CHAPTER 4

"What is your name?"

The school's most popular jock was currently standing in the middle of the corridor with his body dipped forward and his arms holding onto a petite girl. She stared into his almond shaped eyes in shock, not expecting this particular boy to catch hold of her when she slipped over the freshly mopped ground. Her silver-framed glasses slid down her nose slightly from the sudden movement.

"Y-Yui…" she replied breathily. "Masuoka Yui…"

"Hn."

And with that, he released his hold of her. Yui fell backwards onto the damp ground with flailing arms. All that left her mouth was a hoarse yelp before her bottom made contact with the floor. A collective gasp from witnesses around them was heard.

Instead of expressing remorse for his actions, the boy nonchalantly tucked his hands into his pockets and sneered at her. "Your glasses are too big for your face," he remarked unkindly before sauntering off.

"Cut!"

Sasuke heaved a sigh of relief that this scene was finally over. He counted a total of 11 cringeworthy moments between the two leads over the course of 18 episodes, and he was filled with deep-seated embarrassment each time it was announced that one of those scenes was going to be filmed. On the bright side, he was done with the first one of them.

He then looked down at Hinata, whose face was currently scrunched up into a wince. "Hey, are you alright?" he asked.

Hinata blinked at him for a moment before shaking her head, a soft smile adorning her lips. "I may bruise later, but it's okay. I almost thought you were still in character."

Sasuke's brows shot up at that. "Why?"

"It's just that you're quite similar to Kaito sometimes…"

He could not help but scoff at the notion, but he realised belatedly that this only reinforced Hinata's point. "I'm not a bully," he replied with a slight hint of indignance. As if to prove a point, he reached out a hand to her. Hinata smiled and offered him a word of thanks as he helped her up. He made sure to brush his thumb against the inner part of her wrist before letting go of her.

"Ne, Sasuke-kun, how do you feel about acting so far?"

The raven-haired man slotted his hands back into his pockets and replied, "It's more tedious than I thought it would be, but overall the experience is quite good. What about you?"

Hinata nodded in agreement. "Same here… I didn't expect there to be so many takes for some of the scenes. I cannot help but wonder if it's because I am doing a poor job…"

"No, you're doing fine."

Upon hearing this, Hinata looked up at him like he had hung the moon. Her pearlescent eyes were sparkling with happiness, and that caused something within Sasuke to stir. "Y-You really think so?"

Sasuke graced her with a small smile in return. "Yeah. They wouldn't have casted you after the audition if they thought you would perform badly." He shocked himself because he found that he meant every word.

"Thank you, Sasuke-kun," she replied shyly, with a cute blush adorning her cheeks.

Well, now that she seemed to be in a good mood, it was probably an opportune moment to…

"Hinata."

"Y-Yes?"

"Have dinner with me tonight."

There he said it. There was no going back now. Hinata's eyes widened into saucers, clearly taken aback by his forwardness. Well, Sasuke was not exactly one to be subtle after all. Now all he had to do was stand there and await her affirmative response.

Or more specifically, the affirmative response that did not come.

"I-I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun. I agreed to spend time with Kiba-kun tonight…"

What?

Sasuke's mind blanked out completely. He must be hearing things – it must have been some white noise that he heard instead. It was impossible for Uchiha Sasuke to be rejected twice by the same woman! This was not part of the plan!

Sasuke did not know what kind of expression he was making, but Hinata must have noticed his existentialist thoughts as she lowered herself into a bow to apologise again. He blinked his eyes into focus at the head of indigo hair, and for an instant she reminded him of Sadako from The Ring. He narrowed his eyes at her in frustration. She was incontrovertibly a demon for shredding apart his dignity over and over again. At this point she was unforgivable.

"Where are you two going?" he finally spoke up. He mentally praised himself for maintaining an impartial tone.

"Ah… Kiba-kun's apartment. He moved into our dormitory recently, and he was kind enough to invite me to see his place."

Now this was truly ridiculous. She was rejecting him, the Uchiha Sasuke, to go to some other man's house. She had not even gone to his, so how dare she betray him like this! It was besides the point that he had never invited her. The point is that she should have asked to visit him! And being the magnanimous senior he was, he would have let her in!

Sasuke forced himself to bite back the thick swirl of negative feelings in his gut. No, he was not jealous – just immensely annoyed that a third party was now getting into the way of his plans. Hyuuga Hinata could fool around with whoever she wanted, but not if it ruined his only foreseeable means of revenge.

In the end, Sasuke clucked his tongue and strutted off. He was not going to stay in her presence any longer to wallow in self-pity. He was instead going to hate-read the script to prepare for their next scene, like the hardworking lead actor he was. Hinata turned around to appraise him, but all she received was a dismissive wave and a cavalier "have fun with Inuzuka".

Hinata sighed and leaned back against the wall in defeat. She could not help but feel that she had offended the raven-haired man in some way, but she did her best to convince herself that there was nothing she could reasonably do. He was such an unpredictable character sometimes – just like Kaito. A tiny smile made its way onto her face at that thought.

It was in that moment her thoughts were interrupted by a loud call of her name. Kiba materialised before her with a bottle of water in his hand and he held it out to her. "I caught a glimpse of one of the earlier takes. You did really well! Here, have some water." Hinata beamed at the brunette and accepted the bottle with thanks.

"Ne, Kiba-kun," she said after hydrating herself. "Do you want to invite Sasuke-kun to your apartment tonight?"

The man blinked at her dramatically for a moment before he broke out into a sheepish smile. "Ah… I thought about that, but it feels a bit awkward because I'm not really close to him, y'know?"

Hinata nodded in understanding. Oh well, at least she tried.

Kiba then leaned forward and whispered into her ear, "I can trust you with a secret right?"

Hinata nodded again and listened to him intently.

"I know this is prohibited, but I have a dog in my apartment. His name is Akamaru."

She gasped in delight. Kiba immediately shushed her to avoid drawing any attention from the people strolling past them. His eyes turned into crescent moons this time when he smiled at her.

"I knew it! I knew you would be happy to know about this. You can come over and see him for yourself tonight!"

Hinata mirrored his cheeky expression and hid her wide smile behind her hand. It was truly a pity that Sasuke would not be there to play with Kiba's dog.

It was almost 10pm that evening but Sasuke was still loitering around in the dance studio, dressed in only a pair of black sweatpants. His off-white hoodie had been discarded long ago. The man sank down in front of the mirror to examine his own face up close. Fatigue lines were starting to appear near his eyes, which was a terrible sign. It was only the first day of his shoot, but he was already struggling to balance his commitments.

He mentally listed the things that he was juggling: his acting gig, Team 7's dance practices in preparation for the release of their new single, the nightly studying routine that was probably unnecessary at this point, and his usual solo dance routines. He was unwilling to compromise on the last item, as dancing was his way of escaping from the problems that he faced in the day. It served as a quiet respite where he needed only to feel, not think. Naruto and Sakura learned about this coping mechanism of his quite early on and tactfully decided to let him spend most of his evenings alone in the studio.

He let out a sigh at the dark realisation that all these commitments were beginning to chip at his sanity. He would usually dance away his worries in street jazz style, which was a departure from the usual hip-hop routines he would go through with Lee, but today he found himself lacking in energy, and it frustrated him greatly to see the evidence of his body's limits.

I wonder if I should try something more mellow for once, he thought.

Without a second thought, he dragged his lethargic body to his phone that was lying on the floor across the room to scroll through Spotify. He squatted down and typed in Hinata's name. He clicked onto her profile and began to browse her discography. She had done a few features in other artists' songs, which was where she ventured into the pop genre, but the majority of her original songs still fell within the ballad genre.

He began to listen to excerpts of a few songs, secretly marvelling at her impeccable control over her voice. Hinata's voice was as smooth as velvet. Contrary to what he told his viewers, he had not listened to her songs prior to his recent Instagram live, but now that he was listening to them, he begrudgingly realised that he could actually listen to them in the wee hours of the night when he felt like he wanted company.

After a minute or so, he clicked on one song decisively and walked towards the speaker in the middle of the room that was connected to his phone. He began to stretch his limbs in front of the mirror, mind racing with the myriad of ways in which he could visually transform this song. With one last stretch, he allowed his limbs to guide his mind.

The contemporary dance genre was not something that he dabbled in often, but he found himself enjoying its novelty. It had possibly been years since he attempted something of this genre, so the rediscovery process felt deeply nostalgic in a way.

About half an hour had passed, and he was almost satisfied with the work that he got done for the chorus of the song. He had to admit that it was not a perfect choreography, and neither was he as polished as he could have been, but it was ultimately a serviceable performance. He decided to record this last dance before he left to catch an early night's sleep.

However, to his surprise, he heard the click of a door open. He whipped his head around, and lo and behold – the pretty demon's head poked through the doorway. Sasuke's heart nearly stopped when he realised that the music was still playing.

Oh, SHIT!

Sasuke cursed under his breath and made a dive for his phone to switch off the music, but he suspected that he was too late. Surely the singer of the song would be able to recognise her own song by hearing only a second of the track. He had left the music playing for an extra five seconds or so. He was beyond certain that he was busted.

Yet, his body had flung itself across the room with the form of a goalkeeper to access his phone, resulting in a rather painful landing. Hinata gasped at his dramatic stunt and burst into the room gracelessly to check on him. Sasuke lay on the ground in a fetal position trying to process everything that had happened. His hand clutched onto his phone tightly.

"S-Sasuke-kun!" Hinata exclaimed, and within a few seconds she had crossed the room and was hovering over him, a look of unbridled worry etched on her face.

"Hinata," he replied stoically in greeting. However, his heart was beating wildly in his chest at the prospect of all the embarrassing things she could say to taunt him for dancing to her song on the same evening she rejected his company. This is all a huge misunderstanding! he wanted to scream at her. He was only practising for his next contemporary class with Lee, nothing more!

"You must have hurt yourself…" Her hands hovered over his body awkwardly, and Sasuke could not help but suspect that she would have reached out to check his arms for bruises if not for the fact that he was shirtless.

"I'm fine," he muttered and got up to his feet to prove his point. Hinata's eyes followed him carefully as he made his way to the opposite end of the room to retrieve his hoodie. In one smooth motion, he slid on the hoodie and turned around to acknowledge the demon properly. If he bruised later on, it was most definitely her fault as well. She had no business barging into his dance studio at night when he was having a private moment.

"Why are you here?"

Hinata got to her feet and skipped over to him. She held out a small plastic bag of items to him – a bag that he had not noticed her carrying when she first walked in. "T-This is for you."

Without even casting a glance at the contents of the bag, he looked her straight in the eye and asked, "Why?"

Hinata began to grow flustered. "I…I felt bad that I did not spend time with you after the shoot, so after leaving Kiba-kun's apartment, I went to the convenience store nearby to get you something to eat."

"And how did you know I would be here?"

"I didn't at first… I went to your apartment but you weren't there. Naruto-kun was the one who told me you might be here."

Sasuke facepalmed at this. Now thanks to the dobe, Hyuuga Hinata knew of his favourite night spot. Yet, for some unfathomable reason, he could not bring himself to be upset about this. Letting out a sigh, he gestured to the floor and took a seat. Hinata followed suit.

This time, Sasuke watched her extract the contents of the bag quietly. Laid out before him was a bottle of diet coke, a small piece of bread with red bean filling and a vanilla ice-cream cone.

"I didn't know what you liked, but I thought you would not want to eat anything heavy at this time of the night… I can have anything you don't want from here."

From the items that she had purchased, it was clear as day that Hinata had not viewed any of his fanpages. It was a well-known fact that he did not fancy sweet food, and yet here she was bestowing him with them. However, even the petty side of him could not summon the energy to badmouth her in his head, not when she looked up at him expectantly with her bright doe-like eyes. With great reluctance, he acknowledged that this pretty demon had good intentions after all.

He mumbled a word of thanks and reached for the ice-cream. From his left, he heard Hinata make a noise of surprise. "What's up?" he said as he began to tear through the wrapper.

"It's nothing… I didn't expect that you would take the ice-cream…"

"Me neither."

"E-Eh?"

"But singers should avoid cold foods, especially at night." Hinata felt a blush spread over her cheeks at the implication behind those words.

"Ano, I still eat ice-cream at night sometimes."

Sasuke licked a stripe off the ice-cream and gave her a deadpan look. "Hn. You should take better care of your throat."

Hinata began to poke her fingers together sheepishly, as if ashamed for being called out. "Y-You're like my manager."

"She's clearly not doing a good enough job. Your manager should make sure you avoid foods that are bad for your throat."

Hinata let out a giggle at this. "S-Sasuke-kun, maybe you could be my food manager then."

Sasuke froze, running her words through his mind over and over again to figure out what she was implying. A few seconds later, he still came up with no answer, so he decided to try his luck. He leaned back to rest on his hand and curled his mouth up into a playful smirk. "Sure, but how will you pay me?"

As expected, Hinata began to stammer out some incoherent things while frantically twiddling her thumbs. Her face was now as pink as a beetroot. In the end she whispered, "I-I could buy you m-more food…"

To her surprise, Sasuke's grin transformed into a small, sincere smile. "Sure." His response was terse, but Hinata's entire being lit up with joy at that single word. Sasuke could not help but find her happiness contagious. He looked up at the ceiling and allowed himself to bask in Hinata's quiet company. It was not something he was used to, but he found himself enjoying this change nonetheless.

"Hey."

"Y-Yes?"

"Did you hurt yourself from the fall today?"

Hinata blushed. Her eyes flitted down to look at her hands. "I received a bruise, but it's okay. It is part of the job."

Sasuke crumpled up the ice-cream wrapper and shoved it into the plastic bag. "Do you need an ice pack?"

She shook her head. "It is okay. Thank you, Sasuke-kun."

"Hn." Sasuke got to his feet and, to Hinata's surprise, he held out a hand to her. "Then dance with me." Hinata slotted her hand into his warm one and allowed him to pull her up to her feet.

"I-I am afraid I am no good compared to you…" she mumbled abashedly.

"It doesn't matter. In this room you only have to be yourself." He ignored her blush and walked towards the speaker to deposit his phone.

"Just don't make me dance to my own songs," Sasuke remarked pointedly. His head was now turned towards her, waiting expectantly for her to suggest a song for him to key in.

"A-Ah… I was going to ask you to play Team 7's last title track…"

Sasuke paused for a moment before letting out a sigh. "Fine. Do you know the choreography?" Hinata surprised him by nodding. "I assume you watched Naruto's fancams till you remembered every step?"

The blush on Hinata's cheeks told him all that he needed to know. For some reason, Sasuke felt slightly bitter about this, but he made sure he gave nothing away. In the next moment, the hip-hop song reverberated throughout the studio. He moved to sit down with his back resting on the mirror so that he could watch everything.

Hinata cowered from the attention initially, but after a short moment she took a deep breath and reached down to tie a knot on her t-shirt near her sternum. Sasuke observed her as she fumbled with the knot for a moment, feeling a wave of nostalgia wash over him. This was a familiar sight after all.

He hated to admit it, but while the demon was pretty on stage, she was even prettier when she was dressed in a loose pair of joggers and a cropped top. He continued to watch in amusement as she kicked off her sandals and jumped in at the chorus barefoot.

True to his memory, Hyuuga Hinata was incapable of executing a hip-hop choreography. She glided across the floor with movements that were as smooth as water, but without the powerful attitude required for the dance. Yet, when she met his gaze, her eyes turned into crescents and she gave him an open-mouthed smile. He should have been at least a little mad that she was turning one of his favourite choreographies into something that bordered on being cute. Yet, the cynical voice in his head was quiet for the first time in two weeks.