Composed by Keisei Limited Express for Sakura
Translated by Yuki Neco
At the north exit of Tomoeda-Gakuen Station at 3:25 p.m., there were many people dressed in yukatas, even though the crowd of people going through the station had gotten smaller by that hour. Among the crowd, six of Sakura’s gang (Sakura, Chiharu, Miki Ihara, Megumi Kawamura, Yukie Takahashi, and Sayuri Yoshida) dressed in yukatas were waiting for another girl in front of the ticket office.
“Sorry, I’m late,” Tomoyo ran to the gang, also dressed in a yukata.
“Hi, Tomoyo. Let me introduce these girls. Miki Ihara and Sayuki Yoshida, they’re in the cheerleading squad. They’re called Miki and Yuri,” Sakura introduced the friends to Tomoyo.
“Nice meeting you, I’m Tomoyo Daidouji.”
“Oh, nice to meet you,” replied Miki.
Sayuri nervously replied, “P-pleased to meet you.”
After the greeting, the two girls whispered each other; first, Miki mentioned, “She’s pretty and elegant... much more than I heard of.” Then, Sayuri agreed, “Yeah, she’s in the choir of Tomoeda High School. So, she’s truly Sakura’s best friend.”
At this time, four boys (Syaoran, Kamio, Koichi Hara, and Yuuki Yamamoto) joined the party. Only Syaoran was dressed in a yukata.
“Hi, girls,” Koichi said.
“Hey, y’all are wearing yukatas!” Yuuki said in amazement.
“Why? It’s you Tomoyo! Why are you here?” Kamio jokingly said.
“Oh, don’t you like it that I hang out with you?” Tomoyo gave him a dead stare.
“That’s not what I meant,” Koichi smirked bashfully.
Seeing her evil look, Miki and Yuri thought “She might be a horrible person, actually.”
“Hey, Syaoran is the only boy wearing a yukata,” Koichi said. When they turned to look, Syaoran was 20 feet off the gang, looking like he didn’t want to walk close to them. Yuuki pushed him closer.
“Hey, don’t push me!” Syaoran complained.
“I know you don’t come closer because we’re not in yukatas,” Kamio teasingly said.
“And this was made by his girlsfried—you know who...” At the moment, Yamamoto was knocked by Syaoran, who said “Shut up.”
Then, Miki whispered, “What should I do? I somehow understand how Yuri feels.”
“You mean you’re in love with him?!” Yukie commented.
“Hoeee...” Sakura sweatdropped.
Cutting out the chit-chat, they got on the train—they were going to see the firework festival held in Harumi Wharf, one of the greated firework festival in Tokyo. But they were to enjoy the firework at a special place—that was the verandah of Mr. Terada and Rika’s apartment.
The semi-express train on which Sakura’s gang were riding went into a subway line on the way. Passengers in yukatas got on every station it stopped. The train arrived at Tsukishima Station near Terada’s apartment (the next station is nearest from the firework place). Getting out of the station, and walking through the shopping district for a several minutes, they would find Terada’s apartment an eight story building. Mr. and Mrs. Terada live on the seventh floor. They entered the room number in the access control door entry system, then the door opened to let them in. They walked in and got on the elevator to the seventh floor.
“Hi, Rika!” Sakura said when Rika opened the door for the gang.
“Come in. I thought it was about the time. Take your shoes to the verandah,” Rika guides her friends in her apartment. As she said, each girl walked through the hall to the living room, with their own shoes in their hands. Each apartment above the sixth story has one less room than its one flight down, so the southern part of the buiding above the sixth story had a verandah as huge as one room, where the stove was prepared for barbeque.
“Wow, looks great!” Sakura sang a surprise.
“Barbeque party viewing fireworks,” Sayoran whistled.
“Nice relaxation,” Kamio was impressed, “When I saw the firework there last year, I got my neck sore from keeping looking above all the time.”
“Hey, you guys are here,” Mr. Terada came home.
“Hello, Mr. Terada!” Chiharu cheerfully said.
“Welcome home, darling,” Rika said to her husband, “change clothes and join us.”
“Are they all?” he asked.
“Takashi and Naoko are not here yet. Naoko said on the phone she’ll be here in a minute,” Rika answered.
After Naoko and Takashi arrived, the people in the apartment were enjoying the barbeque waiting for the fireworks. However, there were thick clouds in the west...
An hour before the fireworks, the rain started pouring with a lightning. “Hoeee, Syaoran. It looks scary!” Sakura hang onto Syoran.
“Hey!” The bewidered boyfried turned red.
“You two act so pure, like in the elementary school,” Takashi smirked.
“Stop being impressed and get these things inside,” Chiharu admonished him carrying chairs into the aparment. The shower poured so hard until it ended in half an hour.
“Look! A rainbow over there!” Sayuri pointed the rainbow faintly seen in front of a dark, thick layer of clouds.
“That’s pretty,” Sakura sang her impression.
“I agee,” Syaoran said.
“They’re in a good mood,” Yuuki mumbled gazing at the loving couple.
“Stop observing and make a move!” Kamio said.
Koichi complained, “Why? Should we start the barbeque party again?”
“OK, you don’t have to, if you don’t wanna eat,” Yukie pouted, “Right, Rika?”
“Uhn... she’s right,” the teenaged wife replied.
At 6:30 p.m., the first firework exploded in the sky. It was advertised that 12,000 fireworks were to be set off that year. Someone cheered for the fireworks with a pint of beer, another knocked the guy on the head for spinning his untrue stories that sounded real, another enjoyed ghost stories with her friends, and another gets nervous because his girlfriends leaned on him; meanwhile, this girl took out a camcorder, “Sakura is prettier than the fireworks.”
“Videotaping Sakura and Syaoran... not the fireworks,” Miki sweatdropped.
“Tomoyo is weird, don’t you think? Like there’s some particular aura around her,” Sayuri commented, meanwhile the girl with the particular aura kept videotaping not minding what they were whipering. When the festival was proceeded into the great hundred-succession as the final attraction, Sakura whispered to her boyfriend, “Um, Syaoran, they have fireworks in Hong Kong, don’t they?”
“Yeah, like a new year festival.”
“Good,” Sakura sighed.
“Why?”
“You know... I want to see ones in Hong Kong... alone with you...” she hesitantly whispered.
“Oh...” Syaoran sighed as his mind repeated the phrase time and again like a broken record: alone with you alone with you alone with you alone with you. Excited Syaoran reacted saying, “Sakura, come with me to Hong Kong!”
“Boy, you’re running away with Sakura?” Mr. Terada rolled his eyes.
“Are you letting her see your parents?” Koichi jeered.
“Don’t tell me you’re going to marry in Hong Kong,” Naoko said in surprise.
“You two can be married by age in Hong Kong,” Takashi explained.
“Is that true,” Chiharu ascertained.
“What...?” Syaoran was stunned by the hiss around him, not knowing what was going on—more precisely, he didn’t understand what he himself had said just a minute before. Taking a glance at her girlfried, he saw her lowering her face in blush, sweatdropping “Hoeeee....” That was the first time he somewhat learned that everyone in the place had heard what he thought he said in excitement. For the following half a minute, Syaoran blushed as red as hot iron, steaming fierecely from the head, not to mention—getting all the people around him into some kind of chaos or confusion of curiousity— except the one holding a camcorder in a happy smile who kept videotaping everything happening on the verandah. She whispered, “Sakura and Syaoran, they are the best couple ever.”
“Can I really come with you to Hong Kong, huh?” asked Sakura.
“... Yep,” Sayoran sighed, mumbling to himself, “Impossible to excuse I didn’t know what I said because the people heard me declaring such a thing.”
First, I planned to write a quite different story, but because of my
delay, the fic was changed like this. The plot was changed time and
again until I submitted... but it’s September finally... Then I would
like to write about Tomoyo’s birthday as the next thing, but September
3 was already in the past...