Rule Number Fifteen:
You can't accept the truth
Until you've accepted the lies.
oOo
It was over.
"Kaijuu!" Her brother waved over to her.
Sakura forced up a smile and walked over to the bar, taking a seat between her brother and Koji. Eriol and Tomoyo were sitting together on the other side of him. Eriol whispered something into the other girl's ear before getting up and walking away. Tomoyo quickly looked away when Sakura caught the girl staring at her for a moment.
"K-Koji, why don't I show you where the foods are?" She suddenly said and pulled the baffled man away, not leaving him any room to protest.
Hm...
Sakura thought it was weird.
"It seems like Eriol and Tomoyo are quick on their feet," Touya said.
"H-hoe?"
"I wanted them to leave."
"Oh," was all she said. "Why though?"
"I want to talk to you," he answered. "I think you've been waiting to talk to me about the divorce."
"What's going to happen to our family, 'nii-chan?" she asked quietly. "The holidays won't be the same... nothing will."
"I know, kaijuu." He brought a glass of Kamikaze to his lips and finished it in one shot. He asked the bartender for another one and said, "We don't know if this is the right decision, but we both know that we'll just end up hurting each other more if we don't. Marriage isn't simple, kaijuu. Maybe we weren't prepared to start a long time commitment so early."
"You still love each other."
"That, too."
"Technically, you still have a year to figure out where you want to be. You're not really divorced until you appear in court."
He chuckled. "Ironic what the priest said at our wedding. A wedding lasts only for a day, but marriage is a lifetime thing."
"Take it easy on the Kamikazes," she said. "You reek with alcohol! I took a taxi here, so I don't have a car to drive you back—not like I have one anyway, because someone refuses to buy me a car."
"What do you need a car for? Walking is perfectly fine. Besides, you'll be helping to reduce global warming."
Sakura rolled her eyes. "Just admit you're cheap, Onii-chan."
"So... how do you know the Li brat?" He suddenly changed the subject, catching Sakura by surprise at the mention of her ex-boyfriend.
"I'm his secretary."
Touya almost fell out of his seat.
Sakura sighed and rolled her eyes, asking for a Kamikaze to make the night go by faster.
Like wife, like husband.
"You work for the baka!?"
She nodded. "Almost a month now."
"I'm firing my secretary tomorrow, and you're coming to work for me!"
"Nii-chan!" Sakura cried. She couldn't believe the man! "Besides," she added quietly, "I don't think I'll be seeing him again."
Touya merely grunted and ordered himself another drink. "Whatever it is that you're not telling me—" he looked at her knowingly, "—you better tell me now while I'm still sober."
She knew it.
Her brother had this weird sixth sense for detecting these sort of things. She could never lie to him.
"What do I need to know, Sakura?"
Uh-oh, she thought. First name. Run, Sakura. Run, run, run!
She took in a deep breath and let out, "I had an affair with Syaoran."
"That's nice."
Was that a smile on his face?
Oh. My. Kami-sama.
Sakura pinched herself to make sure that it wasn't a dream. Her brother was smiling after she'd told him she had an affair. The world was probably coming to an end, or the divorce really knocked his brain out.
She watched as he leaned backward on the stool, little by little, until he fell flat to the floor.
OR ... he was just drunk.
She buried her face in embarrassment when the surrounding guests suddenly looked at them. Eriol and Koji ran over to help her brother up from the floor. And standing not far from them was a pair of amber eyes, gazing intensely at Sakura, but she didn't seem to notice.
"How many drinks did he have before I showed up?" she asked.
Koji smiled nervously. "I lost count."
"Do you need a ride?" Eriol offered.
"Nah. I'll just drive his car home," she smiled.
Tomoyo didn't like the sound of that. "B-but, Sakura! Touya will kill you if anything—and I mean anything—happens to his precious car."
"I'll be careful," she insisted. "Just help me get him to the car and I'll do the rest."
"It's your funeral." Eriol muttered under his breath, trying to hide the smile on his face. Oh. That was beautiful thought—Sakura damaging Touya's car and Touya killing Sakura for it. It was like hitting two birds with one stone.
One, he didn't have to deal with Sakura anymore; two, his car would become the next beautiful gem around with Touya's car gone.
Ohh, yes—his baby was finally going to get the recognition and love that she deserved.
Sakura snorted. "Wipe the smile off your face, Hiiragizawa."
"What smile, Sakura?" He played the innocent card.
Today is so NOT my day, she groaned inwardly in her head.
zZz
So far, so good.
Sakura felt proud of herself.
She managed to drive her drunk brother and herself home in one piece. Now, if only she could say the same thing about his car. Okay, so maybe she wasn't as good of a driver as she thought she was. No wonder her family refused to get her a car.
So... what if she smashed into their own mailbox?
People ran into mailboxes all the time, not like it was a crime or anything. Mailboxes were meant to be run over anyway. Who in their right mind would put the darn thing so close to the driveway?
Note to self: Blame it on the contacts.
"Otou-san!" Sakura rang the doorbell. "Otou-san!"
A few seconds passed and her father showed up at the door. "Sakura?"
"Nii-chan got drunk," she answered.
"Here. Let me take him." He took the unconscious man from Sakura. "He reeks!"
"I know." Sakura said as she followed behind closely. "By the way... you might want to look for a Kero the Fourth soon."
Fujitaka gave his daughter a puzzled look. "Why?"
Sakura looked away innocently. "I d-don't know..."
"You ran over our dog, didn't you?"
"I never s-said that."
He dropped Touya on the sofa before turning to look at her with an exasperated look. "Touya ran over Kero the First, Nakuru ran over Kero the Second, and now you ran over Kero the Third."
Sakura smiled sweetly. "He was getting old anyway. Besides, I don't think Kero is a lucky name in our family."
She went to grab a blanket out of the closet and placed it over her brother, smiling lightly as she watched him hugged it to his chest. At some point, Sakura admired her brother. At least he made a decision and had seen things through.
And her...?
"Sakura, is something on your mind?"
"Otou-san, I have something to tell you..."
"What is it, Sakura? Are you having problems living on your own? Is it work?"
"No, no!" she continued. "You better sit down first."
At this unexpected request, Fujitaka sat down in his armchair. "Okay, I'm ready." He said.
Sakura took in a deep breath. "I want to call off the engagement."
His eyes widened and his mouth hung slightly open.
"I'm sorry, Otou-san," she continued. "I don't want to marry someone I hardly know of. I'm sure he's a nice guy if you want me to marry him, but I want to marry someone because I have feelings for them. And I know it was wrong of me to have an affair..."
"You had an affair?"
"I was dating someone," she said earnestly.
"Was?"
"It's complicated. I prefer not to get into the details of my affair." She let out an exasperated sigh. "You must be very disappointed in me..."
He chuckled. "Sakura, you're my daughter. I'm disappointed that you've waited to tell me now, but I am never disappointed in you."
"What do you mean 'now'?"
He smiled softly. "Let's just say I have my eyes and ears, sweetie."
"Otou-san, I never knew you had sources."
"Now you do, dear. Now you do," he said. "What about this boy? When can I meet him?"
Sakura didn't quite know how to answer him.
It was hard saying those three words in the same sentence. We broke up. It was as though she didn't want to accept it, but she knew it was only foolish to hang on.
If she didn't know any better, Sakura would say that she was hanging onto the hope that maybe everything wasn't as bad as she thought. Maybe she and Syaoran still had a chance... maybe.
"Sakura...?"
"I'm sorry, Otou-san. 'Nee-chan is probably at the apartment by herself," she quickly said. "I should really get going. She needs me right now, with the divorce being finalized and all."
Lies...
All lies.
It seemed as though that was all Sakura did—running away from her problems.
Yue greeted her at the front desk when she got back to the building, and he invited her into his apartment to watch a movie with him. She thanked him for his offer and said that he didn't have to feel bad for her. He didn't do anything wrong. When Sakura got into the elevator, the silver-haired man looked like he wanted to open his mouth to say something, but chose to close it and wished her well.
Sakura didn't quite understand his behavior at all.
It was like he wanted to hold her back; to prevent her from doing something.
The elevator reached the ninth floor and the doors slid open.
Or maybe he was preventing me from seeing something, she thought in her mind. Standing in front of Syaoran's apartment was the brown haired man and another woman. Sakura told herself to breathe and act calm; act like it was nothing to her. After all, he did say to pretend that it was nothing between them. So why should she care?
She didn't.
I don't care at all.
She walked quietly to her apartment's door, trying not to pay any more attention to the couple. The woman seemed to be struggling with the door. Sakura glimpsed at them for a brief second, realizing that Syaoran was drunk—dead drunk. He looked worse than her brother.
"Stupid, Syaoran!" grunted the black head. "Does it kill you to lose some weight!?"
They must be close... Sakura concluded. The woman called him 'Syaoran' and not 'Li-san', which meant she wasn't one of his fan girls or flings; whichever one sounded better.
She opened the door to her apartment and walked in, closing the door behind her as she leaned herself against the metallic surface.
Nakuru looked up from the couch. "Sakura, why are you back so early? How was the party?"
Sakura smiled through her tears.
"It might take awhile," she said. "But I think I will be okay..."
zZz
"Breakfast is getting cold—get up!" Nakuru screamed from the living room.
Sakura threw the blanket off and sighed, ruffling her hair in frustration.
Note to self: Put a snooze button on Nakuru.
"SAKURA!"
"Okay, okay!!" She finally gave in and dragged herself to the bathroom.
As much as she hated to admit it, she probably couldn't have pulled through her first relationship's crisis if it hadn't been for the older woman, who was always there to help her up when she'd felt like falling down. Sakura had thought that even if she and Syaoran broke up with each other, she would be fine. That she could move on.
But it was harder than she'd thought.
Three weeks...
Three weeks had passed since she had seen him with another woman a few hours after he broke up with her. If you ask Sakura, she wouldn't say that it was a mutual break up because she still held onto what they had together. She had thought that it was a fling, that it was just her first relationship, that it was nothing; but it was something. Something important in her life, something wonderful, something unforgettable.
Sakura had asked Nakuru to give him her resignation letter, and he placed the last pay check in her mailbox. They hardly spoke to each other, even when they would pass each other in the building or get into the elevator at the same time, or even when Tomoyo convinced Eriol to play along with her as they tried to trick the ex-couple into getting together. Neither greeted the other person when they saw each other. It was like the other person didn't exist in the other person's eyes.
She felt hurt at first; hurt that he was able to treat her like that.
She had seen him and the same black haired woman a couple of times; they were either leaving or going into his apartment together. Sakura didn't know what to think. She even started to ask herself if she had meant anything to him if he was able to replace her so quickly. If his loving words and caress were just a suitcase with a false bottom.
But it was okay...
She wasn't going to brood over the past. She was going to try to move on.
She wouldn't deny that she still had feelings for Syaoran—strong feelings, too—but she couldn't help it. She couldn't just get rid of the feelings easily like that. It took time, and she was going to give herself as much time as she needed.
It didn't take a lot for her to fall for the guy; but it was going to take her awhile to put the memories of them together away in a place deep inside of her where her heart would finally feel at ease.
"Sakura!"
She groaned inwardly. "In a minute, 'Nee-chan!"
I seriously need to find her a boyfriend.
zZz
"About time," the woman said when Sakura came into the room.
"What's the rush anyway?" she asked.
"Don't tell me you forgot that we're moving back home today." She did forget.
Unfortunately for Sakura, Nakuru had been hanging out with Yue a tad too much in the lobby, and the woman picked up this crazy idea about feng shui. She thought that their apartment seemed a little depressing, so she came up with the idea of redecorating the whole place from floor to ceiling and corner to corner. It was just unbelievable.
Her father was more than ecstatic to hear that his daughters were coming to home to stay for a while until the construction was done.
Ironic.
It kind of reminded Sakura of when Syaoran first moved in with her. She couldn't help but crack a small smile, remembering the experience. She even remembered the ridiculous note he'd left her:
Letters start with ABC
Numbers start with 123
Music starts with Do Re Mi
Love starts with You and Me.
Ridiculous, she thought. But it was just like him...
To do something so ridiculous, and make it look so sweet.
"Let me guess—" Sakura snapped out of her thoughts. "Because you forgot, you haven't packed yet."
She giggled. "Are you psychic, 'Nee-chan?"
"Sakura, you're easy to read like an open book."
That was what everybody said to her. She was getting tired of hearing that all the time.
"Can you pack your things and go home later on your own?" Nakuru asked. "Knowing our father, he's probably making some 'big' meal to welcome us home, and I want to give him a hand."
"Is that why breakfast is so yucky this morning?" She was referring to the cold bowl of oatmeal on the table.
"That's why you wake up when I tell you to," the other woman snorted lightly. "I'll see you at home, okay?"
Sakura nodded.
She looked around the apartment quietly after her sister left. She guessed that it was a good idea to redecorate the place. Everything in it reminded her of him and the days that they lived together. Even though it was only for a short period of time, it was one of the most memorable experiences in her life—if not the most memorable.
It's time to make new memories... I suppose.
zZz
Sakura walked to the main desk in the lobby and set her luggage down on the floor.
"Hey, Yue!" he greeted the man. He looked up at her from the TV Guide magazine he was reading, obviously annoyed by the interruption. "Aren't you going to say goodbye to me?" She teased him playfully. "You won't see me for a month or two, won't you miss me?"
He scoffed. "A month or so with you and your sister complaining in my ears? How will I ever live!"
Sakura rolled her eyes. "Can you be any sadder?"
"Hn," was all he said before going back to reading his magazine.
"Sakura?"
She turned her head around to see who was calling for her. Standing at the entrance was Meiling along with Syaoran and the woman she had seen earlier.
"Are you going on a trip or something?" Meiling asked.
Sakura noticed that the women were locking arms with each other, showing how close they were. "Er... I guess you can call it a trip," she answered slowly. "A very long trip."
She caught Syaoran staring at her luggage, but he quickly looked away when their eyes met. She didn't quite know what that had meant, but she chose to ignore it. It probably didn't mean anything. He was probably being curious. After all, they were neighbors.
"Well, I have to get going." She said with a small smile and picked up her luggage. "See you later."
She started walking, and her shoulder briefly touched his as she passed by.
That was it.
Sakura stood on the sidewalk with her luggage beside her as she waited for a taxi, thinking of their brief meeting a minute ago. She couldn't get the image of Syaoran and that woman out of her head. It was just there.
She let out a small gasp when someone suddenly tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around to find herself looking at a familiar face.
"Hey..." he said.