Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Dreams of Amber ❯ Chapter 6 ( Chapter 6 )

Chapter 6

 

 

 

She should be writing a book about this: `How to Royally Mess-up Your First Job' by Kinomoto Sakura. First, start having dreams about your boss before you meet him. Then, become speechless on the first meeting. Slowly, develop feelings for him overnight, and finally, on the very first morning, throw a bucket of water over him.

 

'Well at least I haven't been given the sack. Things could have been much worse.' But that thought hardly managed to assuage Sakura's doubts that Li Syaoran probably hated her now.

 

She would have been yelled at by her boss if Yuan hadn't burst into laughter and Lien hadn't started giggling. For some reason, they found it extremely funny.

 

Looking at the kids' reactions, Syaoran's lips had curved into a grimace. Sakura winced, and desperately avoided looking at him. “Care to explain this, Miss Kinomoto?” he asked, one eyebrow raised and brown bangs still dripping water.

 

She had then gulped, and blushing furiously, blurted her explanation. At which Yuan and Lien had started laughing even more, if possible. “This is—ha ha—she's funn—ha ha ha—funny!” Yuan managed between peals of laughter.

 

Ignoring them, Syaoran had narrowed his eyes at her in irritation and said coldly. “That's hardly the way to teach discipline to kids. I hope you do know what you're doing, Miss Kinomoto.”

 

She nodded, wincing at the coldness in his tone. 'Didn't Tomoyo say he's a perfect gentleman? Yeah, probably only to his acquaintances, not his servants.'

 

“And I also hope you realize that this is a very expensive suit. And it should never be even touched by water, so you have effectively ruined it.”

 

She had wanted to snap a retort at him—it was not like she had done it on purpose, but wisely decided to keep her mouth shut. She had also thought of offering to give-up her first salary, but realized the suit probably cost more than her one month's pay. So she had just kept quiet while her boss stalked away, shoulders bristling with annoyance and irritation.

 

The kids however, had continued laughing.

 

 

~

 

 

“Wow, that's some way to greet your boss!”

 

Sakura frowned. Being scolded by Li Syaoran in front of the kids was bad enough. Teasing from Dan was not what she wanted right now.

 

“You know, it's a good thing Li came in between. If Yuan had gotten wet, he would have probably created a big scene—fake being ill from catching a chill due to the water or something. And considering how much the kids are pampered, it would have gotten you into deep trouble,” Dan continued thoughtfully.

 

Sakura thought over what he said. “Maybe…” She shook her head and buried her face in her hands. “God, this is so embarrassing! Now no one is going to take me seriously. How am I going to control the kids?” she said desperately.

 

Dan patted her shoulder gently though he tried hard to hide a grin. “Umm… I think you're taking this job way too seriously. You need to relax.”

 

She looked up at him. There was a mischievous glint in his eyes and she didn't know if he was teasing her or being serious. “Relax?”

 

“Yeah… you know, take your time with the kids. You can't expect results in just one day.” He shrugged.

 

She frowned and turned away, observing the kids as they played around in the huge garden.

 

“Listen Sakura, there's nothing to get upset about. Li's a moody man. He would have probably laughed the whole thing off if he were in a good mood. It was just your bad luck that he wasn't too cheery this morning—probably because he didn't get much sleep last night.”

 

She turned back to face him. “My friend, she's a designer… she had—umm… met him before. She told me that he's a `perfect gentleman'.”

 

Dan snorted. “He has to be a `perfect gentleman' to his clientele. What do you expect?”

 

“Oh.”

 

“I've been his driver for over a month now. And if you ask me, Li's a very odd man. I stopped trying to figure him out two days after my appointment here. Sometimes he's this cold bastard, and the other times, he's the best boss you'll ever get.” He leaned back against the bench they were sitting on with his hands behind his head for support. “I guess his estrangement with Chang Fu was a bit hard for him.”

 

Sakura immediately sat up at the mention of Chang Fu. “Okay, you're going to tell me the whole story behind that before the suspense drives me crazy.”

 

Dan grinned. “Everyone's been keeping you in the dark about that, eh?” Scratching his chin he continued. “Well, you know that a few years back Fu was the most sought-after actress in the Chinese film industry. That's when she married Li—I think the marriage was arranged by Li Yelan. Li's an international figure, but Fu wasn't, which bothered her a bit. So Fu decided to crossover to Hollywood as well, I suppose. But all her crossover films flopped miserably. Soon, she became a subject of ridicule for the media. They called her a wannabe-crossover-artiste and such.”

 

Sakura nodded. “Yeah, I remember reading that in the tabloids. That was pretty harsh on her. But I've never heard about her since.”

 

“That's because she stopped doing films altogether. And that's when the drinking problem started.”

 

“Drinking problem?”

 

“Yeah, it was her way of forgetting and escaping. And the drinking just got worse with each passing day.”

 

“And Mr Li allowed this to happen?”

 

Dan shook his head. “He's a very busy man. He couldn't baby-sit her the whole time. He tried to get her out of the habit, but there's only this much one can do when a person becomes an addict. It was too late by then and Fu was far too gone.”

 

Sakura widened her eyes. “But what about the kids?”

 

“The kids were affected, obviously. They didn't understand what was happening to their mother and why there was so much tension between their parents.”

 

Sakura felt a stab of pity and sympathy for Yuan and Lien. For such a tender age, they had gone through a lot for no fault of their own.

 

Dan continued. “Soon, both Li and his mother decided it was high time for a divorce. Fu of course wanted custody of the kids but Li wouldn't hear of it. There was a bitter court-battle which, Li finally won. The court couldn't obviously send the kids to a mother who was an alcohol-addict, but this ruling hit Fu pretty hard.”

 

“Clearly, she's their mother after all.”

 

He frowned. “She still hasn't given up though.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

He lowered his voice. “If you ask me, all that alcohol unhinged her brain or something. But she's out to get the kids by hook or crook. There have been many attempts by all kinds of people to kidnap the kids. And even though it's not been proven, there's a very good chance that Fu is behind that.”

 

Sakura felt her eyebrows touch her hairline. “But why would she make people kidnap her own kids?”

 

Dan gave her a pointed look. “Kidnap them and whisk them off to a foreign country, where she and the kids can live in anonymity and Li would never be able to find them.”

 

“A mother would never do that!”

 

“A mother would do anything to be with her kids,” Dan corrected. “And like I said, she's also a bit unhinged.”

 

Sakura stared at him, processing the whole story. It was then that something struck her. “The bars on the windows of the kids' bedroom!” she suddenly exclaimed.

 

Dan smirked. “So you noticed them. Yeah, they were placed after one such kidnapping attempt. The kids don't know. But Li knows, and there's nothing else he can do about it.”

 

She shivered involuntarily. And here she used to think that the rich had an easy life.

 

Dan noticed her shiver and leaned forward. “Oh great, now I've scared you even more. You don't need to worry about all this. Li's quite paranoid anyway and he's not going to let anything happen.” He placed his hand on her chin and tilted her face towards him. “You really need to relax a bit, you know…”

 

Sakura felt her eyes widening again. Dan was looking at her in a very familiar way. It was the kind of look `Amber-eyes' gave her in her dreams, except that Dan's eyes were sea-green and no match for the fiery amber that took her breath away. She felt herself blush and lean away from his touch instinctively.

 

Dan smirked seeing her blush, and releasing her chin, he leant back against the bench. Running a hand through his hair, he said, “You might want to see more of Hong Kong, hmm? Maybe I could show you around sometime?” He glanced at her through the corner of his eyes.

 

“Dan, are you asking me out on a date?”

 

He chuckled. “Well if you want to call it that. I meant it to be more on a friendly level—we've known each other for hardly two days.”

 

Sakura shook her head. “I don't think I'll be allowed to go around sight-seeing. Mine is a full-time job, and also considering the fact that I've started off on the wrong foot.”

 

He stood up and stretched his arms. “Don't worry, we'll make some time.” He winked at her. “Gotta go. Boss would be ready to go back to his workaholic self now. See you later.”

 

 

~

 

 

Standing in front of the vast and beautiful Li gardens, Sakura gritted her teeth as Yuan leaned over to whisper something in Lien's ears, both looking at her in an amused way and then laughing merrily at her expense. `This has gone far enough. If they are going to look at me like some comic relief just because of this morning's incident, they'll never ever listen to me.'

 

She forced a fake smile. “Well now that you've shared jokes with each other and had the biggest laugh of your life, would you care to come inside and have dinner?”

 

“Or else what will you do? Throw water on us?” Yuan countered, and laughed heartily at his own joke, Lien accompanying it with her giggles.

 

'Don't lose your temper…' Sakura tilted her head on one side and continued smiling. “Oh how very funny,” she said, sarcasm evident in her voice. “Now—”

 

“Daddy! Will you have dinner with us as well?” Yuan interrupted her before she could even start her sentence. She turned around to find Li Syaoran standing at the house entrance and the kids running up to meet him. She immediately dropped her gaze.

 

“I'm sorry, but I have work to do. I just wanted to tell you two that I'm going,” Syaoran said, a regretful smile on his face.

 

Lien pouted and Yuan frowned.

 

Syaoran shook his head. “Oh come on! I did have lunch with you two, right? Now be good and go have your dinner, okay? Run along.” He gently pushed them towards the house and they reluctantly obeyed him.

 

Sakura observed the exchange. No matter what Dan had said about Li Syaoran being a moody man, he definitely was a different person when he was with his kids. It was something she had noticed last evening as well.

 

“Miss Kinomoto?”

 

Her surname being called out by her boss jerked her out of thoughts and made her realize that she was now alone with him. Immediately feeling self-conscious, she bit her lip and nodded, still avoiding his gaze.

 

Leaning against the doorframe, he said, “I wanted to talk to you about certain things.”

 

Sakura felt herself panic. 'Certain things? What things? This morning's incident?'

 

“No, I'm not here to discuss what you did this morning,” he said, as though reading her thoughts. “Lu told me that you were acting on her advice of playing `Tit for tat', though she wasn't expecting you to go so overboard. My kids might have found it funny but I don't approve of such things, nor does my mother. There are certain rules to obey when you're living in the Li household, and that's what I wanted to discuss.”

 

“Rules?” Sakura looked up to meet his gaze and instantly regretted it. She had promised herself last night that she would not look into Li Syaoran's eyes at the risk of confusing him with `Amber-eyes'. The similarity in the eye colour was striking but there was no way that he could be the man of her dreams. And she could not let such a silly thing interfere with her job. She looked away.

 

Oblivious to the internal struggle going on in her mind, Syaoran continued. “Yes, rules. My mother especially, is very particular and strict about these rules. And the first and the most important one is—Discipline.”

 

“Oh.”

 

“Discipline is very important in this house and everyone living here is expected to live by it. So you should remember to—”

 

“Really? Then I suppose the kids throwing water on their nanny on the first day constitutes `discipline'?” she retorted.

 

Syaoran frowned. He obviously didn't like being interrupted and answered back, and Sakura bit her tongue. 'What possessed me to say that? Stupid, stupid!'

 

He straightened up and walked towards her till there was about twelve inches separating them. The small distance forced her to look up at him and into his eyes, which were achingly familiar. The same intense amber, the only difference being that instead of love, they held anger. “If you think the kids are not disciplined enough, you should discipline them. That is the purpose of keeping a nanny. It's your job,” he said icily. Sakura shivered involuntarily, from his tone and his close proximity. And the shiver was not just due to fear.

 

“And since you obviously don't know how to go about teaching discipline, I think it would be safe to assume you may not last for long. So I'm not going to stand here and waste my time lecturing you about the rest of the rules,” he continued, his tone still icy.

 

Sakura bit her lip again and looked down. “I'm—um—sorry… I hadn't meant that to sound rude. And… um… I'll try my best to do as you say.”

 

He raised an eyebrow. “We'll see. The decision for letting you stay lies in my mother's hands once she comes back from Paris. But if you're going to interrupt and talk back to her, it's not going to help you. I hope you understand, Miss Kinomoto?”

 

“Yes, Mr Li.” She nodded desperately. “Discipline. I'll keep that in mind.”

 

“You better,” he said, before turning around and walking off into the house.

 

Sakura let out a sigh. This whole thing was turning into one big fiasco. She was now positive that Li Syaoran hated her. This along with the fact that she was confusing him with `Amber-eyes' and that the kids now looked at her like she was a joke. Packing her bags and running off to Tomoeda seemed a very good alternative now.