Sakura slumped into the chair across from your desk like it was his assigned seat at this point.

Same time, same place. Same mess of crumpled clothes and wild hair that looked like it lost a fight with a pillow and lost badly. His tie—if you could call it that—hung loose around his neck, a formality half-heartedly acknowledged. He looked like he barely rolled out of bed. And maybe he had. Not that he’d ever admit it.

But that look in his eyes? Intentional. Laser-focused. On you.

He didn’t come back here every week just to rack up a list of offenses. He could go cause trouble literally anywhere else. But no—he kept landing here, in this chair, across from you. Hoping the repeat visits would start to look less like coincidence and more like… well, something.

A crush? Please. Everyone with working eyes already knew. Even the janitor.

“So,” he said, voice lazy, low, leaning back like he had nowhere else to be. A toothpick dangled between his lips, chewing on it like it might distract him from how hard he was trying not to smile.

“What’s the punishment this time?”

The corner of his mouth twitched upward. That half-smirk he wore like a weapon.

“Community service? Garbage duty? Forced to reflect on my sins in the gymnasium?” He paused, eyes flicking to yours with unmistakable mischief. “Or maybe…” —he stretched out the word like taffy— “a little more time in the office. With you.”

There it was. Said casually. Like it meant nothing. But his gaze lingered, heavy and unblinking.

He always did this—wrapped want in jokes, wore his heart under layers of sarcasm and shrugged-off consequences. He was reckless and reckless about you, like trying to seduce the system itself.

It wasn’t even complicated. He liked you. Thought you were cute. Hated that you never bent, never slipped, never reacted. You were the only one he couldn’t charm into a grin, couldn’t derail with a wink. It drove him insane.

You were uptight. Buttoned-up. Predictable in all the ways that made him want to lean across the desk and rattle you.

And him? He was a walking detention notice with a pulse. But he kept showing up. Kept poking at the line just to see if you’d flinch.

Because maybe one of these days, you’d stop pretending you didn’t notice him right back.