Sensei, I Love You

Chapter 11

“Time’s up! All of you, pens down,” the teacher announced, her voice booming in the silent classroom. Papers rustled as students tried to cramp in a few more words hastily. “I said no more writing!” Several students groaned but all of them complied nevertheless.

Sakura let her heavy head drop onto the table as she waited for the teacher to account for all the papers. Her hand felt numb after hours of frantic scribbling. She felt as if she had written more words during the examinations than she had for her homework. That was partially true since she really skipped a significant number of classes. It was still a miracle to her that the school didn’t suspend her or even to withdraw her from school.

Despite having gone through a cruel test of Calculus, afternoon classes still had to continue. At least it was lunch time so she could rest a little before the next boring class started. Sakura didn’t even bother to wait for the teacher to announce that they could leave for lunch before dozing off at her table. A sharp rap on her table caused her to jerk away.

“Li-sensei!” Sakura exclaimed, looking up at him with wide eyes. She took a look around and found that several classmates who were still around, were shooting weird glances at them. “Um… Is anything wrong?”

It was unnerving for her to be under the scrutiny of Syaoran, especially in full view of her classmates. “I need to talk to you about your grades,” he said. Sakura’s heart dropped in understanding—she must have gotten bad results to render a visit to the teachers’ office after school hours. He was still standing there after delivering his ultimate blow to her mind. “Teachers’ office. After school.”

“Yes, Li-sensei,” Sakura all but groaned and let her head bang onto the table in defeat, much to Syaoran’s amusement. She felt him gave a little pat on the top of her head before his footsteps receded. The class resumed its normal lunchtime activity as though there wasn’t any interrupted from teachers. She felt restless out of a sudden, probably due to knowing about her results, and she leaned back to stretch herself only to bang into an object on her table. She grasped the box before it slid off her table completely. “What?”

It was a familiar looking lunchbox but Sakura wondered how it got there. Syaoran must have left it on her table secretly because no one was paying any attention to it. That was lucky! Besides, she could use some food to fill her stomach and to make her forget about the little appointment she had with Syaoran after school.

***

Sakura knocked on the door before she slid it. She had purposely delayed coming to the teachers’ office as she did not want many people to witness the two of them talk. He didn’t seem to hear her enter the office as he continued grading some papers. Sakura stood by the door for a few moments to stare at him. If he was busy, why did he ask her to meet him in school when he could have talked to her at his own time at home?

Syaoran suddenly whirled around in his seat to face her, as if feeling that someone was staring at him. His face brightened up when he saw her. “You’re finally here!” he exclaimed before pulling out the chair at the next table. “Come, sit here.”

“Why?”

“Why what? I’m just asking you to sit here while I grade these papers before we call it a day at school.”

Sakura rolled her eyes. “So you called me here to watch you while you mark some freaking papers?”

Syaoran pondered for a moment before grinning at her. “That’s in a nutshell.”

“You are wasting my time,” Sakura muttered and stomped forward anyway. There wasn’t much things she could do out of school. Besides, she didn’t have the key to Syaoran’s house and that made it impossible for her to return home. There was no way that she was going to loiter outside Syaoran’s house as if she was some crazy stalker. She wouldn’t want to risk being noticed or recognized by somebody else.