Sakura Blossom

Back to the Beginning

A/N: This story has some stalking elements in it and I am sorry if it triggers something in those who read it. In no way do I condone stalking and I am very thankful that it is considered a punishable crime. That is what it is...a crime that is very damaging emotionally, mentally, and physically.

A/N: also in this book I will be switching back and forth between Irish , Spanish, and Japanese (***) Though mostly it will be Japanese and Spanish since the two main characters are from those regions.

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The early afternoon sun shone down onto the city below it...bringing warmth to it this early Spring season as the inhabitants navigated the streets heading towards where ever they were going to. In one part of town stood a apartment complex that was neoclassical in architectural design...a perfect blend of classical antiquity yet with a modern twist. Within one of the apartments was a Asian man who was running through one of the rooms dusting away any specks of dust to be found upon his furniture...scrubbing them away with ferocity.

Kai-Anji was so excited about his date tomorrow night with a dark haired gorgeous Hispanic man that he had met at his best friends... Keiran and Jaime O'Shea... wedding six days ago, that he was practically vibrating throughout his apartment as he cleaned up the whole place before he had any company over. He knew Mitchell Ortiz was only going to be in town for another week before he had to drive back home, which was 400 miles away, but before he did leave Anji wanted to make a very good impression on the younger man. At first when Anji heard how far away Mitch lived he was hesitant to enter into any kind of relationship with this man...but after thinking about it he decided to give it a try. He had realized that by accepting one date with Mitch that it was in no way a guarantee that they would hit it off well enough to want more than that, they could find out they had so little in common that it was not even worth trying to make an attempt at a second date. But, Anji was under no illusion, he knew there also laid a chance that they would be extremely compatible and desire to give each other another try, which meant a long distance relationship. As he debated the pros and cons of a possible long distance relationship he realized that many others did this kind of thing all the time with success...so maybe it could work for him also. He stopped chasing the random dust speck trying to outrun his oiled rag and sat down on his cream colored couch as he got to thinking more...how the worst case scenario would be that they came to find out they were better as friends only but the up side was at least he got to spend an evening in such wonderful company that with one look could make his heart beat faster. The best case scenario of course would be that they discover they were absolutely perfect for each other and could not live without the other in their lives..so one of them would suddenly move themselves just so they could be together.

Anji laughed briefly then sighed out loud because his mind decided to have its little fantasy for a moment before he could reign it in again to reality. At least he did decide on giving this stunning man a chance by agreeing to go on a date with him...but that was six days ago and now here he sat worrying about the state of his public areas of his home as if Mitch was going to see the state of it any time soon. Anji was still unsure about this dating thing he was going to attempt with a man he really didn't know anything about except for he was Jaime's uncle. For Anji this was almost terrifying to the point he was on the breaking point of a panic attack over the idea of trusting someone enough to let them into his personal space. To the world, he seemed calm and collected..very friendly and open...but on the inside he was scared of the possibility of what had happened back in college of ever happening again. The only people he trusted was Keiran , who had saved him from a deadly encounter with another student who had fixated on him back in college.

Her name was Laurel Tavers, another student at the same college that Anji and Keiran were attending as they were both striving to get their degree in Advanced Education. On the surface Laurel seemed like a very friendly, if a little bit over eager to please, kind of person...she was always ready with a smile and a greeting each time they saw one another on campus. He didn't think anything at all was out of the ordinary when she seemed to just pop up where ever he happened to be...he just accredited it to coincidence ... it was after all not that big of a campus, so bumping into people was not that unheard of. He just believed Laurel was a very vibrant person and very enthusiastic about life. The first whisper he had that something was amiss was when he went out to get ice cream cone with his female friend Carol, who happened to be in the same class as him, and Laurel showed up. At first everything was fine but when the blonde turned her green gaze onto Carol, he felt a sliver of a chill run down his spine. The look she gave Carol was not very friendly and he felt a bit uncomfortable in that second. He excused him and Carol from her, telling her that he would see her later...as they both walked away, he glanced over his shoulder to look back and saw Laurel just standing there watching them walking away. Her eyes were narrowed as if she was very angry, but when she saw him looking her face shifted back into a sweet smile as she waved in his direction before moving on her way. From that moment on he began to take notice of how much she was appearing...he noticed the look in her eyes when he talked to other women or happened to get close to one. Each look he saw there made tendrils of fear slithering through him...he began to feel as if he was being hunted.