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It was on a Wednesday, when he saw her. All his Wednesdays were the same and he was pretty accustomed to it.
For one, his most dreaded Naruto’s ramen with Sasu-chan was a Wednesday which coincidentally(or fate-cursed) his worst schedule of the week. Not only are Wednesdays stocked with major subjects and this Naruto routine but also going home as late as 6 in the evening. Yeah he hates Wednesdays. And no it’s not that he agrees with Naruto that they should spend some time with each other now that he’s finally back, he just really doesnt know what to do with his long 3 hour break and Naruto is familiar company. He wasn’t really the social type to begin with. He might actually be thankful for the idiot. Might.
It was supposed to be just like every other Wednesday. Ones he complains about his subject line-up and having to eat ramen with Naruto and proceed back to his classes. They were half way into their first semester in college and it had stayed like that.
Today was different, today his Wednesday was pink.
He really doesn’t know how long he has been standing there looking at Naruto and Sakura talking. He decided to walk towards them. Was she studying here? Probably. No, this is the best university in the country so of course she would be here.
He didn’t really picture their reunion to be like this. Not that he had planned on anything but this felt so sudden at the same time so late. It has been three months and they lived just a few houses away but this is the first time he’s seen her, the first time he has seen her in years.
Sasuke was sent in an exchange program to Hong Kong in the middle of their junior year in high school and was offered to stay on his last year too. He thought of it as a good opportunity and accepted it. When he went home shortly during summer before their senior year to process some papers, Sakura confessed to him. He only thanked her. That was the last time he had seen her. And it only makes him more uneasy as he stalks towards them, their eyes meet.
He wasn’t sure how long he was staring right back at her but he is sure her eyes widen just as much he felt his breath hitch.
“Oi Sasuke! Took you long enough!” Naruto says and motioned for him to come sit with them.
“Look it’s Sakura-chan,” Sasuke can practically hear Naruto’s gesture of ta-da! towards Sakura “I got here when she was about to leave! She was here with Kurenai-sensei, you know our psych professor!”
“You have Kurenai for your Psych101? So you must be the noisy blonde she talks about!” Sakura said as she turned to Naruto laughing.
Their conversation slowly muted in his head but he still hears how she offered to help Kurenai-sensei to clean up the lab while she was passing by. He also notes when she said she was taking biology and that the pre-med courses were located at the opposite side of the campus. He wasn’t really focused on their conversation, just the sound of her voice. He steals glances of her as he absentmindedly swirls Naruto’s ramen, he felt awkward and it’s good they didn’t notice that he hasn’t really ordered yet and that the bowl he has been mixing wasnt even his. All he does is listen to them catching up. The awkwardness felt like hours. What should he say?
“—-Sasuke-kun?”
He turns his head none too gracefully. She was waving at them. “I have to go now,” she repeats “See you around Naruto, Sasuke-kun!”
He gives a nod as Naruto screamed she should join them next Wednesday and she looks back to smile before she turns the corner.
When she is out of view Naruto grabs his bowl of ramen from Sasuke and looks at him teasing. He decides to ignore him and places his order before he turns to ask “You want another one?”
Naruto only looks confused.
“Youre about to finish and I just ordered.” he tilts his chin towards the almost empty bowl.
“On you?”
“Do it before I change my mind.”
Naruto only snickered as he ordered for another miso. “In a good mood, are we Sasu-chan?”
Sasuke rolled his eyes.
“Well I know I would be if I get a reboot of my lunch love stories. I don’t blame you at all, buddy” Naruto adds
“Don’t even.” Sasuke warned as he slides Naruto’s order to him “...just eat.”
Naruto looks at him knowingly before he mouths ok, a sly grin in place, and enjoys this rare occasion of Sasuke treating him ramen. Oh he cant wait to tell Itachi about this
He really hates that look. The look of an idiot. It was already enough seeing Sakura like this but he knows Naruto is about to start with his silly assumptions again.
“Remember her first day in high school? When Sakura transferred?”
He ignored him.
“You know your first lunch date of the many lunch dates”
“They weren’t lunch dates.”
“Still in denial are we.”
“I’m not.”
“How about the dango you—“
Sasuke flicked a fishcake flying to the grinning idiot.
————————
On his last period, Sasuke makes his way to the third floor where he usually waits for 30 minutes by the benches near Itachi’s room but when he got there, Itachi’s class was empty. He checked on his messages and finds a text from an hour ago.
We were dismissed early. Can you come to the library?
Sasuke sighed and went on his way. It has been like this for a week now. Itachi has been busy with his material for his thesis so he always spend an extra hour or two at the library after class. Sasuke, who refuses to drive his own car to school, is forced to stay with Itachi until he finishes, not that he minds... he usually busies himself by reading over his notes or homework if he has.
It was a long walk. This is the only thing that annoys him, when Itachi doesn’t wait for him. They usually go to the library together since it was just across the main gate which is literally at the opposite side of where he is now. When he sees the library in view, he notices the building just further from it. A building that has always been irrelevant until today. He wonders if Sakura still has classes at this time. He shakes his head and went straight for the glass doors of the library.
He finds Itachi and sits across him. “Nii-san” he greets.
“Ah, Sasuke. Sorry I went ahead, I just have so much to finish. I wanted to get ahead so we can go home as soon as possible.”
His brother doesn’t look up from his work but he gives a nod anyway.
Sasuke doesn’t know why he scans the library. Disappointed, he bent down to take out his pen and a piece of paper. He doesn’t really have anything due until next week and he knows he can’t concentrate on going over his notes. He was too distracted. So he decides to start with the essay that wasn’t needed until Friday next week. Or so he thought.
————
An hour has passed and all he really had written was the course and his professors name. Itachi steals a glance at a slouching Sasuke, and puts his pencil down.
“You seem out of it,” Itachi comments.
“Just tired,” Sasuke says as he crumples up the paper, looks at his brother before he eyes his work, and pouts “you done?”
Itachi laughs and closes up the book he was using for reference. “If you pout like that, there’s nothing I can really do, ne?”
Sasuke doesn’t really mind. He likes spending time with Itachi plus their library sessions helps him start on his school works early so he doesn’t cram on it later. Today just tipped off his balance. He knows he would have to face Sakura one day, he just didn’t expect it to be like this. He was more likely to bump into her at home than at school and if they were to bump here, why just now in the middle of the semester? Come to think of it... did Itachi know she was studying here?
He was too lost in thought when he felt Itachi taps his shoulder. “Let’s go?”
“Aa.” Sasuke stands up from his seat and pushes it back to the table before bending down to get his bag.
“I’ll pick you up at the main gate, I’ll go get the car”
Sasuke sighs and calls out “Nii-san!”
This is how it was. There’s a dango shop across the main gate and Itachi had ask him the first time they had their library session last week to buy him a few dangos while he gets the car.
Itachi looks back “Yes?”
“Set A?”
Itachi stops to tap his chin. Sasuke rolls his eyes at this. “I’ll have Set B today” Itachi says nodding to himself.
Sasuke doesn’t say anything and just turns to walk to the main gate and crosses the street. When he steps out the store, he sees pink. She was there, standing by the bus stop eyeing her shoes. Sakura.
He stared at the paperbag he was carrying for awhile, contemplating.
He takes out his phone and sends a quick text to Itachi before crossing the street.
“Sakura”
She turns to him, surprised “Sasuke-kun..”
Now what does he say? He hasn’t really thought this far so he stays silent and turns away from her, facing the street. She does the same.
A minute passed and he feels Sakura look at him. He meets her gaze but only for a second before she decides to look at the floor.
He opens his mouth but Sakura beats him to it “The bus should be here by now”
“Aa.” his eyes still fixed on her.
“Do you take the bus often Sasuke-kun?”
“...”
“...I usually take the 7:30 schedule and this is the first time I’ve seen you.” she peeks at him from the corner of her eyes before she focuses back to the floor.
“I go home with Itachi but he’s still at school... at the library” it wasn’t totally a lie per se “I wanted to go home first”
“Oh..”
The bus comes to his rescue as it stops just in front of them. She gets in first and he quickly follows.
A hand was to her wrist before she could tap her card,
“I’ll pay, you go find us seats” she sees him drop cash in the box.
Sakura nods and decides not to argue, she already felt conscious around him and the thought of drawing attention to them didn’t sound good to her.
Sasuke takes the seat beside her.
Throughout the ride home all they did was stare outside the window beside her. He steals a few glances here and there but they were nothing but quiet.
He shifts in his seat and was aware of the paperbag he has been holding. Itachi’s dango.
He remembered how he forced himself to eat sweets everyday just to be cool like his nii-san. He only stopped the habit when he reached high school.
He frowns as he remembered Naruto’s antics from earlier.
Ah yes, the dango.
He remembers it clearly only because Naruto keeps repeating it to him and not because it was important.
It was not like Sakura was a stranger. She was Sasuke’s neighbor and was his usual playmate at the park in their neighborhood. Mebuki-san and kaasan were also friends so she’s often invited over or vice versa. Sakura was a friend who went to a different school, the one nearest to their house.
During high school she transferred to his. Sakura was a smart girl and with her good grades and good school like theirs she could get into any college she wants. Mikoto was delighted to hear about this and asked Itachi and Sasuke to include Sakura on their walk to and from school. He doesn’t really mind and it wasn’t that big of deal ...until lunch break.
““The first lunch date”” he could practically hear the dobe’s voice correct him.
••••••
He was used to the stares, really. It wasn’t anything new so he didn’t even consider something was off. The only thing different now was him accompanying Sakura for lunch as per request to his mother. It wasn’t anything weird because Itachi was supposed to be here too. To accompany Sakura on her first day. She just transferred in the middle of the school year. Itachi just had to get sick.
He noticed how his friends didn’t joined him and occupied a different table—a few tables away and Sasuke can see them just observing him. He gave them a questioning look. Shikamaru only pointed at a Naruto who was giving him a thumbs up.
“Sasuke-kun?”
Sasuke turns to Sakura just in time as she glances at her back to see who he’s been talking to.
“Are those your friends? You don’t really need to do this you know”
“Let them be.” Sasuke said as he continued eating his lunch.
“We can ask them to join us?”
“Sakura.”
“Yes?”
“You’re not eating. Just eat.”
“You sure? I don’t want to keep you..”
“I already offered them to join us so don’t worry about it.”
Sakura nods and continues to eat.
—-/
To many of his friends, it had shocked them to the very core when Sakura, a transferee—who also happens to be Sasuke’s neighbor, ate Sasuke’s daily dango. It happened many times too during—as Naruto and friends like to call it—their “lunch dates.”
Who was this woman who Sasuke offered the dessert he eats everyday? The dessert he scowled at Naruto for taking a tiny bite on one of the balls. Tiny. And they were 10! Sasuke made sure everybody knew how violent he could be for dangos. At least that’s how Naruto says it legend goes.
“Itachi-nii doesn’t even share it with Izumi-nee. It was like a thing. And you just gave it to her just like that!”
What Naruto didn’t know was that dango from when they were 10 was given to him by his nii-san that day and was the reason why he was mad.
It is also very important to know that Sasuke hates sweets. It was already a habit of Sasuke to buy a dango with his lunch because that’s how nii-san does it and to be honest, he was getting sick of it. He has been eating that since he was in 4th grade when Sasuke had asked his mother to stop making him bentos because nii-san stopped bringing bentos too. Sasuke just wanted to follow whatever his nii-san does.
Now that he’s already in high school, he decides to stop buying the offensive confectionery but the lady at the cashier just had to remind him he forgot his dango. He did decline but she insisted for it to be free this one time. So when Sakura was staring at his dango, he offered it to her— a win-win situation. And that was the last time he’s ever had dango, she has been the one eating those sweets for him.
And even when he has explained this so many times to Naruto, he still accuses him of hiding things like Sakura was his girlfriend. Whenever the topic arises, he says the same thing to him; “I told you I never liked sweets!”
It would always stop there but today, today he thinks Shikamaru was a bad influence on Naruto.
“So why do you still buy them now?”
“...”
“Dangos may not mean something for you. In fact, you said you hated them... so many times.. Buys dango. Hates dango. But buys Sakura-chan one every lunch.”
“And?”
Naruto can’t help but pull at his hair in frustration.
••••••
Sasuke gets drawn back to the present on how the warmth from the paper bag was already getting faint. He adjust his bag on his lap to mount the paper bag on it.
He looks forward and notices they were already near their stop.
When he stepped out of the bus he waited at the side for her so she could take the lead. They just need to get past the park and take a turn and they’d be home.
When they reached the park’s entrance, Sasuke stopped. Sakura who only noticed after a few steps that Sasuke wasn’t following her anymore, turned.
“Sasuke-kun?”
He moves to sit the bench by the park’s entrance and she hesitates before she sits beside him.
She sees him take out the box from his paper bag. And opens it to a sight of five sticks of dangos, 3 dumplings, and tub of sauce.
“Help yourself,” he says as he almost shove it to her face. “...there’s also mochi in the paper bag”
Sakura feels her face heat up and she thanks the heavens the lights at the park were dim. She takes a stick of dango and holds it up
“Thank you Sasuke-kun, this should be enough” she smiles at him.
He nods and closes the box and neatly places it back in the paper bag.
She doesn’t ask why he doesn’t take one for himself. He never does. She smiles and she stands up and faces Sasuke “Let’s go?”
Sasuke still sitting, only stares at her. From where she’s standing, he could clearly see her face. He can see how her hair is now tucked to the side and her bob was more manageable than how it was during high school.
When he done nothing but stare at her, she, for a few moments, stared back. She hasn’t really had the time to take in his appearance because she was too busy avoiding and panicking the whole day. That lunch encounter and just the bus ride awhile ago. It was too much stimulation in a day. She feels her face starting grow hotter and she takes it upon herself to start walking. “It’s getting late Sasuke-kun, we should go”
Sasuke-kun. She has been calling him that. He just realized he was still Sasuke-kun. Smiling to himself he stands up and follows her.
When she reached the gate to her house, Sasuke was still a few steps away so she awkwardly stands there facing the gate and waits for him to get closer.
“Get inside, Sakura”
What on earth is she doing? He stops when he was just two feet away from her.
She attempts to push the gate open but drew her hand back and turned to face him but her eyes were anywhere but on him.
“Thank you... for the.. ...um.. the dango.”
“You should get inside.”
She makes her way in but holds the door open facing him.
She sees him nod and turned his heel to walk to his house. His house wasn’t far. Two houses down across hers. She sees him open their gate. She almost chokes up at the sight.
They used to do this almost everyday, then.
“Sasuke-kun,” she calls out—she hopes on time—before he closes the gate.
She sees him disapppear behind the walls before he appears again in view, still inside the gate with it partially opened, his brows raised.
She’s only staring at him. Still she cannot believe he was really here. She of course heard from her parents that Sasuke was back but to see him was different. Today, not only did she see him but she talked to him, went home with him.
“Oi!” Sasuke snaps her out of her thoughts and she see him giving her a look as if to say go on.
“Sasuke-kun” she tries again.
Sasuke encourages her by fully stepping out the gate and faced her. Still, she doesn’t know what to say and her eyes get glassy and he notices this, worried he did something wrong or if this was the confrontation he dreaded, he started walking back to her.
”It’s not that I’m avoiding talking about it—”
Sasuke stumbled as he caught her while he tries to balance them, his eyes widen and hands awkwardly still. She hugged him. He was about to embarrass explaining himself when he doesn’t even know what to say.
“Welcome back, Sasuke-kun..”
He feels her squeeze him tighter and his chest tightens too. He raises a hand to her head, patting it before pulling her closer by her shoulders. They stayed like that for a moment before she steps back and smiles.
After Sakura collected herself and eye smex exchanging looks, he walked her to the gate and insisted to wait for her to close it.
When he turned around, Itachi was already leaning by the open gate, grinning stupid.
He shoves the paperbag in his hands and walks pass him.
Itachi doesn’t comment on how it was missing one stick of dango.