"I'm sorry . . . I should have said something earlier."

Naruto opens his mouth and shuts it only seconds later, when his wide eyes meet Hinata's teary ones. There's a fierce ache in Hinata's chest, but she ignores it and forces her spine into a bow.

"Thank you for liking me," she says, and in a mumble, "even if it was only for a little while."

"Hinata . . ."

"C-Can we still be friends?"

He stares at her, mouth agape. The ache in her chest shifts into a piercing stab. She swallows the lump in her throat and keeps her eyes down.

"I'll just go now," she blurts out.

Whirling around, Hinata tries to rush off toward a random building so she can find the nearest restroom and cry.

"Wait, no! Hinata!"

A part of her says she should leave already, but Hinata finds herself standing stock still as she hears quick footsteps behind her. Naruto stops in front of her, rubbing the back of his neck. She almost begins tapping her index fingers together, an annoying nervous habit she thought she had discarded years ago, when he doesn't immediately say anything.

"Of course, we can still be friends!" he shouts at her.

Hinata recoils and he takes a step back, looking at the ground and burying his face in his hands.

"Sorry for yelling at you. I just—I don't understand why you would think I wouldn't want to be friends anymore. I know I'm bad at showing it, but you're important to me."

Oh. Her face is starting to feel warm. Naruto rubs the back of his neck again, more violently, like he'll be able to scrub his frustration off his skin.

"I'm not mad at you," he says, and the guilt on her shoulders drags her down even farther. "Honestly, I'm mad at myself."

"What?"

"I didn't respond to your confession right away. Maybe if I replied earlier, we could have . . ." Naruto trails off, and then forces a smile. "I don't know what I'm saying right now. Sorry for being an idiot."

"No! No. You're not an idiot, Naruto-kun." She wants to say more, wants to blurt out how much she has admired and loved him, but those words would only be salt in his wounds.

"Thanks, Hinata."

They stare at each other. Naruto turns away first, mumbling something about being late for a class Hinata knows he doesn't have right now. His fleeing back seems small, thinks Hinata as she watches his departure. She keeps her wet eyes locked on his back, halfheartedly hoping he will glance back.

Naturally, he doesn't.

Hinata bites her lip, inhaling deeply, before scurrying off to find a restroom.

"You were gone for a while."

Shikamaru meets Ino's eyes and lies, "Stomachache."

"I have some medicine if you want some," offers Chouji, already going through his bag.

"Nah, I'm good. But I'll take a little break from studying."

Shikamaru ignores Ino's mutter of, "Wasn't your bathroom break long enough?"

Chouji is already sitting on his bed, with books and papers around him, but Shikamaru finds some free space and collapses onto the mattress. He curls up on his side, sighing in relief when Chouji throws a blanket over him. Shikamaru ducks under the blanket and turns on his phone. His screen is still on his call history, so he taps on his most recent call to confirm how long it was.

Hinata cried over the phone for thirty minutes.

[Drink some water], he ends up texting her. Shikamaru already used up all of his energy to comfort Hinata thirty minutes earlier.

His phone vibrates.

[I will! Thank you!]

Hinata added a little smiley face at the end of her text, the one with the rosy cheeks. Shikamaru can imagine that expression on Hinata. Just yesterday, she—

The abrupt exposure to light blinds him. Groaning, Shikamaru shoves his phone in his pocket and tries to tug the blanket back from Ino's claw-like grip.

"Hey, don't fight," says Chouji mildly. "Shikamaru, you're on my notes."

Shikamaru gives up the blanket and sits up. He hands the crumpled notes to Chouji, scratching the back of his neck. Ino shoots him an intense look. Shivers run down Shikamaru's spine.

"Stop that," he snaps at her.

"You stop it," she retorts.

Chouji lines up his papers and starts to put them away. "I have no idea what you two are talking about, but I'm hungry. Let's go eat barbeque."

Ino puts her hands on her hips and shouts, "Not until Shikamaru confesses!"

"Confesses what?" asks Shikamaru in exasperation.

"We know your secret, Shikamaru. Just say it already!"

"Oh," says Chouji, "that's what this is about. Shikamaru, we know you're dating someone."

Shikamaru drops back onto the bed, choking on a laugh. Ino bristles. She tries to smother him with a pillow, but Chouji wrestles it out of her hands. Sighing, Chouji puts himself between the two, ignoring the faces they make at each other.

"Well, something's up with you and I know it's a girl!" says Ino.

"You're . . . not wrong," concedes Shikamaru, the gears in his head spinning. "There's a girl I'm interested in. Hinata."

Chouji and Ino stare incredulously at him. He can't blame them. His friends know that he has a history of dating headstrong women (like his mother, Ino had once pointed out, and he refused to talk to her for a week), while Hinata is one of the most docile women they know.

"Hinata likes Naruto, though," says Chouji hesitantly.

"I know," grumbles Shikamaru, real annoyance bleeding into his tone.

Is Hinata still crying over Naruto, he wonders. He pats the pocket holding his phone. No, she's probably going to power through the rest of the day and then cry some more at home. He puts his hands behind his head to keep them from twitching toward his phone.

"No!"

Shikamaru and Chouji jump. The latter rubs his ear, wincing. Ino grins unrepentantly and waves her phone in the air.

"Naruto told Sakura who told me that he just got rejected by Hinata!"

The power of gossip is frightening, thinks Shikamaru. Didn't Naruto meet with Hinata less than an hour ago?

"I mean I feel bad for him," Ino is saying, "but Hinata's liked him for years. Naruto had so many chances with Hinata. But this is great news for you, Shikamaru!"

"I have a great idea," announces Chouji.

"What?"

"Let's plan Operation ShikaHina while we eat barbeque at Yakiniku Q. Can't think on an empty stomach, right?"

"Chouji—ugh, fine. Let's go. I'll pay because I like that name—ShikaHina. That's adorable!"

"This is so troublesome. I don't need—ow! Chouji, you're going to pull my arm off! I'm coming, I'm coming."

Shikamaru groans. He really doesn't need his friends to set him up with his wife.

Hinata fervently takes notes as she watches her professor's lecture on her laptop. Occasionally, Shino prods at the seam of her lips with the straw of her drink, only pulling away once she has taken a sufficient gulp of water. Sprawled on the floor, Kiba's laugh pierces Hinata's concentration once again. She inhales deeply to calm herself—Kiba just finished an extremely important group project, and from what Hinata understood of Kiba's grumbling, all of his group members contributed their names and nothing else to the assignment. He deserves a break. But with her mind in overdrive, Hinata is hyperaware of her surroundings, like the chill permeating the study room as well as the chuckling and barking emerging from Kiba's direction. She has to frequently remind herself that the moment she turns to look at the silly dog videos on Kiba's phone, she won't return to her work for hours. In fact, Hinata realizes with a start, she was so caught up in just thinking about not watching the dog videos that her pen has stopped moving.

She pauses the lecture playing on her laptop and drops her chin on the table, exhausted. Shino doesn't comment, but he offers her the straw again.

After a sip, Hinata asks, "Kiba, can you get my jacket from my bag?" There are goosebumps on her arms.

"Sure."

She hears him digging through her bag, items clattering against each other. Hinata holds back a wince. She is beginning to think that she'll have to completely reorganize her bag afterward when Kiba crows victoriously.

"Found it! Seriously, why was it at the bot . . . uh, Hinata?"

"Yes?'

"Are you sure this is yours?"

She looks over at him with raised eyebrows. Then she catches sight of the jacket. Her mouth falls open. A dark green hoodie, far too large for Hinata, hangs from Kiba's hands. She was in a rush this morning, she remembers. She had forgotten to charge her phone the night before, so when it died, her morning alarm never sounded. Hinata always places her lavender jacket on the back of her chair at the kitchen table, so she can get it quickly—or in the case of today, without looking. How could she have grabbed Shikamaru's—Hinata exhales sharply through her nose.

Shikamaru has a bad habit of leaving his clothes on the floor, and when Hinata politely suggests he put them away somewhere else, he dumps his clothes on top of the closest piece of furniture. He must have put his hoodie on top of her jacket after wearing it yesterday.

Sniffing the hoodie, Kiba declares, "Well, this is definitely your laundry detergent."

Both Hinata and Shino are used to Kiba's canine-like tendencies, so they pay him no attention. Instead, Shino shuts her open laptop and stares at her, which is especially intimidating because she can't see his eyes behind his sunglasses.

"What are you hiding." It's not even a question, just a demand of truth.

Hinata thinks of the recent events with Shikamaru and Naruto, and she feels a little sick at the thought of having to brush off her friends with lies. She stares at the floor to gain time to think, forgetting that Kiba is sitting on the floor, until she notices him peering up at her troubled face with concern.

"Hinata?" prompts Shino, losing his accusatory attitude. When Hinata remains tense and mute, he waits.

She crumbles.

"I'm married."

Kiba starts choking. Before Hinata can reach out to pat his back, he bursts into laughter. Loud, ugly, disbelieving snorting.

"That's funny," he manages to say between chuckles. "Good joke, Hinata!"

Shino adjusts his sunglasses. "What."

Hinata folds her hands in her lap, bowing her head meekly. Doubt and confusion are natural responses. There's no point in giving her friends more context until Kiba realizes she isn't joking, so she'll stay silent.

"Hinata," mumbles Kiba, wiping a tear from his eye, "why aren't you laughing? And you forgot to say 'just kidding'. Hinata? Hinata, say that it's just a joke. Hinata—fuck. You're serious? Holy shit. You're goddamn married."

She nods. Kiba grabs her shoulders and shakes her, growling. Shino is still frozen.

"Who is it?" demands Kiba. "Your dad set this up, didn't he?"

"My—my husband is a nice man," Hinata says as firmly as she can.

Shino breaks out of his stupor and crosses his arms over his chest. "Nice? Is that it?"

"I'm . . . I'm embarrassed to say anything else."

Well, that and Hinata doesn't know what else to say about Shikamaru. She still feels like she barely knows him.

Suddenly, Shino whips his head in Kiba's direction. "What did you say earlier, about Naruto?"

Kiba's jaw drops before he mutters, "Sai said Hinata dumped Naruto, but I thought he was just being an asshole like usual—Hinata, is it because of your husband? Were you forced to reject Naruto?"

Shino and Kiba are blurry smudges in Hinata's normally perfect vision. She blinks. Her cheeks are wet. Is she crying again? Hinata is sick and tired of crying.

She wipes her eyes, ignoring her friends' concerned looks. "I'm married now. I'm not going to cheat on my husband—arranged or not—and it wouldn't be right for me to ask Naruto if he would be willing to date a married woman."

Kiba throws his arms around her, tucking her face against his chest. She can feel Shino's hand on her shoulder. Hinata doesn't cry, but her breathing is heavy as she leans into her friends.

"Sorry, Hinata. If you feel like you can't tell us about your marriage or whatever, we'll leave it, alright?" says Kiba.

"We were worried," adds Shino. "You look sad recently."

Hinata blindly reaches out. Shino releases her shoulder and squeezes her hand.

Kiba runs a hand through her hair. "Are you sad?"

Sometimes. "No," she says, because right here, right now, she isn't sad.

"Are you happy?" asks Kiba hopefully.

Hinata is silent.

Then, in a murmur so low the noise of the air conditioning almost hides it, she says, "I will be."

The three of them huddle together, as though nothing could hurt them as long as they were with each other. Hinata feels warm and comforted, and the way Kiba strokes her hair strangely reminds her of how she was held by Shikamaru not that long ago.

Shikamaru's fingers were thinner than Kiba's, but more careful. Every stroke of her hair had felt like the gentle rock of a baby's cradle, lulling her to sleep.

Something goes ding! Everyone breaks away to pat their pockets in confusion. It's Kiba's phone—a YouTube notification.

"You get notified about funny dog videos?" asks Shino judgmentally, looking at Kiba's screen.

"Hey," snaps Kiba, "you can't talk, with your weird bee videos!"

"I find them soothing."

The argument reminds Hinata that she was watching something earlier.

Hinata sighs. "I didn't finish my lecture notes . . ."

Almost as though nothing happened, they all return to their previous positions in the study room. Hinata instinctively moves to open her laptop before she realizes Shikamaru's green hoodie was dumped on top of it. Now that she's not in the middle of a hug anymore, the room feels cold again. Blushing, Hinata pulls the hoodie on. The sleeves cover her hands, which she finds cute but inconvenient when writing notes by hand. She pushes the sleeves up to her elbows, and then pauses.

Hinata presses her nose briefly against the fabric of the hoodie.

It does smell like her laundry detergent, but also like how Shikamaru's pillow smelled the one time she accidentally stole his pillow in her sleep. Tobacco. Shikamaru never smokes inside, but the smell clings to him. She takes a deeper breath. He has a sort of woodsy, earthy scent underneath the tobacco that she can't quite describe. Cedar? Or maybe—

"I see you, Hinata!"

She squeaks and buries her face in her hands. "You did it first, Kiba!"