Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Dreams of Amber ❯ Chapter 7 ( Chapter 7 )

Chapter 7

 

 

“You WHAT?”

 

“I feel miserable, Tomoyo. It's been almost a week since that incident and I'm still the laughing stock of the Li mansion.”

 

“…”

 

“Tomoyo, I wanna come back to Tomoeda.”

 

“…”

 

“TOMOYO! Are you even there?”

 

“Uh… yeah…”

 

“I have never felt so embarrassed before. Yuan keeps smirking at me, Lu keeps patting me on the shoulder in a condescending manner and Dan keeps pulling my leg all the—”

 

“Dan? Who's Dan?”

 

“He's Li's driver. Anyway, as I was saying, my troubles don't end here. I don't think Lauren Ross likes me either. She was—”

 

“Is he cute?”

 

“Who? Lauren Ross?”

 

“No, silly! I said `he', as in Dan.”

 

“Oh. Umm… I guess so—he's got a nice face… so yeah. Coming back to what I was saying, Lauren Ross hates me and so does Li Syaoran—”

 

“Does he have brown eyes?”

 

“…”

 

“Sakura?”

 

“…meep…”

 

“Sakura? Are you there?”

 

“Yeah, I'm here. Where would I go? Heh heh.”

 

“Well answer my question then—does he have brown eyes?”

 

“You—you've seen him. Why are you asking me then?”

 

“What? When have I seen Dan?”

 

“…OH! You meant to ask if Dan has brown eyes! No, no, he doesn't—he's got umm… sea-green eyes… I thought you were asking about…”

 

“Yeah? Who did you think I was asking about?”

 

“Umm… no one. Heh heh. Er… Tomoyo, I really need to go. Some of the other servants want to use the computer—I'll chat with you later. `kay bye!”

 

 

~

 

 

Sakura covered her eyes with her hand. And here she was thinking that sharing her problems with her friend would help her cope with them better. But damn that Tomoyo—one slip of the tongue on Sakura's part and she would only make things worse. Tomoyo was bound to suspect something now. She'd already met Li Syaoran and if she remembered that he had brown—or more specifically, amber eyes, Sakura would be in so much trouble. Like she didn't have enough troubles already.

 

“But if I think about it, I haven't had a single dream about `Amber-eyes' since I came to Hong Kong. Hmm… that's odd,” she wondered out aloud. “Maybe even my sub-conscious mind is put-off by the fact that the man of my dreams could be an arrogant jerk like Li Syaoran.”

 

Coping with her mixed feelings for her boss had been lot easier for the past few days. Mainly because of the fact that he was hardly ever home. Her unofficial supervisor was now Lauren Ross, who had become a frequent visitor to the Li mansion—she spent most of her free time there.

 

“You are essentially a servant here. So behave like a servant.” Lauren would tell her repeatedly, to the point that Sakura wanted to tell her to kindly “Shut up—I've got the point a thousand times already” but wisely chose not to. Being a supermodel, Lauren was a busy person and did go out for photo shoots and fashion shows and goodness knows what, but Sakura was thankful for that.

 

Lauren mostly spent her time in the house pretending to be Mrs. Li Syaoran and ordering the servants around. `I suppose she's started practicing, considering she is going to marry him someday. Maybe she'll boss him around too,' Sakura thought and giggled. `Li Syaoran being bossed around… now that's something I'd love to see.'

 

 

~

 

 

“But today's Sunday! He can't even spare a Sunday for us?”

 

Lu sighed at the young Li's outburst. “Master Yuan, you know—”

 

“Yeah, yeah, I know what you're going to say—he's such a busy man, he has so much work…” Yuan crossed his arms and looked away, pouting.

 

“But…”

 

“He hasn't eaten with us for a week now,” Lien joined in, her voice soft and unsure. “Does that mean he cares more for his work?”

 

“Of course not! He…”

 

“Yeah, he doesn't care for us! He doesn't love us!” Yuan yelled.

 

“Don't say such things, Master Yuan! He's your father!”

 

“Then why doesn't he eat with us and play with us and talk to us like all fathers do?”

 

Lu opened her mouth to say something but before she could say anything, Yuan got up from his chair and ran off in the direction of his room. “I'm not feeling hungry. I won't eat until Daddy comes.”

 

Sakura, who'd been watching this from the sidelines without saying anything, got up and caught his arm.

 

“Let me go!” he insisted.

 

“Not again, Yuan! If your father takes you for granted, that's his fault. Why should you punish yourself and starve yourself like this?” Sakura argued.

 

“Maybe then he'll notice us!” he answered back.

 

Sakura widened her eyes, shocked by his answer. She let go of him in her shock.

 

“One day I'm going to do something which will make him notice me,” he muttered to himself as he climbed up the stairs leading to his room. Sakura was the only one who had heard him.

 

 

~

 

 

“I'm sick of learning the alphabet. Can't we learn something else?”

 

“Yuan, if you don't know your alphabet even, how are you going to be able to learn anything new?” Sakura explained patiently.

 

“Umm… maybe we can play a game? Throw the water!” He started laughing and Lien followed suit.

 

Sakura rolled her eyes. “Okay, this joke's getting old now.”

 

The sound of a car stopping and doors opening and slamming interrupted the kids' laughter.

 

“Oh, looks like Daddy's home,” Lien noted.

 

“I think he's going to be angry today,” Yuan said, and Sakura was taken aback by a mischievous smile on his face. `This guy's definitely up to something,' she thought.

 

Sure enough, a few seconds later—

 

“YUAN!” came a voice. All three of them turned around to find an extremely pissed-off Li Syaoran standing at the door.

 

Yuan stood up, still smiling. “Yes Daddy?”

 

“Last night, did you touch the papers that were kept on my table?” Li asked, still sounding angry.

 

“Yes Daddy.”

 

“And did you make any changes in those papers?” Syaoran raised his voice a bit and Sakura inwardly winced. She had never seen him talk like that to his kids. He definitely was very, very pissed-off.

 

Yuan however, looked like he was trying hard to control his laughter. “Yes Daddy.”

 

At this, Syaoran grabbed a bunch of papers from his bag and threw them at Yuan's feet. “Aren't these those papers?”

 

Sakura bent to take a look at them and had to suppress the urge to giggle. The papers consisted of designs of various costumes, probably designed by Li himself, drawn in black ink.

 

But apparently, someone had used a red pen to practice the Chinese alphabet all over the designs. And beneath the mess, a name had been signed in Chinese—`Yuan'.

 

Both the kids started giggling now. “Isn't that funny, Daddy? Ha ha—I didn't like those stupid dresses anyway.”

 

“SHUT UP! Both of you!” Li yelled, and the laughter immediately stopped. “Do you realize the seriousness of what you've done?”

 

Sakura noticed Lu running into the room to see what the noise was all about. The kids now looked scared, Yuan especially. He had obviously not expected his dad to react this way. Maybe he'd expected him to laugh it off.

 

“Those designs were to be sold to a reputed American designer company today! Because of you, I lost the deal and in the process—millions of dollars!” Li continued. He suddenly sighed and shook his head. “So tell me, what should I do with you, Yuan? What punishment do you deserve?” he asked tiredly.

 

Yuan looked ready to burst into tears now. And something inside Sakura snapped.

 

“He deserves no punishment. It's my fault.”

 

All eyes turned to her. Li's eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

 

“I was the one who instigated him—I gave him the idea to do this,” Sakura lied. Yuan widened his eyes and stared at her in shock. Lu gasped and Lien blinked.

 

“Really?” Li asked, through gritted teeth. “And why would you do such a thing?”

 

Sakura breathed in deeply. “Because… because these kids were depressed because of you! They wanted your attention. It seemed like playing a prank on you was the only way you would give them any attention!”

 

Li frowned. “What are you implying, Miss Kinomoto?”

 

“I'm implying that you care more for your work than your own children! You are more interested in making your clients happy, perfecting your designs and making loads of money than spending some time with your kids.”

 

Li stared at her, but she could see a hint of guilt in his eyes.

 

Pushing her luck, she continued. “These kids don't even have a mother to look after them. In such a situation, you should try to spend as much time with them as possible so that they don't feel the loss of a mother…”

 

“That's enough! You've already spoken out of the line of a nanny in the Li household.” Sakura bit her lip at the anger in Syaoran's voice. She had pushed her luck too far by bringing in the subject of Chang Fu into this.

 

Li turned around. “Very well, then. If this is indeed your fault…” He seemed to consider something. “Miss Kinomoto, I want to see you in my work room in ten minutes.” Saying that, he walked off.

 

Once he was out of earshot, Lu exclaimed, “Sakura, what were you thinking?”

 

 

~

 

 

Sakura nervously knocked at the door of Li Syaoran's work room.

 

“Come in,” came his voice.

 

She opened the door slowly and entered to find him staring out of his window.

 

Without turning to look at her, he said, “There's a white envelope on my table. It's for you.”

 

Sakura spotted it and picked it up.

 

Li continued. “I'd wanted my mother to take this decision regarding you. But it is obvious that you have no concern for the rules of this house and have no decency to talk to your employer. So I've decided to take this decision myself. I don't want my mother anymore stressed than she already is.” He didn't seem angry—there was a flat tone to his voice.

 

“Umm… what is this, Mr Li?” she asked, looking down at the envelope even though she had a pretty good idea what it contained.

 

Li looked at her. “Miss Kinomoto…” His expression was unreadable.

 

She braced herself for what was coming next, but it hit her quite hard nonetheless.

 

“You're fired.”