Greetings From A Stranger
For as long as Sasuke could remember, the girl greeted him every morning at the train station. During the two years since he moved here and transferred into their high school, he met her on the train every morning. She was a quiet girl, but had such a unique pair of opaque eyes that rather scared him the first time he saw her. If he wasn’t irritated with trepidation about his first day of school, he doubted that he would’ve noticed her.
When he squeezed onto the crowded train that morning two years ago, he was fully prepared to hate everything about this new school and this new city. He consciously made himself look intimidating and scowled at everyone he met. He knew that he looked rather intimidating; he practiced in front of a mirror.
Then he caught the pale eyes of the brunette girl who looked rather surprised at his mean expression. But rather than pretending she hadn’t see him, she gave him a small smile between the bodies of the other passengers and bade him good morning.
Slightly taken aback, Sasuke turned away. Surely she had mistaken him for someone else. He saw her leave at the stop before his own and as she got off, she nodded at him.
This happened again the next morning, and this time Sasuke returned the greeting. As the girl got off at the same stop, she said “Have a nice day.”
As time progressed, the two fell into routine. Every morning, the brunette would say, “Good morning” and Sasuke would either reply with the same or nod acknowledging having heard her although he never put much emotion into his own greetings. When she got off, she always said “Have a pleasant day,” or another variation of that.
One time, he was feeling particularly low after a traumatic break-up with Sakura. He snapped at the girl, screaming, “There’s nothing good about this morning so why do you just fuck off, Woman!”
What shocked Sasuke was that the girl didn’t seem upset, but her smile faltered for a moment. When she got off, she wished him a good day. For the rest of the day, Sasuke felt guilty. Surely the girl was completely frightened of him.
But the next day came and the girl smiled and greeted just the same as always.
After a few more instances where he lost his temper for various reasons from fights with his family to self-contempt, Sasuke realized that the girl would always greet him with a cheery smile and bade him a good day especially when he was feeling particularly vicious.
The girl was a constant in his life.
As graduation approached, he realized that there was a very good chance that he was never going to see the girl again. Toying with the idea of having an actual conversation with the girl, Sasuke prepared a series of sentences to say. Suddenly, two weeks before graduation, the brunette with the strange eyes disappeared. He kept his mind off it, burying himself in student council work and preparation for the graduation ceremony.
His friends, like Naruto, told him that he was getting irritable. Sasuke clamed it was stress.
Every morning, Sasuke would wake feeling refreshed, and as he got on the train and got to school, he’d feel more upset than before going to the train station.
On graduation day, Sasuke got up earlier and boarded the train, not feeling particularly thrilled about having to do last minute work for graduation. The time being much earlier than usual, the half-asleep Sasuke was able to secure a seat on the train.
“Good morning.”
Looking to the source of the greeting, Sasuke saw the same smile that disappeared from his life for the last two weeks. Sitting next to him was his constant.
“Morning,” He replied, somewhat speechless yet feeling a lot more awake.
“Please excuse my absence for the past two weeks. My father fell ill and then I was busy with graduation preparations.” She informed him, holding his gaze. It was probably the first time she’s said something other than greet him.
“I hadn’t noticed,” Sasuke replied, tearing his eyes away from her to look at the other passengers on the train. There were mainly blue-collared workers sitting on the train, coupled with a few students here and there.
The rest of the train ride flew by in companionable silence. When it came to her stop she got up and gave him another smile.
“This is my stop. Have a nice day.”
“Yeah,” Sasuke said as she disappeared behind the closing door. She waved at him as the train pulled away. “You too.”
He never did ask for her name. And like that, he graduated and attended a university out of the country. Every so often, he thought of the girl with the particular eyes before and he wondered why he never bothered to ask for her name. Oddly enough, every time he broke up with another girl or got into a dispute with someone, he would go for a bus ride, not really expecting the girl but still, hoping he’d catch a glimpse of her.
Six years later, Sasuke returned to Japan. One morning, as he boarded the train for work like he did every morning, a brunette woman with a set of opaque eyes caught his gaze. Before he could tear his eyes away, the woman caught him staring and smiled telling him good morning.
“Good morning.” Sasuke echoed over the heads of the people between them.
About 30 minutes later, the woman moved to get off the train. But not before saying to Sasuke, “Have a good day.”
It took Sasuke a moment, before pushing past the other passengers and getting off the train. He knew it wasn’t his stop but he didn’t care. He needed to at least get the woman’s name.
“Please wait for a moment!” He called, stopping her with a hand. The woman turned to look at him and smiled. Sasuke straighten himself before bowing, “I am Uchiha Sasuke. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
The woman returned the bow, saying, “Hyuuga Hinata. The pleasure is mine.”
Finis