Sugar Pink: Hey!! I AM FINALLY UPDATING A CHAPTERED STORY!!!!! Hahaha!! Updates will be slow but I assure you all, THEY'RE NOT DISCONTINUED!! I will never discontinue/abandon my stories without telling you readers!! So…if I don't update…it's because I'm either too busy or low on inspiration at the time…
The Gateau Affairs Chapter 2: The New Security Guard
Tomoyo felt her world spin.The Honeydew top chef ate my cake…and he hated it!! There really is no chance of me ever being a good baker now!!
"And now, I'm proud to announce that in honour of Eriol-san joining us at Honeydew, we are recruiting new trainees to be taken under his wings. Application forms can be found in Honeydew with Eriol-san personally and please bring in a copy of your resume." Xing Rae beamed proudly and soon the cake cutting ceremony took place.
Trainee recruitment?? Hey…that might work…
"Pleaseeeeeeeeee, Sakura? Please, please, please, pleaseeeeeeeee?" Tomoyo begged her cousin for the billionth time that night after dinner.
"Tomoyo, okay, I'll get you a form!!" Sakura groaned.
"Oh, yay!! Thank you so much!!" Tomoyo leaped into the air in happiness, doing her happy dance.
"But you owe me!! That Eriol guy is as cool as ice. I'll try to avoid him if I can…and you want to go work under him. Ugh." Sakura rolled her green eyes and picked up the controller.
"I'll treat you to the first cake I bake under Hiirazigawa's guidance!" Tomoyo promised.
"How about just treating me to dinner instead?" Sakura sweatdropped.
"That works too!!"
Sakura let out a small and silent sigh of relief as she flickered on the TV to the news channel.
"And now, live from the Honeydew branch in Tomoeda, I'm Belinda Bell, from Japan News…"
"Tomoyo!! Honeydew is on TV!" Sakura hollered.
"What???" Tomoyo rushed into the living room from the kitchen while trying to tie her white apron on.
"Why are you putting on an apron?" Sakura asked, almost afraid of the answer.
"Oh, I thought I'd bake another cake before going into Honeydew as a trainee."
"You're baking again??"
"Yup!! So, what's wrong with Honeydew?"
"I'm not sure…" Sakura refocused her attention to the TV.
"Just this evening, after the glamour bake fair, the bakery experienced a tremendous loss. The Raes have reported that dozens of their cakes were stolen from right under their noses." Belinda Bell continued.
"Who would want to steal cake?" Sakura asked, bewildered.
"We lost possibly over $5000 worth of cakes when we got back. The security camera shows a masked man came in with a knife and threatened our sales employees and chefs in the kitchen. We've reported the case to the police, and I'm sure they're on the case right now." Xing Rae said with confidence to the camera.
"Hahaha, gosh, that's so lame." Syaoran laughed uncontrollably at the TV after the news.
"It's not that funny. To a chef, that's very heartbreaking. Imagine putting all your time and effort to produce the perfect pastry, only to have it—"
"Stolen by a masked man with a knife! HAHAHAHA!" Syaoran laughed again, tears coming into his amber eyes.
"Also, I'm sure Honeydew isn't too happy about losing $5000 worth of cakes."
"Whatever. Their pastries are totally overpriced anyways. I can't believe some dude has the idea to steal that many pastries. Is he going to even eat it all?"
"How would I know?!" Eriol rolled his eyes, and at the same time, the telephone let out a sharp ring.
"Hello, Eriol speaking," he said. He paused as he listened to the other person's response. "Oh yes, Mrs. Li, he's just right here."
Syaoran sat upright immediately, hearing the words Mrs. Li.
Smirking evilly, Eriol handed Syaoran the phone.
Giving him a slight glare, Syaoran took a hold of the phone as Eriol mouthed have fun and walked back into his room, the evil smirk still on his face.
Sighing, Syaoran put the phone to his ear. "Hello, Mom?"
"Syaoran, darling, how are you?"
"I'm fine, Mom." Syaoran said, knowing that something must be up. His mother never calls him up for chitchats.
"Honey, did you quit your job yet?"
Well, that was straight to the point, he thought, flopping back on the leather sofa.
His mom has been nagging him to quit his job as a police two years ago when he got the job, but he never did.
She finally blew her top when he almost got shot while chasing down a murderer in Tokyo.
And just last month, his boss offered him an undercover job into a drugs triad in Kyoto. Although the thought of being an undercover spy sparked his interest, Syaoran knew he has to turn down the offer.
He knows that if he doesn't, his mom will probably cut him off the Li family tree.
Rolling his eyes, he replied.
"No, mother. I'm still in the force."
"Xiaolang Li!" his mother, Yelan Li's sharp voice hurt his ears.
She must be really mad if she's calling me my Chinese name…
"You're the only son the Li family has! I don't want you to risk your life out there! You're not even married yet!"
"Mom, I'm not going to die because of my career!"
"I don't care! I just saw a news report of a local policeman here in Hong Kong who died while on the job. And he's only a traffic police!! Imagine what kind of trouble you can get into, running around firing guns like that!"
"I don't fire guns, mother. I only fire a gun. But only if I have to." He added in quickly.
"This is your last warning, Syaoran. If you don't quit your job within a month, I'm going to cut you off the Li fortune."
And with that, she hung up.
Syaoran stared at the phone in disbelieve. She hung up on him!! And threatened to cut him off the three hundred million dollars of inheritance left to him after his father!
And okay, according to his father's will, it's not really his inheritance until he's married, but still!!
Life is so unfair…maybe I should just give up the three hundred millions…but then, I'll probably be disowned too.
"The usual threat?" Eriol asked in an amused voice.
"You guessed it."
"Oh my gosh, what happened in here??" Sakura gasped as she wanders into the bakery at 5:30 AM in the morning.
When she got a call at 5AM this morning telling her to come immediately, she didn't expect this!
The sight that greeted her was too much.
Cake crumbs were littered all over the floor, walls, tables, and chairs.
Cake boxes were destroyed, ripped, wrinkled, burnt.
Icing was smeared across the glass displays and windows.
A few chairs were broken.
Her fellow workers were mopping, dusting, brushing, wiping, and tidying.
"We were robbed again, Sakura-chan," Ami, one of the junior sales workers, informed.
"What?! Again?? What did they steal this time??"
"They took a bunch of the cakes that we were going to sell today," James, a young, high school part time worker, said, gesturing to the empty displays.
"And they also took a lot of empty cake boxes, and most of the ingredients in the kitchen."
"What was the total profit lost this time?" Sakura asked.
"$7000." A familiar voice said annoyingly.
Sakura turned around immediately. "Oh, good morning, Miss Meiling."
"Nothings, good about this morning, Kinomoto. Grab a mop and start working." Meiling said haughtily.
"Sheesh," Sakura muttered under her breath.
"It's ok, Saku…the chefs are all in there, baking new cakes to sell all over again." Ami said.
"Does that mean our new chef, Hiirazigawa-san, is here too?" Sakura asked.
"Yeah, he was one of the first to arrive."
Hmm…now might be a good time to ask for Tomoyo's application.
"Dad, we need to hire a security guard." Meiling said.
"A security guard for a cake shop??" her father exclaimed.
"Well, they have security guards for clothing stores! Why can't we have one for a bakery?? Besides, this is the second robbery this week."
"I suppose you're right…"
"Miss Rae?" a voice called, and a knock at the door was heard. It was Eriol.
"Yes, what is it?"
"Our entire chocolate supply is stolen."
"What?! The entire supply??" Xing Rae gasped.
"I'm afraid so, sir."
"I better start making calls to get a new supply." Meiling sighed.
"Eriol, what do you say we hire a security guard for our shop? Any opinions?"
"I think it might be a good idea, sir. Afterall, it's the second attack this week. And the chocolate supply isn't cheat to replace."
"Of course not! Do you honestly think Honeydew uses cheap supplies?" Meiling interrupted.
"Actually, I think I might know the perfect person for the job." Eriol added.
"Eriol, no!! I refuse to be a security guard for some girly cake shop!!" Syaoran said, struggling against his friend's wrath as he's pulled along the sidewalk.
"Syaoran, don't be a baby! Doesn't your mother's threat mean anything to you? You'll need a new job anyways!"
"But not a security guard for a cake shop!"
"Then what? A security guard for a girls' clothing store?! Is that what you want?? Now stop complaining! I even made your resume for you! Go!"
And with a final shove, Eriol shoved Syaoran into Xing Rae's office.
"Ahh, you're Syaoran, Eriol's friend?" Xing asked, with a sincere smile.
"Yes, sir." Syaoran replied.
"You're a police?" Meiling asked, raising her eyebrows at him.
"Yes."
"You know, we've got a lot of applications. Why, one of them had forty years of experience and another is an ex-sumo wrestler. Why should we hire you?" Meiling asked.
"You don't have to." Syaoran shrugged. It's not like I want the job anyways, he thought silently to himself.
Meiling was about to reply, when all of a sudden, Sakura burst into the room.
"Kinomoto!! You better have a good excuse!" Meiling yelled.
It's her!! Was the first thought that entered Syaoran's mind.
"Miss Rae!! It's another robbery!! They're running away with our glass statue!!"
"What?! After them!! I made that glass statue!!"
"Hey, you!! Come back here!!" Meiling hollered at the masked man. Ignoring her, the robber continued to run down the streets. However, Meiling was not one to give up easily.
"Come back here with my statue!!" And with that, she took off after him.
"Meiling!! No, come back!!" Xing hollered after his daughter. "Someone, go help her!"
Feeling his police instincts kick in, Syaoran ran out after.
However…the most surprising was…Sakura ran out as well.
"Sakura!!! Come back!!!" everyone else shouted.
Syaoran looked behind him and was surprise to see the Kinomoto girl keeping up with his fast pace.
"What are you, stupid?? Go back! This is dangerous!"
"Shut up!!" she yelled back at him, not slowing down.
"You're in my way!! I'm the police here!!"
She ignored him.
Finally they caught up to Meiling, however, not to the robber, who was still running with the miniature glass statue in his hands.
Jay walking across a street, the robber continues to run, with Meiling hot after his tail. However, she was unable to jay walk as safely as he did…
"Watch out!!" Syaoran leapt in, tackled her, shoving her away from a speeding garbage truck.
Sakura immediately ran up to them.
"Are you two okay??" She asked, offering her hands to help them up.
"You saved me…" Meiling stared at Syaoran in awe.
"It's nothing. I do stuff like that all the time." Syaoran shrugged.
"You're bleeding!!" Meiling observed Syaoran's forearm.
"Oh, I just scraped it on the sidewalk. Nothing big. Now you!! What were you thinking?" Syaoran turned his head and screamed at Sakura. "You could have got killed, chasing after us like that!"
"I have a black belt and I know how seven different ways to kill you with a Popsicle stick." Sakura rolled her eyes.
Syaoran stared at her impressed. Then he shrugged it off. "I know eight."
"I am so glad they're okay… I can't take shocks like this very much." Xing Rae collapsed onto his chair.
"It's all over now, sir." Eriol smiled. "Tea?"
"Yes, please."
There was a slight knock at the door.
"Come in. Ah, Sakura. What is it?" Xing asked.
"Actually, I came in to speak with Hiirazigawa-san." Sakura said.
Eriol looked surprised. "What is it?"
"My cousin would love to join the Honeydew Trainee Program that was mentioned at the bake fair yesterday. She wanted me to help her get an application from you, Hiirizagawan-san." Sakura said politely.
"I'm afraid that if your cousin wishes to join, she'll have to come see me herself." Eriol replied.
"Oh, she actually came today. Just in case you will say that." Sakura smiled. "Tomoyo?"
It's her… Eriol thought, stunned. It was the same violet haired girl that that he saw at the fair! The one who can't bake!!
"Konnichiwa." She said shyly. "My name is Tomoyo Daidouji."
"I believe we've met, Daidouji-chan." Eriol said. "Do you really wish to join? I assure you, the trainee program is no piece of cake; pardon the pun. It's rigorous work, and I only accept perfection."
"I understand. I wish still to join. Baking is something I love to do…but…it's not what I'm good at…" Tomoyo said, shy to stare into Eriol's deep blue eyes.
Suddenly, Eriol felt bad for his harsh critical words towards her the other day at the fair.
"I see. Well, I will have an application form ready for you by tomorrow at noon then."
"I can't believe I got hired just because I saved the rich brat's life." Syaoran sighed.
"You two spent a long time in the first aids room. What really happened?" Eriol smirked at his friend.
"She just helped me bandaged my arm. And gave me my uniform." Syaoran said.
"I think she might like you." Eriol mused.
"What? Eww!"
"By the way, I heard Kinomoto-chan talking to some of the workers today that you were a jerk who steals sodas." Eriol raised a brow at his friend, waiting for an explanation.
"What?! Now that girl is spreading rumours about me?!"
"Is it really a rumour then?"
"Yes!! Well…actually…hmm…" Syaoran pondered.
"Syaoran…"
"Okay, okay!!"
Sakura swiftly tie her long auburn hair up into a high ponytail as she got ready for another day's shift.
She adjusted her uniform, which consists of a pale green blouse, white vest, and forest green skirt. Making sure that her nametag was on correctly, she smiled.
Suddenly, a soft bang in front of her startled her. Looking up, she found herself staring into a pair of amber eyes.
"Okay, I know you've been talking about me stealing your soda to your co-workers. So here you go!" Syaoran said gruffly, thrusting a can of orange soda towards her.
Gently taking the can, Sakura smiled amusingly. "So you do admit that you took my soda then?"
"Will breakfast shut you up?" Syaoran rolled his eyes, thrusting a package of rice balls to her as well.
"Why, thank you. Although you may be a jerk sometimes, at least you have good taste in food." Sakura said, turning around and walking back.
Women… Syaoran rolled his eyes.
Sugar Pink: Okay this chapter sucked TT honestly, I promise to make the next one better !! I'm sorry!! R/R pleaseeeee!!