When the government first announced the lockdown due to the increased spread of coronavirus, Sasuke was elated to think that his annoying fangirls wouldn't follow him like pests around the college asking for his phone number or dates. After few cups of Dalgona coffee and games of Ludo King, not to mention his college online classes, Sasuke began to reconsider his earlier happiness. He was prohibited from going outside his home even for a game of soccer and the only person he interacted with, except his family, was the person who delivered his groceries. Now, on a Monday morning, Sasuke was contemplating on leaving his online classroom to have a good sleep but he knew that his silver haired teacher, Kakashi wouldn't appreciate it. Even though his teacher was a porn-loving and tardy man, he was still strict. And what was with his mask?Who even wore those itchy surgical masks inside their homes? He paid attention in the class, or least tried to, because he needed the marks to pass his degree and then only his father would notice him. Although he had passed the phase of trying to get the attention of his father long time back, yet he sometimes craved for him to notice him. Itachi was his trophy son since childhood so he was always acknowledged by his father. Sasuke realized later that he would neither reach Itachi's level of achievement nor would he able to pass his degree at the age of 16 but the childhood desire to gain his father's attention still remained deep, deep, deep down in his heart although he would never blatanly show it. He had his reputation as an Uchiha afterall.
Playing Valorant till late in night with his homies last night wasn't a very good decision because it was tiring him in the morning during his classes with an unbearable headache. Although he has completed his course syllabus much earlier, courtesy of his Uchiha brain, he still had to attend the class for his internal assessments. He knew that his silver haired teacher had the habit of assigning projects to groups to instill the value of 'teamwork' among the students. Sasuke was hoping that he wouldn't be paired once again with the dobe or any of the fangirls. Shiver. Last time he was paired up with a fangirl, he had to protect himself from getting molested. Thankfully, nothing like that happened and he swore that he would rather have dobe than them (Not that he would mention this to the aforementioned 'dobe'). Double shiver! Most of the times, he was paired up with Naruto on the basis of their last names. All Naruto did was burden the assignments on Sasuke and savor his ramen when he was supposed to do the work.
He wanted to turn his video off and sleep on his folded arms. Or a bed would be nice too. With lots of pillows. Yes, that would definitely be nice. But he knew that, that wasn't possible. Sasuke sometimes doubted that his teacher might had been a ninja in his earlier life because whenever someone turned their video off, he would put his head up from his smut book and call out their names. So that plan was cancelled. Sasuke looked around the video windows on his laptop screen. He knew only two people out of the plus fifty attendees of the meeting. Most people in the meeting seemed to other things instead of doing the class. Few rebellious ones were lying down on the bed or munching on their food. Oh, how Sasuke wished he could have such courage! He knew he couldn't do such a thing even if he wanted to.
He ruffled his already-unruly hair and tried to keep his eyes open . He wanted to yawn so many times. He looked at his table clock and saw that it was already time for the lecture to end. He would then, have a good nap and then play more Valorant. Yes, that was the plan. Before Kakashi could end the class, he put his smut book down and turned on his microphone and said, "So there is an assignment and as usual, you'll be paired up with someone. But this time, you won't be paired up on the basis of your last names but on a random basis."
Sasuke was refraining himself from groaning or scowling because he didn't want the attention of the students to be fixated on him. At the same time, he was relieved that this time, he wouldn't be paired up with Naruto. He looked at Naruto's face on the video. On seeing his pout and scrunched eyebrows, Sasuke suppressed a smirk of amusement. While looking back to his teacher's video, his eyes strayed to something pink. Was that pink...hair? He pinned the person's video and saw that yes, it was pink hair on a woman, albeit a very attractive one. She had shoulder length pink hair. Was it as soft and shiny as it looked like on the screen? He wished he could touch it but the annoying screen of glass between them wouldn't be of much help. She was scribbling on her notebook while chewing her (rosy, plump and attractive) bottom she lifted her head to look at the screen, he squinted his eyes, not bothering to feel conscious that others might see him, to see her eye color. They were a vibrant shade of emerald green with golden flecks. Her hair looked like the cherry blossoms his mother had planted in their garden few years back so maybe it wasn't dyed. But what normal person had pink hair naturally? Maybe it was a genetic anomaly of red hair. He would ask her later.
He pinned her video and saw her attendee name was Sakura Haruno. Sakura. Sakura. Now where did he hear the name? He racked his brain trying to remember where he heard her name. Oh yeah, she was the only one in the class who almost rivaled with him for the first place in their exams. She was albeit a very intelligent girl who entered the college through a full scholarship. As soon as he looked back at her pinned video, she looked at the camera directly. Sasuke thought that Sakura might have known that he was looking at her so he turned his eyes away. He hoped that he wasn't caught ogling at her. He knew that it wasn't possible for her to know that he staring at her for the last 4 minutes 37 seconds (not that he counted, nope). Kakashi was calling out the names alphabetically and finally the letter "S" came. He waited impatiently to know the poor soul who would be paired up with him. When the teacher announced, "Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha", he glanced at the rosette haired girl once again through the video and it seemed as if she was looking at him too. With this, Kakashi ended the meeting after announcing every pairings and mentioned that the project must be done by both of the partners. Sasuke later found out that Naruto was paired up with the shy Hyuuga girl what-was-her-name. Sasuke knew her cousin, Neji Hyuuga. At least this time he wouldn't have to do the entire work on his own. He got a partner of the same intellect.
From the other side of the screen, Sakura was also looking at the pinned video of Sasuke Uchiha. He looked quite...handsome? With dark hair and dark eyes and chiseled jawline, he was quite the looker. She knew that he was also intelligent and studious in his studies like her. She also knew that they were each other's self-proclaimed rivals. Sakura was staring at him while Kakashi was calling out the names of the students. She just prayed that she wouldn't be paired up with someone who wouldn't do anything. Sakura liked to earn her marks fair and square. When Kakashi announced that she was paired up with the Uchiha, she glanced at his video once again and she had the gut feeling that he was doing the same too from the other side of the screen. She self-consciously adjusted her hair and tucked a loose strand behind her ear. When the class ended, she decided that she would send him a message privately on the app the next day during the class to discuss about the Chemistry assignment that their teacher, Mr. Kakashi Hatake oh-so-lovingly gave them.
Continued~