Today Sakura received her Letter of Acceptance. She was officially a medic students of The University of Tokyo.
Sakura had been calling her uncle for the fifteen times. She tried to tell him that soon she would moved to Tokyo.
"I'm… for you, cong… rat… Sakura-chan-"his words got cut off, "-meet you… new year… Tokyo," by the sound of the waves and hurled of the winds.
"I will send you the address by email, Ojichan."
Then the call went off completely. She sighed.
She put down the letter above all the other important files inside her turquoise suitcase. She got up and watched over her belongings with such pity.
Her eyes brimmed with tears. She exhaled heavily. "Two, four… eight. My whole life takes no more than eight boxes."
/
• hERe aFtEr •
4.
/
Hokkaido, 2011
Graduation Day.
Eventually the final exam was reached its end, and the long waited graduation finally came. Konohagukure High School was now filled with the exuberant crowds.
Passing the sea of people; the proud parents, grandparents or siblings, Sakura felt nothing but joy. She did not feel sad or lonely even the slighest. She believed that her parents and Kaede Baa-chan were there with her, because of that she was content.
"Haruno Sakura," someone was calling from behind.
It was her headmaster, Hatake Kakashi, stood proudly with a bucket of flowers. Sakura took a bow, "Kouchou-sensei."
"Thank you for successfully making this graduation unforgetable, Sakura-chan," he said while giving her the mixed flowers of lily of the valley, carnation and her most favorite baby's breath, "and once again, congratulation."
In the eyes of Hatake Kakashi, Sakura earned a special spot. She had achieved the highest score, so all this time the teachers had been praising her to him were within reason. "The lovely, smart and hard-working girl", they said.
"Thank you very much, Kouchou-sensei, it was because of you and all of the teachers as well."
Taking the sight of the beautiful flowers in her hands, Sakura was beaming with pleasure.
"You'll be missed, Sakura-chan."
/
Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were gathering at the front gate. They had promised to walk home together for the last time, going down the memory lane of their friendship.
But, they halted their steps when a sweet looking girl who was unfamiliar to them came closer abruptly. Sakura had it more surprising as Uchiha Sasuke name came out of the girl's lips.
Sakura's green oculars took a better look at Sasuke's face in trepidation. He was blankly staring back at her.
"Shall we?" Naruto asked Sakura dryly.
/
By the way Sakura's eyes shifted, the stiff shoulder and how hard she clucthed her bag's strap, Naruto's doubt and curious thought which haunted him for days finally found an answer.
"So this is why you couldn't say yes to me, Sakura-chan?"
"What!?" Sakura whipped her head causing few straind of hairs flipped to Naruto's face.
He didn't mind of course. He stood there grinning.
"What do you mean?"
"You do like Sasuke dont you, Sakura-chan?"
Sakura's face looked startled and confused. After there were no answer, she couldnt think of any plausible answer. She then dropped her head.
"Was it too obvious?" she asked sadly shy. Her cheeks burned red.
"It was written all over your face the second you saw her calling his name."
She bit her bottom lip, regret for what had happened few weeks ago, "I'm so sorry, Naruto."
"Nah, it's fine. I should know better not to losing our friendship. But I think, you gotta tell him, Sakura-chan. Before he left to another country for God knows when we will meet him again."
"I... I haven't think about that," Sakura was beyond embarrased for Naruto's encouragement, when he got rejected himself.
"You don't have to feel bad about yourself because of me. You should know, telling people how you feel toward them is the best thing I have ever done. Apparently you were right about us."
That proved how good Naruto is. And how hypocrite she was.
"Tha- thank you, Naruto, for your understanding."
Naruto nodded meekly then smiled.
"He was not the type that would chase after girl, he would stay silent if you don't let him know. He defended you once over his own girlfriend, well maybe, just maybe, Sakura-chan."
Naruto reminded her before they separate to their own home.
/
Hokkaido
March 28th 2011
Sakura was watching the clock as it's long arm hitted the half quarter to seven pm.
"I'm sorry, Sakura-chan, I'm gonna be late, don't have to wait for me though."
Naruto informed her by the phone. With no specific reason.
"Hey, remember, you don't have to prepare for the foods, cakes, or anything."
These days Ino was into baking so much, there was a huge possibility she would bake the birthday cake for Sakura. Her baking skills was good enough for someone not to spit it out the second they taste it. So, Sakura got nothing to complaint, she should had been thankful instead.
But soon, Sakura heard someone was knocking on her door. She let her hair free from the towel which had been wrapping her head, then hung the towel; while peeking out through the curtains.
Uchiha Sasuke.
Her heart was pumping faster out of the blue. It had been like that, precisely not long after she realized that Naruto was also planning to leave Hokkaido but it did not made her sad to the point she felt suffocated and distraught. But, Sakura began to see her world overcasted by the fact that Uchiha Sasuke would not be the part of it anylonger.
Was it how Naruto feels? Did I get into the karma's hands?
Sasuke had not knocked on the door yet, when Sakura showed up in front of him. Her hair was all wet, cheeks redden; staring at him with the bright emerald eyes of her.
"Sakura?" Sasuke asked, lowering his eyelids.
"Are you come alone?"
"Of course i'm alone. Didn't Naruto tell you he would be late?"
Sakura nodded. She took one step back to let him in.
"Ino and Yuya?" strawberry scents emerged from Sakura's body when Sasuke was walking through into the house.
Sasuke stood in the middle of the house; facing the backyard's sliding door which had opened.
It must be her conditioner. Sasuke could not asked her, he was unexpectedly very curious though.
Sakura closed the front door, then headed to the dining table. "It seems they were preparing for something, maybe the cake, I don't know they won't let me know."
Sasuke's sight caught Sakura's upper back shirt which got wet because of her hair. He turned his head as quick as possible, before he could see something underneath.
"Sakura, I don't think I want another drinks. I just had a glassful of mom's mixed herbs juice."
"Eeh? You still drink that juice? I thought it was for the exam weekends only."
"Thanks to Itachi who refused to drink it." Sasuke sat at the backyard's wooden floor.
"Ooh," Sakura merely nodded herself.
"Are you done with that, Sakura?"
Sakura saw Sasuke was pointing his chin up toward the pile of boxes and other stuffs.
"I've done packing the most important stuffs. But, maybe they need another sorting. How about you?"
"Hn. Mom and Dad kinda took care of everything, I guess it's done already."
The teapot in Sakura's hand had been held tighter than before. It could had been slipped through her fingers if was not for her to dropped it down to the table. She was staring at it with heavy sighs.
/
Sakura squated beside Sasuke. He had been laying at the floor for half an hour. Sakura thought he was playing with his phone.
"Is he asleep or not?"
She took a closer look at Sasuke's still face.
"What are you doing?"
Sakura couldn't move, when Sasuke's eyelids opened up slowly. She merely dumbstrucked.
There were long pause between them. No one dare to blink or even breathe.
Those strawberry scents had been lingering around him way too much and it made something inside him awaken. Sasuke held his gaze over Sakura's lips that felt terribly close, and his sudden poundering heart that felt terribly wrong.
"I... I was just," Sakura was about to shift her position, but she felt a tug to her left wrist.
Sasuke had forced her to once again looking at him. He was trying to calculate his move. But "fuck" about anything, he thought, it might had been the last-precious-moment he had with her.
So he chose to listen to what his instinct told him, or his heart's wanted; tilted his head and dipped a kiss to Sakura's lips.
Sakura always imagined how her first kiss would be. She never knew it could had been this magically beautiful. Because of course, the person who she would share the kiss with been the only matter to her. And Uchiha Sasuke was the only person she had been asked for.
They shared a magical moment before finally set apart. Because someone was knocking at her door.
/
The magical moment did not last forever, of course. It was the night before he left.
Sakura was fiddling her fingers behind her back. "So there is something I want to tell you, Sasuke-kun."
"I think I need to tell you something first."
Sakura could sensed something was coming in those jet black of eyes, "Y-yes, Sasuke-kun?"
"I'm sorry, so sorry about... birthday, I mean... dinner night at... "
Sakura was almost choking. She did not see that coming.
She stared at how Sasuke was struggling to say the words. "A-ah, I ge-get it... Sasuke-kun," She cut him off.
"It was my fault."
Fault? As if it could not got any worse.
"I'm fine... it's okay, Sasuke-kun."
They were staring at each other. The distance finally set in, Sakura felt, even before he left.
"So, what is it you wanted to tell me?"
"Naruto, did he mention something about me to you?" Sakura blurted nonsense.
Funny how Sasuke was trying his best to remembered something from a few weeks morning ago. When Naruto looked him straight deadly serious about how he felt toward Sakura.
"Ah, yeah, about that." He said flatly.
Sakura's smile felt terribly wrong. She looked troubled.
"Are you okay?" Asked Sasuke. Oblivion to what state he had Sakura in.
Sakura was completely out of her mind. "What do you think should I say, Sasuke-kun?"
"I don't think… you should ask me."
Why? It wouldnt be hard for you, isnt it? She felt something built up inside her throat. Don't cry, stupid, please don't.
Now, they were both staring at their own shoes.
Blinked back some tears, with gritted teeth, Sakura ended their conversation that night. She couldn't even remembered the rest of their conversation before she ran the street while crying her eyes out.
She missed everything, the next day she didn't text Sasuke goodbye, she didn't answer anyone calls, she just cried all day long.
He said sorry, as if it wasn't his intention. Then why…
The most tragic part was she couldn't even tell him her heart.
Would it ever be change if I said it?
/
• ePiLoGuE •
Fuyuka Honda. The infamous pretty girl with thousands of followers, for the first time she was feeling insecure. She never, would never, had her boys broke up to her first.
So Fuyuka did her research, what could had been the possible reasons. Effortlessly she used her popularity to earned her answers.
"Haruno Sakura," Fuyuka called the girl with peculiar hair.
Sakura was blinking her eyes. There was this one girl who looked very stunning-whom Sakura thought should be a model-
accompanied by another three attractive girl friends, that came out of an import sport car. They were walking toward her at the three-way junction, two hundreds meters away from the school gate. Sakura noticed a stylish guy sat at the driver seat, was shaking his head while listened to some unfamiliar music.
"Are you deaf, huh?" One of the girl-friends asked.
Sakura cleared her throat, "Yes, I'm Haruno Sakura. Who are you guys? What do-"
The girl at the right end pushed Sakura to the ground. Gymnastic class was so intens today, it made her thighs cramped.
A few students were shocked, mainly because they could recognized Fuyuka Honda.
"Uchiha Sasuke's girlfriend, right?
"Ex-girlfriend.
"What? Oh my god, it's Fuyuka Honda though."
Their whispers had been heard clearly by Sakura.
"For a girl like you, Sasuke-kun broke up with me," Fuyuka was faking a loud laugh, "disgusting."
Sakura rolled her eyes, while pushed up her body. A pleasant misunderstanding.
"You were wrong, sorry, but I'm just an old friend of him," Sakura stated calmly.
In a very swift move another friend of Fuyuka grabbed Sakura by her collar, "Heh, How funny! Surely you just some friend of him, look at Fuyuka, you just couldn't say that you are her rival right."
"I don't care, whether you are his friend or not. You should tell him to take back what he had said to me. I don't agree easily."
Sakura was speechless when they snatched her backpack, then spilled her entire belongings to the ground. It was unfortunate for her, because that day she was all alone.
After the group of bullies were out of sight, three students from before came to her side, they helped her collecting her stuffs.
/
The next day Sasuke found out the incident from Naruto, which he heard from his classmate. Sasuke was furious, he went straight to Fuyuka's house that afternoon.
"Sasuke-kun?" Fuyuka had been waiting Sasuke patiently with high hopes after he called her.
"Are your parents home?"
Fuyuka was perplexed by Sasuke's question.
"Are they inside?" Sasuke's voice got higher.
"Ye-yeah, what do you w-wa-"
Sasuke grab Fuyuka's arm, then he went knocking at her door.
"What are you doing!?" Fuyuka struggled to block Sasuke.
Fuyuka's parents were in bewilderment after hearing their only daughter's voice.
"Sasuke-kun? What is going on, Fuyuka-chan?" Fuyuka's mother asked.
Sasuke bowed his head deeply. "I'm so sorry to come at night, I should have been bothering you both, Honda-san. But, I need to tell you some important things."
"This is about Fuyuka-chan. Honestly, Fuyuka and I, two weeks ago decided that we were no longer in a relationship. The reason is because Fuyuka has been behaving very different from when she's at home or at school. Fuyuka's actually rude and thoughtless when she's with her 'other' friends which probably you didn't know of. These 'other' friends of her could have been the bad influences to Fuyuka-chan."
Fuyuka was standing still, speechless.
"And today, Fuyuka had hurt one of my dearest friend. She merely an harmless orphan, who is nothing but kind and loving. But, Fuyuka did this to her," Sasuke opened up his phone to Fuyuka's parents, then played some videos.
The video was displaying how the rude and thoughtless Fuyuka with her 'other' friends- exactly what Sasuke had been described-pushed Sakura to the ground and discarded all of her belongings.
Sasuke was glaring at Fuyuka the entire time.
Sasuke knew about Fuyuka's parents very well. Her mother was an art lecturer, and her father was an expert in Japan Traditional Literacies. Both of them were well-known and highly respectable. They would thought wisely over this incident.
"My intention is not about pointing out Fuyuka's mistakes, but to make this clear, that we have made the decision together, so please, do not hurt or even come up to her again."
Sasuke took another bow, deeply.
At the same afternoon, Sasuke went to Sakura's house with an ease mind. They had dinner together at their favorite burger place. None of the two said anything about that incident. After that night, Sasuke kept in mind to never introduce his girlfriends or any girls-relation to Sakura.
And that was it, that was how precious Haruno Sakura to Uchiha Sasuke.