How long had she been staring at this sign already? Ichiraku's. She had read it over and over again, as if the letters would change with her next reading. The red writing had branded themselves into her inner eye.

With the tip of her shoe she run over the rawness of the asphalt, mentally going through each step of her plan again.

Today was the day she would talk to him. However she had set the bar very low as she knew very well how poorly she performed in nerve-wrecking circumstances.
She had watched the boy so often on the bus and at university, always trying to catch a glimpse when he wasn't looking or busy with doing something else. She mostly captured the back of his head or his profile, but that image was enough to make her heart race.

Several times she had caught him observing her too but that was likely caused because he had noticed her staring on numerous occasions.
And suddenly the notion that he might think of her as a very weird person crossed her mind.
Would it really be okay to walk in on him at his workplace? It was not like the little nods they gave each other when their eyes locked ensured her somehow that he wanted to see her. So she asked herself, if he didn't, wouldn't she be harassing him then.

The street lantern next to the ramen bar lighted up and in some way it cleared away her doubts. Under the warm white of the light she shook her head.
She may didn't know his name but had made finding that out her goal for this evening and there was no way she would tolerate backing away now.
Everything went according to plan, as she had finished work punctually and walked over, in the knowledge that his shift ended later than hers.

She nodded and passerby side eyed the strange girl standing in front of a restaurant for several minutes and seemingly fighting with her inner self, occasionally making unnatural gestures.

With one hand over her beating heart, she got over the remaining distance and stepped into the restaurant.
The humidity in the air instantly rose. Steam soared up from the open kitchen, where the chef skillfully worked on his dishes.
It seemed like every chair was taken, even the last seat at the end of the bar right in front of the chef. The conversations were loud, mixed with sets of laughter from all sides.
Hinata just noticed that she had looked over from her side of the street so often but had never visited this place. The place felt familiar but also unknown.

The hands around the strap of her shoulder bag tightened their grip a little as she roamed her eyes around the interior of the restaurant. She noticed that the room was just as small as the dango shop she worked at.
Several tilted frames with certificates and pictures covered the walls but she didn't want to spent too much time inspecting them.

Instead she was looking out for the boy she was so eager and at the same time indescribably nervous to see. Yet the only staff she could detect was a brown haired waitress, who was busy with taking orders at a group table outside, while smiling widely and joking with one of the guests.

Hinata stepped further inside, walking towards the bar. Vigorously she looked around, tiptoeing in fear she might oversee him.

"Are you looking for someone, young lady?" The sudden deep voice behind her surprised her so much that she had winced before she turned around.
The chef of the restaurant, who her boss Anko had called Teuchi once, smiled at her under his hooded eyes. Sweat ran down from under his hat and wetted his hair around his temple.

"Good evening, I'm looking for one of your employees." When he glanced at the woman outside, she added, "A boy, with blond hair."

"Ah. He finished his shift earlier today. I'm sorry, you missed him."

Her shoulders slacked. It was like the world was joking with her. Here she was, finally gathering her long lost courage and it was all in vain.

"Is that so." She couldn't suppress the sigh that cut its way through her throat.

"Can I relay a message, he'll be here tomorrow again." Teuchi stepped closer to her, the bar still separating them. The noises disturbed their conversation and Hinata's voice was too little in the see of laughter and exclamations.

"No it's okay. I'll just come back tomorrow." Hinata tried to prevent her disappointment from displaying on her face.

She bowed her head politely and was in the midst of turning around to leave again, when she halted and called for the chef. "Excuse me."

He hadn't turned away yet and rose his brows at her pacing towards him.

"May I ask you what his name is?" She knew how odd that might sounded but right now she didn't really have any borders on how to act or concern on what people thought of her strange behavior.

His smile was different from the friendly one he had given her earlier but she couldn't really match it.

"It's Naruto." He had answered in a manner that made it seem like he couldn't wait to let her hear it.

"Naruto," she mumbled, chuckling when she realized how good that name fitted into his workplace and how well it sounded in her ears. She liked that name.

Hinata thanked the man with a joyous smile. She hadn't talked to her crush this evening but at least she had achieved her goal.
She knew his name now. It was Naruto.

Naruto had looked towards her direction nearly the whole time they were on the bus. She hadn't figured out what exactly he was looking at or if he was just dozing off. Too afraid she had been to raise her head and eventually locking her eyes with his, probably causing an uncomfortable moment for both of them.
So Hinata stubbornly directed her eyes of the window, not taking note on her habit of fidgeting with her fingers.

The hotness and the struggle to not snatch a glance of the boy, who she now knew how to call, made her chest feel heavy. She couldn't concentrate on anything else, not the passing cars or the view of the city on a summer afternoon.

Luckily when the bus stopped and several people got off, Naruto turned his back towards her. She was relieved that she didn't have to restrain anymore.
Hinata monitored the back of his head, which, thanks to how well she had studied it, she would be able to recognize anywhere. His strands had grown over the course of the summer but they didn't cover the red of his neck completely or could hide the droplets of sweat.

His shirt was wrinkled around his bag pack and sticked a little to his skin. The sight was soothing yet also made her nervous.
She had never had that kind of sensation with anyone else before and it was like she explored a new territory of herself whenever she saw him. This feelings that kept her awake at night and made her giddy, had been her companion and her teacher on the past weeks of her young age.

Hinata was too deep in her thoughts to register the shifting of the bus, as it drove into a curve, right away. The back she was watching so diligently closed in and Naruto landed in her lap.

She recored a loud thud and his weight on her but the whole situation broke down her system. The raising of her arms was the only reaction she could show and when Naruto looked up at her, her mind went blank.
He was so close that she could see each of the six scars on his cheeks and the blueness of his eyes in a way she hadn't before.

He jumped up and immediately apologized with both hands in the air.
"I'm so sorry."

Hinata could hear the people around her giggling and sat up, trying to tame her flush.
"I-it's okay." But he didn't really hear her words even when it had taken everything from her to utter them.

"It was an accident, believe me." Not for a second had she thought that he had deliberately fallen on her and didn't need him to beg for her forgiveness.

"I understand," she said but nevertheless her cheeks burned and she pressed her lips together in an attempt to regain her composure.

Naruto got off so fast at the next stop that her eyes barely managed to follow him. She froze at the busstop, peering at the corner he had vanished at.
It was the first time she had started working, that she didn't want to go. The fact that Naruto would avoid her because of that incident made her unable to imagine enjoying her work.
The gift that he worked right opposite of her, what she had been so thankful for earlier, had become a disadvantage.

She did her best to give the few customers her full attention and act as she always did. But her insides were experiencing a whirlwind of emotions and when she coincidently locked her eyes with Naruto on the other side of the street, she couldn't bow her head and smile, instead rushed back inside, not wanting to expose her sheepish face. The distance wasn't enough to hide that.

Indoors she did the most unnecessary tasks she could find. Adjusting the perfectly placed food that was on exhibition or refilling the box of tissues that didn't need to be refilled.

Anko usually only left her office when it got busier and Hinata's co-worker would only come to work in a few hours so she felt lonely in the quietness of the shop.

It was cold compared to outside as the air conditioner arranged it so that the sweets wouldn't suffer from the hotness of the summer.
Hinata looked around, there was nothing left to do, except asking the two customers outside if they needed anything. She shoved a chair back to its table before tightening her apron and stepping outside.

It was uncertain if the sudden hotness of the air contributed in her shock of Naruto's appearance, regardless she eyed him as if there was no possible way that he was standing right in front of her.

"I-… He-…," he began and his stammering made her assume that he was as surprised by her presence as she had been by his. "I was told to bring this over for you and your boss to eat." Her gaze fell on Teuchi behind the counter of his restaurant, displaying that weird smile again that she didn't know what it meant.

"Oh." Hinata nearly forgot to respond. "Thank you." Somehow she felt disappointed that he had come over because his boss said so. She was probably expecting too much from this boy she didn't knew much about and he had absolutely no obligation to make her feel like she was more than a stranger to him. Because that was what she was and it made her mood reach a new low.

Silence spread between them and both didn't move an inch. Hinata knew that she didn't because she hoped to get more of this conversation than she had so far and she opened her mouth to ask him what his reason was.

"Is there something else you want to say?" He didn't reply for a while to her hopeful question and made her wonder if he had even heard what she said.

"No. Sorry. Nothing. See ya."

After his quick uttering he turned around, presenting her his back. But it didn't make her feel calm and giddy anymore. She wasn't satisfied with looking at his back. She rather wanted to see his front.
He rubbed the nape of his neck as he departed and the girl disliked the sight of him leaving yet couldn't do anything to hold him back.

Sighingly her eyes met the two bowls with fuming ramen. The smell of the soup delighted her nose as the oil on the surface glistened in the sunshine. The different ingredients on the top were assembled so carefully that she inspected the dish on a table inside before getting two pairs of chopsticks.

Anko joined her, licking her lips when sitting down at one of the many free tables. The woman slid her bowl towards herself and started stirring her chopsticks in the broth. The amount of steam increased when she lifted the noodles now and then before she shoved a good portion into her mouth.

She resounded happily as soon as the food had touched her tongue.
"Teuchi is a genius when it comes to ramen." Her words were more likely directed to herself, as if she needed a reminder of that fact.

Her boss' antics when she ate tasty food were always a reason for Hinata to giggle and today was no exception. She hadn't even touched her bowl yet but already knew that it was delicious.
Still her mouth corners turned downwards when she saw Naruto on the other side. The street between them was free just as the view she had of him.

His head rested on the counter and she could barely see his face, just his blond shock. His hands rose to ruffle his already messy hair. The way his boss was patting his shoulder made Hinata ask if he was feeling unwell. Maybe it was the heat? Or he felt sick?

"You like him?" Anko was still munching but had her arm leaned on the back of her chair, looking in the same direction her employee was.

"Huh?" Quickly Hinata eyed her food, which had stayed untouched until she thrusted her cutlery inside.

"Come on. I may be sitting in my office all the time but the way you look at him makes it so obvious." She grinned, unaware of the bashfulness she evoked in Hinata.
It took the woman some more seconds and several smacking of her lips to realize her employees feelings. One brow rose. The girl's chopsticks were moving aimlessly in her bowl, not trying to get a hold of any of the food inside.

"Just tell him," she stated in a sentimental voice. Her tone was so different from her usual brisk and tough manner, that Hinata had to face her to believe that her boss had expressed that phrase. "Instead of wondering and trembling it's much easier to tell the truth."

She let those words circling in her head and internalized its meaning.

"Miss, are you getting in?" The bus driver threw a skeptical look at Hinata, who was kept in her walking dream right in front of the bus' still open door.
Questioning how the vehicle had arrived without her perception of it, she swiftly bowed in apology.

"I'm sorry." Her shoes resounded on the floor as she quickly got inside and walked down the aisle, getting judged by the others on her way.

As soon as she had found a good seat at a window and adjusted her bag on her lap, she travelled off with her thoughts again.
She had come to the realization that anything she said to Naruto would be better than staying silent. The worst case scenario appeared more pleasant than the constant worries she experienced nearly every day. And she couldn't imagine that she had fallen for a guy that would reject her cruelly when she would confess the matters of her heart. With that never-ending smile and his comfortable aura it wasn't possible.

The same buildings and streets passed in front of her and Hinata found herself starting to daydream along the drive.
Watching an old couple interacting on the other side of the street, Hinata had lost herself in her study of the world outside the window.

Her head bobbed forth and back again when the bus halted at the next station and the old man took the bags the old woman was carrying. Both had white hair that glowed in the sunshine and sunglasses protecting them from the brightness of the day. They exchanged words, which Hinata obviously couldn't hear and the woman patted her husband on the shoulder.

The couple continued their slow walk down the tree-lined road and Hinata averted her eyes from the window.
She must had been very out of it if she had forgotten that this was the stop Naruto usually got inside the bus. But remembering that now had no purpose as he was already standing at the front and looking right at her.

The little moment between them felt like eternity but then, as if he moved in slow motion, he looked away and turned his back to her. And somehow that view, that she had once relished so much, made her chest tighten.

"Naruto." It was a call she hadn't tried to control because she no longer wanted to. Gazing at him wasn't enough anymore.

There were so many things she wanted to know about him. It were simple things like what his favorite color was or what he did in his free time. But also important things like the reason he smiled so brightly when she looked over from her side of the street or why he watched her on the bus on their way to work. And why they had never spoken with each other.

She wouldn't be able to learn these things if she stayed silent. She wanted him to sit next to him every time they rode the bus, she wanted to talk to him on their way to their workplace and rather than the back of his head, she wanted to see his face.

"You can sit here." Hinata tapped the seat to her right. The desire to make him sit there helped her in overcoming her shyness.

Her eyes traced him walking over to her side like he could disappear any moment she didn't. Waiting for him to finally sit down felt like torture but the graveness of the relief when he did made her feel like she had waited for this moment all her life.

"Thank you." His voice being so close to her made her ear tickle. It was husky and rough because he had whispered and the first time she had heard it from this proximity. It made her toes curl in her sandals.

Naruto's arm touched hers, electrifying her skin right at that spot and spreading its sensation through her whole body. She hoped that the touch would last as long as possible, desiring to lean against it if that was needed to not make it stop.

Hinata's habit of playing with her fingers appeared at the surface again. This time she knew it was there and it actually helped in sorting her thoughts.

"Wait, how do you know my name?" His question hit her like an arrow in the head. She hadn't even thought about the fact that she had called him by his name, because the only thing she wanted at that moment was his attention.

"Uh?" Telling him that she went over to ask his boss didn't seem like a good idea and the closeness of his face to hers didn't help in finding a convincing explanation. "I… I just do."

Hinata could feel the blood rushing through her head. He smiled and she felt like melting. Under his careful gaze, it seemed as if he inspected every inch of her face. She could swear that he closed in the distance a little bit further.

For the other passengers this moment was like any other but for her it felt like her surroundings were sparkling. The fragrance of the air was fresher, the noises felt like well composed music and her heart was warmer as if wrapped by a cozy blanket.

The rays lightened up his face and, together with his blond hair, made it appear like the gleaming sun was right by her side.

"What's your name?" he asked.

She smiled because that question made her happy. It meant that he wanted to know her better too.

"Hinata," she replied, while looking him in the eye.