Chapter 4 ---- Challenge
Four weeks passed. Sakura had completely adjusted herself to her high school life. For the first four weeks of school, Sakura observed Neji and whenever they passed by each other in the hallway, she looked at him to see what he would do. She tried different hairstyles to see he would notice her. He seemed to be looking at her quite frequently and sometimes she thought of waving at him. However, whenever she noticed his eyes, he would turn his face away. She was thinking too much that she could not even ask her friends for advice.
It was Sunday. She went online but none of her friends were online.
"I guess I'll just take a walk outside and clear my mind," Sakura sighed and got up.
She went outside and walked down the street. She went to the park in her neighborhood and sat down on the bench. She sighed again.
"I don't know why but this is requiring a lot of courage," Sakura thought.
She was thinking of the time when Neji was nice. He would smile and talk more. One time he caught her looking at him. "Maybe he was just going to look this way as usual but I was looking at him first..," Sakura wondered. "These days he seems to be so competitive and he just changed so much… It must be his peers, too…I know he's still the same person," she thought.
"You can do it! It'll make you feel a lot better either way!" Sakura stood up and assured herself.
She went out of the park and headed home. She was walking in her home's direction and she found Neji and his friends walking in her direction.
"Oh no. He's coming this way," Sakura hid behind a tree. Then she thought, "What good would it do to keep postponing this?"
Sakura came out onto the street and when the group came close enough, she said, "Hey, Neji. I need to talk to you."
"Oh all right," he said.
"Um…" Sakura felt her words stuck in her throat. "Um…you know, I've always noticed that you are looking at me and …what does that mean?" She managed to push some out.
"What?" he made an annoyed face.
Sakura was shocked to see such unexpected expression on his face.
"You're looking at me," she said.
"When?" he asked.
"W..always!" Sakura said a little angrily.
"I…I don't know what you're talking about," Neji said.
"…" Sakura stared at his face and only saw someone else's face staring back at her coldly. "Never mind..," she said and turned around.
She started walking faster and once she turned the corner, she started running. At that moment, it started raining cats and dogs. She did not care. She started crying like a broken dam. It felt like all the anxiety and excitement that had been built up was collapsed. It was solely unbelievable, yet bitterly, it was the truth. It started thundering. She was a few blocks away from home. She could not run anymore. She stopped and cried. Suddenly, she felt something over her head. It was an umbrella. She looked to her right and Sasuke was holding an umbrella.
"Sa..Sasuke-kun..," Sakura said incoherently.
"You'll---" Sasuke was surprised to see Sakura's crying face. His eyes slightly widened. He went on, "You'll catch a cold…"
Sakura suddenly hugged Sasuke and cried on his shoulder. Sasuke did not know what to do. He awkwardly put his hand on her shoulder. She did not seem to stop crying. She cried for a long time. When she was done crying, she looked up and looked at Sasuke's face. Sasuke showed no emotions. He only stared into her greenish, beady eyes.
"I'm sorry. I just had a bad day..," Sakura looked down shyly.
"…It's fine," he let her go.
At that moment, Neji's group was coming around the corner. As they passed by, they were looking at Sakura and Sasuke. From the expression on Sakura's face and how she turned her back on them, Sasuke figured out that something happened between one of them and he guessed that it was probably Neji, because he was looking back at Sakura after the group passed by.
Sakura stared at the bunch with hateful eyes for a while.
"I'll take you home..," Sasuke said.
"It's ok, I'll be fine," Sakura said as she looked up at him.
Sasuke offered his umbrella to Sakura.
"…Thanks," she said.
She started walking and Sasuke watched her walk away. Sakura stopped and turned around. Her pink hair that is usually tightly put up in a pony tail was down and drenched.
"I'll talk to you tomorrow," Sakura smiled.
Sasuke smiled a little and nodded.
Author Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please let me know what you think!
