note.
Dun dun dun duuuuun.
To understand the chapter - I highly recommend searching up Soseki's translation of 'I love you'.
track 52.
"Don't leave."
He stood, unmoving under her spell.
"I said that I love you."
His voice matched the look on his face. Ruthless. Accusing. "And then you went on a date with the resident track team star."
She couldn't defend herself. Indeed - she had gone on a date with Idate. I promised Naruto to give the next person a chance.
"But I didn't stay by him, Sasuke-kun. You're the one I chose to stand by. And as long as I had you by my side - I didn't care whether you would love me back. I was fine with that. So, why are you suddenly like this? I've said that I love you, and you've rejected me. But you don't let me see others at the same." She glared. "And then you try to kiss me, but get mad when I push you away and say to forget it afterwards."
Who was he to do so?
What was he to so blatantly take advantage of her feelings for him?
He wasn't a lover, nor was he merely a friend and there were too many blurred lines and she couldn't do this.
She wouldn't do this.
"Is playing with my feelings so much fun? Sasuke-kun, You weren't this cruel."
Not to me. Not to yourself.
Sakura fell for his kindness. For the gentle side he tried to hide. She trusted her judgement. Reaching for his hand, she felt the pads of the fingers she loved so dearly. The strong grip under smooth skin. Protective. Warm. Unrelenting.
"If you only see me as a friend, clearly state so. But if you don't like me the same way, and the reason you're holding back from rejecting me properly - not just through your words, through your actions as well - is because we're friends... Then don't feel anything for me, just leave me alone. I don't want your tepid kindness."
"Friends? I don't intend to stay your friend forever." He thought back to Naruto. The way he had so easily trampled on his best friend's feelings because of his greed for this girl. "And I wouldn't give up anything just for a friend. I'm not kind, Sakura."
Kindness.
Such a funny word. Abstract. Everyone's definition of it would differ. But despite what she insists, he highly doubts that he is kind to Sakura.
Kind people didn't do this to girls they loved.
"Sasuke-kun, be honest." Please, she begged. "Do you like me or not?"
"You seem to know me so well. How about you tell me. What do you think? " He stepped closer, loosening her grip to hook one finger around her red ribbon to pull her towards him. Close enough for her to feel the beat of his heart. "Would I do this to someone I don't like?"
Sakura swallowed her breath, shaking her head slowly. Trying to keep a strong front. "No…" She may like Sasuke, but he was frustratingly hard to keep up with. She could throw away her pride to confess to him even if she were to be rejected, but there was no way she could possibly let Sasuke continue this ambiguity between them.
He laughed at her blank face. A sound that was bitter. Almost pitiful.
"You're the cruel one, Sakura."
The way she was so oblivious nagged at his sanity.
"From the moment you first said that you like me, all I've heard around me is you. The only things I could see in the dark were these stupidly pastel colours-" He held a piece of her hair. "Yet, for someone who knows me better than anyone, you didn't manage to see the obvious. I'm a lyricist, but I'm not a poet nor a novelist, and I'm still trying to find the right words."
He referenced Soseki, hoping that by using something Sakura was fond of, he would have some leverage against her in this upwards battle. He tilted her head up, brushing a stray piece of hair out of her face. Sasuke hated the way he couldn't even stick to his resolutions because of her, his heart literally brightening up solely with her presence.
I love you.
"If you don't resist. I will kiss you."
I love you.
I love you. I love you so much, it's making me do crazy things and say stupid things.
Sakura froze. Caught off guard by his sudden assertiveness. Who was he to say that she was the one that was messing with his head?
"Is that your translation?" She whispered.
"Hn."
He kissed her.
His lips were a little too thin to be considered soft, and her mouth a little too small to be considered plump. Not that it would matter. Neither had ever kissed anyone else. And this brief moment was all that mattered.
A chaste touch of the lips. Skin on skin. Barely lasting three seconds. Neither knew what they were doing and such verity seeped through in their actions. She tasted like hoshihikari rice and canned caramel macchiato, and he smelt of his faint vetiver-coffee perfume and lavender-jasmine detergent.
They were just two teenagers in love. And the world was at their feet. Overwhelming the senses.
"How many others have kissed you before me?" Sasuke whispered against open lips.
The distance between them was insubstantial and onyx eyes darkened with male pride. He had asked only to satisfy himself with a verbal confession, already holding absolute knowledge that he had secured the ownership of her first kiss.
For a girl that normally held no reservations around him, Sakura had been too shy, letting him do all the work. Saying that she had kissed back would be a stretch. Neither of them did much but push their whole self towards the other.
As if stamping their existence.
He felt her smile instead of seeing it.
"Too many to count." She lied, pecking him on his cheek before running off with the sound of the bell that signified the end of lunch.
