Sensei, I Love You

Chapter 1

As expected, Sakura turned up late for work and had to endure the harsh scolding from her angry boss. She winced inwardly every time her boss raised her voice as it was piercing to the ears. It was a wonder that Sakura could survive through the whole year in this café. The manager may have been difficult to handle, but the pay was fabulous. After all, this was the famous “Maid Café” and it was popular for its top-notched service, pretty maids and, not forgetting to mention, its revealing maid uniform. Men seemed to flock to “Maid Café” just to ogle at their maids.

Each and every maid in the café was assigned to wear a specific coloured uniform. Sakura was assigned to wearing the one-piece pink maid uniform with a white apron. It was extremely lacy and low cut, with puffy sleeves and layered skirts. The fabric was stretched tautly across her chest as if it was her second skin. To her annoyance, she often caught many of her male customers ogling at her chest, even though she was not as well-endowed as the rest of the maids.

Honestly, Sakura had trouble getting used to her maid uniform and definitely not used to people staring at her so openly. She often found herself adjusting the front of her uniform frequently and fidgeting uncomfortably under the intense gaze of her customers when she took their orders. Despite all these shortcomings, she stayed on the job for survival. She needed the money to pay for her rent and other necessities.

“I tolerated your mistakes for as long as I could remember.” The manager’s voice was shrill as she continued ranting at Sakura. “Why is it that you were always late for work this year? There weren’t such problems from you last year! As our café’s beloved maids, we should uphold our service standards but I caught you yawning so many times during your working hours. If these continue, I will dismiss you from service. I don’t want to put my café’s reputation at risk. Should you make one more mistake—even if it’s a minor one—I am going to have to let you go and half whatever salary you are owed. Do we have an understanding, Kinomoto-san?”

Sakura gulped and nodded her head. One last chance! I have to do whatever I can! I need this month’s salary to pay my rent urgently! A tray of food was placed on the kitchen counter with a slip indicating the table number and Sakura hurriedly went to serve it to the customer, putting on her best smile which faltered once she saw the customer.

The man has brown hair and clear amber eyes. He was grinning at her. Yes, that man sitting there was her homeroom teacher. He has removed his tie and formal jacket but still looked as handsome as he was in the class. That was not the problem Sakura had in her mind. Her hands shook as she carefully placed the tray on the table before removing the dish and serving it to Syaoran. He was drooling on his food and staring at it unabashedly. Sakura was thankful for his distraction.

Did he realize it was me? Sakura thought nervously and she quickly retreated back to the kitchen. The school has a strict rule that stated that students were not allowed to hold part-time. What’s worst was that Sakura had totally skipped school.  If Sakura was not so hard-pressed for money, she would not have broken her school rule secretly and now, she was discovered by her homeroom teacher. She patted her cheeks hard and fought to control her emotions. It’s going to be all right. I changed my hairstyle a little and added strong make-up to my face. I am beyond recognition and besides, Li-sensei did not react when he saw me. Perhaps he did not see through my skillful make-up? I will have to be careful out there and make sure to stay out of his sight before anything drastic happens.

Somehow, Sakura was grateful that there were not many customers at the time and many of them were taken care of by her colleagues. She heaved a sigh of relief from the hideout in the kitchen while secretly checking on Syaoran by peeking out from her hidden location.

Why is he eating so slowly? Is he doing it on purpose to torture me? Oh wait, he is ordering something. Desserts? Guys and desserts?

Her colleague who took down Syaoran’s order passed her the order chit because she was already blocking the path to the kitchen. Sakura scanned through the contents of the order and her eyes widened at the amount of chocolate desserts her teacher has ordered.