A/N: So, there will not be many author's notes for this story, most likely. Right now though, i want to clear some things up that were apparently not understood or inferred already:

1) In this fic, Sword Art Online still launched, but the only difference is that Kayaba didn't turn into a sociopath and trap everyone inside where they could die. This means that everyone prior to Shino met in SAO, they just didn't have to deal with the constant fear of death. This also means that Asuna and Kirito did indeed meet in SAO, fall in love, and so on and so forth, it just happened differently. I will not really focus on that though because that is not what this story is about. You may imagine it as you will for the most part. And also, everyone plays pretty much the same games as they do in canon.

2)This is just a fic i started for fun because i love this pairing, I wanted to do the 100 themes challenge, and i just wanted to make my first high school AU fic. I really haven't written one before, so this will probably not be the best fic you have ever seen. Constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated.

3) Shino, in my opinion was perfectly in character last chapter. The premise for this fic came from the fact that Sinon practically wanted to murder Kirito when she found out he was lying about his gender. I thought this would be an interesting way for them to meet each other and then build from there. Granted, she was a bit rude in the intro, but Sinon came out mostly because Shino was having a bad day, as you will see.

All in all, i am not hating on the people that left me reviews. i admit, i was a little peeved at first (i am human after all), but after thinking about it, i know i really have no right to complain. I asked for reviews and you guys gave me exactly what i wanted. So, i would just like to say thanks. i appreciate that you took the time to review for me. And those of you who decided that this fic is worthy of following, even for just a little while, my thanks goes to you as well.

Complicated

Shino stared at the boy across the room and felt her face heat up. It's him! The guy she ran into this morning! Yes, she guiltily admits to herself that it was indeed her that had caused that accident. It was just that she had been nervous about going to this new school after having bad experiences at her old one and she hadn't been paying much attention with butterflies in her stomach. And then, to make matters worse, she ended up knocking down some guy she didn't even know and landing on him in such an embarrassing position. Curse her and her flustered stupidity. As if things hadn't been bad enough, she had even acted like a total jerk to him! That was totally unlike her! If that had happened at her old school, she would have immediately and profusely apologized. Why was he different? Why did he have to be in her class?

As the bespectacled girl passed Kazuto on the way to her chair, the two of them seemed absolutely determined to avoid looking each other in the eyes. Both of them felt awkward just thinking about what had happened.

It basically went on like this for the rest of the day.

Kazuto didn't want to look at her because he didn't want to face her glare dead on. He could just feel the intensity with which she was glaring at him. He got the feeling that she was boring holes into the back of his head right now. In fact, he wouldn't have been surprised if his head was smoking.

Poor Shino was indeed staring at him, but not for the reason he thought. She was trying to plan out how she was going to apologize to him later. But she couldn't complete that plan, because once she figured she had a pretty decent layout, she remembered when she had been laying on top of him on the sidewalk and immediately felt embarrassed all over again. How could she possibly apologize for doing that and then being a jerk to him? He probably hated her by now.

As Kazuto tried to distract himself from the menacing girl behind him, he took out his notebook in preparation for taking notes. He opened it to a random page, planning on going from there to find a blank section. His pencil froze over the page when he saw what was on it.

This was definitely not his journal.

He flipped through it briefly, marveling at the contents. It appeared to be a sketchbook, now that he really looked at it. The drawings differed slightly, but for the most part, he could see a common theme. The pictures seemed to mostly consist of a gunner girl. She resembled a sniper to him and seemed pretty badass in his opinion. In each drawing, the girl had short powder blue hair and violet eyes. Her clothing consisted of green military gear and her weapons choice was a long, black sniper rifle. Kazuto leafed through the book and was a little impressed. The sketches kinda sucked near the beginning but they steadily improved as he went on. They weren't the best, but they were pretty good. He could at least tell what it was.

Kazuto absently checked the cover of the book, trying to see who it belonged to. He was not expecting to see the characters spelling out "Shino Asada" neatly written on the back inside cover.

Without really thinking about it, Kazuto turned in his seat to look at her. After a few seconds of staring, the girl looked up and Kazuto immediately turned away. He glanced through the notebook again. He must have accidentally picked it up when she forgot it this morning.

He would have to return it later.

The opportunity arose when everyone was heading home for the day. Shino was just exiting the school gates when she heard someone call out to her.

"Asada!"

She turned in confusion only to stare confusedly as she spotted a boy with short, black hair run up to her. He panted slightly as he held out a notebook.

"Here… this is yours."

Shino eyed him suspiciously before glancing down at the notebook. When she realized what it looked like, she panicked and checked her bag for her sketchbook. It wasn't there. Once she had confirmed it, she snatched the journal away from Kazuto and quickly leafed through it.

"You drew those, right?" Kazuto asked. "Cuz they're really good."

She looked up at him sharply, her cheeks reddening. "You looked in here?"

Kazuto glanced to the side guiltily. "Well, yeah—" he began, but before he could explain himself, Shino rushed off.

It was practically impossible for her to apologize now, she was far too embarrassed.

Kazuto just blinked as he watched her leave him hanging… again.

"Onii-chan?"

The boy turned around toward the voice. "Oh, Sugu. Hey. Ready to go home?"

Suguha Kirigaya nodded hesitantly, looking down the sidewalk behind him. "Yeah… who was that?"

Kazuto shrugged. "A new girl in my class."

Suguha's eyebrows furrowed. "She ran off pretty quickly. How do you guys know each other? Are you friends?"

Kazuto briefly glanced behind him, but Shino was already long gone. "Uh… well." He wasn't really sure how to put that. Just what exactly was the relationship between him and a girl he found intriguing while, at the same time, he knew that she hated his guts?

In the end, the poor boy just slumped his shoulders when he failed to find a plausible answer.

"It's complicated."

A/N: I read through my notes at the top several times, trying to be as unoffensive as possible. I really just needed to say those things for the sake of the future of this fic. Even so, i apologize if I offended anyone. It was not my intention.

Just remember that i love you guys (and i mean all of you) and you make me want to write so much! Keep being awesome :)