Disclaimer: Cardcaptor Sakura belongs to the wonderful CLAMP, not me.

Sensei, I Love You

Chapter 3

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."

"I don't think a remedial class is necessary. I was able to understand your lesson just now so I think I'm catching up with the class."

"You are a naughty student, muffin," Syaoran teased, pinching Sakura's nose earning him a surprised yelp from her. He chuckled as she covered her nose with both hands. "The remedial class will still go on so don't think of running away. I'll be able to find you wherever you go."

"How about we shift the remedial class to tonight?" Sakura suggested, blinking her pretty emerald eyes at him. In normal circumstances, Sakura would have felt a little disgusted doing this sort of flirting to someone who was older than her but she couldn't care much about it now. She needed the time in the afternoon urgently. "Please?"

Syaoran waved her away dismissively. "Not going to happen, muffin. I'll see you after school then."

"Hey! That's not fair!"

"Nothing's fair in this world," Syaoran said and chuckled as he walked away. "Remember that."

Students were rushing out of the school with joy as the classes are over. Sakura, however, had to stay in her classroom for Syaoran for remedial class and hence was unable to find her friend who often has some job openings. Speaking of the man, where was he? He was actually half an hour late! How could he make her wait? She could have used this precious time for job hunt instead.

Another five minutes, Sakura thought to herself. That was her limit and she would give him an earful when she went back and she didn't care if he was in fact her homeroom teacher. A scolding for him was merciful enough. In fact, Sakura felt like strangling him for purposely making things difficult for her. He knew that she needed to look for job to pay for her overdue rental. Sakura gasped upon realizing that Syaoran must be preventing her from her job hunt efforts! He did want her to quit all her jobs and he had successfully just got her fired from her morning job at the convenient job by refusing to let her leave his side on the way to school. Five minutes.

Minutes ticked by. Sakura's anger went up another notch when he did not appear within her allocated time frame. Slamming her palms on the table, Sakura pushed herself up and grabbed her bag before stomping over to the door. She slid it open with a loud bang and promptly crashed into solid wall. Sakura gasped in surprise as the impact sent her reeling backwards. Hands shot out to pull her back. She was about to mutter her thanks when she saw the culprit and immediately pressed her mouth into a thin line.

"Slow poke."

Syaoran raised a brow. "Is that the way to treat your homeroom teacher?"

"Not happy?" Sakura retorted, pulling her bag higher on her shoulder. "Then behave like one." She shoved him away from the door and proceeded to step out of the classroom. She had enough of him for the day. If she stayed with him in the classroom for another second, she would be throttling her homeroom teacher.

"Hey muffin, where are you going? You are supposed to have your remedial class with me," he shouted across the corridor.

Sakura whirled back to throw a glare at him. "It was supposed to start more than half an hour ago. I wasted my time waiting for you. That's my precious time you have wasted. I'm going to claim it back," she retorted and walked away with her head held high. She paused on the third step and turned back. "And don't ever call me muffin in school."

"Why? There is nobody around."

"I don't care," Sakura threw the words at him without even bothering to look back. "Stop bothering me."

"Even when I say that what you want is with me?"

Sakura skidded to a stop and whirled around, her eyes wide and fixated on Syaoran. Her gaze flew to his hands and she frowned when she saw that they were empty. "What I want?"

Syaoran folded his arms and smirked. "Of course! I'm thinking how you can repay me for my heroic actions."

"Heroic actions?" Sakura snorted. "Somehow, I can't imagine it."

"Don't you want the photograph?" Syaoran tapped his feet impatiently, as if waiting for her to praise him for all the troubles he went through to retrieve the photograph for her in such a short time.

"Of course I want it! If it you didn't stop me this morning, I would be one step closer to having it in my hands! I just can't understand why you wouldn't want me to withdraw from school."

Sakura blinked as Syaoran's expression turned solemn but it turned back into his usual cheerful and idiotic smile. "I can't lose my precious and cute little student!" he explained and his smile turned even wider at her irritated expression.

"Are you sure you are a trained teacher?" Sakura asked. "With that attitude of yours, I don't think you can last a full year."

Syaoran leaned forward slighting, perching one hand on his hip and wagging a figure at Sakura. "You underestimate me, muffin. I can guarantee that I am a fully trained teacher. I have the certificate at home if you are interested, you can take a look."

Sakura's eyes narrowed at him and hissed, "Don't say it out loud!"

"Say what?" he asked and straightened, not understanding what she meant.

"Do you really want to gloat about the fact that you are actually pitying me and providing me shelter?"

There was silence for a few seconds. "So you think I'm that kind of person?" Syaoran asked, drawing out each word slowly. "Am I that bad?"

Sakura sighed. "I'm not saying you are bad but you are obviously not good either. Would a normal male teacher encourage their female cute student to live with them?"

Syaoran was amused. "So you think you are cute?"

"Can you stop answering my questions with questions? It's getting irritating," Sakura bit out. She was restraining herself from smacking Syaoran on the head. There was no way that she was able to view him as her teacher with the way he was behaving now. "Let's just stop all these nonsense. What exactly are you trying to tell me?"

"Me?" Syaoran asked, pointing a finger at himself.

Sakura rolled her eyes heavenward. "Who else?"

"I thought you meant you."

"Stop trying to confuse me! If you keep talking in circles, I'm really going to leave you here."

"Oh. Right. You know you can't bear to leave me alone."

Sakura glared at him. "Try me," she spat and spun on her heels and left the school even though she felt a little bad for speaking to Syaoran disrespectfully. After all, he was still her homeroom teacher and he was also concerned about her. If it wasn't for him, Sakura would have to worry about lodgings for the next few days.

She was glad that Syaoran did not follow her as she made her way out of the school. She paused at the gates, took a look about her and sighed. Everyone had already gone home while she still did not know where she could go besides her teacher's house.

Before Sakura knew it, she was already standing by the gates of Tanaka residence. She must have been thinking hard about her photograph that she did not even realize that her legs had moved on their own accord. It was as if she had no control over them.

Sakura tried the gates and was pleasantly surprised when it was unlocked. She did a little cheer in her mind when she spotted the front door was slightly ajar and there was no sign of any activity within the house. She stepped into the front yard and gloated about the fact that someone had so carelessly left the door open. This was her golden chance to grab what belonged to her! With her heart beating frantically against her ribs, Sakura sneaked into the quiet house.

To be continued

I'm on a break from work till the end of the year and this means that I'll have more time to write! (If I'm not hanging around outside). Currently, I'm also doing a one-shot but I'm not sure if it will be ready any time soon. We'll see how it goes!

Thanks for reading, adding as favorite/alert or leaving a review! I really appreciate that! :)