Ice Queen

Prologue

It was at her 6th birthday when she received her first bike.

She loves that red and orange bike wholeheartedly. Those colors were quite 'masculine' for her. She loves her parents more for giving her such birthday present, and made a promise to take good care of it. When she was at the kindergarten, she would keep it locked in the garage, next to her father's rarely used mini van, only for family vacation when they have luggage for five even though there are only three people in her family. During weekends, she would take the bike to the nearest park and cycle there for hours, not taking in the scenery but simply enjoying the feeling of cycling on her new bike. When she got home she would wash dirt off the bike, especially around the tires. Her mother usually scolded her for going out first before finishing her homework. But she does not mind, she was not upset, because she loves that bike and every single second of her thoughts were only for her bike.

Holidays arrived, and she had guests over for awhile. It was a normal occasion; her cousins will come for sleepover and play until their parents come to pick them up few days later. She usually enjoys their company and play to her heart's content. But on that particular holiday, she was no longer enjoying herself and started to develop the feeling of dislike towards her cousins.

They should be going to the park that day, on foot. But one of the cousins spotted that bike. They like it. She said no, and they made quite a noise when the cousin started bawling his eyes out. Her parents had to stay neutral on the case, so they gave him permission to ride the bike. Unappreciative, he stuck out his tongue to her and rode away, while the rest ran after him, asking when they will get to ride the bike. She followed them, walking slowly and feeling dejected.

Her cousins got into an accident when they try to ride down the slope. One of them loses control over the handle and the one weighing down on the back panicked and shook the bike, trying to regain balance. They went into the ditch, flying to be exact, all bruised and wounded when the rest of the kids got to them. Her bike broke down; it was rattling when she pushed it, with scratches all over the body, peeled off paint and curved rims.

The cousins went home afterwards, none of them said sorry to her. Only her father and mother did, to the other parents. It was from that moment she started disliking her cousins and parents. That night her father came to her and told her they can fix the bike, paint a new color and everything. But none of those matter to her at all as for the bike was no longer the same for her; no amount of fixing will bring her birthday bike back.

When she reached 11 years old, she discovers the ugly parts of girl's heart she wishes to never have.

She was a cheerful girl, a friend to both boys and girls. She was fun to hang out with to boys due to her boyish attitude and she gets their jokes most of the time. The girls like to have her around because she does not put up attitude and she can adapt to their mood swings and selfishness. So they all really like her. The teachers were in dilemma as to how they were supposed to get her to study and play less, but they still did enjoy her playful nature at times.

She never knew how liking someone works; she assumed that when you enjoy one's company that means you like them. So when she answered 'I like you too' to one of the boy in class, she invoked wrath from half of the girl population in the class. Her cheerfulness blinds her from the fact that every girl in the class started treating her coldly. Soon the boys alienated her because they do not want the girls to tease and badmouthing them.

It was when the girls from other class starts pushing her away. She realized that she has been cast aside by everyone that she called friend. No one bothers to explain; they all just shrug and ignore her when she asked why. So everyday after school, she would run home and cried in the bathroom.

It was the last day of school before the Year End holiday. She was supposed to leave, but she needed to use the toilet. And it was by sheer luck that she overheard the reason why everyone had been so cold to her for months when two girls entered the same toilet.

She recognized the voices and they had been her close friends before. One of them was glad she would not be seeing her face anymore, the other one laughed like it was the funniest thing she had ever heard. She was stealing someone else boyfriend, said them. They also said she was pretending to be nice and friendly but actually a big flirt.

She was still sitting in the toilet stall when they left, in shock and disappointment. And that was the time she promised she would not be so cheerful and she will stay alone when the next semester starts, so they would not need to approach her and she would never experience things like this again.

These are two of the things she experienced while growing up to be a teenager. By the time she reached 15, she was so cold and expressionless that she was called ice queen by people around her. Even her parents do not know what she likes and dislikes anymore.

She had shut her heart down for the world even when the world is trying to reach her. With her mind still thinking everyone are the same as the girls and boys she used to go to school with. That everyone is the same as her parents, oblivious to her feelings and prioritize others.

-Ice Queen at her 15th year-

Minato stopped his car before the school gate and said goodbye to her as Naruko made her way out. She did not reply and made her way towards the school. He was dejected and hung his head low in desperation while muttering 'what am I going to do with my darling child' but the honking behind his car startled him and he drove away from the spot, still thinking about Naruko.

Naruko went pass the gate-guarding prefects and mutter greeting to the teacher on duty while slightly bow. She is a beauty, even the teachers agree. But her cold demeanor built an invisible wall around her, making her difficult to talk to, much less approach to.

It is her 3rd year in high school and almost everyone knew her moniker, Ice Queen. Almost, cause the 1st year were not aware of her existence yet. So it was no surprise some of them falls victim to her beauty and coldness, only to be rewarded with heartbreaks.

The ice queen does not have friends, her whole 2 and a half years in high school were filled with solitude in school and going home early. If anyone is badmouthing her, she does not know nor does she care to know. In fact, nothing in her school really instigates her curious nature.

She's not a grade 'A' student, but more like grade 'B' – grade 'C 'students. She does work hard for her study, mainly because she was always playing online games and read comic when she got home. Even though her mother always scolds her for neglecting her study at home, she does not give much response in form of conversation, so she decided to do her best in school.

She gains too much attention when she enters her class. But she does not acknowledge them and sat on her chair, prepping for the first class while listening to music through her earphones. So she does not realize a boy had been staring on her side profile ever since she came into his view. Sasuke Uchiha was not keen on staring, but sometimes he does not have control over his reflexes when it comes to Uzumaki Naruko.

If she is the Ice Queen of Konoha High School, then he's the Ice King. But this king's heart is slowly melted by the sight of the queen. So sometimes he would mentally cursed himself for staring too much and being attracted to her. The feeling does not bloom instantly on their first meeting, or to be exact; sight, since it's more like him watching her than them meeting face to face.

Their first year in school was difficult, starting from the opening ceremony, everyone was eager on making friends and acted as if dogs in heat, peeking at every chances to get a girlfriend or boyfriend. Everyone was doing that thing they called; High School Debut. He was always the center of their attention, much to his dismay, as he rather to be left alone than being circled by loud and obnoxious kids of his age.

If they were not loud, they were show-off. If they were not overly cheerful, they were self proclaimed gloomy kid. They were more concerned about how they are to present themselves than how their presentations of self mentally bother the people around them. So the first few weeks of high school, the king dismissed most of the people trying to approach him with cold shoulder.

It was by sheer coincidence, according to Sasuke, that he happened to sat side to side with Naruko at the entrance ceremony. It was also a coincidence they were placed in the same class. And also a coincidence they were both in the same History club. With so much chance meetings, there were no possible ways to miss her.

At first, he spent quite awhile staring at her. He realized that she was quite cold towards people, while he was cold-but silently angry towards most people, she was ice-cold instead. He had thought they were quite similar before noticing that.

He dislikes being crowded, dislike being gawked at. But she does not even hold any sentiment towards the crowds, she cast herself away from any form of attention but she does not particularly have a strong feeling towards people who stared at her. Unlike Sasuke, Naruko was left alone. No one was trying to approach her, but they are always watching her every moves.

But unlike everyone else, Sasuke sometimes gets to see her slight smile while looking at her phone when she thought no one was watching. Her slight blush when exiting a PC store (she was wearing outfit that best to describe she was being discreet, but Sasuke could tell it was her right away). He was puzzled by these discoveries back then, but soon he appreciates the fact that he was the only one who saw those moments. He was certain of it.

Sasuke also know something about Naruko that everyone else did not. She was not being her ice-cold self when she was around a certain person. Naruko was especially close to the school nurse. He was able to see her grins and hear her hearty laugh while lying on the infirmary bed. When Naruko realized he was around and she was being too loud, she apologizes with reddened face. He was forever thankful for catching cold that one day.

So from that moment he started to watch her, catching her smile once in awhile. It was probably due to his stupid decision to start watching her that he slowly began to like her. He likes her for her little smile that does not form so easily. He likes her for her effort to push away everything around her even though they do not go away. He likes her for choosing solitude. But then, it was probably because Sasuke likes her too much that he likes everything Naruko are.

They have no common thing to talk about however, despite of being the people of solitude. The infirmary incident was the only time when they properly face each other, and Naruko was the only one who said something. Sasuke is not the type of person to strike a conversation and Naruko does not seem to be the type to enjoy a sudden approach. So as much as he was frustrated at himself, he could not do anything to introduce himself to Naruko. So for more than 2 years, he had been keeping his thoughts and feelings to himself.

Naruko pulled her out earphones and shove them into her desk when she saw the teacher came in, not far behind a familiar student wearing different school uniform walks in. Naruko raised her eyebrows slightly due to shock. When everyone else stood up to greet the teacher, she stood up a second too late and Sasuke could not help but glance over to her side. He saw an unfamiliar expression and followed her gaze.

The teacher told them to sit down and introduce the student. He was a new student from another prefecture, changing school due to his father changing workplace. Sasuke thought it was normal and Naruko's expression reverted back to that of an expressionless one. But she was now looking at her textbook, and Sasuke grew suspicious.

"Hello everyone, my name is Ichihara Sai, pleased to make your acquaintances."

At this Naruko heaved out a little sigh and Sasuke memorize his name.

-end of prologue-