Sensei, I Love You

Chapter 30

Sakura woke up screaming in the middle of the night. Her pajamas stuck to her back like a second skin, totally drenched in her own sweat despite the cool temperature in her room. Her breaths left in pants as she tried to shake off her nightmare. She drew her knees against her chest and only then did she realize that she was shaking.

The loud taps on the door made her jump on her bed but she couldn’t make herself to respond to it. She couldn’t let anyone see how worked up she was over a nightmare. Knowing her brother’s behaviour, he would insist on sleeping in her room like she was some baby girl requiring babysitting.

“Sakura?” Touya’s voice boomed from beyond the door, followed by a series of loud knocks that threatened to tear down her door. “Sakura? Open the door! I heard screaming from your room!”

Sakura took a few breaths to calm down. She did not want to sound shaky to her brother but she definitely was in no condition to look at him in the eyes right now otherwise she would break down all over again. Most importantly, she didn’t want her brother to blame himself for what happened to her.

“I’m okay,” she said, loud enough to be heard through the door. “It’s just a nightmare. I’m tired… I’m going back to sleep.”

“Sakura, open this door!”

“Onii-chan, I’m tired!” Sakura didn’t mean to shout at her brother but her voice came out harder than she had meant to. She knew that shocked her brother because there was a period of silence before her brother relented and walked away with a loud goodnight.

She lay back on the bed, only to spring back to a sitting position when she heard some noise from her window. Her wide emerald eyes flew to the windows and opened even wider when a shadow dropped into her room with a soft thud. She was ready to scream.

“It’s me,” came a familiar voice which soothed Sakura instantly. She relaxed and let go of the blanket in her death grip.

“What are you doing here? No, wait… Why are you still here? It’s… almost three in the morning! And this is the second floor!”

Syaoran shut the window carefully before creeping over to Sakura’s bed. She looked on in amusement, wondering if he knew the floor was carpeted and that any footsteps would be muted. He sat down beside her and nudged her hip with his, indicating that she move further to the other side of the bed to make space for him. She arched a brow in response before scooting in.

“I was actually sleeping in one of the spare rooms here,” Syaoran confessed with a sheepish smile. “I wanted to see you again in the morning before we… before we part ways until your graduation.”

Sakura’s face fell at his words. “Do we really have to do that?”

“It’s for your own good, muffin,” Syaoran said. He leaned lay down on the bed and pulled Sakura into the crook of his arm. “I don’t want to disrupt your studies.”

“You don’t have to quit. I know how much you like teaching and goofing around in school…”

Syaoran chuckled and Sakura could feel the vibration that reverberated from his chest. She snuggled closer to him for warmth and he quickly pulled up the blankets over the both of them. “You think I’m playing around in school?”

“You are always being an idiot in school. It really makes me wonder how you become a teacher in the first place.”

“I told you, I studied real hard for the qualification. I’m a genius!”

Sakura snorted. “Genius? More like idiot.”

“That rude! But I forgive you because I love you.” Sakura didn’t know how to respond to that and went silent for a while. “My muffin is so shy!”