Chapter Nine

The following day Hinata takes Sakura around town, visiting famous landmarks as well as window-shopping. They rest in a cozy café Hinata mentioned the night before when their feet hurt after walking too much and are dying for warmth. They sit on a table by the window. Fat drops of rain fall from the gray skies.

Sakura seems to be enjoying the comfortable silence, sipping her hot chocolate, when Hinata asks a surprising question with her usual soft voice. Sakura has to ask for her to repeat the question again and leans closer to hear well.

"Have you ever been jealous of someone?" she asks hesitantly.

Sakura cocks her head slightly to one side, looking at her bashful friend with a raised eyebrow. "Why the sudden question?"

Hinata blushes and stammers a quiet reply, "I was just wondering," turning her face away.

"Nothing comes to my mind if you ask me that all of a sudden," she says. "Why do you ask?"

"I have only been jealous twice in my life. The first time, I'm jealous of Hanabi. I'm jealous of her because she can prove herself she is—" Hinata pauses, her eyebrows knitting together. "She is everything father wants her to be. And as for me, I'm a disappointment to his eyes despite my hard work."

She licks her chapped lips and clears her throat before continuing. "The second time, jealousy has been rising deep inside me on a girl who is close to Neji-nii-san."

Sakura motions for her to continue.

"She was in the same class with him for two years, and I always see her together with him and another senior. The three of them seem pretty close, I was actually surprised that Neji-nii-san can get along well with others." Hinata shoots a glance at Sakura. "But when the other isn't around, she talks and laughs with him playfully while touching his arm so casually once in a while."

Sakura puts on a confused look on her face, which Hinata notices.

"It's impossible for me to talk and laugh with Neji-nii-san so freely," she explains. "I'm scared he will say something terrible to me or even look at me with such a hateful look, and that will tear me to pieces. I-I…I just can't."

"I thought you are starting to get along well with him?" Sakura asks before sipping her hot beverage.

"Yes, but there's still tension between us. I don't know how to describe it to you. And besides, he seems to have more fun with her than with me." She lowers her sad gaze and swallows. "I know it's wrong, but I'm in love with him."

She feels her hand on the table being squeezed. She looks up and Sakura flashes her a warm, gentle smile.

"I know how you feel."

A faint smile graces Hinata's sweet face and she squeezes Sakura's hand back. "All I've been thinking about is Neji-nii-san ever since that incident with the boys from my class. I just can't believe he actually cares about me, and I haven't even thanked him properly yet."

"You should buy him something as a token of gratitude," she suggests. "Or how about this, after we're back from here you go right up to him and thank him for saving you."

Hinata's face flushes daintily. "D-do you think I can do it?"

"Of course you can! Just say thanks and tell me what happens after that. Deal?"

The corners of her lips widen into a broad smile. "Deal."


Neji isn't home when they got back from the café after waiting for the rain to slowly stop. Hinata asks Hanabi where he is and she tells her he left with his friends and probably won't return until late at night.

"I think there's a class farewell party or something," Hanabi adds.

Hinata thanks her younger sister before telling Sakura he's away and retreating to her bedroom.

She lays on the tatami, pale eyes fixed on the ceiling, as she spends an hour or more thinking of the words to say her thanks to him. After dinnertime, she asks Sakura for advice, but it still doesn't help.

She takes a nice long bath after that, soaking her weary body in the hot water. Leaning her head against the cold tile wall, her mind drifts off thinking about Neji. She wonders if he is having a good time with his friends and classmates, and chuckles softly at the thought of it. She pictures him influenced by alcohol, smiling and laughing, being out of character. She imagines him stumbling to her room and pins her down so she can't move.

What are you doing, Neji-nii-san? She would ask.

He shuts her up by kissing her hard and passionately on the lips, and she can taste the alcohol on his tongue. His hands roam her body, feeling up her breasts as he licks her neck.

She shakes her head with her eyes tightly shut, bringing her back from her thoughts. She feels a strange sensation on her lower regions. She squeezes her thighs tightly to relieve it, but it still doesn't work. She immediately gets out of the tub, blaming the heat of the water for thinking such thoughts.

She comes to Sakura's room and talks with her, laughing and recounting old memories of them as children. Sakura has brought a photo album from her house filled with pictures of them when they were younger. Hinata regards the pictures slowly, laughing at them when half of their teeth were missing. They both still had child-like sparks on their eyes.

"We've changed a lot since then," Hinata remarks nostalgically, her eyes never leaving the pictures.

Sakura agrees.

Hinata retires to her room when she feels like she is getting tired. Laying in her warm futon, she finds it hard to fall asleep. It is as if the heaviness on her eyes has faded. She tries to read a book to pass the time, but it seems like she's reading a foreign language. She ends up lying on her back, eyes scanning at the details on the ceiling, as she lets her mind wonder from one thought to another. Slowly, her eyes start to close and she falls asleep to the thought of her cousin.

She is awakened by the sound of footsteps outside her room. She sits straight in her futon and sees a silhouette of a person on her screen door. Her heart leaps to her throat. She rises from her futon slowly and measures her steps towards the door. She is frightened. Who can that be outside her room in the middle of the night? With trembling hands, she quietly slides the door open and peeks out. She feels her whole body feeling faint and her head spinning when she realizes it is Neji standing outside her room.

"I thought you were a ghost," she says, clutching at the cloth of her shirt above her hammering heart.

The full moon and the stone lanterns illuminated the engawa and the garden. She felt there was something missing, and it was the sound of cicadas ringing in her ears. She can see a faint smile tugging at his lips.

"I'm sorry," he apologizes. "Did I wake you?"

She fingers the collar of her pajama shirt and nods her head slowly. She wonders what he's doing standing outside her room, scaring her like that.

"Did you just arrive, Neji-nii-san?" she asks instead.

"Yes." He answers. "Sorry. I'll go to my room now."

He is about to turn to his heels and walk away when she tells him to wait, her voice ending up louder than she intends it to be. He turns his gaze to her face and waits for her to speak.

Even in the poorly lighted place, his pale lilac eyes are still able to look right through her. She feels naked under his gaze—as if all her emotions and darkest secrets are revealed just by one look. She then remembers the thought she had in the bath. She averts her gaze away from him, blushing.

"I didn't get the chance to thank you properly," she finally says after a long moment of pause.

"Thank me?"

"For that time when you saved me."

A rare chuckle escapes from his lips. It sounds so nice in her ears to hear him laugh like that, even though it is directed to her.

"You don't have to thank me, Hinata," he says, smiling. "I don't want anything bad to happen to you."

She feels all the blood rushing to her cheeks and her heart pounds hard against her ribcage. She cannot feel the cold wooden floor beneath her feet.

"Did you have a good time with your friend today?" he asks.

She shyly looks up at him, beaming. "I certainly did. And how about you, Neji-nii-san?"

"I had a good time too, but I'm really tired so I went home early."

"Is that so?" she turns her head to look at the clock hanging on her wall. It was a little past eleven. "You should go and rest, then."

"You should sleep too. I'm sorry for startling you." He says, his smile still in place. "Good night."

"Good night, Neji-nii-san."

She flashes him a warm smile. She remains standing outside her door as she watches him walk away towards his room on the end of the engawa. The whole time she wishes for him to turn back and smile at her before going inside his room, but he never did.


Author's Note: Hi, everyone! Sorry for the late update. I couldn't open at home, but now I'm back to school. Don't forget to leave a review! I will really appreciate your thoughts.