bubblegum princess

chapter one

┏━━━━━━━◦𑁍◦━━━━━━━━┓
the beginning:
shy little bubblegum
┗━━━━━━━◦𑁍◦━━━━━━━━┛

━━✥◈✥━━

     2 WEEKS have passed and it felt like a breeze for most students yet for Seiren, it almost felt like a decade. Time was slow on her perspective as stares and whispers around her have shrunk her confidence once again, they would observe how she eats, sits, and any movements she makes. It felt like she was the entertainment for them to watch. Inojin protectively stick by her side most of the time, thanks to him, she even made a few friends. She accomplished something from her bucket list!

She officially met Nara Shikadai whose father is the supervisor of the current Hokage. Meeting Mister Shikamaru before, she could tell, Shikadai mostly have his characteristics coming from his father. She wonders how Mrs. Tamari could handle them both under one roof. She must say, she thinks highly of Temari for being a tough cookie, just like her mother.

She and Sarada arrived at the academy earlier than she expected them to. She drops her bag next to her and began to prepare her textbook for today's subjects, pulling out one textbook that was slightly filled with small sticky notes that added a few pieces of information from the said topic. Sarada watches her from the second row with a sweat drop before ChoCho showed up with her usual flavored potato chips in her hands.

Inojin arrived a few minutes after ChoCho and he immediately walked toward his seatmate who he treats as a little sister, noticing him right away, Seiren shyly waves in his direction and watches him sit on her left which was next to the window, Inojin always love to stare right on the now and would often doodle things that are the first thing he sees.  "Good morning, Sei-chan!" Inojin greets her as he sat back down next to her, dropping his bag at the side and pulling out his sketchbook.

"Good morning, Ino-kun." She greets quietly.

Her eyes wander and noticed how someone wasn't usually with him "Ano... Where is Shika-kun?" She asked, Inojin looks up from his sketchbook and shrugged "I don't know, he might be coming in late. You know how he often stays up at night." She somehow hums in agreement and opens a book that her mother has given her. She told her that it was given to her by her father who she never really met. She trails her finger upon the dried ink on the parchment before sighing.

Minutes passed, and the room have gotten crowded. People chatted with their groups and her sister, Sarada, was one of them. She silently scribbles down her notes, sketching a few doodles along the way, and felt Inojin shifting from his seat and staring below the window where students were coming through the gates she heard him mutter. "So he didn't drop out?" she owlishly looks at him "Who are you talking to, Ino-kun?" she asks, Inojin slightly jumps from the voice and looks at her, letting out an awkward laugh. "It's nothing, Sei."

She then rests her head on her arms, leaning through their table, feeling a bit drowsy. "Take a nap. I'll be waking you up if Shino-sensei arrives." she heard him say, she gave him a tired nod, and she immediately doze off.

━━✥◈✥━━

"HEY, GUYS!" She was immediately woken up, slightly panicking as if she was caught dozing off from class but immediately calms down when she didn't see Shino in front, uzumaki boruto came in with a wide grin with a boy with glasses and Shikadai trailing behind him from the door. Everyone got silent when the boy came in and greeted them with an obnoxious voice. "I'm Uzumaki Boruto, nice to meet you all!" he ended his introduction with his fist pointing directly at the students he calls classmates.

Boruto took upon the sight of Seiren who gave him a shy smile. The boy didn't know how his feet froze for a moment before he felt Shikadai shoving him to their seat. "I told you to keep a low profile, dumbass." he heard Shikadai complaining and he never took it to heart.

Seiren then heard hushing whispers onsets behind her, she carefully glanced and sees a group of boys secretly eyeing Boruto who was now annoying Shikadai who wants nothing more but to shove the blonde's face on the table but restrain himself to do so. Seiren flinches when her friend, Inojin, was nowhere near her sight and watches how he descended the staircase, walking his way towards Boruto. "Riding on the Hokage's coattails, huh?" he says out loud, which causes Sumire to panic. "H-Hey Inojin!"

She calls out and Inojin looks behind his shoulder, smiling innocently at her. "Oops, did I say that out loud?" he questions, Sumire quickly slumps on her seat as Seiren huffs with her cheeks puffing out. She watches how Shikadai frowns at his sudden statement "Oi, Inojin. Take that back." Shikadai slightly demands.

Inojin continues to smile, taking a few steps before he was now in front of their seats, "Oh sorry. If I struck a nerve, I take it back." he looked at them confidently "But that's just how everyone's feeling here." Seiren tenses in her seat when all eyes stare at the conflict below them.

"If anyone else caused a runaway train, it would be normal if they were thrown in jail." Denki sprang out from his seat, wanting to protest what he had said when Boruto calmly held his shoulder, shaking his head. Shikadai looks at Inojin "Look, you know that's not what happened." he says with a pointed look, Inojin looks at him before giving him an eye smile. "I guess."

"Hey, Boruto. How long has it been?" Inojin greets ignoring how he was merely taunting the boy a while ago. Boruto calmly looks at him with a smile "Hi, Inojin," Denki looked surprised at how well they knew each other, just right after the stunt that Inojin pulled a while ago. Boruto just brushes it off like it was nothing.

"Are you two friends?" Denki asks.

Shikadai rubs his nape "All of our parents are friends." he started and he meant, that they were only friends because their parents were. But we all know how Shikadai is a bit of a tsundere towards his friends. He turns towards Inojin and began to talk to him about how he shot his mouth off and in simple terms, how could he always put more salt on the wound.

Born to brushes it off once again and offers the blonde friendship, reaching his hand towards him, only to have Inojin slapping his hand with no sense of regret from his action "Well, I don't even consider you worth my trust." Seiren stood up from her seat, stuttering "I-Ino-kun, that's enough." her pleading stops for further arguments as Inojin sighs, looking at Boruto one last time before walking up the stairs and towards Seiren.

Boruto watches them with narrowed eyes.

end of chapter one.