I slipped quietly into the office and went back to my desk with Lee behind me. He didn't go to my desk; instead, he went to the front of Tsunade's desk and waited only a little while for his teammates to arrive. I filled out more forms but every once in a while, I would feel him looking at me. When I looked up and met his eyes, unlike most people who would've looked away, he flashed me a bright smile that made his teeth glimmer and gave me a thumbs up. It was sort of funny and brought a smile to my face.
His teammates arrived only a minute after he had. One was a pretty girl with brown hair in buns and rosy cheeks; Lee's other teammate was an extremely pale guy with long dark hair. Tsunade assigned them an escort mission for tomorrow. Actually, the meeting was nothing special and Tsunade had two similar meeting in the same morning. The only difference was that Lee was there and he kept making me laugh, either by his determination or his gestures. His teammates shot me a few strange looks.
-o-
I have an hour for lunch break. I'm guilty, I'll admit it. When I saw Lee's bowl cut head go into a small restaurant, I couldn't resist following him in to see what kind of food he ate. It was a ramen shop. He sat down next to a blond guy who was talking quite loudly to a sweet looking violet haired girl sitting next to him. The funny thing was, these two people seemed like polar opposites, light, dark; shy, outgoing; but they were holding hands and the girl's face was tinted with pink. She seemed to be the kind of person who shied away from a relationship. In contrast, the blond boy was clutching her hand as though he wanted to make sure she didn't go away. I doubted she would.
This was all very romantic and nearly made me swoon but a second later, I was the one turning red, only it was from embarrassment. Lee had seen me and called me over, "Korela-san!" he waved to me and since I was looking directly at him, I couldn't leave and pretend not to have seen him. The cute couple also turned to me, causing me to redden even more. I shuffled over nervously and sat down tensely next to Lee.
Great, now I feel like a stalker.
"Coincidence seeing you here Korela-san." Said Lee, smiling brightly as the blond haired buy continued eating his ramen. "Yeah, I get a lunch break," I replied, though I wasn't sure I wanted to eat here after seeing the blond gobble his ramen down like that. I was probably staring at him weirdly because the pale eyed girl looked at me, "T-that's Naruto, s-sorry a-about his table-manners. M-my name's Hinata." She said shyly, stuttering a bit. It was actually quite endearing.
"I'm Korela, nice to meet you." The blond guy, Naruto, slurped one final time and looked at me with his piercing blue eyes. I nearly expected him to say something serious but when he turned to Lee, he asked, "So, is she your girlfriend Bushy Brows?" I turned red. I couldn't see it but I could feel my face flush, which probably only helped prove his point. Not that it was true. Instead of talking, I shook my head furiously as Lee exclaimed "No Naruto but Korela-san is a great person!" He didn't even blush or look slightly fazed or anything.
That certainly made me feel attractive and if you can't detect the sarcasm, you're a twit.
The old man working behind the counter asked me what I would like to eat and I ordered a shrimp ramen. I hadn't ever really eaten here and it smelled so good that I decided to go for it, disgusted by Naruto's table manners or not. I rarely ever ate ramen anyway so this would be a nice change.
Lee and Naruto were the ones talking the most though occasionally Hinata would chip in. I pretty much only talked when they'd ask me a question. I wasn't as shy as Hinata but I didn't know how to include myself into the conversation. I wasn't even really supposed to be here.
When my food arrived, I ate at a quicker pace than normal. I'm pleased to report that it was the best ramen I'd ever had. Maybe I should eat ere more often. The noodles were soft and steaming, the soup was salty but not too much and the shrimp were firm and juicy. I could see why Naruto liked this place so much, though eating four in a row was a bit much. After I was done and had paid, I stood up, "Hey Lee? I've got to get back to work. Thank you for inviting me to eat with you." I said goodbye to Naruto and Hinata too before leaving and heading back towards to the Hokage tower.
The second I'd left, I felt more comfortable but I was sort of sad because they'd seemed like nice people. I'd especially liked Hinata. I hadn't spoken to her much but she seemed like a really kind person and would shoot me shy smiles when Naruto was being really nice.
I arrived back into the office and sat down at my desk. Tsunade was busy opening another bottle of sake when she looked up and sniffed the air. "You didn't eat at Ichiraku's did you?" I blinked. "Ichiraku's?" She nodded. "The ramen shop down there. Lord, you spend even five minutes in there and you smell like ramen for over an hour." She turned back to her bottle, which she took a gulp of once it had popped open.
When she wasn't looking, I took a whiff of my white tee shirt and grimaced. I did smell like salt and noodles.
At about 4:30, I heard a thump and looked up, expecting Tsunade to have lied down on the desk again. She did, but this time she also spilled some sake on documents I had just recently filled out.
"Tsunade-sama!" I jumped up as she lifted her head. I snatched the papers away and tried to wipe off the sake but only spread it. I then settled for waving them wildly in the air to make them dry. Tsunade looked at me in boredom before grabbing them back and checking on them. "Just for some nobleman, no big deal." And she just waved it off. Just like that. I guess that when you received forms from the Hokage, you didn't really care that they were sake stained.
Tsunade laid her head on her arms and stared out the window. It was suddenly clear to me why she didn't care about her paperwork. I'd heard that Tsunade had been made Hokage because she was the only qualified person. She didn't actually want this job. How horrible. She was stuck doing a job she didn't like because otherwise, Konoha would crumble.
I took the papers and placed them into the finished pile. It suddenly seemed like life wasn't very fair, if someone like Tsunade could be stuck with a job she hated just because she was so powerful.
I was relieved when I could finally leave. The job was boring but a nice change from the noisy restaurant.
Now, it was perfectly normal for me to have run into Lee at the Hokage tower today. He was a ninja after all, it was bound to happen sooner or later. It was mere coincidence that I had seen him walk into the ramen shop. Following him in was my fault. Hehe. What I discovered today though, explains why we met the first time. Why I hadn't suspected it beats me. Wait for it.
Drumroll!
Lee lived near my apartment! Surprised? I know I was. Here's how I found out: As I was walking home from work, I saw him enter a house, only two streets down from my building. Instead of an apartment, he owned a small house. I suppose that since ninjas did dangerous missions, they got paid more. Heck, I'd pay someone a lot if they were risking their lives to protect me.
Yep, that's my super-amazing story. I saw him walk into his house.
Oh god, maybe I was a stalker!
You have to admit it though; it did explain how he'd been close by when I'd tripped at the grocery store. Sure, he could've just been around but this seemed much more likely. I wonder how I'd never noticed him before.
He hadn't seen me this time, thankfully, and I returned home and collapsed on my bed. It was only when my head was buried in the comforter that I remembered why he'd been in the Hokage's office earlier today. Right. Lee was going on an escort mission tomorrow. I wouldn't be seeing him for a few days.
Although I barely knew him and had only seen him a few times, I couldn't stop thinking about him and I was sad that he had to leave.
That's when I got an idea.
-o-
The next day, I got up early. Even for me. I wasn't sure at what time he had to leave but I'm guessing it should be near sunrise.
Just my luck it was raining out so I put on a pair of chocolate brown pants and a pink hoodie. It was still sorta warm out so I didn't put a shirt under the hoodie. I left but managed to stay relatively dry by walking under the roofs of multiple buildings the whole way.
Once I arrived, it looked like my theory about sunrise was confirmed even though the sun was currently hidden by the story clouds. Lee was shouldering a pack over his forest green jonin vest. It looked like he was going to take off soon and I doubted he would be walking to the gates of Konoha so I hurried to catch up.
"Lee!" I yelled, hoping he heard through the rain. Obviously ninjas have excellent hearing (or do they simply listen more?) so he turned around and spotted me.
"Korela-san. Hello! How are you this fine morning?" He asked, smiling, though I don't really need to tell you that by now. He's always smiling. "I'm doing fine though this isn't exactly what I'd call a 'fine morning'." I replied. I had stepped out into the rain to meet him and I now felt the cold drops of water dribbling onto my skull and rolling down under my shirt, where they evaporated and made the inside of my hoodie moist. My hand clutched the item in my pocket as I pulled it out of said pocket and held it out to him.
"Here Lee. I make these to thank people. I wanted to thank you for helping me when I dropped my groceries and for inviting me to eat with you and your friends yesterday. Thank you for being so nice Lee-san."
In my hand was a braided cord with green beads entwined in the braid. My father had shown me how to make them and I'd been giving them as thank you gifts since I was a kid. I liked doing this a lot better than sending stupid thank you notes. Lee blinked at it, surprised.
"I wear them as necklaces," I fingered today's, which had pale pink beads, "But you can put yours in your pack or something. I consider them good luck charms." God knows I need luck. Good luck. Not bad luck. Good luck.
Lee smiled at me. Not one of his usual grins, but a smile. He took the braid from me and put it into one of his jonin vest's pockets. He thanked me happily and I mean even more so than usual. I wished him good luck on his mission, though I knew that if he used the same energy on mission that he used for real life, he should be able to survive without any adrenaline at all. Even if they were attacked.
Just as he turned away though, I called out without thinking, "Lee!" He turned. "Yes Korela-san?"
I searched my head for something to say. "Umm… When you get back from your mission… come say hi, okay?" My cheeks flushed. That sounded so cheesy that I wished I could snatch it back but I couldn't. His cheeks turned pink, probably from embarrassment. "Of course I will Korela-chan!" He exclaimed.
Korela-chan?
I was in an especially good mood that day at work. I kept humming, which annoyed Tsunade a lot. She'd tell me to shut up and shoot me glares but I couldn't seem to stop for more than a few minutes.
When I got home at 5:30, the phone rang. It was Aurelie. Remember, my best friend Aurelie. The idiot who's scared of mustaches? Yeah, her. She wanted to know about my new job. At some point though, we talked about the restaurant and she wouldn't stop bringing up Chouji. "Chouji said… and it was so funny!", "Chouji…" She even told me what he ate that day. I chose my next words carefully. She'd never been this chatty about her boyfriends. Yes, plural.
"Aurelie, are you interested in him?" Yes, these were my carefully chosen words. Had I simply hinted at it, she wouldn't have understood. We were friendly enough so I could say it directly. If anyone besides me had said it, she would've crawled through your window and strangled you as you slept. With me, she'd simply get a bit angry then forgive me. Then she'd realized how she felt, either positive or negative.
She hung up on me. Wow. She'd never done that before. I smirked, which was rare for me. I though it was an arrogant facial expression. She must really like him. Who would've guessed? Aurelie, a hot brunette, falling for a chubby ninja with swirls on his cheeks.
Apparently, I wasn't supposed to call him chubby, fat or over-weight under any circumstances. According to Aurelie.