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NOTE: Sasuke might be out of character because I need someone Sakura likes and can be an egotistic jerk- Sasuke fits the egotistic part…

You were sick of the noises downstairs. You were never a party goer and with the kind attitude you had, you didn't want to be a party pooper so you fled upstairs to your safe haven: the attic.

You were never fond of insects and despite having Shino, your partner in biology who is fascinated insects, goose bumps sprout on your arms and legs whenever someone brings up the subject of creepy crawlies.

As you climbed up the stairs to the attic, you shivered, scared you might find a big hairy spider or anything that can creep up your jeans. You knew insects were attracted to light so you left the light off and felt yourself ponder the brief conversation you had with your friends.

---Flash back---

"____-chan, you should tell him."

"Pardon?" you questioned. You were having lunch with Sakura and the other girls in your class and she looked really ticked off by something. "What did you want me to tell?"

"You like Sasuke, right? Everyone knows. And guess what. It's on. Tomorrow night I'm holding a party at my place and you MUST attend because whoever asks Sasuke out firsts and he agrees get to keep him. Agreed?"

"But I don't like Sasuke." You stated.

"Keep telling yourself that."

"No, Sakura, I really don't-"

"What-ever." She spun her wrists around and made a "W" sign with her fingers.

"But I don't," you looked to Ino, and she looked pissed too.

"Don't deny it _____-chan," she said. She followed after Sakura.

"Don't worry, _____-chan," Hinata's gentle arms wrapped around you. "You should love whoever you like. But please do come to the party tonight. We've been planning this since the beginning of the year."

"You know, you can always pretend to be in love with someone so Sakura and Ino don't think you are a threat. I mean, Sasuke has been trying to catch your attention lately."

"Temari! Who am I supposed to say I like. You know I don't, I… I'm too young to love!"

Temari shrugged. "No one said it had to be real. That's all I can do. I can maybe convince my brothers to pretend to be your crush but we're going overseas tonight so I don't really think my brothers can back you up…" Temari trailed off about her brothers.

You sighed and looked to Hinata for advice but she suddenly found her shoelaces more interesting than the case you .

---End Flashback---

"I hope Sasuke doesn't reject Sakura…" you thought to yourself. You sighed and crawled deeper into the attic.

"Hey," a head popped up from the attic stairs. "Anyone up here?"

The lights crackled and fizzed for some time then finally blinked on. At the top of the attic stairs stood Sasuke.

'Oh no,' you thought to yourself, just when you wanted peace and silence, you got interruptions. You felt yourself curl up tighter and hide behind a big pile of junk.

"____-chan." The voice was right behind you. You jumped and knocked down something tall and skinny, perhaps a coat hanger. It crashed to the floor. You tried picking it up with Sasuke's help but it fell once again and made a crash so loud you cringed. Both of you left the object lying flat.

"Sasuke-kun, what are you doing here?" You tried to smile and hoped in the dim light your smile didn't look forced.

"_____-chan. Sakura and Ino both proposed their love for me and I rejected them. I-, well, Sakura told me you've got something to tell me so I thought- you know…."

"Um," you fidgeted with your shirt nervously. Not only were you bad with bugs, you were bad with talking to guys. "I… I have nothing to say."

"Are you sure?" Sasuke's eyes looked questioning at you.

"Yes." You answered.

"Well, I have something to tell you. I think, I think I love you." Sasuke held your hands in his. "Please tell me you love me back."

"Sorry, I'm…." You looked away from him. You couldn't stand this. Even after all those sappy romance movies you have watched you still couldn't reject someone. "I'm… I'm in love with someone else."

"But you can't… who can you possibly like-"

"____-chan. What are you doing up here?"

You took a glance behind Sasuke and saw Shino.

"Shino-kun."

Sasuke looked behind him and looked at the boy in the oversized jacket. "Shino? How can you love a guy like him? He's obsessed with bugs."

You went around Sasuke and linked arms with Shino. It was now or never. You could hear Temari's words in your mind. "You know, you can always pretend to be in love with someone… It doesn't have to be real."

You smiled at Sasuke. "Sorry Sasuke-kun. The one I like…." You looked down and pretended to blush. "The one I like is Shino-kun." You leaned up to peck Shino on the cheek. Luckily, Shino was in such a shock he didn't move or protest.

"This- this is ridiculous!" stammered Sasuke. He pushed you and Shino out of the way and stormed down the attic stairs.

There was a long moment of silence until it was broken by Shino. "Is it true, _____-chan? Do you really love me?"

You looked up into Shino's eyes and swallowed the lump in your throat. Lying to someone about love is not good. Most of the movies, the main female character fakes they have fallen in love but then really falls in love but the guy finds out she was faking her love and dumps here. No happy ending. Despite all your brain's protests, you wanted to be selfish for once. Your love life was on the line so… "Yes Shino… I think I love you."

Suddenly, Shino pulled you into a tight hug. And a cold feeling swept over you when you heard his words, "I love you too."

---Timeskip: brought to you by that uncomfortable feeling you have in your stomach when you know everything's going to turn out wrong---

It's been a month since Sakura's party. You were "pretending" to go out with Shino but you start to find yourself falling for the insect loving friend. He was kind and gentle, unlike those idiotic boys that tried to catch any hot girl's attention.

"It's just infatuation." You thought to yourself. "Like all those sappy romance stories you have seen and read. The girl always falls in love with the man at first then they break up. Simple. One day, perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow or next week, Shino will realise I'm not the girl for him and we will break up just like in those movies. I will perhaps cry a bit, eat a tub of ice cream then go back to my high school life. Simple."

Shino's arms wrapped around you. You snuggled into his embrace.

"Oh," cooed Ten Ten, "you guys look so cute together!"

"Hey guys!" screamed Temari. "I'm back! Did you miss me? I bought souvenirs!" She stopped in her tracks when she saw Shino's arms around you. She nudged you and winked. "Choose your souvenirs guys! I have to talk to _____-chan!"

She dragged you to the fire escape stairs, closed the wedged a bit of cardboard between the door and sat on the stairs. "How was Sakura's party?"

You told her what happed.

"So you go Shino as your "boyfriend", eh? Nice choice. Guys like him are easy to dump. Just-"

"But Temari, I like Shino. Like, I think I really really like him," You sat next to Temari.

Temari laughed. "Pfft, you and Shino? It's just infatuation, ____-chan. Dump him. You'll do so much better."

The sound of the door falling shut made both you and Temari jump. You ran to the door, just in case Shino heard your conversation but Temari's iron grip stopped you. "It could be a teacher." There was silence. Temari continued "He's not good enough for you ____-chan. You can find someone more lively."

The bell rang and both you walked out. On the floor outside was two matching souvenirs.

----time skip----

Last period of the day. Biology. And you haven't seen Shino since the morning. "Maybe he had something to do." You thought. He was probably in the Library looking up new species of bugs.

You walked into Biology and Shino was already there staring at a text book.

"Shino-kun." You sat down next to him. He was never talkative or taken the initiative to greeted people but will usually grunt in response. However, today, he was totally quiet, like he was ignoring you. "Shino-kun?"

"Alright class!" bellowed Ibiki-sensei. "Today we are learning about locusts- Where do you think you are going Shino?"

You looked up to see Shino packing his things. "Nurse office." He mumbled.

You quickly packed your things up too. If Shino skipped out on a lesson on insects, he was probably really sick. "I'll go with you." You said.

"No need." He replied.

"No, it's fine," you smiled at him but he wasn't look at you.

Both of you left to the nurse office. You decided to break the ice. "You know, you'll feel much better if you took your coat off…" you giggled.

Shino stopped dead in his tracks. "_____-chan. It's over. I heard what you and Temari were talking about this morning.

"What do you mean? Shino-kun…"

"I heard you didn't really like me. You only admitted you liked me to get Sasuke off your back."

You gasped, "But I really fell in love with you-"

Shino held his hand up to silence you. He shook his head. "It's just the infatuation. You don't have to take me any further. I want to spend a little time alone."

You watched him leave. You felt the bottom of your heart start to tear and by the fleeting second, more of your heart disintegrated. "I'm sorry Shino," you thought "I should never have played around with love."

---Time skip: a few days later----

"Perhaps another tub of ice cream should do the trick." You thought to yourself. Days past and the aching pain in your heart was still present but you haven't cried once.

You walked to the local corner shop and grabbed a tub of your favourite ice cream.

"____-chan, what are you doing here?"

'Oh no," you thought, 'it's Sasuke.'

"Buying ice cream. Doesn't take a genius to work that out." You answered as sarcastically as you could.

Sasuke smiled. "What happened to your 'boyfriend' Shino? Did you guys break up? I knew he was never good enough for you."

Your hands gripped the tub of ice cream tighter as you walked towards the counter.

"Let me help you," Sasuke tried to take the tub of ice cream off you but in the process, feeling your hands.

You cringed back and the tub of ice cream feel. The lid burst open and ice cream burst everywhere.

"Oh my gawd! What have you done!" screamed the shop keeper.

"I'm sorry." You bent over to help clean the mess up when Sasuke came up to you and slapped your ass.

You stood up straight and tried to slap him but he caught your arms.

Someone tall, grabbed you and pulled you behind him. "Back off, she's my girl."

"Gee, just playing around." Sasuke walked out of the shop.

"Thank you, but do I know you?" The man turned around. "Shino-kun?" Shino took off his hood. "Did you go through puberty in a week? You look different…"

Shino didn't say anything but walked out of the shop.

"Shino!" you hugged him from behind. "I'm sorry, I really am! I should never have used your love for me. I'm sorry. But I really do love you. I realised I fell for you after going out with you. I-"

Your hug around him loosed until your arms fell by your side. Was he listening? Did you really think he would accept you after playing with his feelings? You watched him walk away. You turned around and decide to head home but you couldn't move. You stood there and crossed your arms and sobbed.

Arms circled around you. The smell was unmistakeable. It was Shino.

"I wanted us to start again, this time me asking you out, not you faking your love for me so another guy won't ask you out, not me going out with you because I needed a friend, a biology partner. This time I want to ask you out as my girlfriend. Would you go out with me?"

You turned in Shino's arms hugged him tightly. All you want to do at that moment was hug him. "Do you still accept me after me what I did? I used you Shino. No one will be able to forgive someone who used them. I don't forgive myself."

"Well I forgive you."

That was all he said and it was that was all one needed to hear to know it was going to be the beginning of a bumpy by nevertheless romantic love story.