title: The Extravagant Challenge (Anthology)
scene: 03. His Biggest Fan
scene summary: Meeting her he realised that the number one fan wasn't the Fan Club President; she wasn't the one who stalks him in Twitter and Facebook; she could be one of them but she was more than that.
Scene 03.
His Biggest Fan
—
She's the kind of girl who'd stand out in the showbiz world, in his world, was his initial thought at the sight of her.
After all, while pink hair was not rare, it was still uncommon, and it was the hair colour women like her often tried to disassociate themselves with. Ironically, it was the colour men in the music industry loved to dabble with, to stand out, to be the odd one, to differentiate themselves in the highly competitive industry that was the entertainment.
His next thought was she's just ordinary. And if it were not for her daring hair, he wouldn't have noticed her at all among the random individuals in the airport—no offence meant at all.
She's ordinary, all right. At least he thought so until he heard it.
A familiar melody and it took him five seconds to realise it was a piano rendition of his first single—the single that didn't sell out, he thought bitterly. The pink-haired woman across him was frantically digging in her purse. Almost violently yet trying to appear nonchalant, he looked around for the source.
The tune stopped when the pink-haired woman finally answered her phone. Maybe she wasn't so ordinary.
—
He wasn't like the other feeling-too-important artists who demanded First Class seating whenever he travelled about. He was just another passenger and before he became the singing sensation that he was now, he was one of them, and he didn't think that changed at all. So he didn't mind it when he felt someone sit on the empty seat next to him in the airplane.
Honestly, he wouldn't have spared his seatmate a glance if he didn't hear her ringtone at all.
It was the piano rendition from earlier
"Yes, Ino. I'm already on the plane," she was saying on the phone, "I didn't forget. The flight is for five hours, you can't change that. No! There's no hot guys around I can hook you up with"—at this, he felt truly insulted, did she mean she didn't think he was hot?—"and besides, you already have Shikamaru. Bye, see you later."
He was aware he was staring at her and he knew it was rude to stare but he couldn't help it. His first single was poorly received by the market and didn't sell out. It was the first personal composition he released in the market and he'd seen the lack of sales as his failure, viewed it as rejection to his work, and made him doubt his true worth as a musician.
From thereafter, all songs he released were composed by someone else. And as insulting as it was to him, singing and performing someone else's work, as if all he had was the looks, moves and the voice, he endured it all.
"Hey," her voice erased his clouded memories of his past and brought him back to the now, in front of her green eyes full of life and nearly blinding smile.
He cleared his throat, feeling both equally embarrassed and awkward at having been caught staring, and nodded at her, muttering a "hey" back to her.
"Nice ringtone," he remarked, because it was the truth.
"You think so too?" she started saying excitedly and her eyes were suddenly greener, "it's my piano rendition of Uchiha Sasuke's first single, Undoubtedly. And it's been my ringtone since it was released. Of course, my piano skills are not that good. Undoubtedly is definitely my favourite song of all time and do you know it's Uchiha-san's only self-composed song that's ever released? I wish he'd release more songs he composed himself. Of course, I don't mean the rest of his songs are horrible but Undoubtedly has this feeling, whenever I listen to it—" then she broke off, blushing and looking embarrassed.
"I'm sorry for just going off like that. It's just, well, yeah, never mind."
He smirked at her. "It's cool."
"I'm Sakura, by the way. Sakura Haruno," she introduced herself, holding out her hand.
Normally, he would have given a false name but it felt like she deserved the truth for being such a loyal fan. He just hoped she wouldn't start acting like a crazed fangirl.
He took her hand, shaking it firmly. Her hand felt so soft.
"Uchiha Sasuke," he said simply and he gauged her reaction.
Green eyes widened. Her lips parted as if to say something but it looked like she stopped breathing altogether.
"Oh my God," she whispered breathlessly, "no way! You're—you're and I was… oh God," she buried her face to her open palms, "this is embarrassing."
It impressed him how she was whispering and muttering her breath the whole time, how she didn't scream, shriek or acted anything like the fangirls who'd greet him in the airport and show up at his concerts, fan signing events and whatnot.
Sasuke liked the way she respected his privacy more than anything else.
Maybe she wasn't so ordinary after all.
Perhaps this was what a real fan means to be.
The End.