Ino yawned, plodding over to the kitchen for her breakfast. When she arrived, there were already two others at the table.
"Good morning, Ino!" her mother called.
"Morning, Mom," Ino replied. "And welcome back, Dad. How was the mission?"
"It went well, thanks," her father replied with a nod. "Speaking of which, you have a mission debriefing at noon today."
"Ah, okay?"
"Lady Hokage had me deliver the message," Ino's father finished, taking a sip of his drink.
Ino nodded, picking up a few slices of bread to toast. She put them in the toaster and looked through the refrigerator for milk. "All right, do you think you'll still need me for the first shift?"
"Probably not," Ino's mother replied, preparing a forkful of eggs on her plate. "I think I could handle it myself, but your father will be able to help out, too, now."
"Ah, right." Ino got out a cup to pour her milk.
"How about you go spend the morning with that Choji boy instead?" Ino's mother suggested.
"Eh?" Ino jumped as the toaster flung her breakfast up a few centimeters. "Er, why?"
"Well, you're good friends, aren't you? And I think he's pretty crazy about you," Ino's mom giggled.
"W-Well, I'm not crazy about him!" Ino replied, wrinkling her nose. "I mean, I don't usually mind hanging out, but… It's just kind of awkward now…"
"Well, why don't you like him? He seems like a respectable boy," Ino's mom continued.
"Mom!" Ino moaned.
"All right, all right, I was just asking," Ino's mother finished with a chuckle, turning back to her meal.
Ino groaned internally, setting her breakfast on a small plate and pointedly taking a seat next to her father. She munched on her toast.
Why don't I like him…? She shook her head. I don't need to worry about it… Besides, if I start confusing myself over that, I'll be distracted at my mission, right? We wouldn't want that to happen…
But no matter how hard she tried to avoid it, her mind kept coming back to that question.
He's just not cute enough. I mean, I'm not being shallow or anything; I'm just saying. If I have a choice between him and, like, a cute guy that acts like him, sure, I'm going to go for the cute guy.
Not that I particularly like the way he acts. I mean, he's a total pig; whenever the whole team all goes out to eat, he's pretty quick to try and snag something off my plate.
But he's not a bad person or anything… I mean, he's still really nice most of the time—well, pretty much all the time, unless you call him fat—and he's better than Sasuke when it comes to noticing me… But…
I'm just not in love with him.
Ino stared at her empty plate before mechanically taking it to the sink. She turned on the water, blankly watching all the crumbs go down the drain.
There's nothing wrong with that. I have my own free will. I don't have to be in love with somebody just because he loves me.
It's his own fault if his heart gets broken.
…Right?
A/N: Moms just LOVE making things awkward, don't they? :P