Summary: She used to look at him like he was the moon, but all he ever saw in her was selfish opportunity.
Standard disclaimer applies here
Blindsided
By: MikazukiDreams
[10]
Sakura Haruno does not know why exactly she ever thought that she was in love with Zaku Abumi, but maybe, she fathoms, it was because he was charming when he needed to be. He was as slick as hell— still is— and he'd made her fall for his little tricks. In the few months she'd thought that she was head over heels, she'd never realized that this boy had been simply all talk. He was boastful, always intentionally tossing out the fact that money was never an issue for him, and lived with a simple mind that he was always right. He never did anything, now that she thinks about it.
How blind she'd been.
-x-
She'd known Zaku for most of her life, but she didn't become close friends with him until she was almost eighteen (the age, she adds, when she realizes she doesn't need him anymore). He was kind, and he'd promised her the world.
And so she'd believed him.
She spent her days waiting, waiting, and waiting, but he never did fulfill anything he'd said he would. And her, being so ignorant, completely disregarded her own mother who'd warned her about this boy with sugarcoated words, who would potentially destroy her someday. He didn't even take her to see the city lights like he'd told her, so instead she'd went with her best friend Naruto (Hinata had insisted; she'd been ill and wanted Sakura to take her place so Naruto wouldn't be alone)— a smiling blonde boy who made sure everything had been perfect for her.
That night was the first night she'd realized that maybe her mother had been right.
-x-
A few weeks later, she was packing and going on a trip to visit family and friends overseas— and that'd been when the whining first began. Maybe it had been her fault, but Zaku craved attention that he never received from anyone, except for her. She indulged him by always carefully listening, and he'd become greedy on her generosity.
"I can't believe you're actually leaving," he'd grumbled repeatedly. "How could you?"
So she'd quietly left her contact information if he ever wanted to talk (which, she thinks now bitterly, was never a good idea) and left.
(When she comes back, she would become a whole new person.)
-x-
She meets him at the airport— or more specifically, a small shop in the airport.
She is looking at snacks on the shelf when she hears her next flight announced, and she fumbles through her bag as she weaves through the store, looking for her passport. She picks up her pace as she hears the boarding gate numbers being called out— only to slam into a tall stranger, with dark hair and dark eyes and a slightly surprised expression on his face, by the exit. On the floor is the box of sweets he'd bought, now spilled all over the clean tile.
"Oh!" she exclaims, looking at the mess she'd created. "I'm so sorry," she adds, kneeling to pick up the spilled candies.
Much to her embarrassment, the tall stranger smirks. "Don't worry about it," he says, bending down himself to help her.
She takes a moment to glance at his face, and is amazed by the perfection of it— he is, undoubtedly, the most attractive person she's ever seen. He's also quite young— either the exact age as her, or perhaps slightly older. She feels her neck heat up at the thought of this and nearly cringes when he picks up the last candy and says, "All done."
His voice is smooth and clear, a tone of confidence laced in his voice. He stands up, dusting himself off, and offers her a hand—which she takes, and revels at how nicely his hands fit hers— and lifts her up easily. She hastily pulls away and dusts herself off, cautiously avoiding eye contact, but she feels his eyes on her and a smirk playing on his lips. His expression seems a but faraway, distant, but this doesn't faze her.
"I'm Sasuke Uchiha," he says, sticking his hand out to her again. She grasps for words as she feels herself wrapping her hand around his, and manages to mumble out,
"I'm Sakura Haruno." She sees his smirk widen into almost a smile, and adds in, "I'm very sorry for knocking your stuff down."
"It's quite alright, Sakura— may I call you that?" She nods. "Well, Sakura," Sasuke says, a faint smile on his lips, "Would you like to share these candies with me?"
"Um, no, that's okay," she says, smiling at him. "I've gotta leave now, I have another flight in seven minutes, so…" She gestures towards the door. "It was nice meeting you, Sasuke! I'm very sorry about knocking into you!" She flashes him a brilliant smile and waves, leaving behind an amused Sasuke Uchiha.
.
"Seat 34L…" she mutters to herself as she searches for her seat. "34…oh!"
"We meet again, Sakura."
Could this be a mere coincidence, or is it fate?
Sitting in the seat beside her, with an amused crooked smile on his face, is Sasuke— box of candies in one hand and a cellphone in the other. Her jaw drops, and before she can stop herself she demands, "You're travelling alone, too? How did you get here so fast?"
"Yes, and that's a secret," Sasuke replies casually, and it nearly takes her breath away at how mesmerizing this boy looks. "Aren't you gonna sit?"
"Yeah," she replies. "I just have to put my luggage—"
"I've got it," Sasuke interjects, smoothly taking the suitcase from her hands and placing it into the overhead department. He closes it with a brief click and sits back down.
She doesn't know this boy at all, but for some reason, her gut tells her that it's okay to trust him, this handsome stranger with a seemingly detached exterior. However, her guard remains up and alert, despite her friendly demeanour.
"You know, you're too nice for a human being. I'm very suspicious," she jokingly says, sitting down.
"I'm actually a serial killer on the run from the police," he deadpans in return, and at her horrified face, he breaks into a smirk again. "I'm kidding, obviously. Airport security would've been hell." He craned his neck to the side, and says, "My mother taught me well, that's all."
"Oh," she says, and smiles secretly to herself.
This is when she realizes that maybe there's more than what she'd been accustomed to.
-x-
She ends up spending most of the day with Sasuke— which, she freely admits, is not bad at all.
After the takeoff had been delayed, the captain announced that their flight had been moved to the following day due to stormy weather, and all passengers were sent to a huge hotel— where she gets a room booked right next to Sasuke's. She hasn't even been in her room for an hour when he knocks on her door, with a slight glint in his eye, and says, "How would you like to explore the city with me?"
Despite his politeness, she can't help but to feel wary of his proposal— so she wracks her brain for a valid reason to deny his action.
"What about my luggage? I don't think it's safe to leave it here." She jerks her thumb towards her suitcases, which hold the presents she'd spent careful time picking out for her family. There are clothes and food and jewelry, and she does not want to leave it behind, door locked or not.
"Don't worry about it, I promise nothing will happen to it." Sasuke gives her a look that she can't help but to trust, and seeing the slight tilt of the corner of his lip nearly breaks her resolve.
"I don't think I should," she says instead, looking at him apologetically. "Besides, it's a huge city, you might get lost."
Sasuke looks more and more amused by the minute, and says simply, "You know, I was born here, in this city. My father owns a company, and we've been setting up new extensions of our company throughout various cities. That's why I'm travelling that far. If not for that, this would be my stop."
"Company?" Sakura asks quizzically. "What company?"
"Here's the deal," Sasuke answers instead, "If you allow me to show you the city, I will tell you."
Sakura knows a how to play these bargaining games all too well, and she knows how to play the safe card. She'd never do anything that was stupid or irrational; and for some strange reason, she feels that Sasuke wouldn't do anything to harm her. So she narrows her eyes at him, and finally agrees. "Okay. Let me just get my bag."
.
They'd ended up going to every restaurant she thought looked nice (and he paid, much to her insistence that she pay) and into every store she admired.
To be honest, she'd never felt more comfortable with anyone like she's been with Sasuke.
And when he tells her, quietly under the stars that his father is the famous Fugaku Uchiha, she is shocked beyond words. Ironically she's known this boy before she'd ever met him— she'd seen him in magazines and on TV, this spectacular boy from an extremely wealthy family. She'd always assumed that families like that had kids who were cocky, but she could not have been more wrong. Sasuke isn't anything near cocky; in fact, he is the exact opposite. She wants to say something, something to overcome the shock— however, from a single look on Sasuke's face she knows that he craves to be treated normally, so she shakes it off and tells him it doesn't matter (and really, it doesn't change anything), and she's left breathless when he smiles at her—a genuine, Sasuke smile.
They return home, both laughing about something silly the other said, and it is almost night. He walks her to her door (which isn't very far from his at all) and bids her goodnight like a gentleman, before returning to his room.
That's when she finally checks her messages, and to her annoyance, her inbox is filled with demanding messages from Zaku, hoping to catch her attention, complaining about a classmate who won't leave him alone and how pathetic it was that he had to be surrounded with 'such peasants'.
She turns off her phone and falls asleep with a smile on her face that night, dreaming of onyx eyes and the possibility of letting someone new in.
.
The flight is short the next morning, even shorter when she chats with Sasuke and the time flies by, but soon they're walking their separate ways in the airport, both gripping their cellphones which contained the other's contact information.
.
Her family is thrilled— even her mother, who is nearly impossible to please— when they hear of this boy.
"Oh, are you lying to me? That boy? From that family? He sounds wonderful!"
"Silly girl, you should've invited him over for dinner!"
"Why didn't you invite him?"
She is pestered with questions about her perfect stranger (who is not such a stranger anymore, really, because strangers don't tell strangers stories about their childhood and how their favorite toy used to be a green dinosaur named Itachi, after his brother who'd bought it for him, and how he hates itchy sweaters and loves tomatoes and that he has a slight fear of heights). Her greatest surprise comes later on, a few days later when Sasuke shows up at her front door…
… holding a bouquet of flowers.
.
Two months breeze by quicker than Sakura'd ever expected. They say times flies when you're having fun, and her time does fly by— soon, she is packing to leave once again. She's sad to leave her relatives and sad to leave Sasuke— who'd become an honorary member of the family, helping around with this and that— but she promises to keep in touch when she returns home, and he promises her that he will go visit her.
She's mindful to delete the messages she'd been receiving from Zaku when she checks her phone— and for the first time, she dreads seeing him and talking to him again.
With Sasuke, she'd finally realized how blind she'd been when she saw Zaku— he only knew how to brag and be arrogant, but Sasuke— Sasuke never asked for anything in return, never wanted any praise. Sasuke is brilliant, she knows, incredibly intelligent, very kind, and he gives silently, unconditionally.
There is no more room for Zaku in her heart.
-x-
First day back and Zaku asks her to do something incredibly stupid and selfish for him. He wants to give his criticism to one of their close friends, but he is too much of a coward to do it himself, so he asks her to do it for him. His criticism is something cruel, something about the financial stability of their close friend (which, she thinks, is frankly none of his business— but this is Zaku, and when money is involved he loves to compare and boast) and would most definitely devastate their friendship, and she is not willing to do this for him.
"Sorry," she says. "But you're better friends with him, so do it yourself."
"But I can't," he whines. "He'll get mad at me. You tell him, and don't tell him I told you to say this, okay? Pretend it was you."
"I'm not doing that," she says, anger beginning to seep through her veins like fire. She turns back and tries to walk away, but Zaku interrupts her.
"It won't matter if he's mad at you anyway. It's not like you guys are as close as we are, so if he gets pissed it won't even matter. I can't because that would suck for me. All our friends would turn on me."
"And you think they won't turn on me? Why does it matter to you, anyway? It's his business, not yours or mine. So no," she replies, furious, because who does he think she is, some brainless puppet he can manipulate? He wants her to sacrifice her reputation, her friendship, for something he wants? Never. "I will not do this. Leave him alone."
That night, she decides to delete all her phone messages, leaving only the ones her family or Sasuke sent (including the quick 'Good night!' Sasuke had just sent, much to her delight), and goes to bed.
-x-
He gives the chase now, relentlessly calling her, visiting her, but she is no longer blind or ignorant.
So when Zaku shows up at the park with chocolates and a hopeful look in his eyes, she smiles apologetically, and turns, running in the other direction— to Sasuke, who is waiting with a mango smoothie (her favorite) and warm eyes. She takes the cup from his hands and allows him to grab her other hand, lacing her fingers with his. They walk onward and she doesn't look back, doesn't ever want to look back.
"I kind of missed you," Sasuke murmurs quietly, neck and ears red.
She laughs, and moves closer to his side. "I kind of missed you too."
Fin.
note: this story was for a friend that went through a rough patch with a boy she thought she was in love with. she came back from a trip last summer and told me about all the things that happened and how she finally felt "free after a emotionally suffocating relationship". I asked if I could turn it into a story idea, and she allowed me to do this. it's based loosely on her experiences (which was a complete fairytale, lemme tell you. romance movie worthy.). I wasn't happy with this, but she beta'd for me and insisted it was good the way it was. I wasn't able to upload this for a while due to glitches on my doc manager, but I got that fixed now!
Here comes the real deep talk: Guys, if you ever feel like you need to change yourself or if you ever feel like you carry some sort of burden in a relationship, regardless of what kind, take a step back and look at the bigger picture. As cliche as it sounds, love makes you blind to the things people do to you. Take a moment and think, "do they really want to talk to me because they like me, or is it because they like the attention?" Do they ask about your family, worry about you, understand you? Do you even matter to them? Don't be with someone who you feel like you need to impress. In the end, you're going to be exhausted and nobody should feel exhausted in a relationship. 3
love you all :)
-A