Thanks for the Memories
Chapter 4; He Could Tell
"You look extremely gorgeous today."
Sakura sat beside the driver's seat and shut the car door, smiling and straightening the hem of her dress as she looked over at Ino. "You look just as beautiful, my darling."
Ino stepped on the accelerator and they were on their way to the venue. From bringing up foolish moments they had in high school, to complaining about their work and back to their usual topic.
"How's that red idiot?"
Sakura shook her head in amusement. "He's been quite nice to you lately, must you really call him names?"
Ino shrugged impassively.
She leaned back on her seat and relaxed. "Everything's as usual. Although he seemed a bit tired lately. He didn't get out of the house to get some sun for quite a while."
"Is that so? Looks like he's really hiding from something or someone. Just like I expected."
The thought of wanting to explain the truth slipped out of Sakura's mind and a new thought came to her. She leaned slightly towards Ino and raised her eyebrow. "I have a question for you." Without waiting for Ino's response, she continued. "Are you in love with Sasori?"
Ino choked. "What are you saying! Me liking Sasori has the same possibility rate of me marring Shino. Negative. Impossible!"
"Why are you so agitated, I was just kidding." Sakura smirked.
She eyed dangerously over at her friend. "Don't you dare. Haruno Sakura."
"It's just that every time we met, you'll always bring up Sasori." Sakura emphasized.
Ino narrowed her eyes. "I'm always asking about him because I want to make sure you're safe with him. Nothing else."
"Really...?
"Really."
Sakura chortled behind the back of her palm and Ino sent her an annoyed look. She stopped her giggles when Ino joined her with her fake laughter.
As the car slowed down, they passed by a few familiar cars parking outside the resturant and one black car caught both of their attention. Sakura knew the next question would be coming but she remained silent before Ino started speaking.
"So... any intention to impress Sasuke? It's been months since you two even meet each other."
Sakura looked out of the window and sighed. "Nothing like that. I don't want to embarrass myself on such a happy day."
"Really...?"
"Really."
.
.
After Sasori finished his work, he went to check his email. It was a routine everyday but ever since he was on the run, he didn't really bother checking his mail anymore. Kakuzu always spammed him with threats even though he should know that he would never get a reply back. But Sasori still checked his email nonetheless, perhaps for entertainment and the possibility of receiving an important mail.
"Damn Kakuzu. He floods my inbox every single hour." He wearily scrolled down his email, deleting all of emails he opened until he stopped when he spotted a sender that wasn't Kakuzu. Sasori curiously went to click it.
Hey Sasori, is there a way to contact you other than email? I have something to pass to you.
He started typing.
0o0
She came back cheerful that day, he could tell. She was humming her favorite song the whole night and had been smiling even though they were watching the news of a disease outbreak in some part of the world. Her body was back at home, but her mind and spirit was obviously somewhere else. It wasn't like the first time he saw her so happy, but that day, it was as if she was shining brightly like a star.
Obviously good things happened that day, but he didn't want to ask. He still preferred sleep than hearing endless of her story-telling after all. So being the smarty-pants, he only asked the next day when she was preparing for work so even if she want to do some long story-telling, it was only limited to ten minutes.
He was told that she had a blast. Sakura managed to catch up with her ex-boyfriend and their relationship, or to be exact, their friendship never grew apart. Things were not as awkward as she expected and she claimed they were actually even closer since the last time she met him.
And so, a few days had past since her reunion with her high school mates.
Sasori looked up at the clock in the kitchen, showing it was half past three in the afternoon. He went back making his coffee while reading some news on his phone, feeling nothing but troubled about how he spent his day doing absolutely nothing but loafing around on a sunny Saturday. He was suppose to make some drafts for his assignment but he didn't have enough inspiration anyway.
Sakura came back around eleven in the morning after her night shift and was in her room until now. He was actually expecting her to only wake up for dinner until he heard the sound of her door opening and footsteps approaching.
"I'm free today! Of course." There was a pause. "That place? Sure! I'll be there. Bye."
His eyes followed Sakura as she gleefully kept her phone back to her pajamas pants pocket and walked right into the kitchen to pour herself a cup of water.
"You're early." He looked back down, stirring his drink. "You going out later?"
"He asked me out today."
"Your ex-boyfriend." He couldn't guess anyone other than him when she sounded so happy like that.
She laughed sheepishly.
"He just asked you out on a date?" Sasori took a sip of his coffee, eyeing Sakura carefully.
Sakura chuckled even louder. She started drawing circles on the counter, staring dreamily at the ceiling. "We're going to meet up where we had our first date."
"Interesting." He walked out of the kitchen along with his coffee and phone. Sakura followed him.
"He is rarely or never free on Saturdays but he's asking me out today."
"Interesting." Sasori said again and sat on the sofa while Sakura just leaned on the arm rest, shifting her whole weight to the back of the sofa.
"But that place isn't some nice restaurant or anything... so what should I wear instead?"
"Why don't you go out in your pajamas. If he never shows up, it proves that he doesn't love you enough so you can stop having such high hopes."
She reached out for his neck and he dodged just in time and sat at the other side of the sofa. She scoffed as she made her way back up to her room, whistling her favorite tune.
As he watched her disappeared up the stairs, he calmly went back savoring his coffee. Before he took a sip, those soft words escaped from his mouth unintentionally.
"I'm just saying."
