Chapter One –The Perfect Candidate-

Nobody could turn their head away from the new boy.

He was attractive, mesmerizing to be exact He was tall and lean, the kind of body a lot of girls would want in a guy. His deep, blood colored orbs were glaring at every eye that had been staring at him, his pale hand sometimes darted to his raven hair, ruffling his hair back in nonchalantly. Those pinkish lips didn't show any hints that it would be curved to a smile, but that didn't intimidate the ogling girls. In fact, those enigmas were the things that made them all hot and bothered.

"I'm Uchiha. Sasuke Uchiha." The boy said curtly, still adopting those disinterested gestures. "From now on, I'll study here."

"Gosh, he's co cute!" Ino Yamanaka gushed; her action was repeated by the majority of the girls in the class.

Only Sakura Haruno –Ino's eternal enemy as they dubbed it- succeeded to endure herself from sighing, she tossed her pink hair and then gave the boy her most lascivious wink. "He'll definitely sit beside me, right Sasuke?"

Her eyes were flirtatious, carefully made so.

Despite the fact he hated how the girl called him and how he wanted to bombard her with insults, Sasuke tried his best to only glare at her. His lips tight as the fists clenched hard on his sides.

"But-but Sakura!" Naruto Uzumaki, the school's resident clown, chimed in. "I'm sitting next to you, how come he'll sit here if I am here?"

"Oh, go away, loser." She barked coldly onto the blonde, then concentrated her eyes to the new guy again. Sometimes, her gaze met Ino's and they regurgitated the notorious Ino-Sakura-Glaring-Contest.

Naruto pouted when he realized his lost.

Not even one realized that on the very back, Hinata Hyuuga felt like her blood was flaming. She didn't like to see how Sakura treated the sweet boy but it wasn't her place to fight the taller girl. Sakura was stronger at both status and grades. And she had much more followers than Hinata, that is, if she had any follower at all. Besides, everybody had known that Naruto Uzumaki had been harboring special feeling to the pink-haired girl ever since kindergarten. Unfortunately, his love was unrequited; the girl clearly didn't have any interest in him.

And to make this unfortunate series worse, she had special feelings to the loud blonde, making this seemed like an ironic love-triangle which involve two lovestruck idiots.

She sighed heavily. Even if she jumped in front of the blonde and started to striptease, she doubted that the boy would take even a glimpse to her. The only girl that could perch on his heart was Sakura and only Sakura. Then again, the theory backfired to Hinata. The only boy whom she had approved to stay on her heart was Naruto. And only would be Naruto.

She was so sure of that.

By the way, Hinata couldn't help but to thank the new kid –Susaku, or Susuka or whatever his name-. Somehow, his helluva arrival gave her more chances to check out her blondie knight on shining armor. The girls were too busy ogling Sasuke and the boys were too busy glaring at the very same person. Nobody would notice that Hinata was looking at Naruto, nobody would notice her daydream about her and Naruto's wedding, and nobody would mock her like they always did.

Alas…

Sasuke noticed it, though.

He saw it, the only one who hadn't darted her eyes on him. He knew she didn't do it for the sake of play-hard-to-get games. She'd glanced at him, but she looked away like he was just another passerby. He found it ironic that of all students, the only one who considered him nondescript was the raven-haired, petite girl who looked equally nondescript in his eyes.

Sasuke had seen and scrutinized almost all pupils in the class. Most boys were cows, and most girls were wantons. Some of them had great bodies, though. Not to mention that there were a few cupcakes that could sent him to cold showers, very much like the blonde one and the pink-haired one. Sasuke knew he just needed to snap his fingers, and he could pick any girls there to bed with him.

His pride was too high to do that.

He took a glance to the raven haired chick and saw her smiling to the dumblonde's back. The blonde obviously didn't notice it, for he was busy protesting at the pink-haired girl.

Perfect, this was just perfect.

Ignoring the poor teacher's prattle about him, Sasuke strode to the very bottom of the class and stopped his feet when he faced the petite girl.

He put a hand on the empty desk beside her. "Can I sit here?" his query sounded more like a demand.

When Hinata heard this, she almost squeaked. The new kid's body was so big that she couldn't see anything but his torso. His cold voice was scary to her ears, unlike Naruto's mellifluous voice that could always soothe her.

When she looked up, her white eyes met his red ones.

He had eyes like an albino.

And a creepy one.

She bit her lower lip as she tried to avert his gaze. But the guy wasn't a quitter; he kept following her eyes and indirectly forced her to look at his . Her sweats and anxiousness seemed to amuse him as her nervousness started to overwhelm her.

"I…uhmm.." Hinata couldn't really say that she was okay with his idea. Besides, she really didn't want to have him to sit beside her. There was Neji beside her, and she was happy with that. Even though her cousin/bodyguard seemed frightening at first glance, Hinata learnt that Neji was a sweet guy who had heart made of gold. Besides, Neji was the only one she could talk with.

"Well?" Sasuke still forced her, now he supported his weight to his left hand, which got embedded to Hinata's table. He leaned his body to her, invading her personal space. She could hear the girls cried in dismay and Hinata only could gulp more when she saw his sharp red-eyes and tilted her head down deeper than it already was.

"There… there's.. someone..b-beside me.." she stammered. She really didn't want to have a creepy guy near her, and she didn't like the idea of being roasted by the girls' jealousy fire. "He-he's currently.. s-sick.."

Sasuke angled his head. "Really?" he murmured, his blood colored eyes flickered to the empty seat beside the girl. Then he turned his head to the prattling Ebisu-sensei and raised his eyebrows in elegant tilt. "Can I sit here, sir?"

Ebisu suddenly stopped his rant and nodded obediently. "Sure!"

A look of triumph was on his face when he stared at the startled girl. He tossed his backpack and flopped onto the chair, his mouth curved into a victorious smirk. He used his eye-corner to check if the girl was checking him out, and much to his relief, she wasn't. Instead, she was plucking on her nails and biting her lips uneasily. Somehow he knew the uneasiness wasn't because of him, but because of her qualms about him.

She was an ideal candidate, Sasuke smirked inwardly. He hadn't picked a wrong girl.

Meanwhile, it was impossible for Hinata to get anymore scared than this. There was a creepy red-eyed guy sitting next to her, on Neji's seat! She wanted to be angry, but no matter how much energy she had mustered, it was all perished when she saw those bloodcurdling red eyes and extremely pale skin. Plus, the new kid's body was big and toned, maybe as big as Neji. That made her come to the conclusion that he wouldn't feel a thing even if she punched him hard.

"You're a fucking ass, new kid!" Naruto shouted from the middle class, making Hinata blush. She always had seen Naruto shouted and cursed, but she never saw the blonde had a serious angry face on his handsome profile.

The new kid seemed unfazed. "Excuse me?"

"You forced Hinata to allow you to sit there! She fucking doesn't like you, asshole!"

Fact #1: He just implied that he knew her all this time.

Fact #2: He just shouted to Sasuke on her defense.

Fact #3: At this rate, Hinata didn't know if she would faint due to anxiousness or happiness.

Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki, the boy she had liked since she was still in kindergarten, Naruto actually tried to defend her! Even though he looked frightening shouting like that, but it still sounded sweet. After all, he shouted for her.

She could see heaven on her eyes.

However, the heaven got quickly sapped to hell when the new kid's voice rose. "My name is Uchiha, in case you'd forgotten it, and I will sit here."

Hinata only fidgeted when she received glares from three fourth of the female population in the class.

"Why you.." Naruto was ready to jump on Sasuke to start a fight, before then Prof. Ebisu- stopped him in the right time. The older man shouted a thunderous 'detention!' as he dragged Naruto to the principal's office.

After the sound of the footsteps had gone and the teacher was nowhere in sight, the class started to raise the din.

Hinata never one who made such voice, for she was always fidgeting on the very back, concentrating her brain to the books she always brought. Talking and/or gossiping was really out of her ability, making her one of the few girls who didn't have any girlfriends. Right now she had a L.J Smith on her hand and was about to continue the reading when she saw someone put her butt on her table.

Sakura was sitting on her desk, her eyes stared hungrily to the guy next to her as she crossed and uncrossed her legs continuously, making the guys drooled to see her luscious tights. It's one of her ploys, and she made a good damn use of her body.

"Sakura Haruno." She introduced herself sweetly. "Sasuke Uchiha, right? Never forget my name, kay?"

Sasuke merely glared at her.

"Aww, don't be that vicious, baby.." Sakura tossed her pink hair and rested one slender finger on her soft cheek. "You can sit on the idiot's place if you want…it's a better place than in here." her eyes were on Hinata when she said it.

"Who's the idiot?" was Sasuke's short reply. Hinata had to admit that she felt rather happy to see that Sasuke was unaffected by Sakura's bad remarks on her.

For a girl who liked to talk, Sakura didn't look disappointed by Sasuke's lack of words. "Idiot, Naruto, the dumblonde who spit spat at you." she explained rather brusquely, now twirling her pink lock.

"Oh.." he halted for a second, then glanced to Hinata to see the girl's reaction when he said this: "Naruto likes you."

Just as he expected, the petite girl sank on her seat.

Sakura, on the other hand, let out a ladylike titter; an action that could have been arousing had she didn't do it on other people's expense. "Never knew you've been paying attention to me, Sasuke.. Don't worry, I don't like him."

"Will you just stop flirting, forehead slut?" Ino screeched as she also made her way to Sasuke's place. Hinata sank deeper to his seat, there were never any popular kid visited her place. Ever. And now there were two of the most popular girls were clashing in front of her.

Hinata drew her breath and started to talk to the girls for the first time in her life. Maybe they would like her and ask her to join their groups. Naruto would really notice her if she was teaming-up with either Sakura or Ino. "U-Uhmm…" Hinata automatically spluttered. "S-Sakura..Ino… I think… I think the teacher w-would—"

"Could you get up from there, whitey eyes? I have business with this slut, thank you." Ino cut her off and Hinata knew it wasn't her place to object. She hastily obeyed the blonde's words and stood beside her own table.

"Hello, Sasuke!" Ino greeted the guy cheerfully. "Meeting Ino Yamanaka here. I'll sit here, okay?"

Ino didn't wait for his response but just sat on Hinata's chair, and after making sure that her elbow touched Sasuke's, she smirked at the pink-haired girl and spoke: "Like hell any guy would pay attention to a OCD freak like you." Hinata almost shuddered when she felt the hatred on Ino's tone.

Sakura's hatred was mutual in her quick retort. "You actually think a bimbo like you is worth anyone's time?"

Ino flinched at this remark.

Hinata also winced at Sakura's words. How cruel of her, Ino had been known as a beautiful girl with no brain. That wasn't exactly true, Hinata knew how Ino tried so hard to get good marks, or at least, decent scores. Ino's IQ wasn't as high as Sakura, so she had to study harder. Sakura was a lucky girl for being both a top-achiever and the prom-queen candidate, albeit she couldn't snatch the homecoming queen title because her blonde-haired rival had had it.

"S-Sakura.. you'd you'd gone too far..!" Hinata tried to remind her, but she only received a cold glare from the girl.

"Who are you?" Sakura hissed, her tone referring to their huge gap in social status.

It shut Hinata's mouth up.

Sasuke smirked as he realized that it was his time to play hero. He got up and threw both the pink haired girl and the blonde an icy glare.

"Scram." He said.

Both girls still had courage by trying to persuade him, but then Sasuke went berserk and hit the table hard. "FUCK OFF!" his shouting was unexpectedly loud until the whole class fell silent. Even Ino had tears in her blue eyes.

After a few grumbles and goodbyes, Ino and Sakura finally went back to their own tables. The yellow-haired girl suddenly broke into tears when she sat, her friends were consoling her while some of them shot Sasuke terrified looks.

Sasuke tapped Hinata's chair after Ino was on her real seat. "You sit here, right?"

Hinata nodded.

"Then come sit." He said.

Again, Hinata nodded and sat there, still frightened from all those 'hitting table' incident. She quietly opened her Soulmate novel and nervously read it. She could feel Sasuke's eyes were on her by time to time, and it really made her feel uncomfortable.

But she made a mistake when she glanced up to him and locked eyes with him.

"You believe in Soulmate theory?" he asked.

The poor girl had to gulp for several times before she could answered him properly. "Y-Yes.."

A small, very small smile fleeted. "Two people connected, bound to each other forever, soul to soul, in a way that even death couldn't break. Two souls that were destined for each other." He quoted L.J Smith.. "Right?" he asked her again.

"P-precisely.."

Her reply seemed didn't satisfy him, but she couldn't find any better answer. It was rare to see someone who shared the same passion with her, but she was too afraid to the new guy, and she was too disappointed to act cheerful. After all, her only friend –Neji- wouldn't sit beside her anymore if he were here.

What made it weird was the fact that Sasuke looked concerned by how she reacted. She saw it by herself, Sasuke showed hints of uneasiness at her lack of actions. She half-hoped that she was just imagining things, but when he cautiously touched her shoulder, she willy-nilly had to accept the truth that Sasuke was concerned.

"Am I making you uncomfortable?" his tone still cold, but somehow it showed an implicit gentleness.

Not trusting herself to speak, Hinata decided to shake her head. Sometimes her eyes went to his red-ones and shuddered. It was a color of blood, a color she had hated since forever. She always avoided color red. But now she had to undergo a torment in which she had to sit next to a crimson-eyed guy.

Life was sure unfair.

And it seemed more unfair when Sasuke realized her reason. "You're.. scared of my eyes?"

This time Hinata nodded.

A pained look crossed his face, but then he took something out from his backpack, he fiddled with it and his eyes for a while, and when he looked at the girl again, Hinata didn't see any red orb anymore. Those were replaced by a pair of deep onyx eyes.

"You…"

"Wear contacts, yes." Sasuke finished for her. "Doesn't really like how it feels, though. You feeling better?"

Suddenly Hinata felt guilty by her inappropriate gestures back then. His eyes were already naturally red, so why would she protest about it? For God's sake, she had light lavender eyes that verged on looking WHITE with the wrong lighting, it looked much more scarier than Sasuke's!

"Sorry.." she said, bowing her head several times. "S-sorry if I.. offended you.."

He didn't reply.

Realizing that Sasuke was still mad at her bad manners, Hinata bit her lower lips and decided to be quiet. At least she didn't need to receive those scary shouts from him.

She had no idea that Sasuke was cheering inside. And he had to keep quiet if he didn't want to lose his coolness and hug her just right there.

"No prob." He finally said.

'The one who doesn't have interest in me, and already likes somebody else. Unfortunately, the 'somebody else' doesn't even know that she's there and already in love with another girl. It's beyond enough.' Sasuke thought. 'Not only that, but the girl also have courtesy..' it was already far beyond his imagination. Although he didn't mind about the unexpected plus point.

He just met the perfect candidate to be…

The pseudo-girlfriend!

Chapter one ended

AN

Thank you for reading. :) It took me great courage to repost this. I'll edit bits and bits as I go. Rereading this story and Little Wonders made me tear up. I couldn't believe how much I improved at the course of writing this story to this community. Taking down the story wasn't fair for you guys, so I decided at least to put back the story and tried updating (with new chapters).

Thank you.