Author's Note: Hi, guys! Sorry for the delay, but finals are finally done! Here is chapter eleven, as promised. Hope you enjoy it!


Chapter Eleven

Despite standing quite far from where Sakura is, Hinata can notice the grim look on her pink-haired friend's face. She contemplates on asking her what is wrong, but something tells her not to. She feels stuck on her own body. She is torn between wanting to comfort Sakura and pretending not to notice—due to her delusional fear of Sakura rejecting her.

In the end, she decides to pretend not to notice and turn to Neji instead. She shyly looks at him from beneath her thick, dark lashes, and smiles to herself. He is walking slowly around the clearing with his gaze fixed on the sky. He doesn't seem to be wanted to be disturbed, so she leaves him be.

She glances at Sakura to see that she is approaching her with her hands inside her pockets.

"How are you doing?" Hinata asks.

A faint smile crosses Sakura's lips. "I'm doing fine. Why?"

Her lips form a thin line as she considers telling Sakura of her worries towards her. Sakura's vibrant emerald eyes are softly looking into her pale ones. Maybe it won't hurt her from sharing.

"Nothing, you just seemed…sad a little while ago."

"Oh, that!" she laughs half-heartedly. "It was nothing. I was just thinking about university."

Hinata detects the lie spilling out of her mouth. However, she doesn't want to press her for telling the truth, fearing that it will only make her feel worse. Somewhere in her gut, she knows it's about her teacher.

"I share the same worries as you, Sakura." She smiles, but it doesn't reach her eyes.

"Aren't you going to talk to your cousin?" Sakura says with a small voice, a smirk playing on her lips.

Hinata's face immediately flushes and she starts to fidget, avoiding eye contact from her pink-haired friend.

"Um…I…" she stammers. "I don't know…what to say to him."

"Talk to him about anything. I'm sure you can do it."

She considers Sakura's suggestion, her eyes fixed on the snow beneath their feet. She glances at Neji, who is approaching the two of them. She quickly turns back to Sakura with a nervous look on her face.

"You can do it." Sakura reassures her once again.

Hinata remains looking at her friend, still uncertain, when suddenly she hears Neji's voice behind her.

"Shall we go now? The temperature is dropping." He suggests to the two of them.

"S-sure." Hinata manages to say before turning to her friend. "Do you want to go now, Sakura?"

"Yes, please. It's freezing!"

The three of them walk down the path, which they used an hour ago to get to the clearing. Neji and Hinata are walking behind Sakura with a safe distance between them.

"Are you looking forward to go to university, nii-san?" Hinata asks him, breaking the silence weighing between them.

"Yes, quite." He says. "Why do you ask?"

"Nothing. It just seems very exciting that you're about to go to university in a different city."

"You have one year left of high school and soon you'll be away, too." He reminds her.

She fixes her gaze on the track beneath them as she walks a steady pace. "Yes, but a year seems so long."

"You won't even feel a thing until it's already happened." He says. "Before you know it, you're about to step into campus on your first day and you'll realize how much you've missed. Cherish every moment, because it will all pass right before your very eyes."

Hinata takes his words on to her mind quite seriously and deeply. He is right, though. Life has passed before her very eyes without her realizing it. She thinks that it was only a moment ago when she is holding her mother in her small arms. It was only a moment ago when Neji hated her with all his guts. And now, she is walking down the trail with him, whom she has fallen head over heels for.

"Do you have any regrets, nii-san?"

It takes him a while for him to answer her question, but when he does it surprises her on an ocean deep level.

"My only regret is treating you the way I treated you before. I've probably caused your life more misery to add on top of others, and I sincerely regret that. I wish I'd treated you nicer than that. You deserve to be happy, Hinata."

Hearing these words come out of his mouth, she feels like wanting to hold him in her arms and tell him that it's okay, that she has forgiven him for all the things he had done to her, that she doesn't hold a grudge on him. But her body feels heavy and it seems as though her lips have been stitched together. She cannot do anything but be silent.


Author's Note: Let me know what you think of this chapter. Hope you guys have a great weekend!