Author's Note: Hey, everyone! Obito-Wan Kenobi here! I finally managed to upload a new chapter for this fic. Sorry for the wait :D Without further ado, here it is chapter two! Enjoy~
Chapter Two
Weeks had slowly passed, and Hinata still hadn't made any friends yet. Sure, she talked to her classmates in a very shy manner (nothing more than a nod and one sentence responses), but they usually come to her to ask if there were any assignments to do.
Every day she goes to school and goes back home with Neji by train, and she did her best to conceal her pain and loneliness with a wide smile. She didn't want her cousin to worry about her. However, Neji was no fool. He noticed the lonesome in her eyes whenever she gazed at a group of girls from their school laughing together at the train. He wished he could do something other than smiling kindly at his cousin.
Hinata ate lunch alone in the classroom. She looked around from where she sat and saw a couple of girls sat facing one another and giggled at the latest gossip. They were Haruno-san and her best friend from a different classroom. A group of anime otaku huddled together and talked about anime excitedly as they ate their lunch together.
Her eyes wandered again to the red-haired boy two seats in front of her. His chin was resting on his palm and his eyes were fixed on something outside the window.
Sabaku-san always looks so lonely, she thought to herself as she swallowed her food. Not to mention, he's often seen alone whenever he's not with his brother. She looked closer again and noticed that he was listening to music.
Not many people dared to either talk or approach Sabaku-san. Quite a few girls admired and crushed over him because of his mysterious personality, but not a single one of them dared to talk to him. Hinata never saw any girl giving bento to him, though.
She had heard from a group of girls in the hallways that Sabaku-san got himself in a lot of trouble in junior high school. The fact that he got accepted into an elite high school surprised her.
When Hatake-sensei announced that the whole class was to partner up, Hinata wanted to groan loudly and throw herself out the window. She didn't want people to see that she didn't have a partner. That way, they would think that she was a loner.
She could feel hot tears forming on her waterlines when the whole class got excited and moved closer to one another in order to do the project. Tears threatened to fall, but then she heard a raspy male voice next to her table.
She looked up and saw Sabaku-san standing next to her table.
"Ah, sorry," she wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand before looking up to him again. "Can I help you, Sabaku-san?"
"I suppose you don't have a partner?" he said with a monotone voice.
"No." She shook her head.
"Do you mind if we work together?"
She could feel her cheeks growing warm and her heart beat faster in an ecstatic manner. "Not at all, Sabaku-san!"
For the first time that semester, a real warm smile crept up to her face.
She noticed that he seemed somewhat startled to see her smile. Before she could ask him what was wrong, he spoke to her in a rushed manner.
"Let's work on the project at Starbucks after school. We'll go there together. I'll wait for you near the school gates."
The warmth spread to her ears, and she nervously nodded her head. "O-okay."
He hummed and went back to his seat without giving her a smile. It didn't matter anyway. She felt very happy, excited, and nervous at the same time to working together with Sabaku-san.
"Alright, I want you to summarize half of the first chapter from page one until twenty-five," said Hatake-sensei. "I don't want plain summaries, I want you to be creative with this project. Three groups who make the creative ones will get extra points. I'm giving you two weeks to do this." He chuckled slightly in the end, and Hinata looked at him funny.
Hatake-sensei cleared his throat before speaking again. "Everyone, please open page twenty-seven."
Hinata's heart seemed to stop for a moment when she heard the bell rang. She purposely collected her things slowly while she watched Sabaku-san scrambled quickly out of the classroom with the others.
Despite how happy she was, she was curious why he wanted her to be his partner. She was also curious why he knew her when she wasn't exactly one to "stand out" in the classroom aside from the fact that she gets good grades.
She sighed to herself as she got up from her desk. She overthought too much, and that isn't good for her.
She was surprised to see Neji waiting for her outside her classroom. She would usually see him outside the school building.
"Hello," he greeted her with a friendly smile.
"Neji-nii-san," she said, "you can go home first. I have something to do with a classmate." Her heart lit up with joy that she could finally say that to him.
One of his eyebrows raised. "A classmate?"
She couldn't hold back her wide smile. "Yes, a classmate."
He pursed his lips together into a smile and let out a hearty chuckle. "Very well then."
He started to walk and she followed behind him like she always did. A wide smile still plastered on her face as her eyes wandered about excitedly while they walked.
"Have fun, Hinata. Don't be out for too long, you still have school tomorrow." Neji said to her by the time they reached the shoes lockers.
"Don't worry, Neji-nii-san!" she said, her eyes twinkled with happiness.
Neji hadn't seen her that happy ever since that day they went to Kyoto during the winter break. He had the urge to pat her head because of how cute she was, but decided against it. He flashed her a smile instead, and said his goodbye.
Hinata walked out of the school gates and found Sabaku-san leaning against the wall with both his hands crossed in front of him.
"I'm sorry, Sabaku-san," she apologized to him. "I must have made you wait."
"Don't worry about it." He said flatly, and then walked away with her following behind him.
She kept her head down while she mentally told herself to relax and breathe. She wanted to speak to him, but she didn't know what.
She opened her mouth, but he interrupted her.
"What's your name?"
She was slightly startled and quite disappointed that he didn't know her name. "Hinata. Hyuuga Hinata."
"Hyuuga Hinata…" he said to himself thoughtfully. "You must be Hyuuga Neji's relative."
"Yes, I am his cousin."
"Ah…" he nodded his head.
Both Hinata and Sabaku-san were silent when they sat down together at Starbucks after ordering their drinks. She had expected that she would be the one to talk a lot since she was very happy and excited, but it turned out that she was as silent as ever because of how nervous she was. Sabaku-san hadn't said a word to her either.
Hinata stared at her history textbook and pretended to read to keep herself from fidgeting her fingers together. She wanted to say something to him—anything!—but words failed to come out of her lips. She couldn't even open her mouth.
"I'll summarize page one until sixteen and you'll do the rest," Sabaku-san said apathetically without glancing up from his book to look at her.
"Okay." She said softly and flipped the pages. She looked up to him and spoke again with a soft voice, "Um, Sabaku-san?"
He looked up from his book and fixed his gaze on her.
"Hatake-sensei told us to be creative and—"
"No." He interrupted her. "We'll just type it."
She blinked a few times. "O-okay."
Hinata had never felt so relieved in her entire life when she was finally back home. She couldn't stand being with Sabaku-san, who gave her the cold shoulder and answer her with quick short responses.
"Tadaima," she whispered to herself. She didn't expect anyone to welcome her back since she lived in a large house.
The warm feeling of relief quickly faded away the moment she said that. Despite how large her house was, it was as cold as a museum. She noticed that it had been that way after her mother passed away shortly after giving birth to Hanabi. Her father refused to look at Hinata for a few years until she was in her first year in junior high school. Neji, who lived under the same roof as they did after his father passed away, gave her the cold shoulder until she was around thirteen years old. Hanabi only came to her if she needed something.
Memories of her mother would usually come back to her like flashes of kaleidoscope that made her heart warm and ache with longing at the same time. She couldn't understand how fond memories could make her feel such sadness as well.
Author's Note: Thank you for reading! Don't forget to review, if you'd like, and constructive criticisms are very most welcome!