One Day, Three Autumns
I.
She fluttered her long dark eyelashes open as she woke up. Her green green eyes stared at the oh-so familiar white ceiling causing the bright light to sting her eyes before stifling an irritated groan. Her delicate hands rubbed her eyes as she wondered how long has she been out and lying in this cold hard bed. She was surprised when she heard a familiar voice shrieked and called out in panic. Her best friend she concluded. The said frantic young woman went outside the room, hysterically calling out, "Guys! She's awake!"
She wanted to call out to her but then it occurred that her throat was dry as a desert- deprived from fluids probably for days as she couldn't find her voice. All at once, that moment, familiar faces entered in the room. Before she realized it, she was engulfed in a group hug. A blonde young man with the warmest cerulean eyes stared carefully at her before hugging tight, as if afraid that she's not well enough.
She watched how her blonde, almond-eyed mentor handed her a glass of water. She took it, grateful as she drank down the content immediately. She eyed everyone in the room,
"How long I was out?"
"Three days." Voiced her mentor, her face was stern but the worry was evident in her features.
"You collapsed! You weren't eating, you studied too much, missed some classes and I didn't know what to do!" The blonde young woman with the baby blue eyes stated worriedly for her best friend who was now half-lying on the bed, watching her outburst with sadness in the greenest eyes her baby blue ones had ever seen.
"Does he knows this?" The blonde young man, Naruto asked rather loud and angry. But the hand of a pale young woman was placed on his back for support and her pale gentle lavender orbs looked at the pinkette with pure worry.
The question hit her like a knife as her dull eyes widened. It gave a heavy tension in the room and all at once, all memories came back in her mind. It felt painful, every memory was.
He left.
She couldn't find the words to reply to her so-called brother figure but her childhood best friend gasp, shouting Naruto's name, as if warning him from something dangerous to come. He wasn't much of an idiot, people deemed him to be to not know what was going on. He felt his chest tighten at his best friend's stupidity- leaving a wonderful and aspiring pinkette with no proper goodbye or anything. Her emerald eyes conveyed loneliness once more, looking at the folded hands on her lap, she bit her lower lip. A habit she picked up when she was just a child. She was tensed, anxious and oblivious.
"You didn't know, huh?" Naruto slowly stated his cerulean eyes, hinting sadness staring back at the once lively lady. Hinata, his girlfriend avoided her green eyes, turning away to find the daffodil flowers on the table interesting.
"He's not coming back."
He's not coming back
He's not coming back
HE'S NOT COMING BACK
It repeated like a mantra inside her head-over and over again. Suddenly, it felt difficult to simply breathe as something was weighing down in her chest. Something painful. It took everything in her will power not to break down or cry- she refused. She cried for God knows how long. She won't cry- not in front of them at least. She put on a neutral façade but her eyes were expressive too much. It was obvious for them that she's trying to be strong. That she put on that façade even though her world was crumbling down once more. One of her worst fears came true.
The hurt, she couldn't put the best description except for the word different. It hurt like a thousand knives pierced to her chest, tore open, so much weight. It indeed felt hard to breathe properly. Her body was shaking outside but inwardly she felt like she was drowning down the endless, vast ocean and her world- cold, dark and sorrowful.
She thought to herself that maybe it was her fault she loved to much- that she loved fiercely, giving her all. They were very happy before he left her waiting. She cursed the day his brother called him asking to go back to Japan. Though, she trusted his words that he needed to go back because his father died. She vividly remembered how she was about to kiss him good bye but then stopping her, with the gentle onyx orb and smile reserved only for her, 'Next time'. She foolishly agreed, too much in love and too much trust.
From that day on, she patiently waited. Days passed before she emailed him worried and all. Days turned to weeks then months.
"Listen Haruno Sakura." The stern and authoritative voice of her mentor echoed the room, leaning down close to her level with a threatening look from the almond eyes. It was the first time she heard her full name mentioned by her mentor.
"You've been skipping out your math subjects and I will not tolerate that." She watched her crossed her arms against her developed chest. Sakura bit her lower lip again, her attention to her mentor and guilty.
"Continue sulking and consider your scholarship gone."
Tsunade hadn't meant to hurt her even more. But she thought it was the only way, the best way she can help the young woman and teach her to stand up and grieve no more. The apprentice she knew was strong, optimistic, lively and all the positive things. This was just not who she is. She wouldn't have her sulking and grieving all over again for a damn young man.
Her almond eyes watched the way the pinkette's friends hugged her, she's getting more pissed at this scenario. No student of hers would be too vulnerable.
"I'm so sorry." Her student choked out the words almost barely. She looked directly in the green orbs hoping to find a spark of determination she saw back then. She wouldn't let the efforts and talents of this woman go to waste over such petty things. She just needed her resolved.
"The best you can do is prove yourself to him, that you can without him." Her almond eyes observed trying to revive her with her eyes and words and threats. "You were here to study under my name. First of the firsts."
"This is your dream, Sakura! Please stop." Ino protested and one of the rarest occasion in the world was when she addresses her best friend's name- not the playful nickname they have developed over the years. Her shiny blue eyes conveyed that she wanted to slap the pinkette.
"Sakura-chan, please stop. You kept thinking about him." Hinata voiced. Everyone in the room turned to her, surprised that the timid young woman would say something at all in this situation, "Is he even thinking about you?" Hinata knew it would hurt. She never knew it would be this severe that the pinkette didn't much eat or pay attention due to depression and longing. They were perfect. Made for each other and all. Hinata concluded that if this didn't happen, they would probably be married after college.
But no.
Fate seems to play unfair.
"Make the bastard realize what he lost!" Naruto exclaimed gently patting her shoulder. She smiled, after a long time. A sweet genuine one. She was elated that people would care so much for her in their own way. "Remember why you're here Sakura-chan. Besides, you are too good for him. He's bad looking too!"
She lightly giggled at his words. This was the warmth she ignored for months. She couldn't stop her eyes from forming tears on its corners.
"Thank you." That's all she could say. She was being pathetic but now she had this drive to vent everything on Tsunade's lessons and all. She was fortunate enough for kind but not-so-kind professor. And indeed, she was smarter than this. She needed to be her again. The Sakura that brought her to this place, the one who had highest dreams and hopes for the future.
"You will be a doctor, but heal yourself first." It was the last statement Tsunade told her before she watched her back turned and head outside. A familiar brunette young lady came inside, replacing the spot of her mentor. She observed her wearing the white lab coat and stethoscope around her slender neck. The brunette smiled,
"You're okay now, Sakura-chan" It was her other mentor, Shizune. The nicest of them all. She was holding a clipboard on her left arm and a blue pen in her right hand writing off some things she would know soon. She replied with a small smile on her pale lips.
"Will she be dismissed!?" Naruto kept asking that question hyperactively excited to hang out again with the pinkette after a long time. They heard something with the lines of Ichiraku and celebration and many other more.
Maybe she could continue like this. She could still be happy with the presence of her friends and family. She would live on; life has to go on even with a gaping hole in her heart. Her thoughts may be on different things but she knows her heart was taken on the day he left.
I need your opinions :)
My friends pushed me to publish this and I want to know what you think by reviewing.
I will probably update this if I can get 'enough' follows or reviews maybe around 10 or so hahaha. But seriously I need encouragements.
Ja ne.