Sensei, I Love You

Chapter 4

All eyes were fixed on Sakura as she stepped into the class making her feel a little uncomfortable from the unwanted attention. She must have missed too many classes that her sudden reappearance in school to create such a reaction. Sakura hurried to her seat and tried to make herself invisible by pretending that her classmates were behaving normally and not pointing fingers and whispering behind her back.

The door slid open with such a force that it crashes against the wall with a loud bang, startling the students. A few girls even screamed out of fright.

“Good morning!” Syaoran chirped as he skipped to the front of the class. He paused suddenly when he realized that he forgot to close the door and hurriedly went to complete the task. “Ah… That was so careless of me… Anyway, I hope all of you have done your English homework. I’ll be going round to collect it in a moment so do bring it out on your tables.”

Sakura’s eyes widened in surprise. She didn’t know that they were given any homework and her idiot of a homeroom teacher had failed to mention it to her the day before. She watched as Syaoran went round to collect the homework from the class and inhaled sharply when he paused at her table. She looked up at him timidly and found him smirking at her. Damn the guy. Why didn’t he just pass her the homework the day before since she was at his house anyway? “I don’t have anything to hand in.”

“Of course you don’t, muffin,” he said cheerfully. It sounded too sweet to her ears that it didn’t cross her mind to be angry at the use of the weird endearment. Instead, she had to suppress a shudder that was threatening to wreck through her body. “You probably need to work harder to be able to keep up with the class. How about remedial sessions after school? Will that work fine for you?”

After school? She still needed to look for jobs after school since she would surely be fired from her job at the convenient store for failing to turn up in the morning. She had to thank Syaoran for that. Somehow, Sakura had a feeling that he loved to make things difficult for her. As if her life wasn’t difficult at the moment.

“I can’t!” Sakura whispered urgently. Her eyes darted around her to check if any of her classmates were witnessing this. She was lucky that many of them were either busy complaining about the homework Syaoran had given them or were just chatting among themselves. “You know I can’t! I need to find a job!”

Syaoran leaned down towards her such that their faces were only inches apart. “And I told you to quit them, didn’t I?”

“But—”

“So that settles it then,” he suddenly announced loudly, catching class’s attention. Sakura fisted her hands in anger and had to refrain from banging them on her table. What good would it do to inflict pain upon herself? She gritted her teeth when Syaoran winked at her. “Don’t run away after school, muffin.”

“My name is not muffin!” she hissed.

The lesson went on smoothly and Sakura was surprised to find that she was able to understand everything that Syaoran was teaching them. She could use this as a bargaining chip with Syaoran to get away from the remedial classes! That would give her some time to do what she had originally planned.

The bell rang, signaling the end of the lesson. Syaoran frantically gathered his teacher material and dashed out of the class without so much of a goodbye. Sakura chased after him, ignoring the strange looks her classmates were giving her.

“Sensei!” Sakura called out. “Sensei, wait a moment!”

Syaoran did stop and waited for her, tapping his feet against the floor impatiently. “What is it? I need to rush to my next class.”