She could not believe this. As in, in her mind could not logically explain what was happening in front of her painfully shocked emerald eyes. Sakura Haruno, aged 20 years of age was standing in her boyfriends dorm room door frame. Tears pricked the edges of her eyes as she looked upon a truly heart crushing scene and she blinked several times begging the tears not to fall. The sounds of the New Years party raging behind her faded from her ears leaving her forced to listen to her own broken heart beating loudly. Thinking of the life saving organ, she gripped her blouse in front of her heart and let out a heartsick gasp of surprise. What lay before her was every woman's worst fear. Her lover caught in the throws of passion with some other woman. Her gasp alerted the lovers to another presence in the room. Her boyfriend, Jayce Monari, turned towards the sound and his face went from being startled to guilt. Seeing his face, inside she knew this was not just a one night fling. She started to shake her head in disbelief. Tears started to flow freely down her cheeks and her chin quivered slightly.
"No...please," she whispered her voice fading into silence. Sakura bit down on her soft pink bottom lip before letting her head fall in defeat. She wished she hadn't worn her striking pink hair up. She tried to swallow her feeling but her throat and mouth were so dry the motion only made her cough.
'God...I must look like...like such a fool!' Sakura sobbed inside, outwardly she took a few steps back and closed the door to the sight. She waited. He'd come for her. Explain everything. He'll come to her begging for forgiveness...nothing. She choked back a sob her left hand rising to cover the sound, the cool feel of diamond on her lips crushed her. The engagement ring he had given to her just a few months ago after their two year anniversary.
Just down the hall she could hear chants. "3...2...1! Happy New Year," came the exclamations following by lots of cheering. The merriment only amplified her pain in the dark hall. The only light shining was that dim of the party. Tears freely streamed down her cheeks as she turned her back to the party and fled down the hall to the opposite exit. She didn't even care that that it was January. It was warm enough in San Francisco. Sobbing she walked down the path that led away from the men's dorms. She hugged herself as her stilettos clicked against the sidewalk. Around her she could hear several parties going on at once. The campus was mainly dark save for the side walk lamps.
How could this happen? Ever since she had left Japan to study to be a doctor she's had such awful luck. Sakura contemplated everything that has happened in the past three years she's been in the States. She's been racially profiled by authorities who mistook her for Chinese. She's been sexually harassed by men asking for a 'happy ending' massage. Once her dorm mate left the dorm room unlocked and someone stole her laptop. The only thing that had seemed to be going good was her relationship with Jayce. He was Japanese American. Charming, handsome and intelligent. He was majoring in computer engineering. They had met by chance on a popular Japanese MMO game. It seemed liked fate that they both happened to be in the United States studying, and then to learn they were both at the same college. After much convincing on Jayces side, she agreed to meet him for coffee at a Starbucks on campus. The pair hit it off quickly, she found him very funny and easy to be around. The dated for two years before he asked her to marry him. But now...now she couldn't even make out what was going to happen now. She suppose the engagement was broken and Jayce would be with the person he had his lips on.
Collapsing on a bench Sakura looked up at the night sky. What stars could be seen glittered against the black sky. Why had the gods played such a cruel trick on her fate? What did they want from her? Hadn't she been filial enough to them? She never asked for anything, never demanded anything that was outside of her means of living. She wasn't a cruel or unkind person, sure she had a temper but she kept it under wraps the best she could. She was becoming a doctor not for the money but for the chance to heal people and help the betterment of society. She didn't even care if she was employed at a big hospital or a small clinic, all she asked for was to pass all her tests. With a great sigh let out, " I don't understand, what I have done to deserve this?" She waited expectantly for an answer but was greeted by silence. With her question unanswered for the first time since coming here, she felt terribly home sick. She wanted her mother to stroke her hair lovingly and to listen to her fathers awful puns. Then, like lightening, it struck her. She sat up straight and hiccuped as she pensively thought. All these terrible happenings only started occurring after she moved from Japan. Perhaps it wasn't that she moving outside of her fate perhaps it was because she was in the wrong location for her fate. She was meant to be a doctor that was obvious, she had the brains and wits to be one. But not here in the US.
Sakura wiped her face and reached down pulling her feet from the painful heels. She held one in each hand and headed black to her dorm running through the ideas of places to go. Before long she found herself in front of her laptop in her dark dorm. She had booked a flight home and applied to several universities to make the move back home. She stayed up until dawn filling out all kinds scholarships.
When the first few flutters of sunrise peeked through the blinds did Sakura finally close the computer and stretch. She had been wearing the same tight green dress. She moved from her desk and went over to her dresser to get some clothes to change into. She grabbed her shower caddy and slides. She swiped her towel off the hook by the door and made her way to the showers. With it being so early on New Year's Day, most of the campus cleared out for the holidays and those stuck here would be too hung over to be up. The showers were completely empty and Sakura smiled to herself. She missed the privacy of ones own bathroom.
After enjoying a nice, long, uninterrupted, hot shower Sakura made her way back to her dorm. The sun was up now, the time just after 8am. Sakura has changed from her dress into a pair of jeans and an adorable kitten T-shirt her mother had sent as a Christmas gift. It was white with a cat rolled into a burrrito. There were big black letters above the cat burrito that said 'Purrito'. Leave it to her mom to find hilarious shirts to ease the homesickness. Sakura gently placed her shower item back into their places and walked back to her dorm. She expected to see Jayce there pacing impatiently waiting for her to explain himself. However what she found was something beyond even her imagining. The woman she caught him with. Something vile bubbles inside of her as Sakura took note of the woman's discomfort. 'Good, you should feel awful,' she thought to herself. However Cooley she ignored the woman and moved to unlock her dorm.
"He meant to tell you," came a shakey gentle voice from the woman.
The exclamation forced Sakura to pause her key in the lock. Slowly she turned to take in the woman. Measuring and comparing. To her dismay, the woman had quite the chest on her. However Sakura did take solace that the woman had a crooked nose and unruly brows, she looked unkempt and it reminded her of the nerdy girls from her high school days.
"Excuse me," Sakura said in a threatening voice. It shocked even herself to hear herself sound so...mean.
"Jayce, he meant...he mean to say something months ago. But he just couldn't bring himself to break your heart. He hadn't expected you to come to the party and...and he feels awful you found out this way...please don-"
Sakura cut the woman off with a hard slap to her cheek. She watched as the woman recoiled and her hand flung to her cheek shock in her eyes. Rage burned in her belly, to which Sakura let freely loose the feelings of betrayal, hurt, heartache, and anger onto the other woman.
"Don't come here telling me about his feelings. If Jayce was any sort of decent man, he would come himself instead of sending you. I...I wasted two years on him when all in all he cheated on me. What could you have that I don't? Huh? I have brains, beauty, I get along with his mother, I have big aspirations..." Sakura pauses and took a deep breath in realizing just how pathetic she looked. Sakura brought her left hand up and with shakey fingers traced the engagement ring before taking it off and holding it out to the woman. "It's over. Give this back for me," she said and dropped the ring into the woman's hand. She turned her back but paused hearing the woman's request.
"Please forgive us."
A hot tear slipped from her eye and it felt like it seared a path down her cheek. "One day...but not today," was all she could manage before fleeing inside of her dorm. It was done. Ties cleanly cut now, well as cleanly as they could be in this awful situation.
The next week Sakura spent her time mainly in her dorm room, only adventuring out in the evening when the chances of bumping into Jayce would be relatively small. She had not heard from him since that night. Not his lover. No text, no call, not even a hand written note. However The silence she was receiving only strengthened her resolve to return to Japan at the end of the year.
As classes picked up, she received back a few offers from the universities she had applied to. She also was able to get a great scholarship to a university in Tokyo. Her friends were devastated to hear the news of Jayce's cheating. Promising to find a reason for her, but Sakura insisted to just leave well enough alone. Thing had ended, there was no changing the past now. Begrudgingly, her friends obliged and. The rest of her sophomore year passed rather uneventfully.
Come June Sakura has packed everything and officially left the US to go back home to Japan. As she waited at her terminal gate she heard a familiar laugh and looked around to find him. Sure enough, her emerald eyes found the source. There was Jayce with the woman he had cheated with getting in line to board their plane...to Florida. He must be bringing her there to meet his parents.
For a brief moment her eyes caught Jayce's brown one. She looked away first and turned her head as if to play if off she hadn't been look for him. And to her relief he just went back to his conversation. Her heart tugged painfully and Sakura swallowed hard to push down the emotion that had welled up inside of her. Sakura reached into her purse and pulled out dark sunglasses. She put them on and then started to play on her phone. Though she was secretly watching the pair as they boarded. Only feeling true relief when their gate door shut.
"Break ups are the worst huh," came a jovial voice from behind her. Curious Sakura turned around and saw a very handsome blonde smiling at her.
"How cou-"
"How could I know? You were staring really hard and weren't as covert as you thought," the blonde man said. He gave her a cheeky smile, "but there's someone out there for you. Trust me."
A female voice came from the speaker system to announce gate 2B was now boarding. The man stood and Sakura was taken back by his height. "See ya," he said giving her a two finger casual salute.
Sakura watched his retreating form throughly confuse as what had just happened, but then her fate started to board and she picked up her carry on and got in line for boarding. Shaking off the encounter she got on the plane and took her seat. While waiting for take off she took her phone out and deleted Jayce's number out of her contacts. A rush of unexpected relief washed over her and she rested her head back putting her phone into her jacket pocket.