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

Sensei, I Love You

Chapter 22

Sakura lost count of the number of times she packed her belongings to shift to a new place. She was just too glad that she didn't have too much things with her so it only took her a while to settle down in the empty guestroom in Yukito's small apartment.

She slumped on the sofa in the living room with a sigh. "What am I going to do for my one week suspension?"

"You're supposed to be good, remember?" Yukito asked back. "But I still have to go to school, considering that I just started my employment and can't apply for leave for the first few months."

"It's going to be really boring being alone at home." Sakura pouted.

Yukito remained silent as he cleared up the soapy mess she created in his kitchen sink. It was a few minutes later when he spoke. "So, what's going on in school?"

"Why are you asking me that?" Sakura asked warily, thinking that it was some kind of trap question that he was putting her through. She couldn't be too careless.

"I want to know why Li Syaoran is hovering all over you," he replied. "I don't believe a single thing that you told Kaidou-kouchou. I've been with you for a few years when you were young. Don't think I don't know what's going on in your mind. Come on, confess."

"There isn't really much to tell," Sakura protested. "Li-sensei is only worried about me."

Yukito rolled his eyes. "Don't think I didn't hear him call you muffin. I doubt a teacher will give their students endearments, Sakura."

"Well, aren't you calling me by my first name as well?"

"That's totally different!" Yukito exclaimed. "I know your family. I know you. That makes a big difference."

"There's nothing going on between me and Li-sensei," Sakura said, gritting her teeth in irritation. Why couldn't Yukito just take her words for it? "He's just a concerned homeroom teacher who has a kind heart."

"I sense that there are still some things that you are not telling me."

"How can it be?" Sakura asked, feigning innocence. She wasn't about to blurt out the things that she and Syaoran did when they were living together in his house—certainly not the part where they were kissing and certainly not the part where he kicked her out so that he could bring home some pretty woman.

Yukito sighed and gave up his interrogation. Sakura won't be divulging her secrets anytime soon. "I will get to the bottom of this sooner or later."

Sakura grinned, relieved and happy that she won't be forced to tell her secrets. "I wish you good luck then."

"Today is one crazy day," Yukito remarked off-handedly. "First, there's the crazy wild chase for a misbehaved student, then I found out that I finally found you and to know what happened to you. It's too much of a shock for me."

Sakura turned solemn at the change of subject. She leaned forward on the sofa and clasped her hands on the tops of her knees. The thought of her family often upset her. She should have gone with them, not live on without them. She blinked in surprise when Yukito suddenly knelt in front of her and took her hands in his bigger ones and gave them a reassuring squeeze.

"Yukito-san…"

"You still have one big brother who will dote on you," he said gently. "I'll continue Touya's job in protecting his baby sister."

Sakura chuckled through her tears. "I'm not a baby anymore, Yukito-san."

He grinned. "You are—to me. " Sakura sniffed, willing her tears to stop. He pulled some tissues from his coffee table and used it to pat her tears. "You made me want to cry too."

Sakura smiled, despite all the unhappy things that happened to her in her seventeen years of life.

xxx

On the first day of her suspension, she contented herself with watching television programmes and fell asleep in the middle of watching it. Deducing that she wasn't a TV girl, she switched to reading the numerous magazines that Yukito had, only to find that most of them were related to medical—she's not interested in those—and ended up falling asleep in the middle of reading. Well, at least she tried. On the fourth day, she decided that she had enough of staying at home and be and obedient little kid. She dropped by the cosplay café she used to work in.

Junko was thrilled to see her and personally attended to her. "It's so nice of you to drop by to see us," Junko said, returning from the counter after depositing her order chit. "Your brother's friend did a really good job in keeping you out of trouble."

Sakura made a face. "When was I ever a trouble, Junko-san?"

"Well, it pains me to see a cute young lady working so hard. And working part-time is going to get you serious trouble with your school. Speaking of which… why aren't you in school now?" Junko checked the time again—it was just slightly after noon and school was definitely going on at the moment. "What happened?"

"Um… got into some trouble?"

Junko clucked her tongue noisily. "And you said you aren't a trouble."

Rika brought them two steamy mugs of fragrant beverage. "Honey milk tea!" Sakura exclaimed in delight. "I haven't had this in ages!"

"It's on the house," Rika told her with a grin. "We caught you making this secretly the other time."

"Opps!" Sakura giggled. "This is something my brother made when I'm feeling down. It's sort of a cheer-up drink for me."

"Then I'm glad I made these," Rika said. "Well, it's really good to see you again, Sakura-chan. Ah! There's a customer! Enjoy yourself, Sakura-chan. I'll talk to you later!"

"The café is still busy as always," Sakura observed.

Junko nodded, looking around the café with a satisfied smile. "It is."

"Have you found a replacement for me yet?" Sakura asked, suddenly turning serious. "If not, I can work for these two days. I'm um… suspended from school for the time being."

Junko gasped. "Suspended for school?"

Another gasp sounded behind her. Sakura turned around to find Yui not three feet away from their table. "Suspended you say? How did that happen?"

Sakura felt uncomfortable out of a sudden. Being the center of attention was never a good thing for Sakura. "I was openly defiant in class."

"For?" Junko prompted. It warmed Sakura to see Junko this concerned about her and she suddenly had the urge to unload everything onto Junko. But it won't be fair to the owner of the café.

"My homeroom teacher got on my nerves and I just… snapped…"

"Oh you naughty student!" Yui exclaimed loudly, garnering more attention than before. Sakura slid lower onto her chair, hoping to avoid the weird stares that some customers were giving them.

"I'm repenting!" Sakura protested. "But one week is so long and I'm a little bored being alone at home."

"I can't have you work here again," Junko said apologetically. "I promised Tsukishiro-sensei to keep you out of job."

"Everyone is ganging up on me," Sakura muttered, taking another sip of her sweet drink.

Yui patted Sakura's back. "Everyone here is concerned about you, Sakura-chan. You can work all you want after you graduate. Right now, study is your main priority."

"I know that… but…"

"All right! Discussion's over!" Junko announced and got up from the chair. "Time to get back to work everyone!"

A chorus of 'Yes' was heard and everyone scurried away, leaving Sakura with her half cup of honey milk tea. "And they never listen to me…" Sakura muttered miserably as she downed the rest of her drink. She stared out of the window and observed the people walking down the streets. She envied all of them just because they had something to do.

"Sakura-chan, a cake for you," Yui said, placing a slice of chocolate cake in front of her. "This is on the house as well. I'm just relaying the message." She winked and disappeared back into the kitchen, not giving a chance for Sakura to argue.

The cake was delicious and Sakura had to suppress a moan of delight when the sweet flavor burst within her mouth. She took her time to devour the cake because she wanted to savour the piece of goodness. The bells at the door jingled as it open and Sakura almost choked mid bite—Syaoran just entered the café, smiling at her as if there wasn't anything wrong.

"I figured you'd be here," he said after sitting down on the chair across Sakura. "I've been coming in for a few days to see if you'd be here."

Sakura took a sip of her drink and cringed when it tasted bland to her. Too much sugary stuff wreaked havoc on her taste buds. "We don't have anything to say to each other, Li-sensei."

"I wish you'd stop calling me that," Syaoran said, the corners of his lips dipping down. Wait… was he pouting?

"That's what you are—my homeroom teacher. What else could I call you then?"

"You can call me by my name." Syaoran perked up a little at his suggestion and waited eagerly for Sakura to do just that.

"That won't do," she told him flatly. "I'm still a student and you're still a teacher."

Syaoran sighed. "Is that the only reason that you are being so cold to me? Because I'm a teacher?"

Sakura took another sip of her drink just to keep her hands occupied. "You can say so."

"What if I stop being a teacher?"

"You can't do that," Sakura admonished. "That won't be fair to other students who idolize you."

"Idolize me?" Syaoran asked, looking hopeful. "Are you one of them?"

"Can you just leave me alone and let me enjoy my suspension in peace?"

He leaned back against the back of the chair and crossed his arms. "I'm bored."

"That makes the two of us then."

"Why are you being so cold to me?" Syaoran asked. Sakura raised a brow in response. "I only wanted to explain to you what's going on."

Sakura pushed the last bite of chocolate cake into a mouth and used the serviette provided to wipe her mouth. She left the table wordlessly and went to search for Junko to say her goodbye before moving towards the exit. Syaoran caught her wrist, stalling her.

"Let go," Sakura warned, not even bothering to look at him.

"At least let me have a chance to explain."

The blaze in her eyes startled Syaoran for he was clearly not expecting this. "What is there to explain? I'm a student. You're my teacher. I stayed with you and you act so sweet to me but you kicked me out so that another woman can come over. Isn't everything very clear?"

"You misunderstood!"

Sakura scoffed. "There's no way anyone could have misunderstood the situation."

"Muffin…"

"Stop calling me that!" Sakura wrenched free from his grasp. "I don't want to hear from you anymore, ever!"

With that, she stomped out of the café, not caring that everyone in the café was watching the scene and definitely not caring about the dejected look on Syaoran's face.

To be continued

*Dodge throwing knives*

Please don't hate me! I'll update the next chapter in 12 hours! It's almost 2am over here right now. I've been wanting to upload the chapter yesterday but I didn't have a chance to use the PC at home. Will be updating another 2 chapters over the weekend! But that'll leave me with probably nothing to update next week. I'm still 1/4 into chapter 25 now. We'll see how it goes!