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Sasuke didn’t need the money. His mother doted on him and would never dream of cutting him off if his father wasn’t so strict. So when Sasuke gets a job at their local boba shop, all of his friends are confused.
“Dude, you’re like..rich. Why are you working there?”
Sasuke shrugs, “my mom said I can keep the money and she won’t ask what I do with it. It gives me something to do.” What he didn’t tell his friends was that his mother also added that he needed to work on his people skills. His initial thought was that this would make him not like people even more , because literally no one likes working in customer service of any kind, but whatever, the store was close to school and Itachi’s work, so it couldn’t be all bad.
Besides having to deal with the general public, he also had to wear an awful cap that flattened his hair so horribly, even his sweet mother asked him if the hat was optional. It was disheartening for her to see her son’s usual duck butt hair looking so droopy.
But again, not all bad. Not when his best customer was a girl. A really pretty one with pink hair.
Sasuke hadn’t been working there long, but he had already gotten a feel for what most people wanted. Classic milk tea. Thai tea. Taro milk tea. Add boba, add lychee jelly. Kids with their strange love for cookies and cream snow style. But this girl really threw him for a loop with her order.
And then when she ordered it again and again and again. Like multiple times in one week. Sasuke didn’t expect to have many regulars, because who even likes boba that much? But order number 77 was probably the only reason this place stayed in business.
It was a slow day when Sasuke took it upon himself to deliver her drink to her table, “order for Sakura.”
She looked up in surprise, “How did you remember my name?” They usually called her number, not her name.
Sasuke fought to maintain his usual bored expression under the scrutiny of someone so pretty, “You tell me. You order the same thing every time: chocolate milk tea, 100% sweetness, 50% ice, double pink pearls. Pretty memorable. And we’re in the same chem lecture.” Her hair and eyes and smile and voice were also very memorable, but Sasuke didn’t particularly feel like revealing his little crush to her that day. Might be bad for business.
Sakura blushes in embarrassment, but manages to catch him off guard with a simple, “Okay, Sasuke.”
He frowns down at her and points to his chest, “you just read my nametag.”
The jade of her eyes seems brighter than ever as she smugly tells him, “you always sit near me at the library--you know, that spot by the window--and you have your name written on your water bottle. Pretty memorable.”
Sasuke walks wordlessly back behind the counter. She got him.
They start studying not just near each other, but together at the library after that day.
When not at the library, they’re both at the shop. Sasuke is a chemical engineering major and she’s pre-med, so they’ve got a lot of studying to do. He’s got enough disrespect for his job that he usually keeps a textbook by the front when he doesn’t have anything to do. Or when he can get Suigetsu to do everything for him. Sakura hates feeling lonely so even if it’s noisy, she’ll study in there and he’s fine with it because he likes watching over her and honestly man, fuck work.
The two are just big nerds and they play brain games and do puzzles together when it’s slow. He likes to think he lets her win, but he also knows she’s just smarter than him. It’s kind of hot.
The shop soon becomes a gathering place for all their friends, not just for him and Sakura, much to Sasuke’s chagrin.
“Shikamaru, I’ve told you so many times you can’t vape in here.” Shikamaru rolls his eyes and flips him off because he can’t kick him out, not when he always brings Choji, the only one who rivals Sakura as their best customer due to the massive quantities of popcorn chicken he always orders. Ino usually tags along with them and she talks a lot and always tries to get him to give her a discount, but she’s another one who checks in on Sakura the study machine, so Sasuke doesn’t mind it.
Naruto saunters into the shop and leans over the counter, “Hey, Sasuke. Sasuke. Let’s go to a rave on Friday. I got a new mesh shirt I wanna wear. I’ll look super hot, come on, come with us.”
“No way, you fucking loser. Who goes to a rave to wear one shirt? Besides, Sakura has an exam that Monday,” he nods to her sitting in the corner typing away at her laptop while sipping on the usual.
Naruto wiggles his eyebrows at his friend, “does she now? And how do you know that?”
It would also be bad for business to punch him, so Sasuke simply rolls his eyes and bites back, “she’s annoying and never stops talking. She told me a million times. Now order something or leave.” He didn’t feel like mentioning the fact that they shared Google calendars with each other and he monitored her schedule nearly as much as his own. You know. For studying.
And someone had to make sure stress didn’t consume her. It would certainly be bad for business if they lost their best customer to the monster that is pre-med.
Sakura had her headphones in, but no music was playing, so she heard every word. She preferred the white noise of Sasuke making drinks as a study backtrack. She didn’t expect to overhear him talking about her, especially not insulting her. She can’t help but be hurt, even if she knows Sasuke is kind of an ass. But usually to everyone except her, if it counts for anything, she thinks smugly.
The crease between her brows grows deeper as she typed more furiously. Fine, Sasuke, be that way. This chem study guide is gonna be the greatest document ever to exist, and I’m not sharing it with you, thought Sakura.
Sasuke doesn’t see much of Sakura in the following two weeks. The times he does see her on campus or in the library, she offers up the generic excuse of being busy with exams.
I know, Sasuke wanted to say, I can see your schedule, remember? I know you’ve got a lot going on, but too busy for boba? That’s not like you.
That weekend they’re at a party and he’s drunk. Their hellish chemistry midterm was finally finished and he had a rare weekend off of work, so no one was getting in between him and some hard alcohol.
As he gets to work on his next drink, he spots Sakura across the room. He marches over to her. Drinking could wait.
“You finished the test really early. I thought we’d walk out together. ’S been a minute since I last saw you.”
Sakura turns away from her conversation with Ino to look Sasuke up and down. Besides the red cup in his hand, his cheeks have the telltale flush of someone who has consumed quite a bit of alcohol and his hair is somehow messier than usual. It’s kind of cute.
“Sasuke! I didn’t expect to see you here,” she laughs nervously, because she really had been avoiding him since overhearing his conversation with Naruto. She figured she had annoyed him enough with her presence at the shop.
“You haven’t stopped by lately,” he mumbles as he steps a bit closer, “and we didn’t even prepare for the midterm together.”
Is he pouting?
Another step closer, until he’s looming over her, close enough to count her eyelashes and feel her body heat.
Rather than attempting the admittedly shitty “I was busy” excuse, she gets to the point and tells him what’s been on her mind, “you called me annoying. I didn’t think you wanted to study together.”
His eyes widen. He didn’t think she’d heard him, let alone have taken it to heart. Well shit.
“Sakura, Sakura, I’m sorry, Sakura, I just said that to get Naruto off my back. He’d make fun of me if I told him I knew you had a test because I..check your calendar,” he trails off and looks down, embarrassed. Suddenly the floor seemed very interesting.
He’s definitely pouting.
When Sakura just nods, he adds, “I’m sorry. Next time you come to the shop I’ll make your favorite for free. Did you wanna go to that show? I’ll go next time if you go.”
Sakura considers him for a moment before giving in, “there’s a festival I wanted to go to. It’s one of those outdoor ones, I’m sure Naruto can wear his mesh there.” Glitter on her face, fried food, music, fireworks...what did she have to lose? It wouldn’t hurt to go with Sasuke.
Sasuke smiles, a big smile that she attributes to alcohol, but he’s really smiling because of her. It’s short lived, though, before he becomes serious again and leans even closer.
“Can I kiss you?”
(Ino has been watching this exchange and trying to keep quiet, but she gasps because this is an interesting and unexpected development.)
And Sakura just laughs at him.
Sasuke takes a step back and puts a hand to his cheek because, did she just slap me?
Nope. Just the sting of rejection.
He’s having a hard time articulating his thoughts in his drunken state, and Sakura can tell by the way his mouth keeps opening to speak, just to close again. She takes pity on him and leans back in to whisper in his ear, “Maybe next time. Somewhere else. Without everyone watching.”
When she withdraws, he’s about to point out how Ino was right there and she wasn’t watching, but then realizes that’s because she turned to the wall for support as she laughed at his misfortune.
He’s struggling again, because she was so close to him and she smelled really good and her hair tickled his cheek a little and he wanted to feel it again. But he knew better than to push his luck for the night.
He nods slowly and asks hopefully, “can I see you..tomorrow?”
“We’ll see.”
Sakura leans in one last time to press a kiss to his cheek. He’s sufficiently soothed, but also blushing more than ever. He watches Sakura grab the still laughing Ino and walk away.
“We’ll see?” What does that even mean?
They do end up seeing each other the next day because he had to drag himself to work and she had a minor sugar addiction.
But he just clocked out and she just walked in, so he couldn’t make her drink for her. She was upset because he made it better than anyone else and usually gave her a free upgrade while also telling her 100% sweetness was gross and how could she be a doctor when she did shit like this.
When she breezes in all he can manage is, “ah, Sakura,” because he’s embarrassed and she’s always gorgeous and he’s just a weak teenage boy.
She dips her head to him, “Sasuke. Feeling alright this morning?”
He shrugs, “I’d be better if I collected that kiss?”
She laughs at him again, which is equal parts cute and hot and annoying, but that’s just Sakura and his teenage boy brain would malfunction if he thought too hard about it. “You know, you’re the annoying one. Tell Suigetsu to hurry it up with my drink back there, then we’ll talk. Like, outside or my apartment or something.”
“Right, right. Not in here, of course, because then every customer will be expecting a kiss from me, and I’m not really that into my job.” But Sasuke was that into Sakura, so he’d go anywhere with her.
Especially if he got that kiss.