Chapter Text
Hyuuga Hinata may not have been a doctor like her roommate, but she was certain that she would be able to correctly diagnose her roommate with an obsession with the delivery person.
It was only the afternoon, but when the doorbell rang for the third time that day, Hinata’s roommate practically skipped to the front door with wide eyes as if she hadn’t been expecting her third package of the day while Hinata remained seated at the table next to the window. She had a lovely view of the ocean in the distance, and she found that she no longer jumped in surprise whenever the doorbell rang.
In theory, that wouldn’t be a good thing; if someone were trying to rob them, Hinata would probably assume that there was a package for Sakura and let the person in.
“Package for Haruno Sakura.”
Even from a distance, Hinata could see Sakura’s dazzling smile as her roommate’s emerald eyes glimmered in the sunlight and her hand reached over to give the worker a little wave. “Oh, at this point, you can just call me Sakura!”
“I need your stamp.” The worker sounded bored; perhaps he was accustomed to his customers inappropriately flirting with him while he was on the job, but Hinata doubted that he often had customers as gorgeous as Sakura flirting with him.
It wasn’t as if Hinata would expect him to know anything about her pink-haired roommate, but Sakura didn’t just grace anyone with her attention. Born with both beauty and brains, she graduated early from medical school with honors and had job offers even before she had her diploma in her hands. On the day of their graduation ceremony, Sakura had announced that she had chosen to work as a doctor at the hospital in town; it was a government organization that offered her job security and a nice salary. However, despite winning various academic scholarships that had helped her pay off most of her tuition, Sakura still had some loans to pay back; it was the reason why she had approached Hinata in the first place—to ask if the Hyuuga would consider living in the same apartment together in order to save on rent.
Hinata, once in line to be the successor of the illustrious Hyuuga clan, had been replaced at a very young age by her younger sister, Hanabi. Hinata understood their father’s decision; she didn’t have a competitive bone in her body and couldn’t see herself spending the rest of her life in meetings and engaging in long arguments that never seemed to reach a conclusion simply in an attempt to keep the Hyuuga name untainted. (She’d never say this to her father in front of his face, but his choice of lifestyle was probably why he had such high blood pressure.)
As much as her father didn’t care about Hinata, she was never without money and it would be wrong of her to pretend that she had any financial struggles. Her university fees and living expenses were all taken care of by her family, and she was still being sent a generous sum of money every month. Unlike Sakura, there weren’t any student loans for Hinata to repay because she had already paid her tuition in advance before starting school. While Hinata admittedly had enough money to live alone, she had agreed to live together with Sakura simply because it had sounded fun to live together with a friend.
The two girls couldn’t have been more different. Sakura was confident and outgoing while Hinata was on the quiet side, preferring to stay home with a cup of tea and a book. Still, the two got along quite well; it was probably for the best that the two didn’t spend all their time together. Hinata found herself feeling relieved whenever Sakura left the apartment to see her other friends; although Hinata enjoyed the company of her friend, she found that her energy levels were easily depleted if she had to spend all day with other people no matter how much she liked them.
As the door closed, Sakura marched back to the table and plopped down at the table across from Hinata, a pair of scissors in her hand. Hinata, a much slower eater than the slender girl across from her, was still in the middle of consuming her bowl of cold soba noodles in an effort to beat the summer heat while she watched her roommate tear into the package, revealing a pink notebook with gold shimmery flowers on the cover. Hinata, upon seeing the notebook, wisely chose not to remark on the fact that Sakura already had five other notebooks that were collecting dust in her bedroom, figuring that it was another item that Sakura would end up returning.
The cycle of consumption would be quite vicious for Sakura’s bank account if she didn’t have a habit of returning her items. Ever since she had discovered that the delivery person assigned to their area was just her type, she had fallen down the rabbit hole of ordering items multiple times throughout the day and returning them the next day just to see a glimpse of his face.
Hinata just felt bad for the delivery person, having to drive back to their apartment complex multiple times a day in the summer heat. It was fortunate for everyone that Konoha was such a small town; it was probably the only reason why the delivery company was able to guarantee return trips to the same address on the same day during business hours.
“Isn’t he so cute?”
Hinata smiled politely, not wanting to admit that she hadn’t been listening to her roommate for the last five minutes. “U-um…y-yes, he’s as cute as he was three hours ago.”
At this, Sakura pretended to flip through her new notebook with a knowing smile on her face. “You’re just saying that to be nice. You don’t even know what he looks like!”
“W-was it that obvious?”
“Yes, otherwise you would be craning your neck up to get a glimpse of him too.”
Hinata highly doubted it, but she was sure that the delivery person must be quite handsome for Sakura to be so entranced with him. To be honest, all Hinata wanted to do was to finish her lunch and not have the doorbell ring again for the rest of the day.
–
The next day, when the doorbell rang while Hinata was in the middle of getting dressed in her bedroom, she wondered if the delivery company would start imposing fees on customers who decided to return items the very next business day as she listened to Sakura’s footsteps rush towards the door. For such a slender person, her footsteps were surprisingly heavy.
The walls and doors in their old apartment were dreadfully thin, failing to muffle any noise at all, and Hinata could hear the annoyance in the delivery person’s voice as he finally delivered a line that wasn’t part of his usual script.
“You know, if you’re returning an item, you can just leave it in front of your door.”
Sakura’s voice sounded slightly taken aback. “That wouldn’t be safe at all!”
“This is a gated apartment complex.”
“What if my neighbors took it?”
“Are the cameras here merely for decoration purposes?”
“Well…what if they stole it while the cameras weren’t working?”
A very valid concern, but it was obviously Sakura’s way of hinting that she would much rather see his face rather than doing the sensible thing of leaving the package in front of the door. The delivery person, true to his job, chose not to respond.
As Hinata heard the door shut, she had taken the time that it had taken Sakura to argue with the worker to decide on a light lavender cardigan to wear on top of her white dress. Summer wasn’t her favorite time of the year; self-conscious about her body, she much preferred to drown her figure in heavy jackets, shapeless sweaters, and long skirts, but there was a bit of excitement in the air as she and Sakura began to navigate their adult lives.
This was their first summer that didn’t promise eternal youth. No, despite wearing the same clothes that they had worn throughout their teenage and young adult years, they were now fully fledged adults who had to integrate themselves into society by becoming productive members of the workplace.
As Hinata walked into the living room, Sakura was already rushing out the door.
“See you tonight, Hinata!”
Hinata looked over the counter by the door to make sure that Sakura had grabbed everything—phone, wallet, keys—before leaving the apartment herself.
—
At the age of twenty-three, Hinata had been under the very wrong impression that she would magically know what to do with her life after graduation. Her diploma—really, it was just a very expensive sheet of paper with fancy ink marks on it—hadn’t seen the light of day since the day she had walked across the stage to obtain it. Like most people in her generation who came from wealthy families and only went to school to appease their family, she had no idea what to do with the remainder of her life. Her advisor, baffled upon encountering a Hyuuga who didn't have their entire life mapped out for them, had recommended law school; it was usually the number one choice for students who had graduated with a degree in international relations, only for Hinata to truthfully reply that she didn’t like arguing with people.
The advisor looked at the Hyuuga as if she had been born into the wrong family.
Hinata silently agreed.
That being said, Hinata had recently managed to land herself a part-time job at the local library in town. Initially, she had been surprised to have even received a job interview in the first place; she recalled spending most of the interview staring intently at the shiny table, unable to raise her eyes for more than a few seconds, and stuttering incoherent responses that the interviewer most likely couldn’t even understand.
“What would you do if someone came in and they couldn’t understand what you were saying?”
“U-um…w-write?”
“...Would you care to elaborate?”
“I would…g-grab a pen and w-write on a sh-sheet of paper?”
Silence.
“Y-you didn’t say they couldn’t read.”
When she was told on her first day of work that she was the only applicant who had applied for the job, all the pieces clicked into place and she proceeded to wonder what was wrong with the job. At the moment, there didn’t seem to be anything particularly wrong; with such a small population, it just seemed like there wasn't normally much to do and most people ended up quitting whenever they found more exciting jobs.
It was a small library in the countryside, with the front desk barely being big enough to fit two chairs behind it. The front glass door often confused people; there was a big sign on top of the door handle that indicated that pulling the doors would grant them access into the building, but Hinata had quickly learned on her first day that many patrons, despite coming into a library apparently for the purpose of reading, either chose not to read or lacked serious reading comprehension skills. Most of her time at work was spent pointing at the sign on the front door whenever she heard people screaming from the other side that the door was locked, and when they started pushing on the door again to prove their point, Hinata would walk over to the front and open it for them.
A particular young man around Hinata’s age, after pushing on the door for the second time, laughed as he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. “That was confusing! Thanks for helping me out!”
Probably not as confusing as the orange-and-black tracksuit that he was wearing in the heat, but Hinata refrained from commenting on his choice of attire (the tracksuit even had a turtleneck—a black one) as she took in his appearance. He had blue eyes that reminded her of the ocean, blond hair that seemed to be permanently ruffled by the wind outside, and a nice smile that reached his eyes.
He reminded her of summer—refreshing, cheerful, optimistic.
“Oh! I’m looking for some books to help me study law—I’m in law school!”
That was easy enough; Hinata led him to the appropriate section near the back of the building and pointed at the relevant books on the bottom shelf. It wasn’t a very large selection, but the young man seemed happy enough with it and thanked her again before scooping all of the available items into his arms.
As Hinata went back to the front desk to see if she could make the sign at the front door a bit clearer, she wondered if the former employees of the library had stuck around long enough to meet some of the interesting residents of their small town.
—
It was near the end of her shift when Hinata heard a familiar thump coming from the glass door. Sighing at the knowledge that the new sign wasn’t enough to help people open the doors, she automatically started to walk towards the door when the sight of it opening without her intervention actually caused her to pause.
Staring at the opened door in surprise, she thought to herself that the most exciting part of her job really should not be the fact that someone had managed to open the front door without her help.
But standing in front of her was a young man with a bored expression on his pretty face. He was looking down at her as if she personally had something to do with his inability to open the doors on his first attempt.
“Why does the sign on the door say ‘push’ instead of ‘pull’?”
Hinata’s eyes widened at the accusation and she quickly rushed to the front of the library, putting her hand over her mouth in surprise when she saw the sign telling people to push was indeed on the door.
Somehow, she had mixed up the signs for the front door and the quiet reading room in the back of the library. (In the back of her mind, she decided that she would have to ask the head librarians if they could do something about the fact that the different methods of opening the doors in the building was confusing the majority of the patrons.)
Hinata could feel the flush on her face as she quickly took the sign off and rushed into the library to offer the young man an apology, but he was nowhere to be seen.
—
It was standard procedure for Hinata to start walking around the library five minutes before closing in order to make sure that everyone had enough time to finish up whatever they were doing before leaving. To her surprise, at the back of the library, the law student with blond hair was sitting at the same table as the patron who had been annoyed with her earlier for mixing up the signs; she hadn’t expected the two to be friends.
The friendly law student, upon seeing Hinata approaching his table, smiled and asked, “What time do you close?”
Hinata had wanted to smile back, but she quickly averted her eyes in embarrassment when she noticed his friend looking at her over the book that he was reading in his hands. “U-um, in five minutes…”
Based on Hinata's observations, she found that the younger generation was usually more courteous than the older generations who tended to linger and refuse to leave at the end of the day. Without any prompting, the two young men immediately stood up and even pushed in their chairs before walking over to the front desk where the law student placed his books on the counter.
Somehow, it didn’t come as a surprise to Hinata when the law student looked frantically through his pockets and exclaimed, “I don’t have my library card on me!”
“O-oh…in that case, I can p-place your books on t-the reservation shelf for three days?” Hinata suggested, pointing at the black shelf behind the young man. The top four shelves were allocated to official reservations that patrons had used their cards to reserve; the bottom shelf was allocated to unofficial reservations for patrons who had forgotten their library cards. She handed him a blank sheet of paper along with a pen and asked him to write his name on it.
“Thank you! I don’t want to buy these books,” the young man responded in gratitude, already writing his name on the sheet of paper.
Uzumaki Naruto.
She waited patiently for him to finish talking about how expensive books were these days (she completely agreed) before clarifying, “Na-Naruto, like the fish cake…?”
“Yeah!” He didn’t look surprised to hear her question; with a name like that, he was probably used to people asking him if he was indeed named after a type of food. “I love ramen!”
It was certainly a common topping in ramen, but she didn’t think it was very common for parents to name their child after food. But as long as their child was healthy and happy, she supposed that was all that mattered. Names were just names.
It was then that Naruto’s friend decided to speak. “And do you like the sun?”
“I-I’m sorry?”
At first, her mind had raced over the possibilities. It was possible that he was from a well-known family himself if he was aware of her existence; she often encountered strangers all over the village who would bow to her, most likely aware that she was the oldest offspring of the current head of the Hyuuga family. But no, he didn’t bow to her, nor was he looking at her like he had a hint of respect for her family name.
Then she remembered she was wearing her name badge.
Right.
Her hand flew up to touch the corners of her name badge. It only had her last name, but it was common knowledge for the villagers in Konoha to know that the Hyuuga name signified having a place in the sun.
“Y-yes, I do,” she answered in surprise, wondering where he was going with this. It seemed quite unnecessary for her to mention that she often used a sun parasol to protect her sensitive skin from the harsh UV lights during summer.
“And I like ramen. And their toppings,” Naruto helpfully contributed, evidently on a mission to prove to the world that his parents had given him the perfect name. “We’re going to get ramen after this!”
Hinata, wondering if it would be too personal if she asked the individual next to Naruto about what he liked in an attempt to see if his name had any special meaning, quietly gasped in surprise as she noticed the time. She pointed at the reservations shelf again, reassuring Naruto that his books would be on the bottom shelf for three days, and apologized for keeping the two at the front desk before bidding them farewell.
As Hinata watched Naruto was struggling with the front door again, she rushed towards them to help him and almost missed his friend’s suggestion just as she tried pushing the door herself.
“If pushing or pulling doesn’t work, try lifting from the bottom.”
Naruto turned around to glare at his friend. “You’re such an idiot!”
It was inappropriate, but Hinata bit her bottom lip in an attempt to keep herself from laughing as she hurriedly inserted her staff key into the doorknob. For some reason, she must have locked the doors earlier after checking the bathrooms; she usually remembered to instruct the last patrons of the day to press on the manual “exit” button on the wall if they were still in the building after the five-minute warning, but she had been distracted by their conversation earlier.
She wasn't used to making small talk with the patrons at work.
Naruto’s friend, leaning casually on the wall as if he was accustomed to being locked in libraries all his life as he waited for Hinata to let him out, remarked, “Do you have a habit of switching signs and locking people in buildings?”
There was a hint of amusement in his otherwise bored voice, but Hinata, in her panic to let the two out, chose not to think about it as she managed to open the door. “I-I’m so sorry!”
As she held the door open, she watched Naruto run outside and inhale the fresh air after being in a stuffy building all day, full of vitality despite having his head in copious amounts of books for hours. Hinata was envious of him; they were probably around the same age, but he was still in school and enjoying a part of his youth that was over for her while she was making mistakes at work.
Between the two boys, Hinata felt more comfortable with Naruto. He was nicer and smiled easily, and she speculated that part of the reason why she felt somewhat comfortable around him despite her shyness was because she didn’t have to say much. He did all the talking. That, and the fact that he was like a plant who received energy from the sun and she was someone who gravitated towards the sun.
It was still light out; summer meant that sunset would be much later, after the library had closed. As Hinata went back into the building, she wondered if the reason why she was more curious about Naruto's friend rather than Naruto himself was simply because she didn't know the stranger's name.