I'm In Love with a Plumber
Rule Number Three:
Letters start with ABC, Numbers start with 123,
Music starts with Do Re Mi, but Love starts with You and Me.
oOo
"SEE YOU AT WORK TOMORROW!!!!" Syaoran ran out of Sakura's apartment, screaming at the top of his lungs while dodging the flying milk carton that was thrown at him at the same time.
Sakura slammed the door close, fire still burning in her eyes. Who did he think he was, drinking out of her milk carton like that!? He was lucky she didn't rip his heads—er... head off.
Oh, Kami-sama... why him? Why ME!?
This was the price she had to pay for trying to make it out on her own. Life sucked ass.
I need a hot bath.
Sakura grabbed her nightgown off the bed and walked into the bathroom. She turned on the water and let it filled the bathtub. She stood in front of the mirror, and looked at her reflection for a very long time before letting out a heavy sigh of exasperation.
"Sakura. Sakura. Sakura," she said to herself. "You can stare at yourself for hours, but you will still be small no matter what."
Crap.
She cursed her rotten luck and her rotten life. Sakura was a slow developer. It had been years since she graduated high school, and her top was still the size of two oranges. She let out another sigh and started to unbutton her blouse. She was halfway done when her phone started ringing. She went to grab the phone from the night table and walked back into the bathroom, resuming to undress herself.
"Moshi moshi," she answered; annoyed.
"Hiya, neighbor!"
Sakura groaned. "Mr. Li, what do you want?"
"Please!" the guy laughed lightly on the other line. "Call me Syaoran, Sakura."
Sakura rolled her eyes. "Okay, Syaoran, what do you want?"
"I can see your bathroom from my bedroom window!" he exclaimed. "In fact, I find that wearing a black bra under a white blouse is very bold and sexy."
Sakura let the phone dropped from her hand, and she quickly ran over to the window. Syaoran waved at her with a bright smile on his face. Sakura pulled the blinds down and banged her head against the wall with steam coming off her head.
She was going to need more than a hot bath.
Why me...? Why? Why? Why!?
zZz
"I want to move apartment," Sakura said.
Yue looked up from his morning paper and toast. "What's wrong with the one you're in right now?"
"My neighbor can see my bathroom from his bedroom window."
Yue arched an eyebrow in amusement. "Took you long enough to discover that. I was wondering when you were going to come and complain to me."
"What!?"
"I don't have a spare apartment at the moment, but you are welcome to trade with anyone in this building," the man continued slowly. "That is... if you don't get run over by a mob when they find out they can see Li Syaoran's bedroom from your apartment's bathroom."
Sakura groaned. "So I'm stuck with the apartment? What about the other two apartments on my floor?"
"You don't want to live in those apartments," he said. "Just pull the blinds down."
"You know I will have to put up a black blind if I don't want him to see anything—and I mean ANYTHING."
Yue rolled his eyes. "You can try to concrete his window or yours."
"Can I?" Sakura asked, hopefully.
"No."
"Then why did you—"
Sakura didn't know why she bothered.
"Have fun at work!" He called out to her as she was walking away.
Work...? Oh yeah... Work.
Sakura hated her life.
"The elevator works now," Yue said when he saw her heading for the staircase. "You don't have to use the stairs any more."
"I'll feel safer taking the stairs," Sakura answered.
She didn't have the guts to take the elevator. Who knows what that man did to fix it. By the time Sakura reached the ninth floor, she was breathing breathlessly. She rested one hand on her knee and the other hand on the wall to hold herself up.
I really need to start running the treadmill again.
"Sakura?"
Oh no...
"Did you come back from your morning run or something?" Oh, how she cursed that guy. "Why didn't you use the elevator? It's safe you know."
Sakura snorted. "Remind me again when someone is stuck in it because of your lousy job."
"Lousy?" Syaoran looked at her as if she was crazy. "Is your sink still leaking?"
Sakura was quiet. "S-So?"
"So... is it?" No answer. "Call my work lousy," he scoffed. "Sorry to break it to you, but I do have a Master's degree."
"In plumbing?" Sakura asked.
"I'm not a plumber! Didn't you pay attention to me when I explained it to you at the restaurant?"
Sakura took in a heavy breath and straightened herself up. "You do plumbing so you're a plumber," she said.
Syaoran sighed in defeat. "Just come in," he held the door open for her. "You have a lot of work to do."
"Just to let you know, paperwork isn't a problem for me."
He smirked slightly. "No paperwork today."
"Then what do you want me to do?"
"My housework." Syaoran stepped aside so she could see his apartment. "I tried to do as much as I could this morning so you won't have a lot to do."
Sakura blinked. "T-This is your apartment?!" she screamed in bewilderment. "It's a pigsty!"
"I guess you can call me a pig." Syaoran rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"What do you mean can!? You are a living pig!" She turned to look at him in the face. "I'm surprised that you're even clean!"
He pouted childishly. "That hurts, you know."
"Why don't you send a flyer to every female in this building? You'll have your apartment clean in less than a second."
"Because..." he trailed off saying, "I hired you."
Sakura groaned.
"Better get to work, sweetheart." His amber eyes looked her tauntingly. "I'll be in bed if you need me."
Oh, how she wanted to strangle the living hell out of him.
"My bed is big enough for two if you ever get tired and need a place to lie down." He gave her a chaste wink and walked into the bedroom, closing the door behind him.
Sakura's face turned beet red. When her mind finally came back to her, she found herself looking at the close door that separated her and the devil himself. It wasn't until then that she realized he had just made a fool out of her.
"Now, you wait a minut—" Sakura pushed the door open without thinking. Blink. Blink. He let his pants dropped to the floor. "AAAAAAH!!!!"
She slammed the door close and leaned herself against the hard wood, trying to calm her beating heart. "Sakura, get that image out of your head... NOW! Forget it. Forget it. Forget it. Forgetting it..." she started mumbling to herself. "NO! I still remember it!"
Sakura suddenly felt herself falling backwards. The next thing she knew, she was being held in his arms. "You know... if you wanted to get a sneak peak, all you had to do was ask me. I would've said yes."
"Get off of me!" she screamed, struggling to get free. "You're breaking our contract!"
"No, my dear..." he said. "You're breaking our contract. I specifically wrote on it that you can't stop me, resist me, or keep yourself from me."
"W-well, the contract is off because I tore it up!" Sakura stuttered.
"Then you have no reason to tell me to stay away, right?"
Sakura blamed herself for being so stupid.
"Oh, god... I can't die like this," she cried quietly. "What will my family say when they find me raped to death?"
'That Sakura, I knew she wouldn't last on her own.' She could picture the smug look on her brother's face.. 'Look, she got herself raped.'
'My poor daughter...' Her father was going to be devastated!
'Do you think I'd fit into her clothes?' ...and then there was her sister-in-law.
"Sakura..." She could feel his hot breath travelling down her neck.
She closed her eyes tightly and waited for the worst to come. His breath was now hovering over her right ear, so warm and so—snap out of it, Sakura!
"Hoeee. I'm going to get raped by a plumber," she whimpered to herself.
Syaoran laughed loudly and let go of his arms around her. He held his arms around his stomach and said, "That was priceless. You should have seen the look on your face!"
Sakura glared at him. "That was mean, scaring me like that!"
"So you want me to rape you?"
"T-That's not what I meant!" Sakura retorted. Then she realized that he was only wearing his boxer and quickly shielded her eyes.
Syaoran looked at her with amusement on his face. "I'll see you after I wake up," he smirked. "Unless you want to get a little naughty and skip work."
He winked at her yet again.
Sakura slammed the door behind her.
This is stupid Eriol's fault!
Sakura looked back at the mess and groaned. "This is going to take forever!"
zZz
Two hours later...
Sakura smiled brightly at her ingenious idea. She'd successfully cleaned up his rat hole apartment. She even managed to make herself—not one, but THREE cups of coffee, while enjoying two romantic movies she'd found on his shelf (why he even had such genre was beyond her own knowledge). She was a total genius.
"Good morning, sunshi—" Sakura savored the expression on his face when he opened the door. "WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO MY APARTMENT!"
"I cleaned it," Sakura said proudly. "Like you wanted."
"I didn't ask you to throw EVERYTHING away!" He quickly ran into the kitchen. "YOU THREW EVERYTHING AWAY?!?!"
"Not exactly..." She sipped her coffee enjoyably. "I just asked Yue to throw out the furniture, trashes, shelves, papers, files, fridge, table—oh, and I told him to take away the stove, too, because it was very dirty. You still have everything in your room and bathroom. I even left you the T.V."
Syaoran fell against the wall.
"Oh, the movers will send the bill to you," Sakura continued. "Well, at least now you will get a chance to redecorate your apartment and buy new furniture."
"You..." Syaoran growled under his breath.
Sakura took it as her cue to leave. "Well, you know what? I think I'm going to take my coffee break!"
"You."
"Maybe I'll take the rest of the day off..." Sakura flashed him one of her cutest looks. "See you later, Syaoran!"
And with that, she ran for her apartment as fast as she could.
"YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!"
The words finally came out of his mouth.
Sakura leaned against her door, feeling something that was between guilt and fear. Maybe she shouldn't have tried to get even with him for messing with her. It was a mean joke to play on him. After all, she did clean out his entire apartment, and half of the things she threw out were somewhat expensive. But then again, she was more scared than guilty. Who knows what that lunatic was going to do to her after she had just provoked him like that.
Oh, Kami-sama...
She jumped slightly when her phone started ringing. Please don't let it be him.
She opened her eyes and looked at the caller I.D.
"Hey," she said in relief.
"What's wrong?" Tomoyo asked immediately. "You don't sound so good."
"That's because I don't feel good at all."
"Are you sick?!"
"No," Sakura sighed. "Are you free for coffee?"
"Yeah."
"I'll see you in a minute then."
"Okay."
Sakura hung up and slowly opened her door. She looked at Syaoran's door cautiously before getting out of her apartment, carefully, making sure not to make any sort of noise that would alert the other man. She practically ran down the flights of stairs. Unfortunately for her, she ended up smacking right into the one person she didn't want to see that moment.
"And where do you think you're going?" he growled.
It was official. Li Syaoran was one hell of a scary dude when he was mad.
Note to self: Don't make him mad again.
Sakura smiled nervously and quickly ran away.
"Oh, god..." she mumbled to herself while waiting for a taxi. "Please don't tell me he's a serial killer—what if he's a killer and a rapist!?"
zZz
Tomoyo laughed after Sakura finished telling her the story. "I can't believe he did that—and you!!"
"I was pissed," Sakura said, groaning inwardly. "And now I regret it so much because who knows what he'll do to me!"
A pair of amethyst eyes looked at her intensely. "I think your new boss has a liking in you, Sakura."
Sakura almost choked on her drink. "You are kidding, right? We hardly know each other!"
"Ever heard of 'love at first sight'? Maybe he fell in love with you the moment you two saw each other," the dark haired girl remarked.
"That is ridiculous!" Sakura snorted at the thought. "Li Syaoran and love at first sight?! That doesn't really go hand in hand... you know?"
"Well, however he may have liked you, I still think he likes you."
"You're supposed to help me, not put more problems into my head."
Tomoyo smiled. "You can try to repay him."
"Tomoyo, if you haven't forgotten, I only have fifteen hundred dollars in my bank account," Sakura continued. "His coffee table costs more than the amount in my bank!"
"And you threw all of his things away?"
"I was pissed! You do stupid things when you are pissed!"
"I think you're the only one that do really stupid things," Tomoyo said. "When people are pissed, they usually take it out on a stress ball."
"Well I don't have a stress ball to take it out on!"
"Okay. Okay. Calm down, I was just saying."
"This is hopeless!" Sakura groaned.
"You can try telling him to deduct it from your pay check."
"At this rate, I won't be getting my pay checks for at least five years."
The girls sighed together. "It's hopeless then," said Tomoyo. "You can try to ask your brother for money, or you can just forget about the whole thing."
"Great advice, Tomoyo."
The other girl giggled. "You're welcome, Sakura!"
"I blame your man for this."
"What about Eriol?" a voice said behind them.
"It's you," Sakura scolded.
"Heard what you did—very brave," the guy smirked.
Sakura snorted. "I'll see you later, Tomoyo."
"Good luck with the problem." The girls exchanged a small hug. "Call me when something new pops up, 'kay?"
"Alright." Sakura got up from her seat. She turned to Eriol dangerously. "And good day to you."
Eriol flashed his signature smile. "I'm sure your day is going a lot better than mine, Sakura."
Ohhh. I hate you.
zZz
Sakura jammed the keys into the lock and turned the doorknob tiredly. The day hardly ended yet and she was already feeling like dirt off the road. What she needed was a long hot bath to relax herself after a very long, tiring day, and then maybe a bowl of ice cream—chocolate ice cream. Then a cup of warm milk would do the job and brighten her day. Unfortunately, what she DIDN'T need was her next-door neighbor lying on her sofa, eating her ice cream, drinking out of her cup, and holding her remote control in his hand.
"Welcome home, babe."
"W-What are you doing here!?" Sakura screamed.
"I figured you were right about the redecorating thing," he smiled. "It's about time I should redecorate. So, thank you."
"That doesn't explain why you are here and not over there."
"They said construction is going to take at least two weeks and I need to bunk in somewhere."
"You are NOT sleeping here." Sakura glared at him.
Syaoran sulked cutely. "Please? I have nowhere else to go, and I've tried Yue's place. He spat NO to my face, and Eriol lives with his girlfriend."
"NO!"
"You won't throw a helpless person into the cold street, will you?" He put on the most helpless puppy pout. How could anyone resist that? "Just two weeks. I'll sleep on the couch, and I promise to keep my things to my space."
Sakura sighed. "If I agree, then we're even?"
"Of course!"
"You won't try anything while you're living here?"
Syaoran shook his head like an obedient puppy. "I'll be a good big boy."
Sakura shuddered at his words. "Okay, you will have to stop doing that."
"Doing what?" he asked innocently.
"That." Sakura replied. "You know... making everything you say sound so suggestive."
"Are you thinking naughty things, Sakura?"
"NO!" Sakura screamed.
He laughed lightly. "Okay. Okay. I'm just teasing."
"Only two weeks?"
"Only two weeks."
"Go get your things then." She had a feeling that she was making the wrong choice, but whatever. As long as she didn't have to repay him for his things, then she was good to go.
Syaoran was licking the ice cream bowl. "No need to. I already have."
Blink. Blink.
How did he even get in...?
Sakura gave up. This guy was a hopeless soul.
"I'm going to take a very long bath," she decided to say. "If you dare to—"
"I'll behave," he smiled.
Sakura gave him one last glare before walking to her room. The first thing she did was to make sure that all of her things were the same as she left them. She paid special close attention to her underwear drawers. Everything seemed to be normal and A-Okay.
She grabbed her nightgown and head for the bathroom.
"Oh, Sakura, I left you a little note sticking to the mirror!" Syaoran called out.
Sakura merely snorted as she locked the door behind her. She placed her clothes down, and took the note he was talking about.
Letters start with ABC
Numbers start with 123
Music starts with Do Re Mi
Love starts with You and Me.
Awww, that is so cute!!!!!!!!!
Sakura squealed inwardly, and she tore the note into a million tiny pieces.
If it wasn't coming from Li Syaoran.
Sakura sighed.
It's going to be two looooooooooooong weeks.