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The next day, Lee, Sakura, Nyoko, and Rahatani were walking around town after going to the beach. They had begun to take in some of the local tourist attractions and cultural interests as the sun began to set; almost as if on cue, the nightlife scene began to erupt with tight-skirted girls and adventurous men.
“So Lee, are you doing anything tonight?” Nyoko asked.

Lee nodded and simply said, “Yeah. I’m going to a club with some of the guys.”

Nyoko began to bounce up and down asking, “Can I go? Can I go? Can I go?”

Rahatani stared over Sakura’s head at Lee to make sure that he gave her the answer she wanted, but Lee didn’t even notice her eyes on him. “Sorry Nyoko. I know you can defend yourself with magic, but there will be a lot of older guys and that makes me worry about you being there,” Lee simply answered.

Nyoko stopped bouncing, but smiled and said, “Oh well. At least I know my brother cares about me.”

Raha smiled slightly and then looked ahead of her down the street. I guess he’s more responsible than I thought.
Nyoko turned to Sakura and asked, “What about you, Saa-chan? Are you doing anything?”

Sakura nodded and said with a smile, “Yep. I’m going out to dinner with Rune. He found this really cool restaurant over near the club district, down by the waterfront. It’s supposed to be really awesome, I can’t wait!”

Lee huffed and responded coldly, “You two seem to be spending a lot of time together.”

Sakura stopped walking, turned to Lee, and asked, “What do you mean by that?” Lee stopped walking; the other two did as well. As he seemed to measure her up, and just by what he said, Sakura felt a little hurt.

“Sakura, listen to what I’m saying,” Lee began. Stepping closer, he took her hands in his and almost pleaded with her to understand. “I’ve got a bad feeling about Rune. He might seem like he’s just trying to get you to like him, but I don’t think that’s all he wants,” Lee continued.

Sakura couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was Lee trying to convince her that Rune’s a bad guy? The guy that had taken her out, shown her a great time, been nothing but affectionate and good-natured to her for the entirety of the trip, while Lee had been too busy bar-hopping to give her a second thought?

“Rune seems to have another intention. I don’t know what it is, but I do know that you need to stay away from him,” Lee finished saying. There was a mixture of anger and compassion burning in his eyes, but all Sakura saw was the anger.

“Some friend you are,” Sakura spat at him, dropping his hands as if they had burned her. Lee felt as if Sakura had run a stake through his heart as her chilled words slapped him. “Are you trying to keep me from being happy? What if I’m actually happy with Rune? What if I said that I loved him? Huh? What would you say to that?” Sakura asked in a loud and stern voice.

Those last few words shattered Lee’s heart. He stood there speechless as Sakura continued to speak. “If you were a friend, you’d be happy for me,” she said with white-hot anger flaring in her voice.

Lee the pointed his index finger at Sakura and said with a louder voice, “And if you were any kind of friend, you’d listen to the ones you have and be careful.”

With that, Lee and Sakura began to yell at each other as Rahatani and Nyoko watched. Rahatani stood to the side, feeling Nyoko hold onto her arm. She knew that Nyoko didn’t like seeing people argue with one another, especially when she knew them. Nyoko tightened her grip on Raha’s arm. Nyoko looked up at Rahatani’s calm face with her worried eyes. How can she be so calm at a time like this? She then changed her focus back to her brother as he spoke with an angered voice, “You wanna know something? You do what you want and I’ll do what I want. Just don’t come crying to me when your whole life goes from bad to worse.” He then turned around and walked away from the three. Sakura was on the verge of tears and then ran in the opposite direction as tears began to slowly make their way down her cheeks.

Rahatani sighed and said, “Come on Nyoko, I guess tourist time’s over. Let’s head back to the hotel.”

Two hours later…

Rahatani was lying in bed, reading a book. She saw Lee come out of the bathroom in a nice outfit: he was wearing a black dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to just below his elbows, a white undershirt, dark blue jeans, and a pair of black shoes.

“Why are you so dressed up?” Raha asked as she put her book down and went to the bathroom.

“I’m going out to the club with the guys, remember? I’ve been going to the club for the past three days,” Lee said simply.

At least you acknowledge your stupidity, she thought bitterly as she rinsed her hands and rubbed the cool water on her warm face. She came out of the bathroom and said in a deadpan voice, “You have fun, then. Nyoko and I are going shopping, maybe, right after we grab some dinner. Don’t stay out too late.”

As Lee made to protest her mimicking his mother, there was a knock at the door and Lee went to answer it. The moment Lee opened the door, Nyoko came bouncing in to greet Raha; behind her stood Sakura, dressed for an evening out. She wore black pants with cherry blossoms on the legs, light pink heels, a pink and black kimono-style shirt, and a pink sakura clip in her hair. As much as Lee didn’t want to admit it, she looked pretty damn good in that outfit… but the nagging reminder that she was going out with another man in that beautiful outfit made any compliments he would have said turn to ash in his mouth.

“Can I help you?” Lee asked emotionlessly.

Sakura nodded and softly said, “I need to get to the other side of town… and I was hoping for a ride.”

She wants me to give her a ride to go meet Rune. Lee stood there for a few seconds and then walked out with his keys in hand, passing Sakura.

She sighed and looked at the floor. I know he’s still mad. Why wouldn’t he be? At the sound of Lee’s voice in the hallway, Sakura looked up and faced him as he asked rather peeved, “are you coming? I can’t give you a ride if you don’t come.” Sakura nodded and hurried to catch up to him.