Author's Note: I'm so happy to see so many supportive readers! I truly appreciate everyone's inputs to this story. And yes, I am a huge fan of the Sasuke/Sakura pairing, but don't worry, Naruto will definitely play an important role to this story. And I would be continuing this story in first POV for the time being but for the Guest reviewer who suggested the story to be in third POV, I will take it into consideration!
And to those who are following other stories, don't worry! I promise I will finish them but I do have to apologize for the long wait. Really sorry!
So, here's chapter 2 and hope you'll all enjoy it!
Chapter 2: Lovers' Introduction
Sakura's POV
The contract had more details than I initially thought.
I laid down on my bed after my much-needed shower and read through the complicated contract I had signed a while ago. Some of the most important points to take note of were typed in bold letters to make sure I wouldn't miss it. Apparently, I wasn't supposed to tell anyone that my relationship with Sasuke was a lie. It was emphasized that I should tell absolutely nobody, including my parents and my closest friends.
I sighed as I thought of how I was supposed to face Ino about it. She would see through me easily. But then again, the contract stated that I would not get my money if I were to expose the lie to anybody at all.
And I simply could not let that happen.
I was on the last page of the contract when I heard the loud yelling of a certain blonde that was not Ino Yamanaka.
"Sakura! Are you still awake?!"
I cursed under my breath as I placed the contract into my bedside counter before running downstairs to the person who never understood what it meant by keeping his voice down.
I opened the door to my house and closed it as gently as I could before I ran to the blonde who was standing a few meters away from where I was.
"Naruto Uzumaki! It's past 12 AM already, can't you keep your voice down?!"
Naruto was my neighbour for as long as I could remember, making him the first friend I ever made. He had always been that loud, annoying and more than often frustrating friend you wanted nothing to do with. Despite those, however, Naruto had always been one of my closest friends who was always there for me through my ups and downs.
He was still annoying and beyond uncontrollable though.
Naruto was grinning stupidly as he apologized for being loud when most people were already fast asleep. He would still do the same though, that had always been the case.
"I had just finished my part-time job over at the bakery and decided to drop by and ask if you want to hang out tomorrow?" Naruto was full of excitement, almost making me feel bad to tell him that I already had plans.
"Sorry, Naruto. I already made plans for tomorrow." I felt guilty when I saw him grin turning into a frown almost instantly, but I had no other choice.
"Are you going to hang out with Ino instead of me again?" Naruto cling onto my arm and pretended to sob like a child. I rolled my eyes at his act and pushed him away before landing a punch on his arm.
"I'll hang out with you some other time soon, goodnight now!" I ignored Naruto's question and hurriedly left for my room. I still had no idea how to bring up to Naruto about Sasuke without exposing any part of the lie. Naruto might be dumb at times, but he was one of the few people who knew me well.
One wrong move and he might start to become suspicious.
And I would be doomed if I were to let that happen.
Sasuke's POV
I messaged Sakura last night and asked to meet at a restaurant at 11AM. I had on a plain light grey button-up shirt with a pair of black trousers and took one last look on the mirror before leaving my room. Even though Shikamaru insisted that I was narcistic, I strongly disagreed.
I just wanted to make sure I appeared presentable before leaving the house.
I met my parents and older brother downstairs as I was leaving. They were sitting on the sofa of the living room and had all their attention on me when I walked passed.
"Where are you going so early in the morning, Sasuke?" Itachi spoke as if he knew where I was going but asked for the sake of teasing me. It had been bothering me that he might had seen through my lie from the beginning but simply played along for his own entertainment.
I just hoped he wouldn't poke his nose into my business too much.
"Going out." My vague answer had caught the attention of my parents, who were now becoming more curious as to where I was heading to.
"Are you going to meet your girlfriend?" My mother's face lit up in an instant and was excitedly waiting for my answer. She was giggling to herself when I nodded.
My father had a smirk on his face as he spoke, "I'm looking forward to meet her tonight. I will consider cancelling your engagement plans with Karin if the dinner goes well."
I told myself I must make the best out of tonight's dinner if I wanted to save myself from my father's ridiculous plans. I excused myself and left to the garage where my car was.
I arrived at the restaurant earlier than Sakura and found us a seat by the windows. I only had to wait for several minutes before my eyes caught sight of pink hair.
Never for a second I thought Sakura was bad-looking when throughout my interaction with her the night before. But she looked different when I laid eyes on her in the restaurant. I guessed anyone would look better when he or she wasn't mad.
She wore a simple dark blue blouse with a white skirt which reached above her knees. She had her hair down which reached few inches passed her shoulders. A small smile was across her face when she caught sight of me, which somehow told me that she was in a decent mood that day.
"Good morning." Sakura sat down in front of me, not looking like someone who just lost her job last night.
A waitress came over with menus and left once we placed our orders. I took a deep breath before getting down to business. There were still much to be done to prepare ourselves for tonight.
"Tell me more about yourself." I started with the foundation of our 'relationship'. I couldn't begin to imagine how awkward it would be if I couldn't even answer simple things about my 'girlfriend'.
"I assume you already know my full name. I am 21 years old, currently in my third year of medical school. I have been practicing martial arts since I was 3 years old and I enjoy reading during my free time." Sakura paused for a while before asking. "What else do you want to know?"
"Tell me more about your family and childhood." I sounded like I was interrogating a criminal but Sakura didn't seem to mind or notice in the first place.
"I'm an only child and I live with my parents. My father is a high school biology teacher and my mother is a nurse. There's nothing interesting about my childhood though. But I do have two childhood friends who are still my closest friends right now."
"And one of them is Ino, I assume?" I asked as the waitress came over with our orders. Sakura thanked the waitress before giving me a weird look.
"I still find it creepy how you know about these things. What else do you know about me?" Sakura looked at me as if I was some sort of creepy stalker who had been constantly looking through all her social media accounts.
I took a sip of water before answering, "I just happen to know about a thing or two, I did not and have no intention of stalking you. So, you better cooperate and tell me everything I might need to know about you."
Sakura rolled her eyes disapprovingly before continuing to tell more about herself, "I scored first place for the national high school final examination back in my school and for the entrance examination for the current medical school I am attending. It was what got me my scholarship in my first year of college. But due to conflict between the university and the donor of the scholarship, the scholarship was discontinued and I ended up in the state I am in right now. Unfortunately for me, there weren't any other scholarships for medical students other than the one I had previously."
I heard about the case Sakura was referring to. Since she was attending the best medical school in Japan, the conflict that happened went public for a period of time. Apparently, there were some breach of contract on both sides and problems started brewing up here and there. Sakura's university covered up the news quickly though and it was settled before too much damage was done.
"Anyways, my dream since I was a young child has been to become a well-known doctor in Japan. So even though I lost my scholarship, I am still determined to go through medical school. And here I am now. And I can't think of anything else to say."
I must admit that the way Sakura held on to her ambitions was remarkable and admirable. Maybe it was because I had my own dreams and ambitions as well, hence, I could relate to how it would feel when you saw your dreams slipping away from your grip.
"What about you? I think I should know more about you too." Sakura took a sip of water before taking a bite of her food, and seeing the look on her face, it was safe to assume she was impressed with the quality of the restaurant.
"I also assume you already know my name. I had recently graduated from business school in a university in the States. I am currently working in the Uchiha Corporation, learning more about the company from my father to prepare myself before I will inherit the company. I live with my parents and older brother, who decided to start his own career outside of the family business." Sakura appeared to be genuinely interested in the things I said, much to my surprise. I was never exactly an interesting person during conversations.
"Tell me more about your friends." Sakura seemed as if she already figured out I was close friends with Shikamaru, proving to me once again of her intelligence.
"Since I spent four years of university overseas, most of my close friends in Japan are people I knew from high school. One of them is Shikamaru, whom I am sure you knew." Sakura nodded with a sly grin, showing that she was aware of our close friends' 'relationship', which would need at least a day or two to talk about.
"My other close friend is Neji Hyuuga, who is also currently my business partner. Since our 'relationship' has started, you'll eventually get to meet him. He is arrogant and unfriendly but he doesn't mean harm."
"So, he is just like you?" Sakura seemed to have said what she did without thinking twice but it wasn't like I minded.
Many people mentioned that Neji and I were similar in many ways. The two of us thought so too at some point and it somehow turned us into rivals. It was a healthy rivalry which made both of us continuously striving to be better version of ourselves.
"We are alike but I can confidently say I am better." My self-loving statement made Sakura laugh mockingly and it surprisingly didn't bother me. I ignored the way Sakura openly showed her disagreement to my statement and continued speaking.
"I guess I better tell you more about my family members before we leave this restaurant. My older brother will be there tonight too." I took a bite of my food as a slight nervousness crossed Sakura's face.
"What time will the dinner be?" Sakura asked as if the dinner was an exam she must attend, making the situation rather amusing.
"6 PM at an Italian restaurant in Ginza."
"There's still tons of time until 6 PM. I doubt we need that much time to come up with our 'story' and getting to know each other. What are we going to do anyways?" Sakura took the last bite of her food and finished her drink afterwards.
"Shopping." I finished my own share of food as well as I waited for some sort of reaction from Sakura.
"What?! Shopping is part of my new 'job'?" Sakura was either genuinely surprised or being sarcastic and I assumed it was the later.
"Yes." I smirked at how entertaining the whole situation turned out to be. One thing I was glad about was how Sakura remained mature and calm so far, and not pathetically seeking for attention like how most women were around me.
"I guess she really did read through the contract."
Because one of the lines typed in bold on the contract was:
Do not act like a fan girl.
It was either she was following every detail of the contract or she just wasn't the 'fan girl' type. Either way I appreciate it.
In the rest of our stay in the restaurant, I told Sakura everything she had to know about my family members, such as their personality, what they disliked and liked from a person and basically things she had to know for her not to screw up.
And I truly hoped she wouldn't screw up.
Sakura's POV
"Holy shit, these things are bloody expensive."
After we left the restaurant, Sasuke drove us to one of the fanciest shopping malls in Tokyo. These were places that I just didn't belong.
I felt out of place when I was inside and it became even worse when I realized that Sasuke had been attracting a whole lot of attention. And when I saw the price tags on the dresses in one of the high-end shops, I swore I could have a heart attack.
I was randomly walking around the shop, thinking of much work I needed to do in the restaurant to even afford a plain shirt in that place.
Sasuke, on the other hand, picked dresses here and there as if they costed nothing. A lady came over with the dresses Sasuke picked and showed me to where the changing rooms were.
Sasuke followed us while looking around the place, seemingly seeing if there were anything else he could find.
"Go ahead and try those dresses on. You can pick anything you like to wear for tonight. And feel free to take more if you want. I am paying for all of them so don't worry." With that said, Sasuke sat down on the couch and gave me a 'stop-daydreaming-and-get-going' look.
I went into the changing room and started trying on the dresses which I couldn't afford.
One thing was for sure, they looked better than I imagined.
Sasuke's POV
"Well, what do you think?"
I was beyond glad that I didn't make a fool out of myself when Sakura got out of the changing room with a black dress that fitted her perfectly. The dress wrapped her body in a way that her curves were elegantly emphasized. It reached right above her knees and the way the sleeves fell off her shoulders made her even more beautiful.
"It's great." Sakura glared at me a little for my 'effortless' compliment. In all honesty, she deserved much more. Complimenting was just not my thing. "Are you getting any of the other dresses?"
"No." I could see that Sakura loved the dresses she tried on from the look she is making as the dresses were placed back to the racks.
"Pack all of those." I told the lady who placed the dresses away, which made Sakura drop her jaws in an instant.
"Wait, what?!" Sakura seemed like she was about to protest but I interrupted her before she could say anything more.
"Don't worry about it. Treat it as a present." I started walking towards the door once I finished paying for all the dresses and took the paper bags. Sakura followed me from behind in a rush, all the while protesting and complaining.
"It's too much for me to accept! I can't!" Sakura's pointless complains made me smirk, and I continued ignoring her all the way until we reached the car.
All that was left to do was coming up with our little 'romantic' story and me trying not to stare at a certain someone too much.
Sakura's POV
Up until today, I didn't know what it truly meant when someone said their heart felt like it was going to fall off.
My heart was thumping like crazy as I walked into the restaurant where I was supposed to meet Sasuke's family. The fancy chandeliers and extravagant interior designs didn't help calming me down.
"Relax. Don't let your nerves screw you up." I glared at Sasuke for his 'amazing' comforting few seconds before I had to face Sasuke's family.
A waiter escorted Sasuke and I to where his family were, who were apparently in a private room at the end of the restaurant. Once the waiter opened the door to the private room, I felt my heart dropped to a depth I couldn't describe.
But instead of freaking out, I decided to pull myself together and brought out the courage I totally needed.
Because I couldn't afford to let any of them see the truth behind our 'relaionship'.
Author's Note: As always, don't forget to review and share with me your thoughts! Your support means a whole lot to me, really! Also, don't forget to click the follow and favourite button (insert puppy eyes). Thank you for reading and see you in the next chapter!
