note.

Chapter title is bête noire, which means black beast. It means an anathema.


track 50.

Sakura spends the rest of the trip with Naruto, Sasuke having trapped himself inside the hotel and then the top deck of the ferry as they head back.

Once the trip ends, the days go on quickly. The first exams are coming up and Sakura locks herself in her room on the nights she doesn't spend in the library.

At school, everything has reverted back to normal.

She hangs out with Naruto and Sasuke during breaks, has lunch with them, attends band practice with them, and classes go on as they always have - torturously slow. The only change is that she's stopped heading over to Sasuke's house and the two of them no longer talk without the presence of Naruto.

Sakura doesn't make an effort to avoid Sasuke. She hasn't given up. But it didn't mean that she had to so actively try anymore. And when she was the only one who looked for him to begin…

Not much is left once she stops.

It hurt to not be with Sasuke. Somehow, over the time it took for her to try and make Sasuke fall for her; she had fallen so deeply in love that she no longer has the ability to hate him for breaking her heart.

She didn't want to care. She'd had enough. She'd seen enough. She wanted out. Wanted an end. And after they graduated, it would be an end.

So easily. She smiled at the sound of lingering thunder against the sunny backdrop.

What they had was so fragile.

Heading out of their classroom to get her normal drink at the vending machine, she spun sharply as she saw a familiar figure. Sasuke wasn't facing her, but she could easily recognize his back. She's followed it one too many times.

He was responding to yet another confession, but despite the privacy she should be offering them, she couldn't pull herself away.

To her, it was supposed to be just another day and just another girl. As it had once been.

It shouldn't affect her. But she couldn't look away.