Lovestruck || borusara

I.

... the silent crowd collectively held their breath as he lined up the final putt. The pressure of a repeat title weighed heavily on his shoulders...

"No, no, that's stupid," she muttered as she repeatedly mashed the backspace key.

With a frustrated sigh, Sarada pushed her glasses up and rubbed at her tired eyes. She had been staring at that damn document for way too long, agonizing over the word choice of the final paragraph.

Her lips pursed, reading over what she had already written for her article covering a recent golf tournament to make sure everything flowed properly. Suddenly, Sarada jolted in her chair, startled from her intense focus by a knock on her open office door.

Dark eyes glanced up to find her colleague and good friend, Mitsuki, standing in the doorway. A smile on his face and a cup of coffee in his hand.

"You coming?" he asked simply.

Her gaze flickered to the time on her computer and her eyes widened in surprise. Sarada cursed under her breath as she hopped up, closed her laptop, and snatched her trusty notebook off her desk.

"Thanks for grabbing me," Sarada said as she and Mitsuki walked through their office to the conference room. Most of the team was already seated, so the friends split up to take the two open chairs.

Standing at the head of the long oak conference table was their boss, the Editor-in-Chief of Athletics Illustrated, Karin. "Great! Everyone's here, let's get started!"

Their weekly meeting began with reviewing the sales and online traffic of the magazine's most recent issue. Sarada listened dutifully as she recorded which articles seemed to be pulling in the most attention, beyond delighted that one of her pieces was mentioned again this week.

They moved on to discussing the layout of the upcoming issue, including the placement of everyone's articles, the accompanying photos, and their sponsors' advertisements.

Sarada raised her hand. "Wouldn't it make more sense to put the ad after the article in this case?" she asked with a raised brow.

"Can we see what that would look like?" Karin asked Jugo from the design department. He moved the elements around as Sarada had suggested and allowed the team to see.

Karin tapped her lips in contemplation, then nodded. "Yeah, I like that better. Good eye, Sarada," she praised before moving on to the next agenda item.

Sarada scribbled a few notes down as she resisted the big smile that tugged at her lips. Over the last few months, she had been getting braver, offering her thoughts and advocating for her opinions.

As the meeting concluded, everyone stood, began packing up, and sparking their own side conversations.

"Sarada," Karin called from the head of the table as she organized a stack of papers. "Can you hang back for a minute?"

She exchanged a look with Mitsuki, who gave her a reassuring smile before leaving the conference room.

"Of course," Sarada replied, hugging her notebook to her chest as she took a few nervous steps closer to her boss.

Her heart rate began to pick up. She thought speaking up during meetings would earn her greater respect from the senior writers on the team, but now she feared she was about to be told otherwise.

Karin straightened her glasses before finally looking up to meet Sarada's gaze.

"I think we were all really impressed by your article's performance in the latest issue," she began and Sarada exhaled a sigh of relief. "I know you didn't come from a sports background and your first few months were playing catch up, but I think you've really found your stride. Our readers seem to really enjoy your voice, and so I'd like to give you a cover story."