The Game
The first time she met Uchiha Sasuke was an accident. She sat on his chair at the cafeteria on the first month of school. The boys beside him that day immediately pounced on Sakura, barking at her to know her place. They were probably juniors, since they wore a blue collar that marked their status. He stopped them and asked her, "Freshman?"
Sakura wore a yellow collar which would have made her answer obvious enough but nodded, nonetheless, unable to speak. Well, she was talking to a junior who was probably the most good looking guy she'd ever seen on campus. But there was also an underlying fear. Her ignorance could get her in trouble.
The raven haired boy crossed his hands. "Well, freshie. It's time you learn some rules around here. One of which is to know which seat is yours." There were three other boys with him who just stood by, as if watching their friend lecture a freshman wasn't new to them. Maybe it wasn't.
Sakura tried to look nonchalant about it. She shrugged and said, "You could have just told me nicely that this is yours. I would probably have given it to you immediately. No need for your boys to shout at me like that." She stood up and packed up her things. She had already made herself comfortable in that spot but she didn't want to mess with a junior. Especially one that looked like he did.
The boy looked momentarily surprised. Momentarily. "What? No 'I don't see your name written here' or 'You're not the boss of me' speeches?" he asked.
"No use arguing like that," she said and picked up her tray. "Besides, I've learned that pride isn't the best thing you should hold on to."
She had started to walk away when he asked "What's your name?" and she answered by quirking up an eyebrow. "It's a harmless enough question," he said with a shrug.
She bit back her hesitation and said "Haruno Sakura."
He nodded. "I'll remember you," he said.
It was creepy, Sakura thought, to be told that so she spun her heel to look for another seat only to find that most students in the cafeteria were staring at her. She couldn't read what they were thinking about. Surprised that she talked up to that boy? Annoyed about the ruckus? Impressed? Jealous?
"You're not even going to ask for my name?" the boy again asked when she was about to lift her foot to walk.
"I'm pretty sure someone will tell me later for messing with a junior."
The boy laughed and said, "It's Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke."
Sakura looked back at him and let herself smile. "I'll probably remember you, too," she said before fully walking away.
Sakura had weird stares following her all over the campus the rest of the day although she knew she didn't do anything wrong. Neither had she broken any rule... Any written rule, that is. Unspoken rules are different. It's one of the hard things being a freshman. You learn the unspoken rules the hard way. And she was pretty sure a lot of those unspoken rules revolved around the raven-haired boy named Uchiha Sasuke.
The next time she saw him, it was on the way home the same day. He did nothing weird but just smile and wave at her and she did nothing else but smile and wave right back. He was walking with a group of guys and they just simply walked past her. One of his friends beside him gave him a pat at the back, ruffled his hair and chuckled while the other two just walked beside him.
Weeks went by and soon the novelty of talking to Uchiha wore off. She'd gotten less glares than stares which she counted as a good thing. No one really talked to her about it, but of course she learned what she did wrong not long after the Uchiha incident. Uchiha Sasuke was the top student of the school. He was the smartest and sportiest boy you'll ever meet in campus and survey can prove that he was the hottest and most handsome one, too. Rumors also say that he dated a lot of girls before, most of them, he played with. Well, nothing is picture perfect. Everyone's got some bad spots, including the Uchiha.
Sakura tried not to get her head into it. After all, she was just a freshman. She didn't want to get in trouble more that she could handle. She wanted a bright future and she was determined to pass through high school without bite marks. And that encounter was just a once in a lifetime experience. Or so she thought...
"Hey, Haruno!"
A red Lotus stopped beside her while she was walking home one late afternoon. The window rolled down and guess who it was on the driver's seat. Sakura hugged her books closer to her as she took a closer look. She forgot to wear her contacts that day. "Uchiha-san?"
"Hop on," he commanded, pointing at the passenger's seat. Sakura just stood there looking confused that Uchiha pushed open the door for her. "Come on, we're going to miss it."
She knew she should have thought this through. Riding on a car. On the most popular boy's car, no less. She should have thought about what it will cost her. Where will he take her? What will they do? What time will they arrive home? But she didn't get to think about it because she just hopped inside the car, shut the door, put on her seat belt and braced herself. Sasuke smiled at her before turning the gas on and burning rubber to a destination he didn't tell her.
They arrived at a deserted looking place. Sasuke went out the door as soon as he parked, but Sakura was still too much in a daze that she hadn't taken off her seat belt yet when her door opened revealing Sasuke offering his hand. Sakura clicked her seat belt off of her immediately and took his offer. He took of running, pulling her behind him. The wind blew against them and he was laughing against it, and she couldn't help but smile. It's nice being a rebel once in a while.
Only minutes just passed it was already getting dark, but Sakura wasn't nervous. She was excited more than anything. They were on top of a hill sitting beside each other, not close enough to touch but close enough to feel that they were there. Sasuke was quiet when they reached the place and only motioned her to sit down.
He was looking up at the slightly starry sky. Sakura remembered watching the stars during spring when they were brightest, and clouds didn't cover them up. She asked, "What are you looking at?"
"I'm waiting for them," he answered, not looking at her.
She was staring at him, she realized, but she didn't stop. "For what?"
"The meteor shower."
Her lips parted in surprised. It was tonight. She forgot about it. She was supposed to watch it at the rooftop of her apartment, lying down on a blanket, safely hidden from the rest of the world. But then, here she was... not on the situation she imagined but still safely hidden.
She might have moved or done something because he immediately looked at her, his expression worried and asked, "What's wrong?"
Had she already been that readable? How did he know something was wrong? But of course, it was the Uchiha Sasuke we're talking about. He'd dated girls more than the books she'd read. She almost rolled her eyes. Instead she answered, almost shyly, "I... I'm not wearing contacts."
"Oh," he asked, looking surprised at the revelation. "Near-sighted?" he asked and she nodded. He reached inside his pocket to reveal a pair of glasses. Sakura stared at them. He shrugged and offered it to her. "You and I both, I guess." Both have eye problems. What a tease fate was.
"Are you wearing contacts, too?" she asked as placed the glasses on her, her eyesight slightly clearing. She laughed inwardly. Her eyesight was still a little worse than his.
He shook his head, "Not today, at least."
She was taking off the glasses again when he stopped her. "No, I want you to see them. First time is always the best."
"How did you know it would be my first time?" she asked, obviously surprised, pushing the glasses on her nose.
He just smiled at her. "Lucky guess."
Behind him, she saw the first streak going down. She heard herself gasp and he chuckled. Soon the sky was filled with more streaks of gold going down, then disappearing after a second. "Oh my," was the only she could muster. It was glorious. More amazing than she could ever imagine.
"What do you think?" he asked. She had almost forgotten he was there.
"Beautiful," she was still breathless. She knew she looked like a total kid in front of him, but she didn't have a reputation to hold. She kept herself in a trance before she let herself look sideways to find him looking... no, staring at her.
"It is," he said, slowly turning his attention to the sky.
After the last of the meteors flew by, Sasuke drove her home. She pointed directions and was embarrassed when they almost got lost. Sasuke just looked at the road.
When she got off, she thanked him and asked, "Why me?"
Sasuke, she was learning that it was his favorite habit, shrugged. "I just thought it would be interesting to watch it with fresh eyes." Sakura just looked at him. It didn't make sense. "Thanks for coming with me, even though it seemed like kidnap." That's when she laughed. "I had fun," he said with a smile. "See you around, Sakura."
He'd drove off before she could even point out that he just called her by her first name. She shrugged and walked into her apartment. Surely no one could know that happened, right? It was just the two of them on that hill. And they did nothing out of the ordinary. They just watched the heavenly bodies fall down from the sky. Two visually impaired people. She stopped walking and felt her face. The glasses were still there.
Darn it, she thought. Now she had to return it to him. But then... She was a girl after all so she thought, did he or did he not leave it on purpose?
Whatever the reason, she was happy she would see him again. And then she realized one more thing: he wasn't looking at the stars the whole time. He couldn't be. He was near-sighted, too.
She would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy his company. She did. Every single bit of it. She would sit at the far back of the cafeteria everyday ever since the first incident and named the chair hers. She had a table all to herself, because apparently, nobody wanted to sit with a freshie like her. After watching the stars, however, he sat beside her the next day, demanding that she owed him.
"I owe you what?" she asked.
He smirked at her when he answered, "Time."
Every single day since, he would sit beside her at her table and they would talk about all the nonsense in the world. Once or twice, someone tried sitting with them but Sasuke would immediately stand up, take Sakura by the wrist and walk out of the cafeteria, regardless she finished her lunch or not.
She was getting more glares along the hallways now, but this time she just didn't care anymore. So what if she was hanging out with Uchiha Sasuke? They were just hanging out. Nothing goes beyond that. Sure, she liked Sasuke more than she would even allow herself to admit, but he was just a little more than a gentleman. She still maintained her respectable distance. She still called him by his last name with a honorific. She still bowed at him when they part ways, not just wave. She was still a freshman and he a junior. Nothing changed that.
Sasuke brought her to the library. She thought it was the most amazing place in the world, and he retorted that his toilet was more amazing. She hit him on the shoulder for that. She would lose herself in a book whenever he brought her there, but every time she would bring the book down, she would find him looking at her with curious eyes. Then he would look back at the book he was reading which she suspected was just opened to a random page.
She brought him to her favorite cafe once, and he claimed that the coffee didn't taste as nice as water, and as punishment, she was to pay for his order. That night he brought her to his favorite cafe, where she couldn't even figure out where to get money to pay for a single glass. But he just paid for the both of them without batting an eyelash.
"So, you're smart, rich, sporty..."
"Count handsome. Very handsome."
"And narcissistic," Sakura looked at him pointedly. "Why would you hang out with a nobody like me?"
He looked at her with his contact lensed-eyes. "Who said you're a nobody?"
She smiled more than she had ever smile before and never tried to ask that question ever again. Sure there were a lot of people reminding her of what Sasuke really is, how many hearts he'd broken, how many tears were shed for him... She tried to shake that off but she knew they were already too late. She was already falling.
And yet there was this one time they had an argument. It was about a Physics equation that Sasuke claimed was a conspiracy. It ended up into a battle of wits. Although Sakura knew he was just playing with her, it was a bit annoying of him to tackle her at her home base. To say that all she knew about Physics was wrong was insulting to her. When she told him that, he stopped for a heartbeat. But instead of apologizing, boys and their pride, he pointed out that he was just playing with her. That there was nothing to be mad about.
But Sakura was too far beyond her boiling point to cool off so she just kept glaring at him and whispering obscenities at him. He matched her stance and asked her why she was so hotheaded.
"Well, if you hadn't taunted me in the first place, Sasuke, this wouldn't have happened!" she cried, then closed her eyes and counted to three, waiting for a comeback. She got nothing. When she opened her eyes, he was looking at her the same way he looked at her that night on the hill. She felt her temper cooling down immediately. "What?" she asked.
"Sasuke," he said, frozen on the spot. "You just called me by my name."
When she'd thought she had gotten over elementary feelings, she was wrong. Her cheeks felt hot as she looked away and apologized. He just laughed and said it was about time since they were already so close. She bargained that she should at least put a -san after his name.
"-kun," he haggled.
"-kun?" He nodded. "Sasuke-kun..." she tried, slowly. He nodded again, this time with a smile on his face.
"I now take back everything I said about Physics," he announced.
Sakura hit him playfully, "So this is what all that's about?" she asked laughingly to which he just shrugged.
The next few days, they got even closer. He picked her up at her apartment early mornings and drove her to school and back. Sometimes, they'd just walk together, which Sakura liked better because she'd have an excuse to bump her shoulder against his arm. They would always eat together at lunch and sometimes, Sasuke would invite her to dinner.
Most weekends they spend together at their spot on the hill enjoying the silence with a basket of sandwiches and juice. There were times that Sakura would bring her homework with her but Sasuke would annoy the hell out of her that she wouldn't finish anything at all. Afterwards, Sasuke would drive her home with the same words exchanged every single time.
"Good night, Sakura."
"Good night, Sasuke-kun. Take care."
"You, too."
But this one particular night, before Sakura could even get out of the car, Sasuke managed to kiss her cheek. She'd turned as bright as a tomato and frozen as a statue. When she got her voice back, she managed to say with her voice cracking, "What was that for?"
He just shrugged and said, "I've always wanted to do that."
She was silent for a while, Ino's voice echoing in her mind. All those other voices that warned her, that told her stories...
"Sakura?"
She took a deep breath and started, "It's just..." and found that she couldn't say it after all.
"It's the rumors, isn't it?" he asked. Sakura tried to mask her face from surprise but the glint in his eyes showed that she didn't hide it good enough. "Being a player and everything." Since it was already out, she just looked at her toes and nodded weakly. "Guess I couldn't hide it from you, could I?"
He didn't deny it. He didn't deny he's a player. He could have denied it... but he didn't.
"Hey, I have an idea," Sasuke said, his voice not changing at all as he fished out his phone from his pocket. "I saw this post one time I was browsing the net, and I thought it was funny so I saved it." He pushed some buttons and after, he showed Sakura a picture that contained mostly words.
So I heard you're a player? Then, let's play a game. Let's sweet talk, play fight, and talk 24/7. Let's tell each other good morning and good night. Let's take walks together, give each other nick names. Let's go on dates. Let's skype all day long, lets hold hands, lets kiss and hug, and whoever falls in love first... Loses.
She looked from the phone to him with a confused face.
He raised his brows suggestively. "So, do you want to play?"
Did she want to play? Hasn't she already fallen yet? Hasn't she already lost?
She glanced at her reflection in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were a haze of feelings, and her face was a bit flushed. No, she decided. She hasn't completely fallen in love yet. At least, not that far. At least when she'd spell what she felt for Uchiha Sasuke, she still hadn't gotten to the E of the word love.
She turned her gaze to him, he whose eyes always drew her in, and gave him a determined nod.
"Shake on it?" he asked and offered his hand.
His eyes never left hers as did hers on his. She knew she was not going to win. She was already on the verge of losing. What was she trying to do? What was she trying to prove to herself? That she was stronger? That she could bring this player on his knees begging for her? What was the point of doing this? She was a freshman and he a junior. She was a new girl that may just be added to his collection of hearts broken.
But as she looked into those eyes, she thought, there might be a chance, a small chance, a light chance, that she could make him fall in love.
She took her hand and pressed it onto his and gave it a firm shake.
That one moment, he pulled her into him, and his lips met hers in one second.
Her eyes were wide open when they pulled apart, and she saw that his eyes were bright and full of life.
He chuckled, but didn't let of of her hand. "I'm sorry," he said, not sounding sorry at all, "When you agreed, I lost."
.
.
-end-
(a/n: This story has been sitting in my Doc Manager for too long. It's been unfinished for almost a year and it's been just now that I managed to end it, though not really the way I originally planned. Blame my best friend, TheTrueAwesomeness for "inspiring" me to procrastinate during my review period for the exams (She's been writing a lot if you hadn't noticed, go check out her stories!). Yes, there is a reference to her story Visually Impaired if you've ever read that. No, I didn't ask for permission, sorry... but I just used those two words before they sound good together. Haha. Anyway, I hope you liked the story. Thanks for dropping by and I hope you review.)