Chapter Text
he’s been my best friend ever since we were five.
“did you send him a congratulatory gift?”
i fell in love with my best friend when we turned sixteen.
“… or a message just to let him know that you’re happy for him?”
… and i think i did ruin the friendship when i confessed when he turned nineteen.
i was walking back from school when the rain started pouring. at that time, it was the last year of high school. it was our first day, and nothing significantly happened yet, except that we had a new transferee to our section.
and, yeah, my best friend was not with me since he had basketball practice.
i stayed at the waiting shed near our school because i couldn’t get wet. my new books were sitting prettily inside my backpack, and i couldn’t afford to ruin them, my mom would kill me.
“maybe the rain will stop eventually,” i whispered to myself, sitting patiently on the cold metal bench.
i had forgotten my wallet and had no cash to book a ride home. plus, my house is literally a ten-minute walk from school, and even if i had my wallet, i wouldn't waste money on a ride just for a short distance. so, i waited.
until a damp, oversized black hoodie suddenly dropped onto my head, blinding me.
"you’re an idiot, sakura."
i pulled the fabric down from my eyes, blinking up at the boy standing in front of me. sasuke was drenched, his bangs clinging to his forehead, his basketball duffel bag slung carelessly over one shoulder. despite the rain, he didn't look bothered at all. he just looked annoyed at me.
"sasuke!" i gasped, clutching the hoodie to my chest. it smelled like fabric softener and faint sweat, but it made my stomach do a stupid, familiar flip. "your practice is over? and i’m not an idiot! i just forgot my wallet."
"which makes you an idiot," he countered smoothly, sliding onto the bench right next to me. the heat radiating off his shoulders instantly cut through the rainy chill. he reached over, unzipping his own bag to pull out an umbrella. "good thing i know how your brain works. come on, let's go before it gets darker."
i smiled, a warm, heavy sensation settling deep in my chest. this was us. this had always been us. sasuke was the stoic, emotionally unavailable boy everyone else at school was terrified of, but to me, he was just sasuke.
i stood up, adjusting his hoodie over my shoulders. it was way too big, wrapping me in his warmth as we stepped out under the shared umbrella, walking shoulder-to-shoulder just like we had a thousand times before. my fingers brushed against his sleeve, a tiny spark of electricity running up my arm that i locked away tightly, right where i always kept it.
"hey," sasuke said as we crossed the street, his eyes fixed on the wet pavement ahead. "you noticed the new girl in our section today, right?"
my stride faltered for a fraction of a second. "hina? yeah, she seemed nice. a bit quiet."
"she is," sasuke murmured.
there was a strange tone in his voice—a softness that i had never, in all our fourteen years of knowing each other, heard before. i glanced up at his profile. the usual cold, indifferent set of his jaw was gone. instead, there was a faint, almost curve at the corner of his lips.
"i ended up helping her out with her locker after practice," he said, his voice unusually quiet, almost contemplative. he adjusted his grip on the umbrella, his gaze tracking a car driving past. "she was completely lost. we ended up talking for a while... and for some reason, i couldn't stop thinking about her all through drills. i think... i’m actually going to try and get to know her properly. court her, maybe."
the world didn't stop spinning, but it felt like the air had been violently sucked right out of my lungs.
the rain seemed to grow deafeningly loud, drowning out the sound of my own heartbeat. my hand, which had been loosely holding onto the strap of my backpack, tightened so hard my knuckles turned white under the oversized sleeve of his hoodie.
court her.
not a crush. not a passing interest. sasuke uchiha—who scoffed at the very idea of romance, who ignored the love letters stuffed into his locker every valentine’s day—was planning a traditional, deliberate courtship for a girl he had known for less than eight hours.
"oh," i breathed. i forced my lips to move, desperate to keep the terrifyingly fragile mask of 'the best friend' from cracking. "wow. that’s... that's big, sasuke."
"yeah," he replied, completely oblivious to the absolute devastation happening two inches to his left. he looked ahead, a rare, genuine spark of excitement in his dark eyes. "i just... i saw her, and for the first time, i actually wanted to try. i wanted you to know first. you’ll help me figure out what she likes, right?"
every protective wall i had meticulously built since i was sixteen years old trembled under the weight of his words.
for three years, i had suffered in silence, swallowing my own feelings just to stay by his side. hearing him ask for my help to love another girl felt like a physical blow to the chest, a brutal reminder of the boundary line i was never supposed to cross.
"sakura?" he asked, slowing his pace when i didn't answer. he turned his dark eyes to me, frowning slightly. "are you even listening?"
"yeah," i choked out, forcing the fakest, most painful smile of my life onto my face. i quickly looked away, staring into the sheets of gray rain. "yeah, of course i’ll help you, sasuke."