Envy And Love Prologue
By Ayame

Note: Green = Envy
Red = Love

Ryu sat inside Lee's Cafe near the window. The snow was falling softly and the skies were depressingly gray to him. A couple had just passed by and the girl tugged at her boyfriend's arm very tightly and were both smiling. Ryu's eyes drifted to them until the very end where he couldn't see them anymore.

A waitress walked over to his table when she noticed he stopped looking at the menu.

"May I please take your order?" She was holding a notebook and pen waiting to write onto something.

Ryu looked up. "Water would be fine." He said.

"Will that be all?"

"Yeah, I'm just expecting a friend for now." He assured her.

"Okay, thanks." And with that, the waitress took his menu and disappeared.

Then Ryu heard a strange knock on the window. He turned around to see what it was. And it was a very beautiful girl with long black hair. She waved and asked "Ryu?", just to make sure she didn't get the wrong person.

When he looked closer, he was was shocked, in a happy way.

(Omigosh! Is that Chun Li? I haven't seen her in ages!) He exclaimed in his head light-heartedly.

Ryu's face brightened and waved back hi to her.

"What are you doing here in Hong Kong?" She asked.

Ryu couldn't hear a thing she was saying, so he assumed she wouldn't be able to hear anything either. He moved his mouth and formed the words "come in". And he pointed to the seat in front of him that was empty. Chun Li smiled and moved her lips to tell him 'ok'. When she went inside, Ryu helped her with her shopping bags.

Before they even got a chance to put it down, Chun Li threw her arms around him. "Ryu! Is that really you? Wow! You look awesome!" She looked at him up and down. And noticed a major change that went on in his wardrobe. Other than his white gi, he was wearing a gray shirt with black pants. But his red bandana remained over his forehead, as always.

"Heheh..thanks." He blushed. "You don't look bad yourself!" He stared at her. She was wearing a white cotton scarf, white turtle neck, black flares, with tennis shoes. It complimented her figure prodigiously. Ryu has only seen her in battle clothing and maybe in casual clothes once or twice, but today, he got to see the feminine side of her. He couldn't take his eyes off her for some reason. (Ryu! Stop it! This is Chun Li! Don't think so ignoblely of her!)

Chun Li blushed also. "So what are you doing here in Hong Kong? I was so surprised when I first saw you! I was like, is that cute guy Ryu? And then when I knocked to make sure, you waved! I felt so anxious to talk to you from then on, that I ran in here like crazy! People were staring, but I couldn't care less. Whew! I hope they don't think I'm a freak or anything!"

Ryu laughed. (Hmm..I forgot how much I enjoyed talking to her, she's still so talkative..so adorable..)

"Anyway, it's nice seeing you again!" She said cheerfully.

"It's nice to see you too! Don't worry about other people, I'm sure they were just staring because you were so bea.." Ryu coughed on his words. He almost said 'beautiful'! Chun Li tilted her head and wondered if he was feeling all right.

"Because you ahem, ran so fast and they were probably amazed at your speed." He tried to save himself, but ending up with a lousy save. "Anyway, I'm here because there was no flight going directly to Japan from the last place I've been to, which was from Thailand. The closest place was Hong Kong, so that's why I'm here."

"Oh I see..so did you come with anyone?"

"I'm alone, but I bumped into Sakura just ye.."

Before Ryu answered, a girl jumped in and interrupted the conversation out of nowhere.

"HI RYU-SENSEI!!!" She bowed cheerfully to him, ignoring Chun Li.

"Sakura?" Ryu had a confused look on his face. "Sensei?"

"Hai! Isn't that why you invited me here? Because you accepted me as your student? Yay! I finally knew you would accept me! How could you say no to this adorable face?"

Sakura suddenly noticed that someone was sitting in front of Ryu. "Who's this?" Sakura asked, looking at Chun Li.