12

It all happened during a Saturday night. We were at Fye D. Flourite's basement. Supposedly, his older brother, Yui, was going to take care of us while their parents weren't home, but Fye gave him 500 yens, and so Yui locked himself in his bedroom, and never came downstairs to look on us.

It was also supposed to be a special occasion. This wasn't one of those times where we would spend the afternoon after school at someone's house, and we ended up playing at someone's backyard (usually Akiho's place), or like when we gathered at Penguin Park where we used to buy ice cream. It was special because we had agreed to arrive at a specific hour, and we had already planned what we were going to buy for snacks, and what we were going to do to spend the time.

We all chip in to buy snacks at the conbini store down the street, including instant ramen, ice cream, sodas, etc. I thought we would end up playing spin the bottle, or seven heaven, but it turned out Kamui brought his Nintendo, and so the guys spent the whole afternoon playing Super Smash Bros., their faces stuck to the tv, while us, the girls, just played with our phone and chatted.

Sooner than later, it was all over, and our parents had already started to come pick us up.

I felt disappointed. Not because I was expecting something to happen to me, but just something to happen in general. Even if it was to someone else: after all it was a special occasion (it was the first time I was wearing a bra, thanks to Mei Lin), and my first time wearing lip gloss (quite uncomfortable to eat snacks), so I was just expecting something that would make this even more memorable.

Still, at Fye's basement, we were only Li and I left. Tomoyo's mom just had arrived to pick her up, and so Fye was at the door, greeting her. Li and I were sitting on the floor, side by side. As I was reading a text message from my dad (he was running a little bit late), Li was still stuck playing the video game.

I didn't notice when Li finished playing, and turned to say:

"Your hair smells nice."

"Thanks." Was all I could say, still focused in replying my dad's text. "I'm using Misaki's baby shampoo." I added, not paying too much attention to him.

So, still thinking about my dad's text and my reply, I finally stopped looking at my phone, and noticed Li had come closer, just enough to smell my hair up close.

And then, it happened.

Li leaned towards me, gave me a peek on my lips, and leaned back, focusing once again in the tv. I froze.

First of all, because I had never thought about Li in that way. I didn't like him, but it was that kiss that made me fixate over him.

Second, because everybody on the group knew Li and Tomoyo had feelings for each other, and we were just waiting for them to confirm.

And third, because even when it was Li the one who kissed me, he was the one who asked Tomoyo to be his girlfriend, and just two weeks after that kiss, they confirmed to be in a relationship.

That's what hurt me the most. I could never understand what that kiss had meant for Li. Had he done it just in the heat of the moment? Had he done it because he's a guy and it's easier for him to do stuff like that? Or was he waiting for me to accept his feelings at that exact moment, and then he would've asked me to be his girlfriend? Could it be that me freezing up had meant I had rejected him and thus that was what cleared his mind and make him chose Tomoyo?

Either way, the fact that Li had kissed me, made me fall in love with him during that whole school year, when Tomoyo moved two neighborhoods away, and me feeling extremely uncomfortable with them now dating, definitely was what made her and I stop being friends.

After that night, a lot more changes occurred subsequently. It didn't take long for Akiho to move to Korea, and I was left with Mei Lin only. After getting over my crush on Li, I had a tiny crush on Fye, to whom I also wrote a letter.

What if, just as my love life, Li's letter was only the beginning of all? What if Fye also got his letter? After Fye I fell for Sakurasuka, from summer camp. Yukito Tsukishiro, from my Korean class.

Eriol Hiragizawa.

I ran as fast as my legs allowed me. I'm so thankful for being a sporty girl and having a quite good physical resistance, because if it wasn't like that, I would've definitely passed out half way home. But I made it. A little bit out of breath, but overall okay. I even run up the stairs, and walk in my bedroom, stopping right in front of my closet. I open it, look at the top shelf, where my hat box is supposed to be.

And where there's nothing.

I scream like crazy.

The hatbox is big enough to be seen from down there, but still, I grab my chair, and step on it, so to look the whole shelf. Besides a ton of dust, there's nothing there. Barely the dust-free spot where the hat box was supposed to be, and now there's nothing. Still, I run my hand across the shelf, as if I was expecting to touch an invisible box, which is obviously nuts, and I just manage to move the dust around, which makes me cough, several times.

"Dad!" I scream, and since I'm still coughing, when my dad shows up, he's visibly worried.

"Did something happened, Sakura?"

I jump out of the chair, and point to the empty shelf.

"Have you seen my hatbox?"

"What?"

"The green hatbox that mom gifted me!" I start to get another anxiety attack. "You were doing that late spring cleaning." I remind him. "Couldn't it be you took it by mistake? It was basically empty, so it didn't weight too much; you could even think it was only trash…"

He frowns, sign that he's doing his best to remember.

"I have no idea." He finally says, which only makes me scream again. "I took some stuff for charity, I could've left it there. I can go back tomorrow and ask."

"Okay." It's the only thing I manage to say, and completely exhausted, I drop dead on the bed.