I'm in Love with a Plumber

Chapter 18

Rule Number Eighteen:
Good things come to those who bait.
Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught.

oOo

Step Two-Reel in Moby Dick.

"Please, Onii-chaaaaaaaan!" Sakura threw herself on her knees, and tightly clung onto her brother's waist, pleading like she had no dignity. Not that she cared. "Pleaseeeeee!"

The older man scowled and tried to shake her off. "Kaijuu, you're getting on my nerves."

"I won't stop whining until you agree!" she begged again. "Just this week. Pleaseee!"

Nakuru rolled her eyes and whacked her former husband on the head with her pink slipper. "Just loan her the damn car. It's too early in the morning for this, Touya."

"I'm not married to you anymore," he pouted childishly. "Hmph!"

"Kinomoto Touya..." Nakuru ground her teeth together and raised the slipper into the air with a menacing look in her eyes. "Don't make me shove this thing down your throat—loan her the damn car for the week to shut her up!"

Touya looked down at the pouting Sakura and crossed his arms together, still sulking like a little kid. He scoffed and said, "I refuse to help her get together with that... that... gaki."

Nakuru sighed exasperatedly and threw the slipper at his face. "Touya...!"

The man grumbled and reluctantly threw the keys over to Sakura. "If I find one scratch on Mercedes,"—he glared daggers at her—"I will castrate and slaughter the stupid brat."

"Don't you mean you'll kill me if anything happens to her?" Sakura asked.

"No. I mean I will hurt him," he said, "and then lock you up in a convent."

Sakura rolled her eyes and threw her arms around him, pecking him lightly on the cheek. "Thanks, 'nii-chan! Thanks, 'nee-chan!"

And with that said, she ran off happily; hardly being able to contain her excitement.

Step two, set into action.

zZz

Sakura stood outside Otaka-san's bakery with her face to the glass window. She didn't see anyone inside, so she assumed that Syaoran's grandmother was in the back or something. What was she doing there exactly?

It was very simple. His grandmother sold sweets, and Sakura's house just happened to be out of sweets; therefore, she was there to buy sweets. No house was complete without sweets, right? And while she was there, she might as well chummy up to his grandmother. It never hurt to be a suck up...

Where was her dignity and pride?

Let's just say that dignity and pride eloped with desperation and pity, leaving her with nothing but shamelessness.

Oh... the things she did for a man—well, Syaoran anyway...

A ding was heard when she opened the door.

"Otaka-san?" she called out quietly.

"Sakura!" the woman was delighted to see Sakura's face. "What can I get you, dear?"

"One chocolate and one red velvet cake, please."

"Sakura, I hope you don't think that I'm a nosy old woman, but did you and Syaoran have a fight?"

"W-what do you mean?"

"I haven't seen you two together for awhile now," the woman answered. "I came up to your apartment last week, but you weren't there. I don't see you with Syaoran on the workdays either. When I asked Syaoran, he said that you were taking time off work."