Remember?

I still need her by my side.

That day when Konan and the rest reached the train station, none of the two were in sight. They tried contacting Sasori but to no avail. It was only a while when they decided to check the schedule for the train that Itachi had said Sakura would be boarding, it stated that it had left the station ten minutes ago.

But Sasori was nowhere to be found.

Before splitting up to find him, Konan called back, informing what exactly happened at the station to Pein and the others. Itachi easily deduced that perhaps Sasori didn't make it or managed to convince Sakura, hence he was missing but others were trying to find reasons to disagree with him, however, there was none. Afraid that Sasori would act recklessly, Pein and the others decided to search for Sasori elsewhere, in case he had already left the station and went other places.

Hidan decided to find Sasori around snacks machines, his reason being that the redhead may be buying tons of chocolate to cheer himself up while Deidara searched the restroom. Konan, whereas, approached to benches and benches, looking for any particular redhead sitting on any of the benches. It took her full fifteen minutes to finally spot Sasori from a distant. He was sitting right beside the phone booth, where there were lesser passengers waiting and lingering around.

Konan trudged silently and tentatively towards him and decided to make her presence known. She stood right beside him and stayed there for a full minute before sitting down without an invitation. Her brows ceased and her tone filled with worry as she spoke.

"Sasori. Are you alright?"

There was no reply.

"I suppose, she left?" That goes without saying.

There no reply again, but Sasori just slowly nodded in respond. At least he wasn't ignoring her like what she thought he would do.

"You know... Sakura isn't like that. Maybe it's a prank. Between her and Itachi-" She didn't continue any longer because she knew she was just acting stupid. But she had no idea what else to say. Why did her comforting skills vanished suddenly when she needed it right now?

"There's nothing to say anymore." Sasori muttered, trying his best not to snap at Konan. "From now on, I'm just going to live my life like what I usually do in the past. Really, there's no point talking about something that wouldn't change no matter what."

"We're together, you know. We don't call ourselves a gang for nothing. When you have a problem, we share the burden."

Sasori's attention was on the ground. He never once looked up at all.

"The guys are afraid you'll do something foolish." Konan bit her lower lips as she continued, originally not wanting to admit the truth to him. But she had to. This was the main reason why everyone was so worried about the redhead after Itachi had deduced the outcome. No one could understand him, which means none of them would be able to predict what he was going to do. Even Deidara gave up the guessing game.

"It's just a relationship." Sasori gave a withering look. "It's not like I have never lose someone in my life before."

That's why we're worried. "But-"

"Konan." Sasori fixated his eyes on her. "I'm perfectly fine."

It was a lie, definitely. But she decided to put herself into his shoes to understand him better. That was Sakura's words of advice to her in the past, putting oneself into other people's shoes would greatly reduce misunderstanding between two people and it would be easier to choose what kind of words to response to the other without hurting the other party feelings.

That was why Konan stood up from her seat, stopped her pointless and endless conversation and sighed. She also knew from his eyes it was a sign to leave and let him be alone, so she respected his decision and decided to leave him in peace since that was what she would want to if she were to have a huge fight with Pein.

It was just pretty sad, in Konan's opinion. She was so happy in the past when the two of them were together. And now these things happened all of a sudden that even she herself couldn't adjust well in the situation, not to mention Sasori. It was his true first love and everything ended so quickly, exactly like Deidara favorite catchword; Fleeting. And it would not be a surprise if Sasori literally knocked the blonde out if he dare to mention that word in front of him.

He was about to look up as his patience was running out but Konan moved quicker when she realized Sasori might be irritated at her. She turned and strolled away, glancing at him for one last time before fishing her phone out of her pocket, preparing to dial the others to inform about what the two of them had talked, which was not much in fact.

A moment later, after making sure that she was out of sight, he leaned tiredly against the bench, placed his arms over his eyes and stayed like that for the entire afternoon; At least until his lips stopped quivering first.

0o0

Two thick pile of flyers were set on a small table, and the large familiar hot dog costume resting the ground right next to the table. Sasori just walked into the empty room and placed his bag right beside his costume and picked up a note that was sticked on the flyer, which instructed him where was the venue he was suppose to distribute the flyers at.

It was better anyway, much better than standing outside the construction site. It brought too much good memories that would never happen again, along with the other memories which he knew he would never be able to forget.

After school, starting from last week, he had immediately ditched the entire gang and came down to work here. It was better this way, not only for himself and for the others too. He knew they were all worried for him, but they really need to know that he was already grown-up, not some 5-year-old kid who got bullied for sweets. That was why everyday after school, he would make a dash, escaping from the rest of his friends and their therapy. He needed his peace and quiet once in a while, furthermore, having them around him and doing awkward actions like pretending to be cheerful around him didn't really help much either.

"You sure are in need of cash, aren't you?"

Sasori tilted his head slightly, looking at one of the workers who was specialized in painting the interior walls of the soon-to-be open 'The Youthful Passion of John's Hot Dog' The redhead just frowned and blinked dumbly.

"You've been working like you are preparing to buy a house. What are you saving up for?"

"I wasn't saving up for anything in particular."

"You requested for longer shifts, even during the weekends. Don't you have a life?"

"I can manage my work." Sasori shrugged, picking up his costume and ready to change.

The worker was still persistent. "What about that cute girlfriend of yours. Haven't been seeing her around lately. Are you saving up to buy her a surprise gift?"

He stood still in his position, the grip around his costume loosened and he lowered his gaze. It had been a week since that day and he had been trying hard, too damn hard to forget about it. Even sacrificing his free time and work his socks off in order to keep himself entertained with things to do so he wouldn't think of pointless things. But it was because of his weird change of attitude and behavior, it made more people questioned his reasons.

"...Yeah." He finally replied after a long pause.

It was just that he didn't how to react after a breakup. What was he suppose to feel? Was he suppose to feel sad? Was he suppose to feel angry? There was a moment when he wanted to just hate Sakura for causing his distress and get over with it. But he couldn't do it, even when his brain was begging him to do the logical thing, his heart would be telling him the other thing. This was the first time he was using an emotion to make a decision, instead of using his brain to make the correct and wise decision.

I still need her by my side. I need her so badly...

"No wonder. The boss also needs a lot of helpers to promote the restaurant anyway although he had started to do it way before it was even ready to operate." He laughed heartily before walking towards Sasori and gave a pat on his back. "Work hard! But don't neglect your health and studies."

Sasori afforded the best smile he could give, but all it end up was a smirk. "I won't."

The worker was still rambling on and on as he walked out of the room, not even knowing that Sasori couldn't hear what he was saying at all. But the latter wasn't really listening in the first place, his heart was overwhelmed with so many emotions that he disliked, which he didn't know what was what anymore; all thanks to a girl named Haruno Sakura.

0o0

Somehow, Sakura always a found a way to either justify Sasori's traits or make it sound better than it really was. But it wasn't just because she disliked hearing people call him indifferent or rude, even if it was his friends calling him those names; it was also because she understood him the best. Once, long ago, she thought he was being quiet and apathetic. But now, she realized he was not everything she had thought he was.

The reason was not because he was originally gentle and kind from the start. It was her way of changing people around her. Her warmth and cheerful smile just made him want to be like her, and it gave him a sort of attraction that no one managed to for his past years of living.

But the light was taken away in just a second, a decision.

Sakura grabbed onto her bag that was on her lap tightly, the train was slowing down and her parents were standing up, preparing to take their belongings. The place she had seen through the glass window when the train was travelling at high speed was so foreign to her that she thought she was in another country, another planet.

She felt like she didn't recognize the place she once dreamt to come back everyday

Sakura stepped out of the train, giving a long stretch and took a deep breath. She exhaled heavily, her eyes scanning around the station. She suddenly remembered the incident that happened on the other station that made her cried for the entire hour in the cubicle, until her worried mother started knocking and asked if she needed help.

But now, after an hour of crying and the remaining five hours of ride, she had been clearing her mind and trying to think of what she was going to do back in her old town. She had planned a long list and had jotted them down on a piece of paper, which she could easily refer to and could keep her at least busy for a month, so she wouldn't have any time to think of some memories she wished to forget.

"Sakura-chan!"

The sound of her name and the familiarity of the tone swiftly snapped her out from her thoughts as she looked up, watching her group of friends skipping towards her.

"Everyone..." Sakura widened her eyes before turning to stare at her mother, knowing that it must be her behind this surprise visit.

"I called them over to surprise you. You look so down in the train" Her mother gave a pat on Sakura's head

She turned to the rest of them and immediately dropped the bags in her hand and ran forward. She immediately jumped right into their arms and everyone were shrilling and screaming that everyone around them thought they were mad.

"Ino... Naruto... Hinata... Everyone..." All the familiar faces she recognized, all the warm smiles she was so used to that she could never forget. The negative thoughts about returning to the town before vanished instantly and all she could think about was how to spend her lost time with her friends.

Maybe... maybe it was alright to come back after all...


I have no idea what excatly happened after break-up but yeah...

I'm am so sorry for the lack of updates. A major exam of mine is coming up and I have to study really hard for it. Can't say if I can update during my exam period but definitely after November, until then, I have all the time in the world to update and complete this story!
Bear with me for a while ~

Next would be Sakura's POV