Author's Note: As usual, my dear readers' reviews and support didn't fail to motivate me to update as soon as possible. So, I hope everyone will like chapter 8 as well! (insert overexcited grin)

Chapter 8: An Unexpected Encounter


Sasuke's POV

"Sakura, if you continue making all those fierce faces, it won't take long before you'll turn into an old lady."

Sakura had been upset ever since the result of our midterm was out. One didn't need to use much of their brain cells to figure out the reason behind it.

It was Friday morning, a week after I had dinner over at Sakura's house, when the results were posted on the bulletin board outside of our classroom. The final grade of each student from our batch was arranged from the highest to the lowest. It wasn't a surprise to see that Shikamaru was ranked first. However, I must admit that I was slightly upset to see that I had allowed Neji to snatch my second place. Neji was usually in third while I would be in the second place.

But my frustration towards that couldn't beat the joy I felt when I found out that I managed to score higher than Sakura.

Sakura, on the other hand, didn't seem very pleased for certain obvious reasons. Not only did she score lower than the three people she had referred as her rivals when academics were concerned, she had lost the bet I made with her.

She had been sending deadly glares towards me since morning. Interacting with an overly pissed off Sakura was a suicidal idea. I knew how severe the consequences could be if I were to press the wrong button.

It was after classes ended that day when I finally decided to make a comment about the menacing aura she had been releasing. And needless to say, I had definitely pressed the wrong button.

"Shut up, Uchiha."

Despite knowing that I had made Sakura more annoyed than she already was, I continued to deliberately press the wrong button again and again. It was a habit of mine to annoy Sakura and an old habit wasn't easy to kick.

Though I didn't have any plans to kick this habit of mine.

"Be sportive and admit defeat, Haruno."

"I don't need you to tell me that." Sakura slammed her locker door on my face and walked away. As for me, I continued being the parasite I am and followed her to wherever she was going.

"You're not cute when you're looking so angry."

"I don't care. And why are you following me anyway?"

"No reasons in particular. Just want to spend time with you before I start becoming busier with the TV drama."

My words stopped Sakura in her tracks and I was beginning to wonder if I had officially made her gone mad from anger. Though I was confident my last respond to her wasn't supposed to piss her off.

She slowly turned to look at me and I noticed her expressions had softened. There was still frustration behind her eyes but at least she wasn't glaring at me as if she was trying to blast my head with it.

"You're going to start filming your TV drama today?"

"Hn. I'm heading over to the filming site after this."

There was a silence for a few moments and Sakura was just looking straight into my eyes. She was slightly pouting and I sensed a hint of sadness from her as I stared back into her green eyes.

"So, you'll probably be very busy from today onwards."

"Most likely."

"Do you have time for dinner tonight?"

"I would most probably have time for a late dinner instead."

"I'll go pick you up after you're done filming then. I'm taking you out for a late dinner."

"Annoying you had earned me a date? I should annoy you more often."

"No, you idiot. It is for losing that bet you made with me."

I smirked at Sakura as she continued frowning at me. It was admirable that she had keep her word even though she was pissed off to great extends.

"I'll send you tonight's last filming site's address then. I'll see you at 9 PM."

With that I walked pass Sakura and head towards the parking lot. Before I was completely out of her sight, I turned around and gave myself another chance to annoy her.

"You look better when you're not sulking."

However, the slight blush on her face showed that I had failed to annoy her. Instead, I must have unintentionally cheered her up a little.

Not that I minded that, of course.


Sakura's POV

"That idiot Uchiha is so annoying."

I was lying down on my bed and was browsing my phone, trying to distract myself from Sasuke. He had been on my mind for hours since we parted ways at school and it was getting onto my nerves.

It wasn't that I hated having him in my mind but it made me miss him.

"Great, Sakura. You didn't meet him for a few hours and you're missing him already. You're doing yourself a big favor indeed."

It kind of upset me that I would be seeing less of Sasuke from Friday onwards. Playing one of the main roles in the TV drama meant that he would be very busy. He might have to work almost every day.

But I knew better than to show him that I was upset. As his girlfriend, I should be supportive instead! I would do what I could to support him.

Although I was still slightly annoyed that he got a higher grade than me for the midterm even though I was the one helping him with his reviews, I couldn't deny the fact that I would be missing him a lot from that day on.

I got off from my bed when I realized it was already almost 8 PM. I was planning to go to the filming site earlier to watch Sasuke. I never watched him work and was curious about it. So I quickly changed into a casual beige dress and head towards my car.

Sasuke's last filming site was an outdoor park which was an almost 30 minute ride from my house. I parked my car a considerable distance from the filming site but I could clearly see the big crowd. And it was obvious that most of them were fans. To be more exact, they were Sasuke Uchiha's fans.

My prediction was proved to be right when I got closer to the filming site and heard the fans talking about Sasuke. They couldn't stop complimenting both his looks and also his acting skills.

When I saw Sasuke working for myself, I couldn't help but agree with what the other girls were saying.

He looked dashing in the black suit he was wearing and his acting skills were better than I had expected. I was totally captivated by Sasuke and I couldn't get my eyes of him. He flawlessly acted each scene without having to retake any of them. I even heard the director complimenting at Sasuke after each scene ended. That just proved how good he was.

"Sasuke-kun is such a good actor! I'm sure he will be getting more acting offers after this."

I turned over to a group of girls beside me who was talking about what was on my mind. Another girl was giggling as she agreed with her friend. But her smile soon disappeared from her face when she returned her attention to Sasuke.

"It's so annoying that Sasuke and his female co-star seem to have great chemistry between them. They look so annoyingly good together!"

"I know right. Now that the rumor about Sasuke and Ayumi Fukuda had died down, it is upsetting to know that his co-star might be the next person he would have a scandal with."

"Come on, guys. Why are you talking as if Sasuke will hook up with all the female celebrities around him?"

"That won't be surprising though. He is so hot and talented! A lot of girls are dying to be with him!"

The conversation which was going on beside me was disturbing me more than I wanted it to. I knew I shouldn't be too bothered by their words but I couldn't stop myself from feeling upset. Perhaps I was feeling that way because I knew that Sasuke's fans were making some sense.

Sasuke was constantly surrounded by gorgeous and talented women and that fact was enough to trigger a very unnecessary frustration inside me.

"Get a hold of yourself, Sakura. You should trust, Sasuke. Don't end up as a pain in the ass for your own boyfriend."

I was snapped out of my thoughts when someone suddenly bumped into me. I winced in pain and turn towards the person who ran into me. When I caught sight of the person, I was surprised at how he looked a lot like Sasuke.

His hair was darker than Sasuke's and his skin was much paler though. But still, the resemblance was definitely there and I couldn't unseen it.

He looked at me with an expressionless face and he became even more like Sasuke's doppelganger by the second.

"Sorry about that. I wasn't looking at my way."

It was then when I realized he was holding onto a book which I assumed was a script. And judging from what he was wearing, he was definitely neither a fan nor a staff. The suit he was wearing showed that he was most probably one of the actors.

"It's alright."

He went back to concentrate on his script after giving me a small smile. I had to admit he was rather good looking if he had some expressions on his face.

I was going to go back to watching Sasuke but I noticed the odd look Sasuke's doppelganger was making as he focused on the script on his hand. Out of concern, I asked if he was having a problem.

"Is something wrong?"

He seemed startled at my voice and looked up at me. He took a few moments to stare at me before speaking.

"There are some words in the script I don't understand."

"Let me see. Maybe I can help."

There was another silence between us. He seemed to be checking me out and it was making me uncomfortable.

"Why is he looking at me like I'm some sort of weird specie?"

His next words totally snapped a nerve in my head though.

"You don't look very smart."

I immediately snatched the script out of his hand and glared at him. I had never met someone as rude as him and I wasn't going to leave until I prove him wrong.

"Oh really?! I'll prove how wrong you are! Show me what you don't understand."

It was beyond annoying to see him looking so expressionless even though I was glaring intensely at him. If I could make a huge hole on that face of his with my glares, I would be more than willing to do so.

Without putting up a fight, he pointed out the words he didn't understand. To be fair, they were rather complicated words but fortunately for me, I understood all of them. I explained all the words to the rude guy in front of me as clearly as I could.

I felt proud when I saw his eyes widened in surprise after I finished explaining all the terms he didn't understand. I gave him a confident smirk and I somehow felt like Sasuke when I did that.

"You're smarter than you look."

I took that as a compliment rather than an insult since I was still in quite a good mood after I proved my intelligence to that rude stranger. I gave him back the script and his earlier troubled look wasn't there anymore.

He smiled at me as he thanked me and I hate to admit he was a rather charming person. He had to work on that attitude of his though.

He was walking towards the filming site when he suddenly turned to look at me. His earlier expressionless face returned as he spoke.

"My name is Sai, by the way. Thanks again for your help, fierce girl with weird pink hair."

I felt myself trembling in anger as I stared at the rudest person I had ever encountered in my entire life. It annoyed me even more when I heard some girls around me saying how good looking he was. In my eyes, his attitude had blinded me from his handsome features.

I definitely wasn't looking forward to ever meeting that person again.


Sasuke's POV

After I finished filming one of the last scenes for the night, I noticed Sakura standing behind the crowd. It wasn't difficult to find a girl with pink hair, after all.

I was waiting for her to look at my way but I noticed that she was talking to someone else. And it annoyed me when I saw who it was.

I was too far to listen to their conversation but the person talking to Sakura was definitely Sai. He was pretty new in showbiz but had been doing great lately. He started his career by taking up small roles in TV dramas but it didn't take very long before he received more important roles.

I never interacted with him before taking up the offer to act in this TV drama. I didn't expect to be working with him at first. This TV drama's genre was romance and Sai was acting as my love rival. I had no problems with his acting skills but there was something unexplainable about him that annoyed me.

Perhaps it was because people were saying how the two of us looked alike and were starting to compare us a lot. I usually didn't care about such useless things but sometimes it just got onto my nerves, especially when I heard people saying that he might one day surpass me.

As if I would let that happen.

Moreover, seeing him talking to Sakura had triggered even more annoyance towards him.

When I saw him walking away from Sakura, I tried not to show that I had been staring at them. I didn't stop myself from glaring at him when he walked pass me though. And I didn't care when I saw him noticing the annoyed look on my face.

As usual, he walked pass me with a disinterested look, which was something he had been doing since we started working on this TV drama. And it had been annoying me to unbelievable extends. But I knew better than to make a big fuss out of it.

When the last scene of the night was finished, I glanced over at Sakura's direction and saw her smiling at me. I didn't return the smile though since someone might notice it and might even make a big deal out of it. The last thing I needed was another scandal which might disturb Sakura's life more than the previous one.

I took my phone out from my pocket and sent Sakura a message. The filming site was more crowded than I had expected and it wasn't a wise idea to be seen leaving in Sakura's car.


Sasuke: Meet me the Japanese restaurant near our school. It's too crowded here and it's not a good idea to be seen leaving together.


After the message was sent, I went to change out of my clothes. It was my manager who fetched me at school earlier so I didn't drive my own car. I asked him to drive me to where I was meeting up with Sakura.

We managed to avoid the huge crowd of fans who stayed back even though we were done filming for the night. If I were to be stuck among them, it might take forever to escape. And all I wanted to do after hours of filming was spending time with Sakura.

I was about to leave the car when we arrived at the restaurant I told Sakura to go to when my manager suddenly spoke.

"I'm warning you, Sasuke. Be careful and don't get involved in another scandal. The last one wasn't so easy to settle."

"I know." And with that, I closed the car's door before Orochimaru would nag again.

I had a cap on as I walked into the restaurant. I was wearing casual clothes so that I wouldn't attract too much attention. I didn't bother putting on my sunglasses because I didn't want to appear like a freak. Nothing good would be said about a person who wore sunglasses in the middle of the night.

Anyway, there weren't a lot of people in the restaurant so I assumed I could relax a bit.

I spot Sakura in one of the booths at the back of the restaurant and walked towards her. She had a smile on her face when she noticed that I had arrived.

"Someone didn't have his sunglasses on."

"I don't want people to recognize me but doesn't mean I want to look like a freak."

Sakura was chuckling at my respond and raised her hand to get the attention of a nearby waiter. We had been to this restaurant several times already so we didn't need to look at the menu to decide on what to order. When the waiter left us, Sakura placed her chin on her hand as she spoke.

"So why did you choose to have dinner hear and not somewhere near the filming site?"

"Fans might go around the area to see if they could find me. It's a better idea to go somewhere further away."

"That makes sense. You did great, by the way! I wouldn't have thought it was the first time you acted if you had not told me."

"I'm flattered to be complimented by Sakura Haruno."

"You better be." Sakura's soft giggles effortlessly made my exhaustion leave my body. She was definitely what I needed after a long day at work.

When the waiter came back with our orders, Sai suddenly came across my mind. I small frown surfaced but I tried to stay expressionless as I asked Sakura about her earlier encounter with Sai.

"I saw you talking to one of the actors back at the filming site. What did you two talk about?"

Sakura looked confused for a moment and seemed to be deep in thought. Her eyes were wide opened when she figured out who I was referring to.

"You mean that rude guy who kind of looks like you?"

I didn't even bother to stop my frown from becoming visible at Sakura's words. Hearing Sakura saying that I looked like Sai was more upsetting than I thought.

Sakura must have noticed how unhappy I appeared and tried to comfort me.

"He may sort of looks like you but you're infinity times better looking. Plus, he needs to work on his attitude!"

Sakura often told me that I need to fix my attitude but it seemed like she had found someone with a worse personality than me. I began wondering what Sai had done to have made such a bad first impression.

"Did Sai do something to upset you?"

Sakura reacted at me mentioning his name so I assumed Sai had introduced himself.

"He looked troubled when he was looking at his script so I was kind enough to offer some help. And instead of being grateful, he said that I didn't look very smart. I was so pissed off and it didn't take much effort for me to prove him wrong. He did thank me for helping him out. But do you know what he said before he went back to the filming site? He called me a fierce girl with weird pink hair! I had never met such a rude person before!"

It was amazing how Sakura could talk with such anger while keeping her voice down. At least she had some sanity left in her mind to make sure she wasn't attracting attention towards us. She looked annoyed as she ate with more force than necessary. Somehow, I could imagine the look on Sakura's face back when Sai was insulting her. And unfortunately, I couldn't stop myself from smirking at the thought.

"Are you trying to make fun of me, Sasuke?!"

"No." I reached over to Sakura's face and removed a small piece of seaweed from the side of her mouth. Even though her anger was still apparent, my small gesture made her blush a little. "Just ignore that person. Don't let him ruin your mood."

Sakura managed to calm down afterwards and was eating in a much more gentle way. She must have noticed that she was almost acting like a barbarian earlier and was becoming flushed due to embarrassment.

"Who is that guy anyway?"

"You don't recognize him? He's considered to be rather new in showbiz but he had been getting more popular lately. He's a young actor but had been offered quite a number of offers to play as major roles in TV dramas. He's of the same age as us."

Sai might have an attitude problem but his acting skill was unquestionable. I hated to admit it but when it came to acting, I had to work harder if I didn't want to lose to him.

"I don't really watch a lot of TV drama most of the time so I don't know him. But I'll definitely watch yours!"

Sakura was grinning happily at me and I ruffled her hair playfully. Having Sakura around for support was more than enough to keep me motivated.

"Just wait and see. I'll definitely perform better than Sai."

"Are the two of you rivals or something?"

"Not really. But we're not exactly friends either."

"I'm sure you'll beat the crap out of him! Show that rude guy who's the boss!"

Sakura appeared to be more enthusiastic than I was and it was an amusing sight to behold.

"Sure. And the next time you meet him, I don't want to see you talking to him."

Sakura was blinking at me in confusion as I continued eating my food. She crooked her head to the side and looked at me questioningly.

"Why?"

"I don't like it." There was certain hatred behind my words which I accidentally added onto when I spoke. And from what I knew about Sakura, I was sure she must have noticed it.

She had a teasing look on her face as she began grasping the whole situation.

"Were you jealous when you saw me talking to him?"

There was silence between us when I refused to respond. I pretended I didn't hear what Sakura said and continued eating.

Sakura must have grown impatient at my lack of words and poked me in the forehead. I groaned and looked at her face.

She still had that teasing smile of hers and was looking at me as if she had discovered a deep dark secret of mine. I rolled my eyes and sighed in defeat. She wasn't planning to let me go until I told her the truth she desperately wanted to hear for some unknown reasons.

"Yes. I was jealous. You have a problem with that?"

Sakura was giggling at my answer, which made my ears burn a little from embarrassment. It was annoying how she managed to see through me and made me reveal a weakness of mine.

"I wasn't even as jealous as you when I saw how much chemistry you had with your female co-star!"

"There's nothing going on between me and my co-star. We're just working."

"I know. And you should know there is absolutely nothing between me and that rude guy."

"Hn."

"Anyway¸ I don't have a problem with you being jealous. It's make me sort of happy actually."

"You're weird."

"I could say the same about you."

I smirked at Sakura's reply to my insult and the two of us went back to finishing our food. As I ate, I tried to not to think too much about Sakura and Sai's encounter.

It wasn't like they were going to meet again.

At least, I hoped they wouldn't. Seeing them together gave me a really bad feeling.

It was an indescribable negativity inside me which was distracting me in ways I really wished it didn't.


Author's Note: So, what exactly is Sai's role in this fanfic? Continue keeping up with this story to find out! Meanwhile, I would really appreciate it if you would write a review and share your opinions regarding this fanfic. It would really help as well if you would drop some suggestions. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and thank you for reading!