very business-like after Sakura had graduated high school.

Chun-Yan gave her daughter a sincere smile which was a rare occurrence with Chun-Yan.

"Its moments like this that makes me wish you wanted to take over the business but then I remember Leon wants the company and he's able to be ruthless unlike you. He's a much better choice as my heir. Yong-Soo and Mei have time to decide what they want to do since they're still in high school."

"You're stalling. Answer the question."

Sakura's frustration was evident. It was just like her mother to take her own sweet time to do anything.

"Since when were you so impatient. Calm down and let me finish. I came to give you something. It was originally going to be a present for your entrance to the program you wanted but I decided to give it to you now. After all, I can consider you an adult."

Sakura had to wonder what her mother meant by her last few words but she quietly took the rectangular box from her mother. She put it on the floor and gave Chun-Yan a hug.

"Thank you Mama. Thank you for… for everything."

Chun-Yan, after recovering from the shock that her restrained daughter actually hugged her, she hugged back.

"You're welcome, my little cherry blossom. Wait to open the box until you get back to your room. I need to leave now but remember that I love you even if I don't always show it."

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?"

"Thank you for offering Julchen but I have things I want to do tonight. I'm probably going to do my laundry and catch up on my studying."

"Well you have to come out with me tomorrow night."

"Of course I will. Vegas won't know what hit it when the two of us go out together."

Sakura went down to the Laundromat in the hotel's basement.

Julchen, on the other hand, went to the hotel's game room to meet with Al and Matthias before their night out.

Al and Matthias looked up from their game of chess when she entered the room.

Al was paying more attention to Sakura then Julchen had originally thought because he asked Julchen,

"Is Sakura not coming with us?"

"No. She's going to stay here tonight to catch up on some stuff… though she is coming with us tomorrow."

Al finished the game with Matthias by putting his friend in checkmate and made his way past Julchen.

Matthias leaned his chair back so that he could see where Al was heading.

"Where're you going? We're going to leave soon. Remember?"

Al turned to face his friends but kept walking.

"I'm going to talk to Sakura to see if I can convince her to come with us. If she's going to be one of our friends, we should try to include her as much as possible."

Al quickly walked out before either Julchen or Matthias could say anything.

He made his way where Sakura would be if she was actually doing laundry.

He knew Sakura well enough to realize that if she said she was going to do something, she probably was doing that thing.

He eventually found her sequestered in the farthest corner from the door but before he could let her know he was there, she took out the new laptop her mother had given her. The unmistakable sound of a Skype call emanating from it.

Sakura's face lit up and she picked up the call from whoever it was. She must not have noticed Al at all.

"Hey Feli. How are you?"

The voice that answered was definitely male even if it was slightly higher than the usual male voice.

"I am so wonderful. It's so good to see your face again. And what's this? You're not in your room for once. Did you finally get a laptop? By the way, I'll be back in San Francisco next month. I can't wait to hug you and watch movies with you again."

The look on Sakura's face was best described as fond. Whoever this was, he was important to her.

This must have been why Sakura didn't want to come with them tonight. She probably knew her boyfriend was going to call and she wanted to talk to him in private.

And with that misunderstanding, Al left to go find Julchen and Matthias so that they could enjoy a night out in the city.

No one would ever know the mistake Al had made except Sakura. But that's a different story.

End Part 3

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