#3 – Misunderstanding

It took some work, but it was not impossible.

Apparently moved by the depth of his love letter, the people rooting for him were coming up to him and volunteering Sakura's timetable, preferred exits, and even bus numbers, information that he could only purchase from a private eye. While thankful for their unexpected help, he could only wonder the kind of friends Sakura was making, for them to betray her daily routine so readily. However, it had been five days – he was growing tired of playing stalker and was planning to break into the staff room that evening just to put an end to his misery.

After fixing up the broken arm of the skeleton model that Tsunade-sensei snapped during her anatomy demonstration, Sakura rotated her neck and peered out towards the pitch-black landscape, astonished that her lab duty had taken her into the night.

"Took you long enough."

Sakura yelped and dropped the keys, the pointed ridges falling bulls-eye into her feet.

"Ouch!"

"Sorry, did I scare you-"

She slipped on the keys and flew back into his arms, and they suddenly found themselves plastered back to chest along the deserted corridor.

"Are you okay?" Compounded by the darkness and quietude, Sakura shivered at his hot breath tickling her ear. She thought she was used to hearing heartbeats and treated them as part of a clinical procedure, but this was a first that she found hers picking up pace, threatening to swallow her mind with their deafening and persistent poundings.

Sakura nodded her head and pulled out of his grip, quickly distracting herself with searching for the keys. Was this her retribution for smashing his feet the other day?

"You're waiting for someone?"

"That letter was not written by me." She stopped her search and slowly turned around.

"It wasn't?"

"It's most likely my cousin's prank. He seems to love putting me in a spot and seeing me all miserable, and it worked." Shisui was probably still mad that the waitress from the curry restaurant asked for his number instead of Shisui. He had clearly underestimated his fondness for that plain and overly touchy-feely woman. He knew from experience that this was a man who would stand him up last minute for a date, but did he have to go this far just to nurse his hurt ego?

"That's… A relief. I was so worried, for days I thought you were for real and couldn't catch a night's sleep in peace!" She burst out with a hearty slap to her chest, overtly delighted with this flash of good news.

For some reason her reaction ticked him off.

"Are you that relieved?" When her laughter finally subsided and she noticed his visible displeasure, she quickly covered her mouth, but the grin behind her hand was unshakable.

"Pfff don't get me wrong, but I've went by a week thinking I've got a stalker on my back. I mean Sasuke-kun's older brother, really? We haven't even talked once!"

"You know Sasuke?" By the way she addressed him, they must be on familiar terms.

"He was my classmate throughout middle to high school, but can't say I know him… We don't really talk much, to be honest," She commented bashfully.

"He's a tough shell to crack, isn't he?"

"Not just tough, but rude, anti-social, arrogant…" She trailed off at the sight of his elevated brows. "And o-of course I didn't mean all that-"

"You do know him well after all." They shared a meaningful moment of eye contact, before breaking into smiles at their hopeless cause of a brother and classmate.

"I'm really sorry about the letter," Itachi reverted into a serious tone and bowed slightly.

"C-Come on, you don't have to get all formal…"

"I sincerely hope it doesn't affect your chances."

"At what?"

"At getting a boyfriend."

"…That's your concern? I don't know if you know this, but I get at least three letters of confession per week, so you have nothing to worry about," She boasted with a slight puff in her chest, though her earlier reactions to his letter clearly belied her lack of or zero courtships.

"Right, but just in case, you should put up some posters to publicly decline my proposal, just to put me back on the market too."

"What?"

"I'm just joking." He was either really good at playing deadpan, or he was seriously hoping she would take up his advice. "You have club activities today?" Itachi nodded towards her shoe bag sitting by the door.

"Well, er, yeah. I'm going over to meet them now actually. We're meeting outside for dinner," She quickly added before he could offer to show her to the imaginary clubroom.

"I see." He pulled himself up from the wall he was leaning on and with a final nod, made his way down the corridor. "You should go home early, since you have an early class tomorrow."

"How did you know?"

"I have to know something about the girl I'm proposing to, don't I?" She thought she caught a faint grin on his face but all she could make out now was his fast retreating back.

"H-Hey!" He stopped and slowly turned around. "Will I see you again?"

"We're in the same faculty, the chances are high."

"I see… W-What, you're in med?"

He shook his head at her uninhibited dismal, wondering just what kind of person she thought he was as he carried on his silent walk into the night.

Sakura is probably the only female who isn't flattered that Itachi is crushing on her... And why is my word count increasing?!