She could hear a soft murmur, as she rubbed her eyes.

The screen of her phone glowed as she reached over and picked it up. With one swipe, she placed it next to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Morning, bad news," Temari opened her eyes wider.

"The paparazzi caught you and Shikamaru - its hot news now, top of the search engines," Tenten sighed. "What are you going to do? You have an opening to attend, reporters will definitely ask."

Temari grunted as she covered her face with her hand. "Argh."
"My phone is getting bombarded at the moment, I will tell them I can't contact you yet." Tenten's voice turned into a beep.

Temari rolled herself over as she dialed on her phone.

"Hey," his voice was hushed. "Hold on, I will go to the stairwell."

"You know about what happened, don't you?" Temari sat up.

"Yeah, reporters are crawling all over the building's entrance." He muttered. "Troublesome, I can't even go down to have a smoke."

"Ha, sorry for being troublesome," she blinked as she shifted slightly.

"Tch," he sighed softly. "What are we gonna do?"

"Depends," Temari smiled as she frowned, her free hand tugging on the sheets on her bed.
"Will it affect your career, I mean," she could hear the worry laced in his nonchalant voice. "Your image is more important, for me it's nothing, for you it's everything."

Temari smiled, something tugged her heart strings when he said those words. "You know what?"

"What?"

"Screw the paparazzis," she smiled. "Let's go fully public."

"Really?"

"You don't want to?"

"Nah," she could hear him laugh through the phone. "I won't regret it if you won't."

He had anticipated it, as he stepped out of the elevator, he could see a horde of reporters waiting at the entrance of the carpark, their eyes glinting with excitement as he walked towards them.

"Shikamaru! Is it true that you and Temari are seeing each other?"

"Any thoughts?"

"What do you like about Temari?"

He turned around and smiled at them, after a brief nod, he headed towards his car.

He knew full and well that he was being followed, he did not mind it - as he drove on, he led them straight to the destination - the opening of the new Hyuga jewelry store.

He could sense the brewing excitement as the reporters trailed closely behind him, he straightened his dark navy suit as he stepped off his car.

Shikamaru raised his head in acknowledgment of the host - the colour on Neji's face drained as he became even paler than he possibly could, his hand that was placed on the guest's back retracted swiftly.

There she was, dressed in a dark navy dress that embraced her figure perfectly.

Temari arched an eyebrow - he did not tell her that he was coming.

The crowd seemed to have a surprisingly collectively mind as it made way for the man.

"Congratulations on your new store, Neji." He offered his hand, Neji took it, forcing the most embarrassed smile he had yet to see on the man's colourless face.

"Thanks," he said, as he tightened his grip and pulled Shikamaru closer, his lips next to his pierced ear.

"What are you doing here?"

"What does this look like?" Shikamaru smirked, giving Neji the most triumphant dirty look he ever made. "Marking my territory."

He let go of Neji's hand and headed straight to Temari's side.

"Why're you here?" Temari grinned, hissing each word.

Shikamaru smiled, the flashlights turned into an overwhelmingly blinding screen of white as he rested his hand around her waist.

"Going fully public," he leaned in and whispered in her ear.

From Shikamaru's peripheral vision, he saw Neji excusing himself as he walked, no, stormed into the store.

To him, it was the defeated walk of shame - Shikamaru had won this hand - the girl, the spotlight, everything he desired.

The reporters went into frenzy mode as they fixated their entire attention on the couple.

Shikamaru smiled as he led Temari away by her hand, the cameras snapping a continuous roll of photos of them holding hands.

Temari turned around, as she saw a distraught Tenten, she was not sure whether she was shocked by this sudden intrusion, or was disturbed by how down Neji looked when he walked in.

Temari gave her the look of approval as she slipped into Shikamaru's car, she sighed softly and waved at the reporters as they drove away.

As they drove, Temari folded her arms in front of her chest as she stared at the profile of Shikamaru's face.

"You did that on purpose," Temari said. "You know you don't have to do it in front of him."

"You don't understand," he said, he frowned as the words came out sounded much too blunt for his taste.

He did not turn around, as he felt her eyes shooting two rays of deadly glare at the side of his skull.

"Is this the reason why you are so willing to go public?" She snapped. "So that you could openly humiliate Neji, your rival from high school?"

He pulled up at the side of the road, and sighed softly.

"So?" She stared at him, biting onto her lips as he sat there, his eyebrows locked in a deep frown, not uttering a sound.

Temari waited, tapping her finger on her arm impatiently.

"That might've played a part," he said finally, softly. "I am sorry."

Temari laughed dryly.

"What am I to you? A trophy?"

"No," he said, abruptly breaking the rhythm of her speech. "No."

He slammed his fist on the steering wheel. "I thought it'd be a smart idea - especially I know that he's after you."

"Be honest with me, Shikamaru," he turned at her, there seemed to be a halo surrounding her as her back faced the dim streetlight. "What happened between you and him in high school?"

Something blacked out in Shikamaru's mind, his hand trembled a little, as if a fuse had blown in his mind.

"He was my bully, Temari." He said. "He is nothing like he portrays now, back at the day."

Hyuga Neji - captain of the martial arts team, best in everything … deferred one year just to participate in an international martial arts tournament.

The idea of competition never bothered him - he was born to win.

Until the day the facade broke, when some scrawny kid placed the last piece onto the chessboard and said to him, "checkmate."

Surely he must be some sort of freak?

Unacceptable - not even a spec of dust must survive in the pale eyes of Hyuga Neji.

"What did he do to you?"

"Most things you can imagine a bully doing, he did." Shikamaru said plainly.

"What did you do?"

"What can I do? No one was going to believe me anyway," he snarled sarcastically. "So I ran, skipping classes, dozing off and pretending that I don't care - that got me off the hook."

He turned to Temari. "I was a coward, and I know it - but I've given up on running away."

Gently, he took her hand. "Because there are things that I can't give up, I won't give up even if he gave me the world on a silver platter."

Temari smiled painfully at him.

"You're such a fool, Shikamaru." She said, smiling as she shook her head.

He stared at her, as Temari tightened her grip around his hand.

"Neji is not important, the only one that matters is you," she said. "I'm not going anywhere."

She grinned at him. "While it's cute to see you put up an act of jealousy, this is way overboard."

"Sorry."

She patted his hand gently and let go, as he started the engine again and drove.

Something had shed from him, the man in front of her was more vulnerable, more in the flesh than she had ever seen him.

He was very real - it was his imperfections that made him perfect, the way he is.

Temari shuddered as a thought came into her mind.

What about her own imperfections?

Author's note:

Well, while this story is mainly a rom-com, I decided to put in some drama and plots to add some depth in the story. This chapter is a bit heavy, I will try to lighten it up (or not) in the next haha

*a tiny shout out to captaindonavin on the end of the first passage - you have been one of the most loyal reader/ reviewer/ supporter and you just came to my mind when I created that conversation haha, I hope you enjoy xoxo

Stay tuned! Will try to update as soon as possible xx

V.S.V