Serendipity

Hello humans.

This is a short story that I may or may not turn into a real story. Lemme know whatcha think! K, T or M? Or M++++? No way. I ain't writing that. I don't even know what M++++ could be. Do I want to know? Probably not.

A thick sheet of shimmering white lay over the streets and parks throughout Hakone as Hinata sat on her morning bus. She watched the dirt mingled water splatter onto the bus as it passed a deep ditch next to a parking lot fence. The parking lot was completely empty, which made her wonder if the town was doing badly in terms of tourism. She hardly ever saw any, much less foreigners. She didn't blame them, though, the place was essentially just one of those towns that simply existed but never served any real purpose. Nothing special, no famous people to mention it on TV as their hometown, no discoveries or particular wonders. That is, apart from Mt. Fuji. She glanced up and stared at the mountain stretching out across her horizon. That was all they had. A stupid mountain.

She was just twelve. Twelve going thirteen in exactly three days. She hadn't wished for anything, so she didn't really know what to expect except for her favorite meal; ramen with Zenzai (red bean soup). Her hair was a short bob cut, with her fringe as straight as her eyebrows and her eyebrows as straight as a plank unless if she moved them in some way to express her feelings, which she often did. She was not one not portray emotion, but she was timid, which often led to her often hiding herself from others. She had no real goal in life yet, just went to school and made sure to get the best grades possible because, well, there wasn't much else to do. At least not in this sunken town. She sighed and leaned back against her seat, stretching her arm out to see her watch from beneath her sleeve.

Soon quarter-past seven.

She sighed again, but then the bus stopped and someone stepped on. She took a brief glance, looked back outside, realized what stop they were at and immediately looked back. Color began to spread across her cheeks. Naruto-kun!

As the corners of her lips began to curl upwards, she could feel the heat rising to her face. There was one thing she loved about this town: Naruto Uzumaki. He walked past her, not even noticing her existence.

He was quite popular in school, always made people laugh, even the teachers. They would always scold him for not completing the homework, but then burst into laughter when he began giving terrible excuses. He was charming, loud, charismatic, funny; everything she wasn't. She started to fiddle with her fingers in her lap all the while wondering how creepy it would be of her to look back at him. She gathered her confidence and began to turn around, but regretted it halfway.

"Mornin', Hinata!" She gasped and started to fumble on her words. He was sitting right behind her!

"I-I… Uh-uhm…"

"Hm?" He leaned forwards across her seat and looked at her with a cocked brow. "Cat got your tongue?" He grinned. She felt his hair graze her shoulder and quivered.

"I… H… Hel-"

"Oh, have you done today's homework? I kinda forgot…" His grin turned nervous, this practical question helped her snap out of her panic and she gathered herself.

"Uhm… Yes… But I thi-think… I th-think it's du-due on Monday…."

"That's great!" He breathed a sigh of relief. "Man, I knew Ebisu-sensei would kill me if he found out I'd not done my last homework before moving…" Her heart stopped. Moving? Was he moving?

It seemed like he caught onto her confusion, as he went on to explain.

"Yeah, I'm moving to Tokyo on Monday the 27th. He seemed conflicted by what he was telling her. "Honestly, it's a little scary, but dad got a great job there and mom said we should go for it. Gonna start going to school in some place called Shinjuku."

Hinata couldn't believe what she was hearing. She didn't know how to react nor how to let it sink in. The boy she'd convinced herself was her soulmate was moving away… To Tokyo. She would never see him again. Her family had nothing to do there. She felt devastated, devastated because he was leaving for good and she would have nothing to look forward to, devastated because he was actually going somewhere. He was getting out of this boring town and would be able to meet so many interesting people, see new places and attend a different school, so much… While she would be stuck here, sitting on a bus going to the same school until she graduated from university only to then take over the family's green tea company. She felt like crying, but he was sitting next to her and she didn't want to embarrass herself.

"You okay?" She bowed her head and bit her lip.

"Th-that's wonderful… Naruto-kun… I'm… I'm so happy for you…"

"Oh, yeah…" He leaned back in his seat and rested his head in his hands, seeming to get lost in his own thoughts. "Yeah, wonderful might be the word…"

They spent most of the remaining time in silence and Naruto seemed to figure that she fell asleep. Hinata couldn't bring herself to focus in school that day. All she could think of was that she would never see him again and that she would have to say something to him before he'd leave. It was after all Friday and he was leaving on her birthday, three days from now. She stared idly between her notebook and at the snow outside. Snow didn't have to worry about such things, it could just fall on the ground and make dead things like trees look beautiful. She wished she had that power. Not to fall on the ground and make everything beautiful, but to be able to make bad situations not feel… so bad. Instead she'd just wasted all the years she'd had with him on staring at him and never saying more than "good morning" and "goodbye" if she dared. She'd wasted all her time with him and now there would be no more. She wondered, for a second, if she'd known that this would happen, would she have acted differently? Would she have cherished the time she had with him more?

The day neared its end. She had said nothing. Done nothing while everyone gave him gifts and hugs. At the end of it all, she just wasted every chance she had to talk to him anyway.

During the last lesson, she tried to write down what she wanted to tell him.

Dear Naruto-kun. I'm writing this to you because I don't dare to tell you in person. I want to make this short, I understand you don't want to waste time on reading my feelings for you. I'm sure you have a girlfriend that you care for a lot, but I want to tell you this because this will be the last time we see each other.

I like you, I've always liked you- The bell rang. School was over.

She paused and stared at the paper while everyone stood up and gathered their things to leave. The words kept repeating inside of her head like a mantra. I like you. I like you. I like you.

That's all she had to say. Three words. Was it really that hard? She shuddered while trying to imagine actually saying it. She crossed the words out, then rewrote them, then ripped the paper, then rewrote the exact same thing again.

A voice inside her head said to her "If you anyway won't see him again, why not just tell him?"

"But… What if he hates me…" she replied to the voice in her head.

"He doesn't! He always talks to you on the bus and treats you like anyone else!"

She stood up. And ran out.

All the hallways were empty, some were still lingering by the shoe boxes, some were just exiting the building. Hinata ran out in her indoor shoes and searched blindly for Naruto. Just then, she caught sight of him as he was approaching his parents' car with some friends behind him. She held the paper she'd written on tightly in her hand and tried to take a deep breath.

"Naruto-kun!" She yelled, and Naruto wasn't the only one to turn around. His parents looked up, too. Hinata felt like she was going to faint, but she only clenched her fists and shut her eyes briefly before reopening them and settling on just Naruto. He looked at her with somewhat raised eyebrows, waiting for her to talk.

"I…"

"What is it, Hinata? Are you okay?" She hesitated, the sound of his soft voice shattering her fabricated confidence. A snowflake landed on her nose and she looked up. It was beginning to snow again, another sheet of white preparing to lay rest on the town. To be like snow is what I wish.

Hinata shook her head so as to rid any irrelevant thoughts from her head. She took a step towards him and pressed her closed hand against her chest while getting eye contact with him.

"I like you!"

WHAT DO YOU WANT?