Prologue

I wasn't sure what compelled me bend down and gently ask why she was crying, it wasn't something I normally ever considered doing. Maybe because I couldn't help but feel sorry for her all slumped on the ground, quietly sobbing so hard tear after tear continued to fall, drenching the sleeves of her shirt which she wiped them with fully.

Who was I kidding. I knew why I did it. It was because I was struck by the aching beauty of it all. Hinata Hyuuga was by no means a beautiful girl classically, but she had the occasional striking feature that left her suspended between pretty and plain; bright pale eyes that seemed too large and round for a girl her age, long glossy indigo hair that framed her round face, and slender fingers that instantly rose up to her deliciously red mouth in surprise at seeing him there.

My heart throbbed in an uncharacteristically painful way as I watched her turn her head and quickly wipe away the tears from her glassy eyes. I tried asking her what was wrong again, but only got a incomprehensibly murmured response as she sniffled and tried getting up off the stage floor, pushing away my offered hand.

Sakura's sneering voice knocked me out of my temporary ogling and made me (reluctantly) turn towards her. She hadn't been talking to me, she had been accusing Hinata of being "a pathetic little whore". I wasn't sure which was more hypocritical, the "whore" part, or the "pathetic" part.

Sakura had been pining and chasing after me ever since…well, ever since she had first seen me. I hadn't even actually met her until several days later when she confessed her undying love towards me. Currently, however, she had taken up bullying poor Hinata who had the misfortune of being forced upon by the director (strangely enough, our gym teacher too) to play the leading role in the school's biggest play. The role Sakura was originally supposed to play.

I had never really expected the next little bit to happen, not when Hinata Hyuuga was the one to do it. She wiped away the last of her tears and looked up at Sakura with blank red rimmed eyes. Slowly and deliberately, she walked up to Sakura, her shoulders back and hands calmly relaxed at her sides looking just like the heiress to possibly one of the world's largest businesses should. Sakura herself looked intimidated by her. She shuffled back a step and instinctively brought her hands up to her chest.

"I've had enough." Hinata said quietly, her voice giving more authority than anything she could've said before put together.

Then she slapped Sakura across the face.

Sakura didn't move for a moment other than to slowly raise her hand up to her deeply reddened face. Hinata, suddenly realizing the sudden severity of the situation, hunched her shoulders forwards, drew her hands towards her chest and bit her lip nervously; all signs that her usual shyness and uneasiness had returned. She backed away, then sprinted out through the exit doors.

"So…I guess I get the lead now." Sakura grinned at me, knowing I played the love interest opposite the lead, "Next week we practice the romantic scene, you know?"

I gave her a look of disgust and shook my head, "I quit." Every step I took closer to the door that Hinata had ran through seconds ago, the resolution became more and more clear; it was her.

Hinata Hyuuga was the One.