o m g it's been like over a month guys, I'm so sorry!
I'm not even gonna make excuses like "I've been sick" or "I've been busy" b/c I haven't, I've just been lazy.. XDD;
BUT I'm back, so enjoy the chappie!

The Campus Café was thriving, as usual. It wasn't even seven o' clock, yet, but the average-sized venue was already packed with people, most of whom were freshman girls and their reluctant boyfriends. A handful of girls were gathered by the back entrance, huddled together and murmuring excitedly, their heavily made-up eyes wide and smiling.

Sakura took her place on a barstool behind a tall table towards the back of the venue. Immediately she assumed a bored posture, slumping forward and propping her cheeks up on her palms. Ino, on the other hand, sat with a straight back, dancing in her seat and humming as she contentedly slurped her drink down.

"Ino, remind me why you dragged me out, and not Hinata?" Sakura deadpanned as her blonde companion replaced her glass.

"Because Hinata needs to study," Ino practically sung. "Hinata's getting an education, Sakura!"

"…what, and I'm not?" Sakura muttered into her palms.

As if on cue, the lights in the café dropped. A wave of cheers went up, and the stage lights flared blue and green and yellow. A single guitar chord rung out from backstage from an amp.

Sakura prodded Ino's arm. "What band is this, anyway?"

Ino mimed something unintelligible back; Sakura frowned, cursing her poor lip reading skills, and turned back to face the stage. And then the band took their places, and the cheers turned into screams. Eventually, the screams formed a word, just one word:

"Ta-ka! Ta-ka! Ta-ka!"

Sakura avoided looking at the group. Judging by the turnout, and the obnoxious rock music playing in the background as they made their entrance, they were your typical university band; probably third year, pretty boys, who thought the world orbited around them and sun shone out of their asses.

The leader, and perhaps the singer, arrived at the mic. "How you all doiiiiiing?"

Another wave of screams. One girl to Sakura's immediate left fell backwards into her friend as she screeched "Bare my children!" at the poor guy.

"You all ready to party?"

"Yes!"

"I can't hear you…"

"Yeeees!"

The reaction this guy was drawing from the crowd was impressive, she'd give them that. And so, stirring her straw absently around her glass, she spared the stage a glance.

The singer and rhythm guitarist was just as she'd expected – blonde, dressed in skinny jeans and a glow in the dark (?) tee-shirt. He did, however, smile as honestly and radiantly as the sun. The drummer was a brawny, scruffy, brunette with odd tattoos on his cheeks; Sakura wondered if they were the mark of a gang, and wouldn't put it past him, either. The lead guitarist, a tall, unsmiling man with hair longer than her own and the palest eyes she'd ever seen on a human being.

And the bassist…

Uchiha Sasuke.

Sakura almost keeled sideways off her stool. The guy she'd rejected, not four days earlier, was in front of her, on a stage, with a bass in hand and a hundred college-aged girls screaming his name.

He looked up into the crowd, the ghost of a smirk on his face, and began to play in time with his band mates. Sakura wouldn't lie, where these guys weren't her style of music, they weren't bad. They were actually really good.

But this music…the convenience that he was a bassist…Sakura despised Sasuke all that bit more.

She slipped off her stool and out the back door, leaving Ino clapping to the music alone.

Sasuke didn't like meet and greets after concerts. When they were just starting out as a band, it had been okay, maybe five or ten people would wait behind, complement the performance, offer a leaflet to be signed, and they'd leave. But this…this was ridiculous.

He shot a withering look out the crack in the stage door, leaving it to close behind his band mates. Naruto and Kiba, and on occasion Neji, were the ones who would front meet and greets, not Sasuke. Sasuke just made himself scarce. Without fail, he would hear girls screaming, "What, where's Sasuke?!", and without fail, Naruto would have to explain how the oh-so desirable bassist had a fever, or homework, or family engagements, or diarrhoea.

When the crowd had finally dispersed, Sasuke mounted his bass on his shoulders and slipped out the door, with a nod to each of his friends. As he got further from the café, and closer to the dorms, he noticed a figure sat on a bench, hunched over on herself, an illuminated phone in her hand. He squinted his eyes, then smirked. That pink hair was unmissable.

"You're gonna get a cold." he said plainly as he sat down beside her.

Sakura snapped her phone shut, clenching it defensively to her chest. She narrowed her eyes at him, before relaxing closer. "So? What does that—"

"Why'd you leave the show?"

That caught her off guard. She was certain he hadn't seen her, let alone seen her leave so early. She locked her nervous gaze with his steady one, and swallowed the saliva gathering in her mouth.

"I…I didn't feel well."

"Really."

He didn't drop eye contact. She glanced away, pressing her lips together.

"…really." Sakura said quietly. "Can you just leave it?"

Sasuke watched her for a moment, saying nothing. His eyes traced her features; the curve of her nose, her skinny lips, her almond-shaped eyes, her slightly chubby cheeks over high cheekbones, her pierced ears, the rises and falls of her throat as she swallowed, the rises of her chest as she breathed. Her slender collarbone, adorned with a star-shaped pendant.

He stood up, patted her once on the shoulder. "Alright. See you around."

And, as suddenly as he had arrived, he was gone.

Hope this was worth the wait, guys! ;w;