The coat, dress shirt, slacks, and even the shoes were neatly and perfectly arranged. The foot wear was placed on his marble floor and the clothes were well ironed, as if the person who worked on them spent hours and hours just to make them seem flawless.
He couldn't quite remember the last time he didn't wear those kinds of clothes. Born from an extremely prideful clan and family, he was, of course, predicted to be as successful as his older brother - wearing all those fine coats with ties, buying watches that screamed a luxurious brand, just the stereotypical rich men.
Ah, he didn't know wearing those fine clothes had such a weighty burden. The moment he put them on, he was marked as an Uchiha who can only bring pride, honor, and victory. Anything else below success will mean disgrace, disappointment, and death.
He sometimes wished he could just wear simple type of clothes and live, well, a normal life. A life where he only has to stress about his company and not with his family. A life where he could hold hands with someone he wishes to be with - no matter how high or low her social standing might be.
He was full of pride. A typical Uchiha. In spite of that, he knows how to accept his mistakes and his miscalculations. And he had miscalculated. Therefore, he couldn't get what he wished for. He couldn't get what he wanted.
His father's acknowledgement? Thinking about it now, it made him want to laugh. He was Sasuke Uchiha - always serious, always cold, always intimidating. Does not know how to joke around or to laugh at the little things. But now? He wanted to just chuckle. How fucking stupid can a person be.
He dressed up quietly. In a few minutes, he transformed into his usual look - the strict and cold boss everyone knew, wearing a black coat and a red tie. He looked expensive, like a figurine that only worthy people can look at.
Sasuke grabbed his phone and car keys from the side table and slid it inside the pocket of his dark slacks. A sudden knock echoed through the room, accompanied by his brother's deep voice.
"Sasuke? You're going to be late."
"I don't intend to be an early bird, anyway." He replied, in a cold way as usual, as he walked towards the door.
Itachi flashed him a tiny smile when he opened it. "You're sending yourself to hell. For the first time, I fail to understand you and your sentiments."
The younger Uchiha ignored his worthless comments, stepping forward and stroding past his older brother. "I hope you don't stay there long. I don't enjoy knowing that you're torturing yourself." Itachi added, only to be disregarded once more.
Sasuke walked through the long staircase and reached for his keys from his pockets. He went out of his ridiculously large house and marched towards his car, opening it and driving to his destination.
On his way, his mind couldn't be at ease as Itachi's words continued to bother him. That bastard. He could only think of his brother and send him mental curses.
Finally, when he reached the location, he took a deep breath before stepping out of his car. He tried loosening his tie a bit, but not to the point that it looked messy.
From his window, he could see a numerous amount of people entering the venue, all full of big, happy smiles. They also had their hands set on their gifts. Sasuke chastised himself upon realizing that. Of course, a present. If Itachi knew how dumb he is, he could probably never face his brother again.
Sasuke spent a few minutes inside his car, his eyes on the steering wheel. Hell, huh? Itachi's words repeated non-stop inside his mind.
He only snapped out of his little reverie when he saw that all the people outside disappeared and probably proceeded inside the venue. Damn. Why was he being so oddly distrait lately? It's frustrating.
Sasuke swiftly went out of his car. Shoving his hands inside his pockets, he took very slow and heavy steps forward. He wasn't even fazed when he heard the sound of a minister speaking in front.
But what fazed him was the fact that she was up there, dressed beautifully in a long wedding gown; her short pink hair just down and her face evident of light make up to give enhancement to her gorgeous features. A very stunning emerald eyed woman stood in front with her soon-to-be husband, a blonde boy in a nice tuxedo.
Sasuke stopped by the entrance. That should have been him, the one standing beside that beautiful goddess. That should have been him... If he only had the courage... the guts... the confidence to fight for her. That should have been him if he wasn't being such a close-minded, immature boy who seemed to only live up to his father's expectations. What a coward.
He only had his onyx eyes set on her. How could she be so effortlessly beautiful? She looked so elegant. She was like perfection.
He onced had that perfection in between his arms. But she slipped away, drifted... because of him. He pushed her. And perhaps this was the consequence of his ruthless action.
Was she happy? He could only ask himself. She did tell him she loved him, and he felt it. For goodness sake, she was in love with him this whole time - even in their childhood days. He had a spot in her heart that nobody else could replace. It all started out with infatuation which later bloomed into unconditional love. Love, huh? If there was something Sasuke found out about himself from all of this, it was his capability to love. That was something he least expected.
And he found out that love, like a coin, has two sides. The good and the bad. The happy and the sad. The warm and the cold. The comfort and the pain.
Love gave him all sorts of positive and negative effects.
Love was bliss but it can be tiring. And maybe that was it. No matter how much you can love a person, there will still be limits. Sakura got exhausted. Too tired to the point that she gave Sasuke all of her love and forgot to appreciate herself.
Sasuke breathed out. His friends and batchmates were all here. Shikamaru, who was beside his wife, Temari. Ino, who was happily watching the couple. Everybody had huge smiles on their faces. Naruto had a big grin, too. Sakura stood beside her with a small smile and a faint blush on her cheeks.
Sasuke didn't expect love to hurt so much. Well, he believed it was his fault, anyway. He had been too self centered, narrow minded, and ridiculous. He lost her. He lost the only woman he ever loved to his best friend.
He swear he couldn't describe what's in his chest right now. Self loathing, anger, sadness, pain, and regret. His heart felt like it was being ripped, torn, shattered, and the cycle just repeats and repeats. It was his personal hell. His kind of torture.
He hated himself.
He decided it was best to retreat to his car when the ceremony was almost over - and that being said, he couldn't probably watch Naruto kiss Sakura.
Sasuke leaned against the side of his vehicle, hands inside his pockets and an empty look in his eyes. What was he gonna do after? Ditch his work? He's the owner, anyway. But Itachi would probably just lecture him. Should he drink? Hangover sucks big time but he wanted to forget. To numb himself. How about smoking? Will it bring himself at ease?
He scoffed. No. He's just going to destroy himself. And Sakura was not going to like it if she knew about his thoughts. She'll probably scold him, tell him that his ideas are absurd...
When the guests started walking out of the church, he immediately went inside his car. His keen eye watched them all as they grinned to themselves, chatting non-stop. Soon, they made way for the bride and groom as they exit the venue as well.
Sasuke felt as if it was hard to breathe when he saw Sakura's hands on Naruto's arm. He was grinning and waving to his friends while she was just giving them a tiny smile and opened her mouth occassionally to say something to their guests.
He opened his window half way, where he can see a clearer view of the woman he loved so much. He was swimming in a deep pool of regrets and frankly, he pitied himself. He was such a coward. If only he could turn back time...
He continued to watch them, not even realizing that the corners of his eyes were heating up.
Sasuke internally pleaded that she would turn to his way. But then again, maybe that wasn't the best idea. Because if she sees her, he was sure - he can never get over her again.
A happy ending, huh...
When he was about to close his window, his breathing suddenly hitched as his heart pounded against his chest hardly.
And there she was, his Sakura, her emerald eyes locked with his onyx ones. He could finally see a better view her beautiful face. With gazes fixated on each other, she sent him a small, sad smile before she looked away and wiped her cheeks to remove the tears.
Pain hit his chest almost instantly.
He read her emotions. He knew what her eyes wanted to say...
That maybe in another lifetime, in another world, they could have been together.
*****
A/N: Well... that was... sad....
Anyway, I personally liked how I wrote this despite the lack of details and emotions. I felt really bad for Sasuke tbh... even though he was a total butthole in the story...
So this was your requested epilogue :D a lot of you were asking me about this so here you go! I've been rewatching some Naruto Shippuden episodes and it certainly gave me a lot of inspiration.
Please excuse the grammatical errors and typos hehe
Anyway, I'll be posting another note after this. I got some questions and I'll be answering them in the next "chapter" and also write a few announcements. See you! 😚 -carly