Sarada stayed up at night exchanging text messages with Boruto. They texted each other every day after their first date, though she'd preferred to avoid talking about her past on the next one. She had hoped the second date Boruto promised to her wouldn't be the last. All the romantic movies she watched ended after the happy endings. They didn't dig deeper into what happens after.
She was nervous, not knowing what to do with herself now. Boruto gave her a chance, but she felt restless thinking about his eventual response. He didn't respond to her message during Friday at all and she didn't know whether that silence was a good or bad omen. She gathered phone numbers of other club members as a distraction, though.
Ping!
When she heard her phone notification going off, Sarada immediately checked her messages to know if it was a response from Boruto. She let out a sigh of relief after double-checking his response!
From: Boruto
To: Sarada
[Hey, I'm sorry for stalling back on my response, ya know? Are you free tomorrow?]
Maybe she was overreacting, but she always was on edge, anticipating what he'd do next. She read the message over and over, while pacing around her room and thinking about her schedule. Was she free tomorrow? Sarada ran to her desk and grabbed her calendar book. She went through her pages in it with incredible speed. Lunch with mom, quality time with papa, school, brief trip with Chō-Chō… Here it was! The only thing she had planned for tomorrow was going out to try treats that went nicely, along with a blend of black tea she liked, then getting some rest at home. Besides that, she left the rest of tomorrow's page empty.
From: Sarada
To: Boruto
[Don't apologise, it's fine. I don't have any plans for tomorrow. Why do you ask?]
From: Boruto
To: Sarada
[That's great, ya know! Would you like to go on a second date with me?]
Her heart was beating faster than before. She was sure her cheeks were warm and the thought of a second date actually happening filled her with indescribable joy. She longed to see him. Hear his voice and embrace him. It was scary how her mood was always shifting when Boruto was involved.
She pressed her fingers on her touchscreen keyboard, carefully typing what was weighing on her mind. Pausing, she wondered if it was really the right way to do it. Soon, she backtracked, erasing the text. All of it sounded like something she'd need to tell him in person. Would she be able to endure it, though?
From: Sarada
To: Boruto
[Of course! Just tell me the time and place.]
It wasn't the message she spent six minutes painfully crafting, but she lacked confidence. She'd already used most of it to confess. The rest of it expired after their first date. Regret of her bold statement to win Boruto over washed over her. She wasn't brave enough to act after such a declaration. How silly of her to do one without knowing how to follow through on it!
Was it selfish of her to want to be loved by him? Boruto was popular amongst their peers. He was always shining brightly in her eyes. That's why she envied the way he carried himself. Her envy started before she had fallen in love with him. There's no denying that she admired him a lot back then. Receiving a chance to be with him was surprising. A miracle of sorts. She hated to admit it, but she understood where his fangirls came from now, even if she was against their behaviour.
She held her phone like a precious treasure, waiting while her hopes went up. That he reciprocated her love.
From: Boruto
To: Sarada
[Meet me in front of my house at around 1'pm. Wear something comfortable too.]
Something comfortable? He mentioned he wanted their next date to be a surprise, so they were going to do something that requires physical strength. Maybe wall climbing? Boruto seemed like he'd enjoy it.
From: Sarada
To: Boruto
[Alright, see you tomorrow then!]
Sarada put her phone away on her desk. Preparations for their second date took priority, and she'd be too busy sneaking glances at her phone screen instead of getting ready otherwise. She'd found a red oversized hoodie, pairing it up with her butterfly skirt and black leggings. After that, matching the rest of her clothes got progressively easier. Was adding a butterfly themed hairpin a good idea? Maybe she should pick out the cosmos themed hair clips instead? She spent most of her afternoon debating those choices and cleaning up the mess it left behind.
The butterfly themed hairpin won in the end to match her skirt once she was out on her way to Boruto's house the following day. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail. She made sure her outfit was both comfortable and date-like. It didn't dawn upon her that Boruto invited her out on a second date until she reached his doorstep. Biting her lip, Sarada knocked two to three times on the door. Restlessly waiting for Boruto to appear.
She spun around, liking the motion of her skirt, three to four times out of boredom, so when Boruto appeared, she wished she didn't do it at all. Why did he never witness her at her best?! He was often a witness when she did something embarrassing.
"You're already here?!" Boruto said with his eyes wide open.
"Of course I am! I was just excited for the surprise you prepared. Where are we going?" she asked.
"To the escape room!" he announced, excited about it. "You are the member of our club. I thought our common interests would match. What do you think?"
"Hmm…" Sarada corrected her glasses, pretending to be in deep thought. It was fun to see Boruto fidgeting and being the one that was teased. A little payback for calling her Lady-Meow-Meow. "You are correct. I do have an interest in escape rooms."
Sarada loved the things that stimulated her mind. Escape room puzzles would do it. That was also a splendid opportunity to see how teamwork with Boruto goes. Challenges like that tested your synergy with others. She'd normally laugh at the idea of doing this sort of activity with the person she barely knew. However, she and Boruto were friends when they went on their first date and still were during this one. It could be a fun way to spend time with him, too. They both like to solve puzzles and competitions.
"Yeah, yeah, you have a passing interest. But do you like the idea?" He looked at her with puppy dog eyes, and that was unfair. She'd never tell him that's her weakness.
"I never said I don't like it. I'd love to try it out! Just a quick question. Will the two of us be enough? They usually design escape rooms for a small group of people."
Sarada knew it wasn't impossible just with the two of them, but it'd be more difficult. She wanted to know if he took it into account.
"We'll be alright!" he winked at her and she blushed, then he outstretched his hand in her direction. "I made sure we go to the escape room that's meant for couples! Let's go!"
That was all she needed to grab his hand in return. He said he booked the one that was meant for couples! She was happy. When he ran, she ran after him in the same direction, not letting go of any slight gesture offered by him slip out of her reach. He matched her running pace. That meant there was hope their love was mutual. Hope he wouldn't reject her love.
In her happiness during the run, she didn't notice her hairpin falling off until it hit the ground along with her rubber band. It broke the immersion of feeling like she could go anywhere in Boruto's company. Her hairstyle came undone. She put so much time and effort into it and made it a mess with one careless, vigorous shake of her head.
Boruto stopped at the sound. He let go of her hand, while carefully picking up her butterfly themed hairpin. She watched him hold it and tinker with it for a certain amount of time.
"Would you let me fix it for you?"
In a trance, she nodded in affirmation of his question. He went behind her and gently touched strands of her hair with his fingers. She felt the sensation of his breath around her neck. Her cheeks were hot. Sarada liked it a lot, but didn't know how to handle this revelation. Boruto fixed her hair using her hairpin right after she realised it. Their proximity instantly came back to an appropriate distance when he finished.
"You're very good with your hands," she mumbled, and wanted to hide somewhere. As if she wasn't dying from second hand embarrassment enough.
Boruto laughed, scratching his cheek. "When she was younger, I used to style Hima's hair a lot."
Sarada turned around to look at his face and that's when she noticed the tips of his ears were red. She was relieved she wasn't the only one affected by this situation.
"That makes sense. Sometimes I forget you're her older brother." She whispered, bringing her palm to her neck, missing Boruto's closeness. It was silly, in a way. He was still here with her.
"Hey! What do you mean by that?!"
"Nothing! Come on, let's go before we'll be late for the time you booked us for!" Sarada smiled, seeing how dazzling he was from the beginning. Like the light she saw many times, but never got used to. If he was the light itself, she was like a sailor that followed it with unshakeable trust, even in the dark. Sometimes this light dimmed in times of uncertainty, then if that happened, it was her turn to reach out to it and make sure the shine of the light would continue being bright.
"Yeah, yeah." Boruto shook his head, amused.
They headed to their destination in a pretty good mood overall. That didn't stop Sarada from occasionally touching her neck or stopping to remember the moment of closeness they've shared because of her hairpin. Her mouth went upwards every time Boruto wasn't looking in her direction on the way to their destination.
"Hello, Boruto. Not alone this time?" The receptionist smiled when Boruto handed over the tickets once they arrived.
Someone slowly guided them to the entrance for their starting point in the game. Along the way, the staff handed to them special watches that had the map of the route that needed to be taken. That watch also included a special screen that showed them a time-limit they were supposed to escape from, from each location under. Every time someone escaped from an allocated location and got to a new one, the time on the watch got reset with a brief warning about a new time-limit taking place to show the progress the players made. Apparently, exceeding the time limit meant you failed your escape and the staff member that monitors how you were doing lets you out of the room you got locked in. Successfully escaping from every room meant you got a special prize for winning the challenge.
Sarada really liked their guide. His explanations were short and informative without making them boring. At least, she paid attention to him more than Boruto, who was just nodding in acknowledgment, but clearly not listening to the poor guy.
She casted a curious glance at him. "Do you come here often?"
"Master Boruto is one of our regular customers."
Sarada huffed, disappointed Boruto wasn't the one that answered her question.
"Master Boruto?" She raised her eyebrow. Boruto just shrugged it off and whistled.
Instead of him, the one to reply was their guide. "That's the term we use for our more well-off and regular customers."
"I see," she replied.
The rest of the way they spend in silence, at least before entering the first room that they needed to escape from.
Click.
With that, the entrance they've come through to get here was now sealed off from them. Sarada's first instinct was to check their time limit for this specific room, then quickly assess how many rooms they need to escape from based on the map. Fifteen minutes was all they had to clear this specific room. There were ten more rooms that needed to be cleared, too.
"They've locked the entrance. You know what that means, right, Sarada?" Boruto blinked two times, and she nodded in understanding.
"Let's look for clues!" She said, proceeding to look around the room with a haughty gaze directed towards various items. A clock, a doll, a bunch of numbers written on a wall and a small basket with a red switch inside of it. Inside of the clock, there was a sheet of paper sticking out.
"There's a sheet of paper stuck inside the clock!" she said, while Boruto pressed the red switch inside of the basket. Nothing happened when he pressed it. "What do you think we need to do to get it? It looks like an important clue!"
"I think so too! Since pressing the switch didn't work yet, I bet we need to do something that activates the mechanism. Check out the code on the wall, while I inspect the doll!" Boruto responded, and that's all Sarada needed to run closer to where the code on the wall was. P124 was the code written on the wall upon closer inspection.
"P124 is the code we need! Try inputting it on every item that needs a code, while I try to tinker with the clock hands!" Sarada thought the code needed to be used moving the clock hands, since it was on the wall across from it, though. It made potentially solving the code much easier.
"I am sure you need to mess with the clock hands for that one, Sarada! I already checked out every other item. P might be a stand in for pm, 12 for the clock hand that's always there when the next hour begins or 12 pm, while 4 for 4 pm!"
"I figured as much. Let me try the combinations you mentioned now." Sarada moved the clock hands to 12 O'clock and nothing happened. Then she moved clock hands to 4 pm and the inside of the clock opened.
She quickly took the sheet of paper and read it aloud to make up for the five minutes they've wasted figuring everything out. "Take a lock of golden hair and put it in a basket, then something will change."
Boruto wasted no time in plucking out the strand of hair from the doll and putting it inside of the basket as instructed. The switch changed from red to orange. Sarada walked towards Boruto and halted when he pressed the switch. The doll was the only thing that changed in the room. Golden hair of the doll had slipped off like a wig, revealing a green switch. She ran past Boruto, who didn't notice it yet, since he was looking in the completely opposite direction and pressed the switch on the doll.
"Let's proceed to the next room, Boruto!" She screamed out in her excitement, pulling him towards the door that was just opened by them, solving this puzzle in under ten minutes.
It turned out she and Boruto were unexpectedly a great team. They managed non-verbal communication while solving the puzzles in the next few rooms until they faced their last hurdle — the last escape room they needed to clear. Because they were mostly breezing through the puzzle, they got longer duration of time to solve the last puzzle compared to the rest. Although, by this point, both of them were tired, deciding to use the extra time they earned for casual conversation.
"How do you like this date so far, Sarada?" Boruto asked.
"I've a lot of fun, though I wish we could have more downtime moments during this activity. Most of our energy went into the game."
Honestly speaking, solving the puzzles to escape rooms with Boruto was too easy. It hit her Boruto's a prodigy of some sort. That's why he could slack in his studies, while maintaining good grades. She loved him, but it still annoyed her. A lot of her free time went into studying to keep up her grades.
"Heh. You're not wrong. Let's use the extra time to unwind, then." Boruto took something out from the pocket of his jacket and handed it over to her.
"Sure," she said, while unwrapping the strawberry flavoured candy she received.
"Were you expecting this? That we'd be here today doing something like this?" He walked in her direction, now standing in front of her, and gave her a wistful look.
"Not at all. Until this point, I never thought…" That he'd ever notice her in the way she'd noticed him all this time. "Nevermind."
"C'mon! Don't leave me hanging like that. I want to know what you were going to say before you brushed it off!" Boruto complained, and Sarada could feel her body temperature rising.
"It's a secret!" She huffed out in annoyance.
"Great. Now I need to know! Spill the tea." He was getting too close .
"No." She tried to be unaffected by this closeness, but could feel the scent similar to the ocean coming from Boruto. It enveloped her senses, distracting her from what they were supposed to do here.
"Yes." Boruto's voice got deeper at that moment, and Sarada got overwhelmed. She could only focus on him now. The room got blurry. She ignored the rope, matches on the table and a lighter next to a piece of paper that were the last clues for them to achieve their victory. Her eyes were following every move Boruto made.
"No." She mustered all her remaining strength to resist and win this argument. Tried to.
"Yes." He insisted while dragging her into an embrace. She could feel her face warming up, just like it did when she felt his breath on her neck earlier during the day.
"N—mhhmph!"
Before she protested again, Boruto, who was clasping her in his arms, moved his lips closer to hers. Their lips touched and Sarada got lost in her thoughts, while enjoying the sensation of Boruto's soft lips. The kiss was quick. It was a very fleeting yet intoxicating moment when they broke out of it.
Suddenly, she remembered the time she almost kissed him when she visited him at his house. Now that she got a taste of what it feels like, she wanted more. Much more than a single kiss. Without a moment of hesitation, she wrapped her hands around Boruto's neck and, with slightly trembling lips from her excitement, kissed him again. Boruto gently ruffled her hair, so she responded in kind by doing the same thing, still intoxicated by proximity and the way Boruto was holding her, along with the scent that reminded her of the ocean. Whoever said your first kiss was the best one was a liar. Their second kiss was definitely better than the first one, for sure. She could still feel the sensation of Boruto's lips touching her own, even after the moment ended with them trying to catch their breaths. This kiss lasted longer, and the world got blurry. Nothing except them two mattered at that moment. The glint in Boruto's blue eyes was the only answer to her feelings she needed to know. She understood it without him directly saying anything. He reciprocates her love and somehow it was all that matters right now.
"Sarada," he sweetly whispered. "I lov-"
She put her index finger on his lips, reliving the second kiss in her mind. "Shhh! I know."
Preparing herself to kiss him for the third time, her euphoria stopped when she heard a loud sound coming from their watches. She forgot they were still in the middle of the game. The game they just failed because they were busy making out.
"The staff member should be here soon." Boruto broke out of their embrace and only now she could see his face was as red as hers.
"Yeah." She didn't care that they failed their escape. Sarada was too happy that their feelings were mutual.
"We failed to win the game," he said and lightly tapped her shoulder to make her focus on what he was saying.
"Yeah," she replied, still in a daze.
"So we're officially together now?" Boruto continued his onslaught of questions.
"Yeah."
"Can I copy your homework?" He winked at her.
"Yeah."
"Really?" It was only when she noticed he barely was holding his laughter back, she realised something was off.
"Yea — Wait, no! You can't copy my homework, put an effort into finishing it on your own. I can help you with it, though." She pouted, upset he caught her off guard.
"I'll take you up on that offer soon." He grinned.
"Did someone ever tell you you're annoying?"
"You did. Plenty of times." Boruto chuckled at her question.
"Right. That reminds me I lost our bet and need to answer any question you ask with only the truth. Any last question before the staff will pick us up from here?" She preferred for him to ask her now rather than later.
"Do you think we should confront our parents about their secrets soon?"
The letters. With everything else going on, she put that issue on the back burner in her mind. But they couldn't avoid it forever, right? She delayed it as long as possible, since the last thing she wanted was a next serious confrontation with her mom. Papa was staying at home for a few weeks, so maybe it was the best time to do it. He could play a middleman between her mom and Boruto. That means she should ask about those letters before he leaves to travel again.
She sighed. "We have no choice, do we? I don't think we can fully date in peace until we do."
"You're right."
"But let's forget about it for now and do other things!" Their date wasn't over yet! She should take Boruto to her favourite place to buy tea.
"Do you admit to having fun with me?" He teased her and this time she was the one that brushed him off.
"Yes! Let's do other things together!" Sarada turned around, quickly grabbing his hand. "I've a lot to work on, but will try not to bottle up my emotions with you."
"Is that a promise?" he asked with a hopeful look in his eyes.
"Yes, that's a promise." Sarada whispered, and that's when the staff member came to pick them up for them to get out of the room. They spend the rest of their date visiting their favourite tea shops, snack shops and other food joints, while judging products one of them liked, and the other didn't. It was one of the best days in Sarada's life, and she hoped she'd have more days like this by Boruto's side from now on.
AN:
Hello everyone!
And that concludes chapter 25 of GoF. A calm before the storm is always nice, huh? For some weird reason, the time limiter I set up on my update-schedule website was on the wrong date and showed there's 52 days before I'd update this chapter, haha. I'll quickly fix it after I make this update. A fun fact:
This chapter is one of the longest chapters in this story and is 11 pages long. Crazy, isn't it? With that, I hit my milestone of reaching chapter 25!
Initially, I meant to include more scenes with Boruto and Sarada solving puzzles during the escape room section, but the chapter wouldn't flow as smoothly if I did that.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. From chapter 26 onwards, I'll try to update chapters every week on Friday like I intended.
See you next week!
Sincerely yours,
Karinrumi