A fiction by moondocc

Rated T/Genre Humor/Romance

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Chapter 03-Loser No More??

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I come home and lay down on my bed before I get up again and walk to the phone. I pressed a button.

"You have: 0 messages."

Oh, my dear, dear sad life. Makes me want to take out a knife and cut myself. But I hate pain. And I hate inflicting pain upon my skin (because that is very stupid-why would you want to hurt yourself for no apparent reason except my-life-sucks-and-therefore-killing-myself-is-the-answer?)

Kero purrs as I run my hand through his yellow-orange fur. I have just fed him two cans of tuna, a bowl of Cat Chow, a bowl of milk, and some of my leftovers-his favorite is apple sausages. That fat cat. I really shouldn't spoil him so. If he were a human, he'd be a male version of me. Fat, miserable, ugly.

In many ways, pets reflect their owners, don't they?

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Shit shit shit! I cannot be late to work again! I am going to get my ass fired if I'm late for the fourth time this week! How am I to survive?! Oh it's all Kero's fault. He wouldn't let go of my leg until he's had his fill of Cat Chow with Raisins. I think I need to force my cat to go on a diet. Or else he'll die of a cardiac arrest due to high cholesterol and grease blocking his artery.

Now is really not the time to think about your stinkin' cat, Sakura. I remind myself why I am here in my boring job (which is to make money for my future family so that my kids can go to a good college, blah blah blah…which really translates into: FUN SHOPPING SPREE TIME!) and run up the stairs like a maniac. I really hope my skirt doesn't rip half-way, like it has last time I ran like this.

After conquering the stairs (I have to wait at least ten minutes for the damn elevator to come down-yes, all six of them), well I'm working on the sixth floor, no biggie-I run to my desk, set my purse down, and inhaled deeply.

"Ok, time to ask Laura for my assignment!" I chirp happily and walk awkwardly towards Laura Austin, my director.

"Good morning, Laura!" I say cheerfully.

Laura turns her head from her computer screen and I almost let out a shriek. "Laura?" I ask.

Laura looked like the reddleman. Her eyes were completely red, her face looked like a blasted tomato, and her lips were so bruised that they were protruding outwards like she's trying to catch a baseball with her bottom lip.

"Yes?" She says grumpily. "Oh," she said with sudden realization, "here is your assignment for today. Just type these numbers in, ok?"

I nod. "Laura, are you ok?" I ask in concern.

"No," she murmurs tragically like a sad kitten that had just lost his mother. She began to sob slowly, cupping her face in her hands. "My husband is cheating on me…" she whispers while she looked at me with heartbreaking eyes.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Laura!" I say sincerely. "Are you all right? Do you want to talk about it?"

Laura's eyes squeezed into a line and begin a full throttle, on the tear-duct part. "Her name is Kristin, and they have been dating for a year now."

It's sad how clichés turn into real life tragic stories. I take the seat next to her and support my chin with my hands. Laura was not exactly my good friend, but she has been there for me, and is about the nicest girl I have ever met. She's a little bit over thirty-five, with no children, but supposedly a lovely husband who sends her flowers on every single important holiday. She used to incite jealousy from us singletons who sigh dreamily about our Prince Charmings, who never bothered to send flowers at all.

Apparently her Prince Charming had transformed into Unfaithful-Husband-Who-Probably-Sends-Flowers-To-Lots-More-People-As-It-Turns-Out.

"And the sad thing is, he wants to divorce me-when I'm the one who should be breaking it off with him!" Laura spat hatefully. I look at her with sympathetic eyes and rub her arm with my hands. It's the least I could do, considering-

"What are you two doing here?" I feel a shadow over my body. Laura whirls around and quickly wipes her tears.

"Aren't you supposed to be doing work?" The shadow's beholder said abrasively. I stand up now, facing the boss's son six feet three with my five feet and six inches.

"Can't you see she's sad?" I demand.

"Sad?" Syaoran looked at Laura then back at me, "Her? No, she's not. And you know what she looks like? Like a woman who's ready to work." He gives me a harsh stare, then checks his watch.

I can't say that I'm very pleased about his speech.

"And you know what you should do?" He narrows his eyes, "Act like you have a job." With that, he leaves the two of us alone and walks back into his glassed office. My mouth opens involuntarily at the horrible character of Syaoran Li. Part of me wants to follow him back there and give him a nice slap on the cheek, and part of me wants to sit down and wish that I had called in sick.

"It's ok, Sakura, I'm sorry for getting you into trouble," Laura says apologetically, "Mr. Li is very strict about the work place, and this really shouldn't be the area to talk about our personal lives."

I smile and nod. "All right, then, Laura, I'll meet up with you later," I say confidently. Laura braves a smile back, and gestures for me to get back to my computer and my stupid numbers.

After three hours of droning, I set out to the Marketing Department to meet Tomoyo for lunch. We're going to a Chinese restaurant just across from the building and dedicate a whole hour to eating.

I cross many aisles and meeting rooms and stopped in front of Hiiragizawa Eriol's. Tomoyo told me to wait at the door. I check my watch. It's 12:04pm, and she still hasn't come out yet. She told me that she might be a little bit late, because Eriol always kept her hands busy.

I lean myself against the door and take out my iPod. I scroll the menu and decide on Hoobastank's "The Reason". As the song starts playing, I began to sing along with it, only check to see that nobody is there, of course.

I nod my head with the beat of the song. I have to admit that I'm not a great singer, which is why I don't sing in public places-I don't want to humiliate myself in front of anybody. But now I am on the top of my lungs, shouting crazy out-of-tune melodies to this song. "That I just want you to know, I've found a reason for me, to change who I used to be, a reason to start over new, and the reason is-"

Just this moment, like fate, the door opened, and as I was leaning against the door, I fell directly back. Shit! It all happened so quick that I was unable to comprehend it before it happened as I was caught by a pair of strong arms and I only finished the chorus, "…you."

Oh! This is just like those cheesy romantic comedies where the girl falls backward and gets caught by the guy! Except it's happening to me (in an awkward way that the person who is holding me is not in love with me, and nor I him, although I find him extremely attractive). Ah! I am an addict to those cheesy romantic comedies! Absolute fanatic! And I've often dreamed of someone catching-

"Can you get up? My arm is kind of hurting…" A pair of spectacles looks down at me. His eyes were the deepest sapphire, an alluringly color that rendered my brain for several seconds-in other words, I was dumbfounded by his handsome face. Oh, what the hell, we live in the 21st century.

He is one damn sexy creature!

"Oh!" Damn reality check. He helps me stand up and rubs his arms with his hands. "You okay?" Hiiragizawa asks kindly.

"I am now, Mr. Hiiragizawa," I laugh and rub my waist. It was bent in a weird shape when he was holding me. My upper body was vertical in a way, but down my waist I formed a ninety-degree angle. Yes! Imagine a ninety-degree angle. That was the position I was in.

"Please, call me Eriol," Eriol smiles kindly. Usually I wouldn't expect such superior people to let me call them by their first names, but this so reminds me of those cheesy chick flicks! "You were singing, I think?"

I blush. "Horrible singing, I'm sorry to have bothered you."

"Oh no, I personally thought it was great. It was Hoobastank's 'The Reason', right?" He smiles again. He has the cutest smile, with a hint of dimples behind his perfect, yet pale skin.

"You were…listening?" I ask in shame.

"Well, I couldn't help it. You were kind of loud there," he laughs at himself. For some reason, I laugh along.

"Listen, I'm very sorry about Syaoran and Yumiko's behaviors at Princess Mall," Eriol changes the subject as we emerge into a situation of embarrassing, uncomfortable silence. "Yumiko is a little bit spoiled, being the only daughter of Emperor Meiji, and Syaoran, well, he acts like that all the time," Eriol said sincerely.

"Oh no, it was no biggie," I find myself replying, although what I really felt like doing that moment was destroy Syaoran's glassed office (glassed office…suggests something so mysterious…), "I don't mind," I lie. Did I mention I was a good liar?

"Good, good," Eriol nods his head and takes off his spectacles, revealing his naked eyes. He looks so much better without his glasses. "And this morning, as I was walking by…I'm sorry if he offended you," he apologizes on his friend's behalf again, "Syaoran's very strict around the workplace. He doesn't like to disappoint his old man."

"Oh?"

"It's his step-father, you see, and he is the strictest parent you will ever meet. Not only does nothing meet his expectations, he discourages his step-children greatly and throws a temper easily. Syaoran is trained to follow orders as well as impose them without any emotional considerations," Eriol explains. I nod slowly as I absorb this. The boss is Mr. Li's step-father?

"Well, I suppose you're here for Tomoyo," Eriol said cheerfully, changing the subject.

"Yes, yes I am! We're going to get Chinese today!" I answer back, equally cheerful.

"She'll be out in just a minute," Eriol speaks kindly; "she's finishing up typing some numbers for me. She's such a great secretary."

"Yes, she works hard," I say honestly.

"Well, we've been standing at the door for far too long now, come in and take a seat. I'll tell her you're here," Eriol announces and walks into the room in the far end. I sit myself down at his couch and contemplate the conversation we have just had.

If you ask me, I didn't think Mr. Li's strictness had anything to do with him being raised by his step-father. If you ask me, I think his harsh words today had something to do with me merely being at Princess Mall on the day that Yumiko had proclaimed it all to herself. His haughty air was perfectly suffocating. I feel like choking on my tongue just being around that jerk of a man.

What is his relationship with Yumiko Hashana anyway? And what is Eriol's relationship with them? I did not know that Eriol and Syaoran belonged to the same crowd until yesterday. As I was thinking, Tomoyo came out of her office and interrupted my thoughts.

"Shall we go for lunch?" She asks.

"Of course!" I look at my watch. 12:26pm. Yay…one-hour lunch…

I came back from Chinese at exactly 1:00pm (that includes me racing up the stairs, panting and sweating like crazy, and dropping myself down on my chair looking idle) and start to insert numbers in again. Chinese food was great, really, a lot like Japanese food, except less…raw and more…refined. Not that Japanese food isn't great, but in where we live in, Tokyo, Chinese food is cheaper!

But, the fact that we had thirty-four minutes to eat (including racing back time) was not exactly ideal when you're trying to actually savor the flavor of authentic, beautiful Chinese food that look like colored sculptures in shape. Not very ideal.

I rub my stomach slowly and moan, cursing myself for eating so fast like a hobo person who has been starving for days (there was one on the street, but he looked more crazy to me than an actual vagabond). I did not feel comfortable. My stomach was aching in a weird way, but this pain must be endured! I am enduring my pain by typing still. I feel that Syaoran is onto me somehow, it's like he has eyes on the back of his head, and they are monitoring my every move.

Just when I got up to go to the bathroom, a timid-looking man came looking for me and stopped me in my tracks.

"Sakura Kinomoto?" he asks.

"Yes," I look at him with anticipation while struggling to keep standing up considering the pain I am in now.

"You are needed in the Board Room. A meeting starts in fifteen minutes." He informs me and gives me a dark green portfolio.

I whine and wrinkle my eyebrows. "Can't they send someone else in there?"

The man looks at me again, timidly, and shakes his head, "I have no idea madam, I am just the messenger." He leaves me standing tall, so that my eyes can observe all the denizens who live within the three-feet-plastic-"walls".

I hurry up to the restroom. I push open the door and step in to one the stalls. I bet Syaoran sent the timid man over here to manhandle me (not literally, of course, for that five feet skinny man looked too ridiculous to actually have the ability to manhandle someone). I bet he did this on purpose to torment me for yesterday and this morning.

I flush the toilet, come out of the stalls and wash my hands. I turn the sink off and walk to the paper-towel section and savagely rip off the poor paper towel. I purse my lips and pull open the bathroom door. I jump back. On the other side was the princess herself, though she looked at me in a weird way and did no brainwork to recognize me, walked off and pushed a stall open in that haughty manner of hers that makes me want to go up there and slap her.

Not that harsh, but you get my point. I bet she's the sole reason I'm getting so punished for my stupid job. I pace quickly towards the Board Room and push open the door. Thankfully nobody looked at me because the meeting hasn't started yet, but Director Foreman did pass me some folders and instructed me to pass them out.

I roll my eyes (secretly to myself) and start placing one manila folder on its respective table space. Important people have just started to come in, and I make way and bow to each one of them. Syaoran Li was among the first to come in. I bow to him as high as I can (so I barely bowed at all) as he gives me one of those condescending looks. Eriol came in a moment later and nods at me with a smile on his face. Oh, he's so nice. At the beginning of the meeting, every seat except one has been taken.

Oh well. I close the door and sit at the corner of the office, observing Syaoran Li's step-father, Co CEO Bing-Chen "Eton" Li staring impatiently at the door. A minute or two later, the doorknob turned, and Princess Yumiko Hashana saunters in. She looks around and takes the empty seat, which, coincidentally, has been placed between Syaoran and Eriol.

Stupid brats.

The whole meeting breezed through like wind, as I was sitting there, observing the gorgeous back of Bratface Two's head, with long silky hair flowing down it. The princess kept running her hand through her hair during the meeting in an effort to comb it (I don't see why, as it was stick straight), and through angle-observation, one could see that she yawned several times, and fluttered her pretty eyes around the room, and never even bothered to notice me, who was giving her death glares as she was the cause of my misfortune.

At the end of the meeting she grabbed Mr. Li's arm and batted her eyelashes at him. He smiled back, and gestured for the exit. I stood up and tucked my shirt, while perverted Director Stevenson pins his eyes on my boobs, probably hoping that the incident that occurred during my last time here would occur again. Thankfully, it didn't, and as I walked out the door after a brief smile to Eriol, out of the corner of my eye I saw a disappointed Director Stevenson, his abject eyes drooping on the concrete floor.

I'm quite glad, actually, that nothing happened…well obviously being that I don't want to embarrass myself again, especially in front of that haughty, obnoxious Your Highness who practically manhandled my boss by the neck and dragged him out the door. I check my watch. It's barely two.

I resorted to sitting in my guarded station and managing my work while humming a lovely tune. Lovely! Ha. It was Shakira's Hips Don't Lie, which is anything but lovely. "Dirty" works better. So I was sitting my chair, humming my dirty tune, when suddenly the brat himself popped before my eyes and looked at me sternly with his arms on his hips.

"Kinomoto?"

"Yes?" I answer shortly, turning to him.

"That song is inappropriate for work." He said promptly, wrinkled his nose at me as if I was some kind of fish, and walked away. I sit in my chair and scoff after him, "What a jerk," I mutter.

Why does he have to ruin my day by merely appear in front of me? He and his friends are absolutely the worst of its kind on earth (ok ok! Don't sue me! Excluding Eriol, the only one who actually has some sense in that gorgeous head of his). I stand up and walk after him. Who does he think he is? Telling me what to do? I was just about to walk over there and wack his fat head when Laura emerged out of nowhere and dragged me to her station.

"Sakura," she had obviously been crying. Her mascara was running on her face, and it was not a good sight.

"Laura…" I mumble, thankful that she had stopped me before I did something stupid, and also wanting to wack her in the head because I did not get to do what I planned for.

"I can't work anymore today…I need to go home." She confessed. "Can you finish my work for me?"

Ok, I officially feel like wacking her in the head. "Um, sure," I smile and put my hand on hers like a sympathetic friend. "I'll finish your work for you, but you owe me a big favor," I remind her.

"Oh thank you sooo much, Sakura," Laura said tearfully and broke away without another word. I am so pissed off that it's impossible to even sketch my anger.

8:00pm

I am sitting in my chair with the sole companion of a 60-watts light bulb shining (or should I say, barely shining) on my work. My eyes are starting to hurt, so I take off my glasses and rub my nose in a soothing manner. I'd be done in about another five minutes. I praise the lord.

But, since when do I even consider doing anybody else's work for them? I stand up and stretch my arms, yawning. Deciding to take a walk around, I wander aimlessly out of my chair and into the darkened hallway. No one is still here. I shrug and continue walking. The dimly lit halls of my company look increasing murderous, as one would often imagine when one is stranded in a mysterious place (ok, ok, not mysterious, but rather intriguing plus deadly).

Right ahead of me, a ray of light seems to illuminate from a mutedly-lighted room. Curiously I crawl my way over there and poke my head through the crease of the door. I narrow my eyes to focus on the people standing in front of me.

I gasp at the recognition.

Bratface One and Bratface Two have officially lost their faces into each others. I step back in horror, slowly grasping what kind of harm would be done to me if I were to dispose to the world of their odd relationship. Mr. Li was on top of the princess, hand rubbing her body in a most inappropriate way. I turn around and slowly, quietly walk back to my station.

"Sakura?"

I stop dead in the middle of the hallway and look up. "What are you doing here?" a smiling Hiiragizawa smile at my face.

"Um...um..." I stutter, I don't know what to say. What lie should I make up so he doesn't realize that horror I had just seen? "I was just getting coffee from the conference room. Had to work late. Haha."

Oh my god, that was terrible.

"What's that noise I hear?" Eriol wondered to himself and walked forward (toward Mr. Li's office).

"No, no, you don't want to go there!" I quickly step in and block Eriol. "What? Why?" He smiles at me kindly, his sapphire eyes scanning beyond my head.

"It's just that...that...Director Foreman has a um...unfinished project in there that needs to be worked on, and he doesn't work anybody to see that just yet," I smile confidently.

Eriol nodded absent-mindedly. "Are you sure? I haven't heard James talk about this project.." he said slowly.

"Well yes! That's because it was last minute!" I add.

"Oh," Eriol said abruptly, looking disappointed. "I guess I'll just go back to my office then. You going any time soon?"

"Yes, actually, I was just on my way out, no biggie," I say smugly and waltz back to my station, "see you tomorrow, Eriol!" I wave to his back.

"Yes, Sakura, see you tomorrow." His voice sounds a bit...odd, but he walked back to his office anyway.

I smile to myself. I have just saved my boss's son's life! He really should appreciate me. I really don't know why I was protecting him and that stupid girl. Just as I bring my coffee and my bag out and pass by the office, I stop dead in my tracks. Eriol's hurt voice sounded muff from the room.

All I caught was, "--end! I can't bare this anymore. Just take her, Syaoran. Take her. It doesn't matter if she was my girl friend, you cheating--"

I stop and think to myself. Eriol came back? But...why?? Didn't I tell him that something was up with the project? And...Princess Yumiko Hashana..is Eriol's girl friend? What? I had always suspected that she had feelings for Syaoran. Damn. I'm caught in a bad situation. If I step out once more I will definitely be discovered.

"I don't care anymore. Do what you want, Syaoran. I'm disappointed in you. You just don't cheat on your best friend with his girlfriend." Eriol's voice sounded. Kicking open the door, he sauntered out of the stuffy room. I shrink back, hoping that he doesn't notice me. As Eriol walked by, I sigh to myself and begin my journey home. Just when I was reaching for the door...

"Kinomoto?" A distressed voice came from behind me. I stop in my tracks and turn around. Syaoran's eyes focused on me. His shirt was half unbuttoned, his hair disheveled, and next to her stands Princess Yumiko Hashana, who was wearing a bra, hastily put on.

Worse of all, Eriol turned around too.

Fuck.

"What are you doing here, Kinomoto?" Syaoran inquired.

"Nothing. What else?" The voice from the other end of the hall sounded. Syaoran turned around and observed Eriol, narrowing his eyes. "She got something to do with you?"

Silence clung in the room.

After a while, Eriol took a deep breath. "Yes. Sakura was just going home to buy a dress after I asked her to go to the company dinner with me." His sapphire eyes bore into mine. I could feel another two pairs of eyes that wanted to suffocate me. Jealousy was arousing in Princess Hashana's eyes.

I am really confused.

moondocc: oh my, long chapter. Well, it's a differently writing style, and hope you guys enjoyed this chapters as much as I had writing it:D

Thanks to all my wonderful reviewers! You guys make me cry 8-)