For once, why couldn't you be bitter like the coffee you drink?
p u n g e n t
She stared into oblivion as water cascaded down her soft porcelain cheeks. She had never expected such a beautiful object to be hers and only hers. As she sat on the grass, she contemplates on her life and how she had gotten incredibly fortunate to have even met the perfect entity which she now calls her husband.
"Sakura." she had stopped from her trance and turned to see a familiar face.
"Sasuke-kun." he had been the same as always. The stoic expression and obsidian eyes that was tainted with pain.
She stood up and noticed their astounding difference in mere height. Though it was expected, she couldn't help but remember their past. She had been an inch, more or less, shorter than him. To have chased and clung on to him as if her whole life depended on him had been a mere memoir of her good old genin days.
"He wants to see you." he informed as he walked past her and lightly brushed his shoulder against her.
"Okay." she replied as she smiled at him.
He only nodded and proceeded to walk the opposite direction as she had done, but not without glancing twice at her retreating form. She was beautiful, he concluded. He could only fathom from afar how his brother had been bestowed with an imperfect goddess.
How could I have been so blind all those years? a question he asks himself every single minute of his life that he has spent now with his brother and his brother's wife. Hatred was evident in his mere actions, yet he could not bring himself to adulterate his brother's wife. She had given him all the chances in the world and he was insightful of all his blessings.
He knew everything would never change.
Yet he knew everything has hurt her too.
She had first met him in a field of daisies. Too naive to think first before acting and oblivious of the consequences, she sat beside him. He, in turn, looked at her and she never knew whether he was an angel or the devil himself. She was struck with his seemingly endless pools of obsidian orbs and at that moment he knew she had fallen for his trap.
An enigma was what she would describe Uchiha Itachi. His sudden change in course would mistake him for a person suffering from bipolar disorder, yet his intriguing capability to appear to have stable sanity spoken otherwise. No one was ever courageous enough to try and figure out the Uchiha. Yet, she, and outsider, dared to even engage in idle conversations with him. His younger brother had never expected for her to even glance at him.
But fate was decided otherwise.
Uchiha Sasuke never expected them to marry. He had been bothered with idea before and he would never change his opinion even now. He knew what Itachi was. He knew what he was capable. And just because she was his wife didn't mean she was an exception.
His thoughts were confirmed when he saw Sakura one evening near the pond. She had a large bruise on her face and figured that she was slapped. He wanted to console her. He wanted to take away the pain. He wanted her to elope and be with forever. To leave all the memories that continue to haunt her. But he knew he would only cause more. He knew that she'd only be devastated and he couldn't bare the pain. He had been already burdened with her marriage to his brother. And she had already been burdened with a shattered heart.
And so, out of desperation, he sat beside her that night. He never questioned her but merely let her cry her heart out on his shoulders. He couldn't save her. He was, indeed, too sorry, too late.
He knew what his brother was going to do now. And so he waited at the pond where he'd always been whenever she needed him. He knew that he already failed her with a broken heart, the least he could do was be a shoulder to cry on, even if it was just for a little while.
And just as it was, she appeared beside him, a streak of a dry tear smeared her now swollen face. It amazed and irritated him how she would manage to smile for everyone even after all the pain. He knew that she was smart. He knew that she wouldn't let anyone take advantage of her. But what made Itachi different? Had he been oblivious enough to ignore the fact that she had once treated him the same way?
Sasuke could only wonder with irritation.
"Sakura," this was the first time he conversed with her after being 'abused' by her husband.
"Sasuke-kun...?" she asked as she stared at him with soulful eyes.
"..." he looked away. He couldn't live with himself if he added to her burden. She had been through more than enough punishment. Though she had not done anything to deserve such, yet she still accepted and endured the pain. He couldn't stand it anymore. He wanted to salvage her from this abominable situation.
"Why couldn't you be bitter, for once, like the coffee you drink?" Sasuke asked with annoyance as he looked at the water below him.
She only stared. She blinked a few times and put on a smile.
"It's great to know you care enough to steal a line from a song, Sasuke-kun."
He only scowled at her response. It pained him to see her broken again. He had caused this once and now his brother. He didn't want this life for her.
"How come you force yourself to smile even after he has hurt you?" he asked out of the blue as he looked at her with scrunched eyebrows.
"Well," she laughed a real laugh this time. It had been long since he has heard the sweet ringing of her voice ever since she came to live with them. And he concluded that it was much better than the sound of her crying.
"Don't you know, Sasuke-kun, when I was little, I used to tell myself that when I grow up, I wanted to marry someone who'd love me for me."
He stared at her words but did not respond.
"And when I tell myself that would usually smile at the mirror. Imagining how happy my life would be."
"But then, I realized that I was too selfish." she looked down as if the grass had become so interesting.
"It's okay to be selfish sometimes, Sakura." he spoke as he looked at the clouds above.
"Funny," he could hear the tears she bit back. "I used to tell myself the same thing."
"But then, I finally understood everything." he looked at her as she stared at the sky.
"My purpose was not to be selfish. It wasn't to wed someone that loved me. It was..." she paused and looked at him.
"To be able to give happiness to the people I love." at that he held her in his arms. He embraced her tightly as if she was about to fall fifty feet below but with delicacy as if she were a fragile flower about to be torn into pieces.
"Sakura" he whispered her name in his ear.
"But sadly, Sasuke-kun, I couldn't bring happiness to anyone." her voice hinted of death. And he knew that she was dying.
"No, Sakura, that's not true!" he clutched her even tighter than before. "You have given me happiness."
She chuckled as she wrapped her arms around his neck and stroked his hair. "You've always been bad at lying Sasuke-kun." and then she let go.
"Sakura." he did not notice the tears that stained his cheeks as he stopped hearing her faint heart beats.
He refused to believe that she was gone. He had not only lost her once but twice. And now he was sure he would never be with her again. And he never even got the chance to tell her that he loved her.
At the day of her funeral, he saw the glum faces of his companions. Naruto had cried too much and had resorted to embracing his wife, Hinata, so tight. Ino, who he knew had been Sakura's best friend even though they've declared each other as rivals, had endless tears streaming down her face. Hatake Kakashi, their former sensei, hid his tears behind his mask.
Sasuke, who was not able to control himself, had shouted at the dark sky as to why life wasn't fair. It had truly been a sad day. Itachi, had appeared gloomy but refused to let anyone see him. He couldn't take the guilt forming up his mind.
"Sakura." Sasuke sat near the pond that evening after the burial. He stared at the stars and he knew that Sakura will never be under the same sky as him. He cried as a pink butterfly fluttered across him. And then he laid on the grass and closed his eyes.
"My purpose..." Sasuke heard in his head. "Sasuke-kun," it was Sakura.
"...was to set you free."
And then he never woke up.
I've always known that in the end I'd be free with you. That's why I was never bitter. I knew you'd be with me in the end.
p u n g e n t