"Fill me in. What are you really up to?" Tenten eyed the pinkette suspiciously. She, in fact, had seen her with Sasuke the other night after all.
"I kissed him." Sakura whispered and chuckled naughtily.

Tenten and Sakura was in their favorite and usual coffee shop beside their office building, having their small chat during break hours. Tenten really wanted Hinata to come along to knock some humanity to their pinkette friend but she was busy with Naruto, who will be conducting a trade show in a few days and she had to be with him to help.

"Do yourself a favor, Sakura. Stay out of his life. You fell once, remember?" The brunette brutally slapped the words on Sakura's face.
"Please, Ten. If someone falls, it's not gonna be me." She said, a smirk of an assumed victory on her face, as she added her 2nd sugar cube on her black coffee.

"Are you really serious about this revenge thing?" Her friend rolled her eyes and slouched on the café's comfiest chair.
"Maybe," Sakura tried to restrain her smile. It was not returned back.

"Oh come on Ten, you have to admit this is kind of exciting. Imagine me - a weakling, once hurt and broken by fake love finally returning to the field to take on another battle and win. The best part is that you get to see your insensitive boss finally losing in his own game." She was obviously determined, Tenten noticed. She didn't smile, nor gave encouragement because it seemed that Sakura was already taking this revenge stuff seriously. She might get hurt again. She didn't want that.

"Just assure me you won't fall for him again." Tenten asked, but somewhere deep inside her mind will not be convinced by it.

"I won't." Sakura's smile gleamed.

"Anyway, your birthday is coming up and I just received the invitation. Can you at least tell me about it." Tenten clasped her hands, setting the mood right again by changing the subject.
"I don't know anything about it," Sakura answered, "Sasori told me not to plan for it because he has something under his sleeves. I trust him, plus the invitation looked mysterious and exciting" She was so excited about it. She is turning 26!

26!! Back then, she always dreamed of getting married at this age, have a child by 28 and be a full-on housewife. She had dreamt of it when she was still with Sasuke in his too-big-for-one mansion.

Remembering it now, Sakura pictured Sasuke in his big room, alone, with piles of paperwork on his desk. His house awfully quiet like always, and his face never pulling off a smile. Like how she had met him. He was cold, and distant, a playboy too, but in the end of the day, he will always be alone and by himself. He would always smirk though, when things go his way with her. But that was years ago. She didn't know how much he changed. He may no longer be like that.

But who cares, right? He chose to be alone! Sakura reminded herself.

"-kura? Paging Sakura from earth? Are you listening?" Tenten snapped her fingers in front of Sakura's face. "Are you okay?" She asked her unattentive friend. "Oh, sorry, I'm okay. I'm just.. thinking about things."

-✘-

It was a weekday morning and he was glad he is out of responsibilities today. After probably years, he finally took a time off of work, and Itachi, his brother, reckoned this was a sign of something, he couldn't figure out if good or bad, but he was still glad his brother was finally taking a rest. "Hey," he greeted. "It's very unusual for me to see you home on a weekday."

"Yeah, you'll probably see me more often." Sasuke slightly smirked.
"Why?"
"That girl is driving me crazy." He said as he remembered the night they kissed. Her lips smoothly pressing into his. Shaking his head off of the inappropriate-at-the-moment thought, "I might start working here at home." He said, exasparated. Honestly, he wanted to be away with her as further as he could be. But working from home on a permanent basis or for a long term may not always work for him.

"Personally, it's a good idea. But on the business side, not so much, brother." Itachi shook his head in disagreement. "I could talk to her if you want, though." He offered.
"Yeah? And what are you going to say?" Sasuke said in disbelief.
"To stop bugging you or you might fall even deeper to her." Itachi snorted and laughed, Sasuke threw the nearest book to his brother.
"Go home."
"I am home." Itachi answered. He was on his 2 week long vacation and decided to spend the first week at home with their mother. Though during times she went out, Itachi would visit Sasuke's home whether he was there or not. You could say that he is bored af.
"I also believe you received an invitation from Sasori about her birthday?"
"Yeah, I did."
"So what are you planning to buy for her? Can you give me a tip? It's you who knows more about her." Itachi pouted.
"Work it out for yourself."

"Fine." Itachi exclaimed. He went upstairs to Sasuke's room to take his laptop and put in "best gifts for girls on mid 20s" on google search. However, upon pulling up his laptop, that happened to be on sleep, automatically opened and showed the last window activities his brother had.

Itachi was now looking at a document of what seems to be a business proposal, however, to whom it will be sent, he was quite unfamiliar with it. The thing more off about it was the location. Canada.

Another window was open showing a confirmed flight in the next 3 months. A one way ticket to Canada. Perhaps he hasn't booked a way home yet? But it's already daunting to him.

He was leaving. Again.

"What's up?" Sasuke wondered, his brother's face had a serious look on it as he held the laptop on one arm. Itachi didn't answer yet, rather, he sat the opposite of Sasuke and laid the laptop on the coffee table in between them; the screen facing Sasuke.

Then it finally came to him what his brother's look meant.

He sighed, "I am planning a short vacation, brother."
"Yeah it seemed like it." Itachi said sarcastically but not comical enough. "A one way ticket?" He emphasized. "You're not going to leave again, are you?" Itachi had his moments, he is usually a happy go lucky person, someone who respected other people's decision, but this, this was crossing the line.

He had remembered how lonely and sad their mother felt when Sasuke left for years. He understood his brother's decision, that's why he let him be, with no form of disagreement.

But now is different.

"Sasuke. You can't let her- Sakura- do this to you."
"Brother, she's not doing anything to me."
"You're doing these things because of Sakura."
"Stop saying her name." Sasuke grunted. Irritated now.
"You can't leave us again. I gave you time for yourself. To move on. You never even paid a visit when you left before. Do you know how lonely mother was when you left?"
"I know."
"And you're still leaving us?"
"Brother- I need more time."
"I can buy you time. I can walk straight to Sakura and tell her about the truth. You were only asked to leave her by her parents. You never broke her heart even if you wanted to." Itachi was as irritated as he was. It had been a while. He had always been patient. But it has its limit, too.
"Fuck it." Sasuke ran his fingers through his messy morning hair and walked out the room. He didn't know what to do now.

-✘-

Her shift felt like forever. Sakura had nothing much to do. After finding out that Sasuke was on his leave, she immediately got irritated, she worn her most sexiest formal attire and he didn't show up to drool over it. But more importantly, Sakura felt nostalgic, specifically 5 years ago, when she was also informed he was on leave and the next thing she knows, he never came back.

What if... it's going to happen again?

Of course she won't make the same mistake twice. She won't look after him. Or chase him.

But there are so many paperworks he hasn't done yet. He can't leave like that. She was doing business with him and he can't leave her hanging. This is something important to her!

That's right! She has to look for him not because she's worried but rather because they have a contract and it's not the end yet! The revenge is not yet even taking place!

Immediately, she ran over to her car, with so many second thoughts but her body was so determined to leave that she never even took a step back or stopped at her tracks to explain to Kira where she was headed.

She was flustered, her heart is beating too fast and she was kind of sweaty. It felt like she was in a great hurry. She drove as fast as what the road permits her to be.

Then she finally saw it. The oh-so familiar mansion. It never looked old. It was highly maintained after all this years. She parked carelessly in front of the mansion as if she was too much in a hurry to care.

Soon as she was about to knock on the front door, the door flew open. She found herself looking at a beautiful man's face with a curious look on it. Itachi.

"H-hi." Sakura managed to say, trying to hide her husky voice from running.
"Hey, Sakura." Itachi was unsure how to react. Speaking of the devil, alright. "I was about to leave." He said.
"Oh, I see." She assumed that Sasuke might not be probably here anymore.
"Uhm. Yea." She added quite nervously. "So yea, sorry, I was just here to give some documents to Sasuke."

Itachi had the liberty to look at her and she wasn't holding a thing at all. He managed to restrain his strong urge to grin.

Sakura was a bad liar.
She realized she doesn't have anything with her right now. "Right. Uhm, it's in the back of my car. I just totally forgot. Haha." Sakura faked her laugh. Too obvious.

Itachi passed through her, trying not to talk too much and ask why didn't Sasuke's secretary do this task instead of Sakura. But he knows too well.

"Okay. I'll be going now. Sasuke's on the garden." Itachi added before hopping on to his car.
"Uhm thanks, Itachi." She smiled, and never moved until his car completely left.

Quietly she went in the house. It hurted a little looking at it. It hasn't changed at all. It was the same. Big, clean and lonely. Sakura memorized the way in the house. She had a lot of experiences cleaning it to impress Sasuke before.

Upon the entrance of the garden, the sliding glass door was open, she peeked outside and found Sasuke on his favorite place in the garden. The bench.

He was holding a book, a business-work kind of book, and he had his reading glasses on. He never had one before.

It only took a minute more when her eyes met his.

Sakura's heart beated slowly and gently this time. She was... relieved.