CHAPTER 2

It was 7 o'clock in the morning and Sasuke was lying on his bed, bewildered. His dark eyes were glued to the ceiling. It was quiet, too quiet to a point where the sound of the clock ticking echoed the room. He slowly turned his head to look at the clock.

It ticked…and ticked…and ticked…

He knew he was wasting his time on his bed but for some reason he couldn't get up. Not just yet.

While he was in his 'fatal' position, his half-opened eyes absently gazed at the ceiling once more. Just momentarily, he recalled the moments that happened last night.

Her red dress, her face, her lips, her hair…all these images occurred to him.

"What the hell…" he thought to himself. "What the hell did I just do?" Blurry visions of Hinata's face so close to his face appeared, proving that something did happen. If her face was so close to his, then does that mean he kissed her? Well, clearly he did but wait, how many times was that? Was it once…? Twice…?

"Three times…" he muttered to himself in utter disbelief. He immediately sat up as he could not believe what he has just done. Wasn't that girl in love with that dimwit, Naruto? If that's so, then why the hell did she kiss him back?

Sasuke rubbed his face anxiously. He was full of mixed emotions—confusion, frustration and maybe, just maybe a slight bit of happiness. But still, this was unbelievable. Sasuke, the guy who was too cool to be kissing anyone, kissed the most…most…

…beautiful girl in school.

Sasuke widened his eyes as he startled back to reality. Slowly, he propped his forehead on this hands and thought deeply. "Damn it," he muttered. "I didn't actually admit that she's…"

Beautiful? Oh hell yes he did. He admitted it. He really does think that Hinata is…amazing.

Sasuke leaned his back against the wall as he reminisced his first meeting with Hinata. He didn't take interest in her at all, no. She was too quiet to get noticed. But when they were selected as class representatives, it was inevitable for them to work together. From then on, Sasuke slowly started noticing Hinata as a person, a girl.

When he saw her struggle, he would catch himself helping her when he really didn't want to; sometimes also when he didn't really need to. He would find her working hard behind the scenes and no one really took note of that but Sasuke did.

Somehow, he would always find himself around her.

Her gentle nature was something which all the girls who crushed on Sasuke lacked. They were all so confident but Hinata wasn't. She was so different. She was slightly clumsy, always nervous and feeble. It almost seemed as he was attracted to her imperfections.

But what actually made him notice her was the look she had every time she sees Naruto. Her smile, her blush, her cheeks. It was something so... pleasant. Sasuke then sighed ruggedly as he discovered the disappointing truth. Hinata was the girl who always looked at Naruto, not him. And surprisingly, that's what caught his attention.

Sasuke didn't stir from that point on and just stared at his blanket, thinking. Slowly, the sun rays shined through the thin spaces of his curtains and beamed on his cheek. His right eye twitched as the ray shined upon it. He held his hand in front of him to block the sun from shinning in onto his face.

If the sun was out, that means he had to prepare himself for the last day of school.

Sasuke sighed. He got out of his bed and made his way to the shower. Although he knew he didn't want to face her today, a small part of him still wanted to see how she was doing.

"Hey Hinata, where were you yesterday?" Sakura asked Hinata abruptly. Hinata flinched but still kept her attention on the chalkboard. She knew that someone would at least ask this question, but Sakura was the last person she hoped for. It wasn't like she disliked Sakura or anything but it was because she confessed to Naruto, who is deeply in love with Sakura. And…also because something happened between her and the person who Sakura liked, Sasuke.

"You left pretty early for someone who was supposed to be operating the party," Sakura then added.

Hinata stopped and slowly brought her hand which held the chalkboard brush close to her. It saddened her to know that the reason why she left was because of her selfish reasoning. She just wanted to run away from the world after that incident happened last night:

the unwanted rejection; the unwanted bullies.

"I-I'm sorry. Something came up," Hinata said. She didn't want to lie to Sakura so she just kept it brief as possible. Hopefully Sakura won't ask any more questions.

Sakura nodded her head, stating that she understood. She wanted to ask more questions but it seemed too private to ask, so she just stood there quietly. But after a while, something suddenly caught her attention.

"Hm?" she blinked a couple of times as she noticed Hinata cut her hair to a shoulder length.

"Hinata…you cut your hair?" Sakura asked.

Hinata placed the brush on the chalkboard rest, turned to look at Sakura and smiled. "Yeah, d-does it look good?"

Sakura smiled and said, "Yeah! I think a new look is a good idea."

A new look, huh? Hinata thought to herself. Maybe this new look can be the beginning of her new start. A start to change; a start to make herself stronger.

Hinata's eyes then wandered around the class, observing the number of students who came to the official last day of school for the year. It wasn't mandatory for the students to come which left the classroom quite empty. Naruto wasn't there nor was Sasuke. Where were those two?

"I guess I have to do things alone for today again," Hinata thought to herself. However, today isn't as busy as yesterday so she knew she could handle this without the other class representative being present.

Her lavender eyes wandered around the room again as she went into deep thought. Sasuke…that cool, composed and popular boy in the school was rather different yesterday. Hinata didn't understand; she couldn't interpret why Sasuke acted like that yesterday. Did he do it out of pity? Or does he actually have some feelings for her? Why would he pick her out of all the other girls in school?

Hinata sighed but a faint smile escaped her lips as she recalled how Sasuke was there for her in the end. It was so unexpected but it made her feel quite…happy.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto's voice echoed the hallways, breaking Hinata's thoughts. Her eyes widened as she panicked a bit. She wanted to run away again but stood still, fighting her fear. "It's okay," Hinata thought as she clutched her hand. "I won't run away. I can't."

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto called out again but his voice was loud and clear as his head peeked into the classroom. When he saw Hinata as well, he flinched since he did not expect her to be with Sakura. Hinata was the girl who he rejected last night.

Slowly and steadily, Naruto walked into the classroom without showing any negative emotions. He respected Hinata as a person but he couldn't love her just like how he loved Sakura.

"Yo, Hinata," he grinned like his usual self. Hinata gasped a bit of air, slightly shocked, but she smiled back at him. "H-hello," she responded.

The atmosphere was fairly heavy. Noticing this, Sakura glanced both at Naruto and Hinata. She could somehow feel a slight tension between these two. Sakura sighed as her hands patted on both Naruto and Hinata's shoulders. "Hey," she abruptly said. "Did something happen?"

Hinata and Naruto winced and looked at her nervously.

"N-nothing happened!" Hinata exclaimed in her soft-voice, waving her small hands in front of her.

Naruto scratched his head and nervously responded, "Y-yeah…"

Something definitely happened between these two but Sakura didn't bother getting deep into that. She just thought it was strange that these two were so close before and now it felt rather awkward after the dance.

The dance.

Right.

That's when a lot of girls took this opportunity to confess their love to the boys they had a crush on. Sakura missed her chance since Sasuke wasn't there.

But it didn't matter. She was never really sad about this. Her heart only ached every time she thought of Sasuke, which was ironic. But she knew that Sasuke had no interest in her. Maybe as a close friend, but that was it; nothing more.

She already knew that Sasuke liked…someone else.

Hinata stared at Sakura in deep pain. She knew that if Sakura found out about what happened last night, she will be devastated. She wanted Sakura to know by telling it straight to her face instead of leaving her there, finding answers her own. If she kept quiet and let Sakura found out herself, everything will be in complete chaos.

Meanwhile, Sasuke stood behind the door looking at Naruto, Sakura and Hinata from afar. It has already been a while since he was there. He arrived by the time Naruto entered the room, though Sasuke didn't enter when he should have. Instead, he stood there as he was reluctant to go in, leading him to eavesdrop on their conversation. It's not that he wanted to, he just didn't want Hinata to face him when she will already be struggling to pull herself together when Naruto is present in her sight.

A sigh escaped Sasuke. He just added more stress to his life. He couldn't help but expose his feelings he had been bottling up for quite some time. He was a winner. He will do whatever it takes just to get what he wants. But when he thought about that, he realized how troublesome it can get when he rushed into things.

And to top that, his doings just added even more stress to… Hinata's life. She was in love with Naruto after all. But after kissing her, she must have been thinking about that incident non-stop.

Moments passed and the trio inside the room were still talking. Waiting for them to finish, Sasuke stood still. He didn't really know when to cut their conversation so he waited patiently.

"U-um…"

Sasuke could hear a shy voice starting a new conversation.

"Where is…S-Sasuke-kun?" that shy voice hesitantly asked. Although Sasuke struggled to figure out whose voice that belonged to at first, he immediately knew it was Hinata's. He felt his heart beat faster for some odd reason but he ignored it.

'Why is she looking for m—'

Wait. He was class representative number two, so of course she will be looking for him. Sasuke stared at the ground for a couple of seconds and heaved a faint sigh. Maybe he should go see her later. It's not like they won't see each other today. They have to meet up before leaving the school anyway. Thinking through this, he turned away and walked towards the vending machine to buy himself a drink and time before entering the room to face her.

As he walked away from the classroom, Hinata caught a glimpse of what looked like Sasuke's hair. 'Sasuke...kun?' she thought to herself as she gazed outside the door.

"What's wrong Hinata?" Sakura asked, noticing Hinata's attention wasn't on their conversation anymore. She then turned to look outside the hallway as well.

"Hinata?" this time Naruto called out. His voice startled Hinata, breaking her from her thoughts.

The shy representative stared at Naruto with widened eyes, then she shifted her eyes to Sakura. For some reason, she wanted to chase Sasuke but she knew she had to tell Sakura what happened that night. The painful thought overwhelmed Hinata, causing her to tightly grasped her skirt as she bit her lower lip, expressing a sign of anxiety. Sakura could tell the Hyuuga wanted to say something but someone in this room stopped her from doing so. Assuming it was the popular blond idiot who was the cause of Hinata feeling uncomfortable, Sakura turned her head to face him.

"Naruto," Sakura abruptly muttered his name.

"Hm?" Naruto looked at her dumbfounded, unable to detect the seriousness in her tone of voice the first time she called his name.

Her eyebrows furrowed as she jerked her head to the direction of the door, hinting him to go out just for a few minutes. Surprisingly, Naruto took note of that and nodded.

"Well...I guess I'll see ya later, Hinata," he said as he grinned. Hinata felt her eyes widen once again as she slowly nodded. When he was out of sight, she couldn't help but miss him already. His smile was the ultimate reason why she fell head over heels for Naruto. She really loved him but knowing that he can't return her feelings pained her significantly.

Sakura heaved a deep sigh and turned back to look at Hinata. This odd atmosphere actually made her nervous. "Did you want to tell me something, Hinata?" the pink-haired female asked as she sat on the desk.

The classroom was silent for a moment, but the presence of other people in the background added a bit of slight easiness to this heavy atmosphere Hinata and Sakura were experiencing. All Hinata could do right now was stare at Sakura with a painful expression on her face; something which Sakura haven't seen in a while.

After a long pause, Hinata finally started. "U-umm—"

However, before she could even start, Sakura lifted her hand up to stop the poor girl from conversing.

"I think I have an idea of what you're going to tell me," Sakura said as she smiled with difficulty. "Is it about Naruto?"

Hinata felt her mouth agape in shock as she heard that. True, Naruto was involved in last night's incident but she didn't come to talk to Sakura about Naruto, no. Rather, it was the popular Uchiha who Sakura was deeply in love with. Hinata then shook her head swiftly, almost intensely which jolted Sakura's head backwards.

"Not…Naruto?" she asked, surprised. "Then…" Sakura scratched her head thinking of other possible guys out there. Kiba? No, that can't be it. Even though Kiba was someone really close to Hinata, this dog-lover had nothing to do with Sakura. Shino…definitely no. Kakashi-sensei? No way, he was too old to get involved into something like this.

Still in deep thought, Sakura thought who could possibly be the one Hinata nervously wanted to talk to her about. Almost all the guys crossed her mind but out of the list, the last man she could ever think of was…

"Sasuke-kun?"

Having to hear Sakura's sudden voice saying his name out loud agitated Hinata. She knew Sakura would figure out his name eventually, however, hearing her say it out loud scared her, almost enough for her to think of running away. The shy Hyuuga bit her lip and faintly nodded, approving that Sasuke was indeed the man she needed to talk to Sakura about.

Sakura nervously laughed, trying to figure out why…why Hinata came out to her to talk about Sasuke. She knew they were both class representatives, therefore, it was expected that these two would somehow form a bond—perhaps a strong bond.

The slender pink-haired female rubbed her temples and breathed in deeply, preparing herself to hear what Hinata has to say.

"Go on," she said, trying her best to keep her composure.

Hinata nodded and clasped her hands together below her waist.

"Last n-night… Sasuke-kun…" she paused momentarily, asking herself if this was really the right thing to do without Sasuke's permission. But Sakura was her best friend and she knew keeping secrets from a really good friend was a horrible thing to do. This thought forced Hinata to say it, to confess what happened last night. She gulped and breathed in deeply to begin.

"I kissed Sasuke-kun…l-last night…" she finally confessed, with a little twist in it however. Sasuke was the one who kissed her first, she wasn't the one who kissed him. But she didn't want to hurt Sakura's feelings so Hinata made it seem like she was the bad person in this whole thing by stating she was the one who kissed him first.

Was this the right thing to do? That, Hinata didn't know herself.

Sakura's pupils contracted into small dots as she widened her eyes. This was an odd and a really painful confession because Sakura knew Hinata was in love with Naruto, but Hinata seemed to have done something rather bold to Sasuke despite her feelings she had for Naruto.

Moment of silence conquered the room indefinitely. Hinata just stared down at the ground, waiting nervously for Sakura's reaction. Although she was patient, the silence around them felt as if it was never going to end. It was awkward and hard to deal with.

Then, from the bottom of the Hinata's long lashes, she saw Sakura move so she looked up. Finally, Sakura had her body shifted towards her; a pair of green pearled eyes fixed upon her as well.

Sakura's gaze possessed a lot of sadness and a tiny bit of anger. Well, maybe she really was angry, but she tried her best to mask it and it kind of…worked. She then looked down her skirt as she mused about the times she saw Sasuke 'showing' interest towards Hinata throughout the year. She hated it, she really did but she noticed this a long time ago, therefore, she knew it was inevitable for something like this to happen. She actually prepared herself for this day to happen…well, kind of.

"Sakura-sa—"

"Hinata," Sakura cut her off, lifting her head to face Hinata once again. "You're lying right?" she asked, bluntly.

"…L-lying?"

"You didn't actually..." she paused. "Do that with Sasuke-kun…"

Hinata flinched. Goodness, did Sakura want to delude herself from reality? Or did she find out that Hinata was indeed lying; that she didn't initiate that kiss with Sasuke. Even so, she still wanted to get the fact across Sakura's head—she wasn't lying about her kissing Sasuke. They did actually brush their lips together; their lips were actually touching that night.

"No S-Sakura-san…" she stuttered. "I actually d-did... I k-kissed Sasuke-kun…"

"…back…" Hinata thought to herself. That simple word was kept hidden; silent. Once this word escaped Hinata's lips, the whole truth will be revealed. Amazing how such a simple word can change the whole situation.

The Uchiha was the one who initiated that kiss, she knew that; however, she still kissed him back so that was definitely mutual. So it didn't matter who started it. She just wanted make sure that Sakura understood that it did happen and to lessen the pain on Sakura's heart, she made it seem like she was the one who started that kiss.

Because she knew... she knew it would be painful to know that the person you love so much initiated the kiss on someone else.

Overall she felt horrible. Naruto was the person she confessed to that same day, and all of the sudden, she kissed another man instead. Honestly, her feelings were still a mix of confusion and contentedness. She never thought Sasuke would feel that way about her since he acted bittersweet towards her.

No words were coming out of Sakura's mouth but Hinata definitely took the hint that Sakura was indeed devastated. Still waiting for Sakura to say a word, she stood quietly.

Moments later, Sakura jumped off the table and slowly walked out of the door. "Sorry, Hinata…I'll talk to you later," she said, her voice sounding distant and glum. When she was out of sight, all Hinata could feel was guilt overwhelming her. What's going to happen now? She just shattered Sakura's heart into a thousand of pieces.

Trying her best not to cry, her hands tightly grasped on her skirt. "Don't cry! Don't…" she kept telling herself. But she failed once again, noticing that her vision was already blurred. Tears were slowly dripping from her slightly red tinted cheeks and down to drop on her hands, proving that she was crying. Thankfully, nobody noticed or even paid attention to her right now. Everyone was busy with their own business, leaving Hinata to cry by herself. This was probably better than someone having to notice her and pry her with questions asking what happened. She gently grabbed the chalkboard brush and turned towards the board again to clean it.

Naruto hummed to himself in goofy manner as he made his way to the nearest vending machine to get a drink. But to his surprise, he saw Sasuke beat him to the area first. "That bastard," Naruto thought to himself as he looked at him with jealousy, eyes squinting as he focussed his gaze upon the expressionless Uchiha. "Why are you always one step ahead of me?"

When he arrived in front of the vending machine, he shoved his hand deeply into his pockets to grab change. Then he roughly inserted the coins into the vending machine, pressing the buttons violently.

"Looks like someone is in a rough mood for no reason," Sasuke said with a bored expression as he drank his juice.

"Hmmmmpf! Why do you have to be here? Just when I thought you wouldn't come to school but you did anyway," Naruto grabbed the can of pop which fell violently at the bottom of the machine.

"I had to," the Uchiha merely answered.

Naruto pouted as he glared at Sasuke from the corner of his eyes. He then plopped himself on the bench next to the vending machine. "Well, I guess..." Naruto said as he drank his pop.

"Anyway," the whiskered-man abruptly began. "Where were you yesterday?"

That sudden statement caused Sasuke to flinch and even make him choke on his damn drink. That dimwit, why did he have to ask that question?! Okay, he wasn't really ready to get asked about last night.

"Calm down…" he thought to himself. "Calm the hell down…"

Sasuke wiped his mouth with his long sleeved school jersey and answered, "I never planned to go to that party."

"Hmm…" Naruto hummed as he stared as Sasuke. "Is that so?" he asked with a bored expression. Well, it was true anyway. He knew Sasuke didn't like parties.

"And what about you?" Sasuke then abruptly asked. "Anything interesting happen to you yesterday?" he focused his gaze on Naruto under his bangs.

Another statement which caused the blond to wince this time. "W-what do you mean?" Naruto asked, nervously. "Nothing happened…"

Sasuke scoffed as he threw the empty juice box into the recycling bin. "Is that so?" he asked as he walked away, going towards the classroom, leaving Naruto dumbfounded.

On his way to the classroom, he spotted Sakura walking towards him. He waited for her to yell his name irritably or grab his arm like she normally would, but nothing happened. Sakura's gaze was focused on the ground, ignoring Sasuke's existence. This somewhat triggered an interest of what could possibly make her feel that way today. Did something happen in the classroom?

Without any warning, Sakura looked up and saw Sasuke staring at her.

"Sasuke-kun," she muttered as she walked towards him. "Sasuke-kun, there's something I want to talk about."

Sasuke just stared at her with a bored expression and followed her to wherever she was going.

They finally arrived outside the soccer field, watching high school boys play soccer. The chattering and blown whistles from referees made them grow quiet for a while which surprised Sasuke. From what he knew, Sakura was normally talkative when they always interacted like this. If an awkward silence were to arise like this, Sakura would normally try to break it by saying anything—from something ridiculous to something not as ridiculous.

Sasuke stood still, with his hands tucked in his pockets, waiting quite patiently for her to speak up. On the other hand, Sakura took a couple of steps ahead and sat down on the grass. She breathed in deeply to begin.

"Sasuke-kun," she finally said. "Tell me honestly…"

Now this was something which Sasuke had a bad feeling about. Was this something which he thought it was?

"About last night…did Hinata…" she paused as she began to muse about her conversation with Hinata in the classroom. "Did Hinata...umm...k-kiss you last…night?"

Despite the fact he knew this was the question that was going to get asked, he never really thought of a way to answer it. This was also just way too sudden. The girl who had deep feelings for him was the first one to find out. How?

"Did she tell you that?" his deep voice asked bluntly.

All Sakura could do was nod and answered a quiet "Yes". Sasuke heaved a sigh and looked at the soccer field.

"No…she didn't," he answered her.

The moment he answered, Sakura flinched and looked up right at him. "R-right?" Sakura said begging and hoping that it was true. Her eyes were slightly filled with relief. "T-there's no way that would happen ri—"

"The one who initiated that," Sasuke cut her off, as he kept his gaze focused on the players on the field.

"….was me," he finished, but this time he fixed his gaze upon Sakura's pearl green eyes. There was no point in hiding it. He knew he had to face whatever came running to him, so instead of denying and avoiding this, he'd rather cut to the chase.

The pink-haired girl winced as she heard the arrogant Uchiha she always knew, confessing something that was quite unexpected. He kissed her? Was she hearing things right?

Her face was grim as the truth came out of Sasuke's own mouth.

"Hey, tell me," Sakura said as she looked away from him. "Since when…did you start falling for her?" she asked, not hinting any sound of happiness or anguish in her voice. "I was the one who loved you first, you know?"

Sasuke was silent. Did he really have to answer all her damn questions? He never really thought about it; it just happened! Everything happened so fast last night that he didn't even know the answer himself. When did he start feeling that way? Why?

Although he didn't know, he had to at least come up with an answer. But still, nothing could really pop out of his mind except...

"The moment I saw her smile around that dimwit," he stated, uncharacteristically. Okay, now that shocked both him and Sakura. He couldn't believe he just said something so…dumb. Stupid!

From the corner of his eye, he could see Sakura shaking hysterically though he couldn't tell if she was crying. She was just, shaking. He was about to leave her to have some time to herself, but the young female burst out, laughing.

"SASUKE-K-KUN!" she yelled as she fought her hysterical laugh. "A-are you serious?!" she turned to look at him. "A one-sided love too, huh?" she wiped her tears her eyes produced from that laughter.

"What the hell," Sasuke thought to himself. He was worried over that for nothing! This was not a damn laughing matter.

"Whatever. I see you're completely fine," he said, irritably. "If that's so, then I've wasted enough of my time here." He turned his back against her to leave but Sakura immediately stood up and hugged him from behind. Sasuke didn't stir, he just stood there.

"Sasuke-kun," Sakura began as she grasped onto him tightly. "I like you," she confessed finally.

That confession left nothing but a blank expression on Sasuke's face. He knew all along that she liked him but how should he react to it? That himself…he never knew.

The feeling of confusion he was experiencing right now was something Hinata probably felt the time he brushed his lips against hers...

...right?

A/N: Hmm...I might actually post up a few chapters for this fanfic (:

Oh and please read! To those people who think this is going way too fast, the reason is because this fanfiction was supposed to be a one-shot story but I decided to write a couple of chapters... just to see how things could happen after chapter one. So there you have it folks. Reviews from you guys is like the fuel to my fire. They motivate me! If I see people are interested in this, then I'll keep writing. I'm sure it's the same with everyone right? Thanks for reading :)