The morning sun beats upon the pinkette's back as she concentrates on her readings. Sasuke watches from behind the counter as she thoroughly reads each page, highlighting when she felt it was necessary, decorating her textbook with neon colours of pink and blue. She would then exchange her highlighter for a pen and scribble into her notebook. The unwavering heat from the sun does not disturb her as she taps the end of her pen against her lip as her eyes are locked on the small font of her textbook.
The pinkette is Sasuke's usual customer whose usual order of black coffee leaves him bewildered. It's not from the fact that she drink her coffee black without sugar or cream since that's the way he also enjoys his coffee, but it's from the way her nose would scrunch up and she would tightly shut her eyes with disgust when she takes a sip of her coffee.
Sasuke rolls his eyes when she forcibly swallows it and watches as her eyes open to carefully glide over her textbook again. A few minutes later, she would reach for her coffee, her eyes never leaving her textbook, as she takes a sip of her coffee. She reacts the same way with her nose scrunching up and eyes falling shut as she swallows the warm liquid. He doesn't understand that if she hates black coffee, why she would constantly order it in medium and not small since she never finishes or even comes close to finishing. She should just order it with sugar and cream if she can't handle it.
As the couple beside the pinkette leaves, Sasuke grabs a cloth to wipe down the table. Up close to the pinkette, he can tell that her handwriting is neat, too neat when it appears that she is practically scribbling things down in her notebook from afar. She reaches towards her coffee cup with her eyes still trailing through the words of her textbook. Sasuke sighs as she tips the cup against her lips causing her nose to scrunch up and her eyes to shut again.
"You might as well just order hot chocolate," he mumbles under his breath.
"Pardon me?"
Sasuke freezes when he hears her sweet voice fill the air. His eyes widen with shock as he thought he wasn't that audible. He slowly turns around to face her, but her eyes don't reflect anger that he prepared himself for, instead her head is tilted to the side and an eyebrow cocked.
He stares into her mesmerizing emerald eyes, getting lost in them and not caring if he ever finds his out. He can be trapped in them for all eternity and not care.
"Did you say something just now?" Her melodious voice breaks him out of his trance as he blinks and tries desperately to regroup his thoughts.
"Uhm, no. Sorry, I was just talking to myself."
"Oh, okay." Her smile is just as captivating as her eyes and he wishes he could make her smile like that every day while cursing everyone who has the honour of seeing it.
She diverts her eyes back to her textbook. Her keen eyes find the spot where she left off and she picks up the blue highlighter, uncapping it. Bringing it near the page to highlight, Sasuke speaks before the neon marker can stain the page.
"Actually, can I get you some sugar or some cream to use in your coffee?"
She whips her head towards him which causes strands of her silky, pastel pink hair to get stuck in her glossed lips. The apple of her cheeks are red, but he doubts they're as red as his cheeks. As soon as she makes eye contact with him, she breaks it as she diverts it to cloth he's holding in his right hand. She opens her mouth to speak, to defend herself, but words fail to spill from her lips.
"Drinking black coffee isn't going to make you look mature."
A frown forms against her lips and he mentally curses himself. He never wanted to make her frown, he wants to make her smile, and laugh because he's pretty sure that that would be the most beautiful sound he's ever heard. Sweeter than the songs of the birds, and more soothing than the rain that falls at night.
"I'm not trying to look mature. I like black coffee, but the way you make it, it's-"
"It's, what?" He interjects, cutting her off.
"It's too strong."
A defeated sigh escapes his lips as he shuts his eyes. Is this girl for real, he muses. "Of course it's going to be strong," he simply states, "It's black coffee. No sugar or cream to make it sweet."
"Well yeah, black coffee is supposed to be strong, but this is stronger than strong." She picks up the coffee cup from the table and extends it towards him, shaking it from side to side.
"Here, try for yourself."
"Are you trying to say that I can't make black coffee?" He asks, offended.
"Well, yes and no? I don't know, she exclaims, "Just try it." She shakes it again, urging him to take it from her. Sasuke snatches the coffee cup from her hands and accidently brushes his fingers against her. He wonders if she could feel the sparks he just felt, and by the sign of her cheeks reddening he concludes with a sly smirk that she did feel the undeniable sparks.
He tilts the cup towards this lips and feels the warm coffee pooling in his mouth.
Sasuke now understands all the weird expressions she makes when drinking the coffee. It's horrible. He quickly swallows the foul liquid as she laughs, and he's right; her laugh is sweeter than the songs of the birds, and more smoothing than the rain that falls at night. It's a wonderful melody that he can listen to forever and never get tired of it.
"This is bad," he admits as he holds the coffee away from him. "Why didn't you say something before?"
"To be honest, I thought the first time was just a mistake, but then every other time it was still the same strong coffee so I just assumed it was how this café makes their coffee, but it turns out you just can't make coffee." She giggles which causes the humiliation that had built up in his body to dissolves.
"I don't even understand how I could mess up making coffee and I work in a café."
She laughs again which causes Sasuke to smile admiringly at her. "Don't they teach you how to make the beverages when they hire you? Plus haven't you ever made coffee at home?"
"They do, but-"
"You skipped the training, didn't you."
"Close, I zoned out when they were teaching me how to make coffee, because it's coffee. I didn't think it would be that hard, but turns out I was horribly wrong."
"Why don't I teach you how to make coffee," she suggests with a bright smile, "since you clearly need help."
"Are you inviting me to you place?" He asks as a smirk dances across his lips. He cocks his eyebrow. "You don't even know my name."
"Oh, but I do know your name."
Sasuke's smirk drops as well as his eyebrow as he tilts his head to the side. How could she possibly know his name when he hasn't told her? Do they go to the same school? Is she in one of his classes? No, she can't be in one of his classes because there's no way he wouldn't forget a girl with pink hair.
She giggles as she points to his chest. Looking down he sees what she's pointing at. His nametag that clearly reads: Sasuke. He ponders how many more times he is going to make himself look like a fool in front of her.
Sasuke crosses his arms over his chest in an attempt to subtly cover his nametag, but it's not so subtle because she starts softly giggling again. "What's your name," he asks with a nod of his head towards her.
"Sakura," she chimes.
Of course it would be, Sakura, he muses from observing her cherry blossom tresses to her emerald eyes.
"My place or yours," he abruptly asks. "I mean, you know, for you to teach me how to make coffee," he quickly adds as he looks away, his cheeks stained crimson.
"Only if you take me out to dinner first." A mischievous smirk makes its way across her lips.
"Only if we call it a date."
"Deal."
