DAY TWO MORNING

"Tenten! There's someone here for you!"

"Eh?"

I bolted up from the bed in shock. I blinked a few times as my eyesight was still blurry from having just woken up. But before I could adjust, my eyes stayed closed and I slowly drifted off to dreamland once more. I sighed in contentment as I pulled my blanket up towards my neck and nuzzled back into my soft, soft pillow. . .

"Tenten! Don't make me come up there!"

My eyes flew open. That tone. Shit. She was mad. I scrambled out of my bed. My foot got tangled up with my blanket and I fell face first towards the floor with a loud thud.

"Ouch," I groaned as I rubbed my sore forehead.

With more grace than I did before, I stood up from the floor and started for the bathroom. I quickly brushed my teeth and washed my face up. Then, I took my clothes off and threw them at the laundry basket with great accuracy. With a smile, I ran back into my room to get a pair clean of clothes. Once I was fully dressed, I sat down in front of my mirror and started combing my bird's nest for a hair and wrangled them into two, perfect buns.

Once I was ready, I picked my bag up from the floor where I threw it the night before. Of course, I couldn't forget about my archery case now that the clubs are no longer off limits! In a good mood despite that my forehead looked like it had been slapped, I made my way downstairs to the kitchen. But I was greeted at the end of the stairs by my mom. She had her arms crossed over her chest as her foot tapped into a rhythm only she could hear.

"What took you so long, young lady? And why is your forehead so red?"

I huffed as I jumped at the last of the stairs. "What's the problem? I have enough time to eat and walk to school,"

"Didn't you hear me the first time? I said someone's here for you!" she answered and I stopped on my tracks.

Who would come for me so early in the morning? It would definitely not be Sakura or Ino since they live in the opposite direction. Hinata least likely since she would be driven to school by a personal chauffeur assigned to each Hyuga. Why she and her cousin had different drivers were beyond me. Especially since they would be going to the same school.

"Who is it?" I asked as I started walking towards the kitchen once more. "Are you even sure I knooooooo...."

My words elongated in confusion as I stepped into the kitchen and saw who was there for me. I stopped at the doorway and rubbed my eyes repeatedly until all it did was blurry my eyesight. Once I was sure I was definitely awake, I stared at him once more. There, sitting beside my father at the dining table, was Neji Hyuga. He looked as out of place as a polar bear in the desert in our humble abode. We were by no means poor. After all, we never had to worry about putting food at the table since dad had a great job that mom could afford to be a housewife. But we were also not rich to the point that you would find Neji Hyuga, of all people, to be chilling at our dining table that I carved with my dad.

"What the fudge!" I exclaimed, slapping my face from both sides.

"Tenten!" my mom quickly scolded me. "Is that how you treat guests? Forgive her, I don't know how I raised her. More toast, dear?"

Neji Hyuga politely shook his head. "No, thank you. I've intruded enough,"

"Nonsense! You're welcome any time," my mom answered with a chuckle as she sat beside dad.

"I just remembered we need to be early today! Thanks for picking me up, Hyuga. Let's go!" I hurriedly stated, pulling Hyuga up from his chair by grabbing into his arm.

He looked up at me in confusion but I only glared at him. Thankfully though he seemed to understand my intention. He turned back towards my parents once more and thanked them for their hospitality. I started pulling him out of the house. Only when I had to open the front door so we could get out did I realize that I had grabbed him hard. I took a peek at him and saw that my hand had left a mark.

Shit.

Would I be arrested for manhandling a Hyuga?

But before I could dwell on that thought, my attention was once more taken by something else. A small crowd had formed in front of our gate and I knew the source of their confusion and curiosity without asking. There, parked in front of me–as out of place as the man who brought it, was a black limousine. Something we had never seen parked in our neighborhood before.

I sighed as we walked towards it. I had no idea he was even here. But I should have realized the moment I saw him that he came here with his personal chauffeur.

"Tenten! Who is this?" a neighbor we were close with asked as soon as I appeared with Hyuga. "Is he your boyfriend? What a nice man,"

My eyes widened as I vehemently denied it. But the smirking of the man beside me hadn't helped. I gritted my teeth at him before I slyly dug the heel of my shoes in his foot. He hissed in pain and I erased that damned smirk off of his lips.

"Oh, no, I swear," I answered, shaking my hands in front of me in denial. "Anyway, Mrs. Matsukaki, we are going to be late so please excuse us,"

Out of my peripheral vision, I saw the chauffeur get out of the car to open the door for us. But Hyuga waved him off. With an equally confused look as mine, the chauffeur got back inside while Hyuga held the door open for me.

Now, Mrs. Matsukaki, who I had almost convinced that there was nothing between Hyuga and I, started squealing as she waved us goodbye. As I passed by Hyuga to get into the car, I kicked his shin. He grunted low in his breath but laughed nonetheless.

Laugh?

Shit.

I realized that it was the first time I had heard him laugh. Once I had sat down in the car, I turned to him to ask him to laugh for me once more. It was a sound so foreign coming out of a usually stoic man. I wanted more. But as I opened my mouth to speak, I caught myself. Fudge. Why would I ask him that? Would he think I was a creep? He would, right? Of course, he would. Why the hell would I ask him to laugh.

"Stop making funny faces. I'm not going to kidnap you," a voice brought me out of my reverie.

"The fudge are you talking about?" I defensively asked, afraid that I spoke my thoughts out loud.

He smoked at me once more as he raised a brow. "You could make a whole novella with how your expression changes one after the other. None to mention, you're nibbling your thumbnail,"

I stopped what I was doing. I shyly looked down and saw that I had indeed brought a hand up to my lips and the skin around the tip of my thumb was sore and red. It was a habit I couldn't shake off since I was a kid. It seemed like whenever I was deep it thought, I would do it unconsciously.

"Why are you even staring at me?" Damn my defensive nature. So, I decided to just blame everything on him. "You even picked me up. Do you actually like me?"

He rolled his eyes at me in answer. "Why are your thoughts so all over the place? How did it get to that?"

I just stared at him. Silently asking him to answer the question I threw in the air. He sighed as he rubbed his temple once more. Something he always seemed to do in my presence. Was he saying I was a pain in his head? I puffed out my cheeks in indignation as I crossed my arms over my chest. I looked away from him and outside the window. Well, It's not like I asked to be around him. He was the one who came to my house so early in the morning.

"You told me to convince you to help the club, remember?" he started and my eyes widened. "So, I thought not making you walk in the morning might make you more inclined to help,"

"Oh yeah, I tots forgot," I cheekily answered as I turned back to him with a huge grin for forgetting something I got myself in. "Sorry 'bout that,"

He sighed at me as if he had lost all hope for me. I just glared at him. The car suddenly came to a stop and I looked out the window once more. I realized that we had arrived at school. I hadn't even noticed. I picked my arrow case up from the floor where I carefully laid it down. When I straightened up after bedding down for it, I saw Hyuga standing by the car door waiting for me. He had a hand stretched out towards me. I took it as I pulled myself up from the seat and out the door.

Once I lifted my face up though I realized what a huge mistake that was. There, between us and the school gates, were Hyuga's crazy fans club hoping to take a glimpse of him before classes started. They were all giving me a death glare. I quickly pulled my hand out of Hyuga's and cleared my throat in awkwardness.

"Anyhow! I'll be going first!" I shouted as I escaped from the sea of people.

I ignored all eyes on me. No one tried to stop me. But I knew given the chance, all of those women would kill me. I reached the club room in record's time. Thanks to Hyuga picking me up, I was early enough to get in a few minutes more of training than my usual half hour in the morning. The club room was empty as expected. Sakura usually arrived just after me so I knew I wouldn't be waiting long.

I quickly changed into my kyudo uniform. It consisted of a short-sleeved shirt held in place by a black chest guard. The shirt was tucked-in into a skirt-like divided trousers that touched the ankles with my quiver hanging on my side. I made sure to set my timer so that I wouldn't get carried away and forget to attend my classes.

I started my self training.

Strangely though, my alarm rang and still there was no sign of Sakura. Shrugging it off as she overslept again, I started to change back into my uniform. Once I was ready, I left my archery case in my locker and started off for my classroom. Everyone was looking at me. I closed my eyes as I raised a hand towards my face in an attempt to hide it.

Once I was inside the classroom, all of them stopped talking and turned to look at me. Hinata on the other hand gave me a smile as if to say she understood. Which she probably did since I told them in our group chat that I had a bet with Hyuga.

The rest of the day passed by as slowly as one day could. Sakura, Ino, and Hinata made sure to never leave me alone at all times. Because Hyuga's fans were all over the place and they were afraid I would get jumped once I was alone.