7/25
For Shikamaru Nara, there were two types of people that existed in the world.
The first were the people that were generally tolerable. That went their own ways, lived their own lives and left him to live his life as he pleased. The second were the troublesome ones: the ones that were generally annoying. Those that pretended to be friends in order to present his own work as theirs, that tried to get him to date women they thought suitable, the ones that rolled their eyes at him and called him lazy.
And then, there was Ino Yamanaka.
The days following their meeting in the courtyard (Shikamaru had found it largely entertaining, actually, but he could already see that would only be his own personal opinion) he saw her trice; twice during lunch in the courtyard, once at the bus stop, in the evening. She still was alone, her constant shadows in pink and blond suspiciously absent. When she crossed the courtyard during midday she ignored him, stalking by without turning her head. In the evening, at the bus stop, she had headphones on. She didn't see him but he doubted she would have seen anyone at that moment. Her expression was far, far away.
He wondered what she was listening to.
The yellow light of the bus stop lantern fell across her blond hair and made it shine, but her face was in the shadows. It was oddly appropriate; and he couldn't look away.
There hadn't been a woman like this in his life ever before.
Shikamaru wondered about her quite a lot. What did eat for lunch? What did she work on? Why did she frown, sometimes, and what caused the tiny smile on her face on other days? Where was she from, what kind of music did she like, was she reading novels on her eBook reader or papers for work? He already knew that she was in her second year of her PhD, just like him, that she had studied chemistry and economy and switched to chemistry then, that she worked in the new science building (the one immediately connected to the humanities building) and that she was polite enough usually but would switch to an almost snarky teasing mode with people she liked. He didn't know why she seemed to react so viciously towards him, and why, and whether there were others that brought out her ire like he seemed to do. He also didn't know how she would look like if she ever had to concede defeat, and he wondered.
He wanted to know.
What a stupid notion, this current fascination of his. She was too troublesome to think of further; too proud and too easily riled up. Too pretty, too involved, too self-conscious. She was everything Shikamaru could not stand.
Nevertheless, the next time he saw her in the courtyard, passing through accompanied by pink-haired girl and blond guy, he fixated her until their eyes met.
She flushed with anger. Shikamaru smirked.