You crouch down on the bed alone. Right now you are in the nurse's office, being sick.
Well, it's not like you are actually sick. It is just a petty excuse that you make in order to avoid being in class. You absolutely have no mood to study at all.
No.
You actually have no mood to do anything. You just want to lie down and do nothing, just like you are right now.
But you guess it is not a good idea as well, because all sorts of things come flooded into your mind.
You are hurt.
Extremely hurt.
But you have no one else to blame.
It would be easy if you just put all the blame to yuri and say that she is the reason you're hurting so much.
However, that is not the case.
You can't hate her. She is not the one at fault. And she is also a very kind and sincere girl, you cannot resist her charms.
Then, is it sasuke?
But that fool doesn't even seem to realize what he did wrong.
So he's also not guilty.
'Then, is it me...?'
That thought pops into your mind automatically.
'Am i the one at fault...? Am i the cause of my own hurting...?'
You sigh helplessly.
'I guess i am.'
You wipe the one drop of tear that flows easily on your cheek. Now that you realize your mistake, you can't help but to cry.
"Are you okay?"
The sudden question startle you. You immediately turn to see the nurse that is looking at you with full of concern.
Did she hear you crying?
"I'm okay... I'm fine."
You tell her as you create a wry smile to hide the truth.
She smiles back at you.
"Okay then. If you need anything, just tell me. Or do you want to go home early?"
Her offer picks an interest in you.
"I can... Do that?"
She laughs.
"What do you mean? Of course you can. You've been a student here for almost two years and you don't know?"
You just rub the back of your head bashfully.
"So, do you want to go home?"
She asks again, wanting confirmation.
You simply nod.
"Alright then. I will write a letter and send it to your homeroom teacher. You can go home now."
The nurse speaks again, with her soft voice and kind intonation.
She is a very elegant woman.
"Thank you." You bow at her and walk to the door. But before you go out of the room, the nurse calls out to you again.
"Is there anything else...?"
You ask her as the call is very sudden.
With her smiling face, she says...
"No matter hard your life is right now, my dear, there will be a day where you will be smiling all the way til the end. You just need to wait patiently for the day to come, alright? You are still young, so there will be more challenges for you to face. But you don't have to worry. Because with all these challenges, you will become much stronger. So stay positive, okay?"
Her words instantly make you shocked.
You aren't able to respond at all because it is too sudden.
Then, the nurse brings you back to reality.
"You can go now, sweetheart. Make sure to close the door tightly, okay?"
You stutter for a while.
"Y-yes, thank you."
Then, you walk out of the room and go straight home with the nurse's words replaying in your mind.
**********************************
"Alright, so we are here for a meeting of the second stage in this competition. I know it has been so long that you almost forget about it, but here i am, reminding you about it again."
Kakashi says cheerfully, somehow looking so annoying.
Shikamaru scoffs.
"Can't we just get straight to the point? Has the question arrived?"
He says in his usual rebellious tone.
Of course, he just wants everything to end as soon as possible.
Kakashi clasps his hands together.
"Alright then, I'll begin explaining."
"Wait."
Sasuke interjects.
"(Name) is still not here. Shouldn't we wait for her?"
He asks indifferently, not wanting to sound concerned. Even when he actually is.
"Oh, i forgot about that. (Name) won't attend our meeting today. She is sick. I received a letter from the nurse this afternoon saying that she went home already. Seems like her condition is quite bad. Never mind, sasuke. I will explain to her personally tomorrow. Well, tomorrow is saturday and all, but as a good teacher i must not abandon my student. So don't worry, alright?"
Sasuke remains silent.
"So shall we continue?"
Temari, neji and shikamaru nod simultaneously at kakashi's question.
Meanwhile, sasuke is extremely disturbed by the thought of you not being here. He wants to know why you ran away from him this morning. He is curious as to what causes you to run away like that. He just wants to know the truth badly.
"Sasuke. Do not space out when I'm talking."
Kakashi scolds him and sasuke just nods forcefully.
Then, kakashi continues.
"So for this stage, as i told you before, you need to come out with a formula to solve all the questions given. In other words, you need to create one formula to solve everything. There are five questions given and the answers are already there. So this time, you are not required to complete these questions but to come out with the formula itself."
"This is crazy." Shikamaru starts conplaining, as usual.
"I know it is, but that is what all of you have to do. So right now, I'm going to give one question to each of you, and you may use you winter leave next week to finish it. You guys have a one-week leave, right? Use it properly to come out with possible formulas."
"So we're sacrifising our holidays now? Ughhh, what a paaaaiinnnnn."
Shikamaru whines again.
Neji and temari only sighs at the thought of not being able to spend the holidays as they wish.
Sasuke is the only one that remains calm.
"I know it's hard for you, but it's hard for me too. So don't complain much and just get your work done. Anyway, i have a good news for all of you."
The sound of good news immediately catch their attention.
"What is it?"
Temari asks, being impatient already.
Kakashi just puts up his usual smiling face.
"For this stage, you are allowed to have a tutor."
"Woahhhh!" The exclamation comes out at the same time from all of them.
"It's good news, right? So I'm going to introduce the tutor to you, but it's after the winter holiday. So for the first week, you need to work on your own. But after you get back to school, the tutor will help you. He will just improvise your formulas and help to choose the right one before submitting it as a final answer. Therefore, it will be less hardwork for you at that time. Does that sound better?"
"Yes, of course, it does." Temari answers.
"Alright then. For now, take one question each and go home. Leave one for (name). I will give it to her tomorrow. Students, disperse."
Temari, neji and shikamaru immediately stand up and take their parts of the questions. Soon after, sasuke do the same as well.
Yuri is waiting for him outside of the club room. She is talking with neji about something that sasuke doesn't even bother to find out. He just walks past them.
Then, yuri chases for him.
"Hey, why didn't you call for me?" Yuri asks him as she tries to match up with his pace.
"I don't want to disturb. You look like you were discussing something important."
Sasuke answers indifferently as usual.
Yuri just laughs at his remark.
"What do you mean? Nothing is as important as you are to me, you know."
Her words bring a weak smile on his face.
"You are really something to speak like that right now." He says.
"Well, of course. I'm yuri, you know. By the way, just now, neji-kun told me about the next stage of the competition. It sounds so hard... Can you do it?"
She asks, being concerned at her precious sasuke.
The male just simply smirks.
"What kind of question is that? I'm sasuke uchiha, you know. I need to be able to do this much in order to stop that jerk from taking you away again. I'm not letting him to take anything away from me ever again. Not again."
Yuri puts up a faint smile on her face. This side of hardworking sasuke really makes her touched. It makes she feels like she is a very precious person.
"If you say so. But please don't over exert yourself. I don't want you to fall sick."
"I won't. Don't worry."
Yuri then takes a deep breath and lets out a relieved sigh.
She takes sasuke's hand in hers.
"Hey, sasuke-kun. Why don't we go for a brief walk?"
"What are you talking about? It's cold out there, yuri."
"Sasuke-kun, pleaaaaseeee~… You are going to be busy next week, so i don't think you can spend even the Christmas with me. So consider this as our date. Can we?"
Sasuke smacks his head.
"What kind of nonsense is that? A date?"
Yuri nods repeatedly. It's like she really wants to go for a walk with him.
"Yes, it is a date. It's called, 'a date to cheer the grumpy sasuke-kun up'. Sounds interesting, doesn't it?"
She laughs.
"You are ridiculous, yuri."
"I know. That's why I'm able to cheer you up. Because I'm ridiculous. So shall we start the date now? Rule number one. No grumpy faces is allowed. The members of this date must smile. So, sasuke-kun, smile~"
The innocent girl pinches both sasuke's cheeks in order to make him look like he's smiling. The guy just surrender to whatever she's up to.
Meanwhile, yuri is having fun a lot.
"Like that, sasuke-kun! Excellent! Now for the next rule, the members of this date must speak every three seconds. No silence more than three seconds is allowed."
Sasuke scoffs.
"What is that nonsense?"
"It's not nonsense. It's a rule, sasuke-kun. You must obey. Now, speak."
"Speak about what?"
"Whatever will do. If you lose, I'm going to punish you."
"What is the punishment?"
Yuri wears a devilish smile after she hears that question. She then takes out a pink hair clips with a flower pattern and tells sasuke to bend over.
"What are you going to do with that?"
"The punishment, of course. Come on!"
She pulls sasuke's collars so that sasuke's face is at the same level as her.
"Hereby, i punish you, sasuke uchiha, for not obeying the rule."
Yuri says while putting the girly clip on sasuke's head to decorate his bangs. After she's done, she laughs as hard as she can.
Sasuke just stares at her coldly.
"You're enjoying this a lot, aren't you?"
Yuri nods vigorously while still laughing.
"It's so funny. Sasuke-kun, you're so cute."
And she laughs again.
Sasuke sighs helplessly.
"Then, shall i make the third rule? It's not fair if you're the only one creating rules, doesn't it?"
Yuri immediately stops laughing when she hears that.
She looks at sasuke who is having a smirk plasterd on his face.
Yeah, yeah, we all know that nothing good ever happen from that smirk.
Yuri gulps.
"N-no! I am the founder of this date, so only i am allowed to create the rules." She says, sternly.
"Oh-ho. That is very not fair, young lady. Anyway, here is rule number three."
Sasuke moves a step closer to the nervous-looking girl.
"The members of this date must not laugh whenever they are tickled."
Yuri startle.
"I knew it! You're cheating! That's my weakness!"
"Who cares?"
Sasuke then grabs the girl's hand and starts to tickle her neck. The poor girl is only able to laugh and shouts helplessly.
"Stop, sasuke-kun! Stop! Please!"
And the tickling game keeps going on for a while.