(Y/n) placed her food tray on the table and winced when it clattered loudly, alerting the table's occupants of her arrival. Shyly smiling, she sent them a quick wave while she occupied the vacant seat between Midoriya and Shouto.

"Hey, guys," she greeted.

"(Y/n)!" Iida acknowledged her with a swift nod. "It's good to see you join us once again."

The girl briefly put her hands together to give thanks for her food.

"Thanks Iida," she said after she was done. "It feels good to be back."

"Yes. But you should really learn to keep time during meals," he rapidly chopped his hand in the air while he chastised her. "Tardiness for lunch will also have a dire effect on your class punctuality."

(Y/n) sighed with a fatigued smile playing on her lips. "Sure didn't miss that uptightness though."

Taking no offence, Iida smiled back before going back to his food. Despite the fact that he was sometimes too earnest to a fault, he always meant well and (Y/n) liked that a lot about him. Although, she did kinda harbor a tiny grudge against him after his dick move during the Awkward Question Game and petty as she is, she wasn't going to let it go any time soon.

Her eyes drifted to the brunette sitting next to him and her smile faded. Uraraka had been silently staring at her with an odd look ever since she sat down. She had originally tried to downplay it and pretend she hadn't noticed in the hope that she'll stop soon but she didn't. And it was really starting to bug her.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," Uraraka said. Her voice sounded strange, almost as if it was strained. "How's your day going?"

(Y/n) gave a lopsided grimace. "It's going..."

Uraraka nodded and looked down at her noodles and egg.

(Y/n) narrowed her eyes on her. She couldn't deny that something had changed. Since the day before, there had been an inexplicable tension between them, with most of it being supplied by Uraraka. She had first felt it back in the bus when Uraraka came to sit next to her and had proceeded to stay silent for the rest of the ride back to school. At the time, (Y/n) didn't put much thought into it as she also wasn't in the mood to talk. But now that the atmosphere was somewhat back to normal, it was no longer a hunch but a reality that things weren't right between them.

(Y/n) deliberated for a few seconds whether she should keep quiet over the matter but when Uraraka threw her another odd glance, she decided that she'd had enough.

"Uraraka?"

Said girl looked up at her while still chewing. The three boys also turned to (Y/n) but she didn't pay them any mind.

"Is something wrong?" (Y/n) arched an eyebrow. "You're not acting...like yourself today."

(Y/n) didn't miss how Uraraka's eyes flicked to Midoriya for a fleeting second before she shook her head.

"Oh, it's nothing. I'm just happy to see you sit with us again," her tone gained some edge yet lacked sincerity, her grin faker than a mobile game ad. "Next to Deku. As always!"

(Y/n)'s eyebrows rose and she sized her up. That's why, huh.

Eyes squinting, she offered Uraraka a tight smile. "Right."

Shouto stared at Uraraka with a vague expression on, he could sense the tense atmosphere between them without question. Midoriya and Iida, who were in the dark about what was happening, ate their food while their eyes darted from (Y/n) to Uraraka and back.

Midoriya turned to (Y/n) to ask why she was acting like that when he caught sight of the bowl on her tray and his eyes widened in horror. "(Y/n)! Is that the only thing you're eating?!"

"Huh?" the girl flickered her furrowed gaze at him before glancing down at the two rice balls in her bowl. "Oh, um," she shook her head. "I'm-I'm not hungry."

"But you didn't finish your breakfast today and you only had two cups of coffee," his eyebrows snapped together, the inside corners slanting upwards. "That's not enough."

"Midoriya's right!" Iida supplied. "You need the nutrients and the energy if you want to properly function during the day and perform well. Otherwise, you'll start to relapse if you're not careful."

(Y/n) rolled her eyes. One mother is enough, I don't need two more.

"Guys, I'm fine. My appetite just...isn't what it used to be, that's all," shrugging, she picked up a rice ball. "Besides, it'll probably be okay by tomorrow or something."

She took a bite off of it and sent the two worried boys a 'see, I'm eating' look while she chewed.

Unconvinced, Iida stroked his jaw while humming.

"If you say so...But I'm still not comfortable with you eating so little," he placed his chopsticks on the side of his tray. "This may suffice for now," picking up his bowl, he extended it across the table and (Y/n) crinkled her nose. "Here, have some of my stinky tofu."

"She doesn't like tofu."

Forehead creasing, (Y/n) swallowed her rice before looking back and forth between the two boys who had spoken on her behalf, at the same time. However, she wasn't the only one caught off-guard. Midoriya directed a nonplussed look at Shouto, who met his gaze with his blank one.

Uraraka dubiously narrowed her eyes at the dual-haired male. How does Todoroki know that she hates tofu?

Shaking off the odd occurrence, (Y/n) sent Iida a grateful smile. "Thanks Iida. I appreciate the thought. But I don't-yeah..."

"That's understandable," the bespectacled male placed his bowl back on his tray. "Don't apologize."

(Y/n) nodded and proceeded to take another bite of her rice ball.

"So, uh, (Y/n)," stealing one last look at Shouto, Midoriya turned to the girl next to him and smiled. "How was English class?"

While the two teenagers conversed, with Iida joining in somewhere in the middle, Uraraka and Shouto stayed silent as they ate. But unlike Shouto, who was listening in to their conversation, Uraraka was busy watching him instead. Or rather watching him sneak glances at (Y/n) from the sidelines.

There were a lot of assumptions she could've come up with while she observed him, all of them ranging from innocent to alarming. But out of all of the theories and speculations, only one question remained dominant throughout her thinking process.

Was (Y/n) secretly involved with Shouto too?

***

Alone on his table with his food untouched, Katsuki eyed (Y/n)'s table from afar with restrained jealousy as dumb Deku animatedly talked about stupid shit with (Y/n). It was an annoying sight he had been used to seeing for so long now, same cafeteria, same distance, same table, same seating positions. He was getting real fucking tired of it all.

He guessed that the two had already fixed whatever it was between each other, otherwise she wouldn't have been sitting at her usual table and Deku wouldn't have been cozying up to what's his like some pathetic puppy.

Oh, what he'd give to just stomp over there and grab (Y/n) so he could drag her to sit where she belonged. Next to him, by his fucking side.

The irony of it all, how a day ago he wouldn't even consider her to be on his level or worthy of his feelings when now he saw her as his equal. All because of a fucking video he had received while in the Isami locker room...

Katsuki put on his school shirt and was about to start buttoning it up when his phone vibrated in his bag. He ignored it, writing it off as a message from his nagging hag asking how his day went or some shit like that.

His phone vibrated again with another received message and he clicked his tongue. He finished doing up his buttons before he dug his hand into his school bag for the annoying device.

He squinted at the screen and his scowl deepened upon seeing who the message was from. He wasn't expecting a message from her at that time but he sensed that it had to be something that involved (Y/n). He quickly tapped on it to read.

Raccoon eyes:

If this doesn't convince you that (Y/n) is badass, then I don't know what will ┐( ˘_˘)┌

Raccoon eyes:

Attachment: 1 video

His eyebrows rose. He was right.

Without wasting another second, he played the video.

Words cannot begin to explain the levels of emotions Katsuki went through while he watched it, especially the part where (Y/n) slammed Hanabitch's big forehead against the locker door.

But as surprised as he was while watching it, that part unfortunately, wasn't the part that had caused the complacent smirk to embed itself on his face. No, far from it. It was actually the last part. The part that did inexplicable things to his insides considering the amount of times he had replayed it.

The part where (Y/n) was crouched down in front of Hanabitch with her hand on her head with a sadistic smirk on her face.

See, Katsuki was a simple guy with rather unique tastes. He loved spicy food, his favorite pastime activity was hiking, he got off victory, his go to method while dealing with situations was usually violence and he thrived on seeing defeat mixed with tears in others' eyes while he inflicted pain on them.

He was as normal as any other teenage boy would get, really. Only that he was more handsome and awesome.

Now if you had to put all of his likes together, they still wouldn't be able to hold a fucking candle to the feeling he got when he saw his enemies lose while suffering in the process.

But seeing his enemies lose while suffering in the hands of the girl he loved? And seeing her face while she enjoyed doing it? Now that, was fucking euphoria and a turn on for ages. What he'd have given to see it with his own eyes...and join her.

Badass? Fuck. (Y/n) was a fucking bad bitch through and through. And to think that all this time he had been stupid to that fact...

Katsuki was about to press replay and get another dose of his new addiction when an arm slung itself around his neck, causing his lips to twist in a snarl.

"Hey there, brother," Kaminari curiously peered down at his phone over his shoulder with a sly smirk. "What's got you smiling? Porn?"

Growling, Katsuki grabbed Kaminari's face and pushed him off him. "It's none of your fucking business, dunce face!"

When Katsuki's palm began smoking, the boy gulped and shakily rose his arms in surrender.

"Whoa. Okay, okay, chillax," he said, his voice muffled by the hand encompassing his face. "Minding my own business from now on."

Katsuki scoffed and released the boy, who scurried off to another corner of the locker room, probably to report the assault to Kirishima. Aggravated by the interruption, Katsuki clicked his tongue as he pocketed his phone to finish dressing up.

To think that his day ended up being shitty, only to be fucking blessed with a video like that. In normal circumstances, he'd delete any video the four shitheads would send him, mostly because they were usually designed to decimate his brain cells. Though he hated to admit that some of them were mildly amusing, he preferred not to have his gallery filled with nonsense and therefore would delete them after watching them.

But (Y/n)'s? Heck no. In fact, he'll even move it to his file safe for special research purposes and so that no one would ever come across it.

As he put on his jacket, he softly smirked to himself as pride swelled within him.

He had to give it to her though. He didn't think that dumbass had it in her to keep her end of the deal.

Katsuki leaned back in his chair as he reveled in the distant memory. How many times had he watched that video? Too many times to count that's what.

The sudden slamming of trays against the table and chairs scraping across the floor ripped him out of his blissful thoughts and his expression soured when his peaceful solitude was interrupted by the other dumbasses that considered themselves his friends.

Kirishima situated himself on the chair next to him and wasted no time leaning closer to him with a dumb grin at the ready.

"So...?" he drawled, eyebrows waggling.

Lip curled up, Katsuki leaned away from him. "So what?"

"You know what we're asking," Kirishima leaned back before gesturing to the others, who were leaning in with anticipation in their eyes. "We didn't ask yesterday because we wanted you to get some rest but now that you're well rested, you can tell us," he tilted his head. "So, did you do it?"

Katsuki threw another glance back at (Y/n) before looking away, his jaw clenched. "...No."

Disappointed groans and sighs erupted from the four teenagers as they slumped in their chairs.

"What?!" Mina exclaimed and held up her palms. "Whyyyy?"

"I-" he pressed his lips together to hold back the words but the looks they had pinned on him was enough to make him crumble. "Fuck-I couldn't do it! Okay?!"

Sero's face went blank. "Are you kidding me? After all the trouble we went through getting you ready, you still couldn't do it."

"Look, it wasn't that fucking-" glaring down at the table, his chest deflated, his tone deepened as he mumbled. "It's not as easy as you make it sound..."

"Bro, you had one job," Kirishima emphatically held up a finger. "One," he held up a palm. "And it was like, literally the most important one out of all of them."

"Yeah, what he said," Kaminari folded his forearms on the table. "How do you expect us to help you when you can't even help yourself in the first place?"

Katsuki let out a growl and he slammed his fist on the table, causing the trays to shake. "I don't fucking remember asking you four fuckwits for your fucking help!!"

"No, you didn't," Sero coolly shot him a finger gun. "But you needed it."

Katsuki bared his teeth at the boy as his balled fists under the table itched to sock his smug ass face.

"Look Bakugou," Mina twirled her chopsticks in her noodles, "the reason we gave you that assignment was because you had the perfect chance to apologize to her. You were all alone for three hours, no interruptions and no one else to overhear your conversation," she sent him a pointed look. "What else did you need?"

The ash blonde scoffed, his fiery gaze cast to the side. "You wouldn't understand."

"Then make us understand. The only way we can is if you speak to us," she shrugged before slurping the noodles into her mouth.

Katsuki scowled at her in obstinate fashion.

"Sorry to say but we had an agreement Bakugou," Sero shook his head and picked up a tempura with his chopstick. "And we can't help you in any way unless you apologize to her first. I know that to someone like you it's difficult but our plan won't work without that first step."

"Listen, man," Kirishima placed a hand on Katsuki's shoulder with a concerned look on his face. "If you really want her and you're committed to getting her, then you gotta work around that pride of yours."

Katsuki jerked his shoulder away from him with a grimace. "I fucking know, dammit. You don't have to tell me twice."

"Well, if you know that's good," nodding, Kaminari poked a hole into his juice box with his straw. "We give you a second chance."

Katsuki clicked his tongue to mask his relief. Not like they'd give up on him or anything. They didn't have the fucking spine.

"And we also deduct thirty points, leaving you with forty," Kaminari added before taking a sip of his juice.

"HA?!" Katsuki shot up his seat, veins pulsing in his temple and palms flaring up, ready to pounce on the pikachu wannabe. "Why the fuck are you taking off my fucking points?!"

His tantrum was brushed off by his friends, who continued eating like there wasn't a madman ready to rip their heads off.

"Bro, you did that to yourself," Kirishima pushed some sweet potatoes on his plate aside to pick up a piece of meat. "Plus, you should count yourself lucky that we don't know how you treated (Y/n) while you were in the simulation room. Otherwise," he sent Katsuki a cheeky grin, "we'd be deducting more points than you could ever imagine."

The ash-blonde let out a strangled growl and raised a hand to detonate a blast at Kirishima's head.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Katsuki froze and turned to voice's owner with a challenging glare.

"If you kill him or us, you'll be on your own again," Sero articulated, his eyes boring into Katsuki's, a mocking glint in them, "and you've seen how that has worked out for you, right?"

Trembling with constrained rage, Katsuki plopped back down in his seat and Kirishima nonchalantly patted his shoulder.

Katsuki glowered at his tablemates in petulance. All the fucking cocaine in the world and these fucknuts just had to pick my business to put their noses in.

Taking his silence for acceptance, Mina dared smile at him.

"So," she cocked her head, "are we expecting some good news soon or..."

"Tch," Katsuki stood up, his chair harshly scraping against the floor as he did so. "This shit is fucking bullshit."

The four teens watched him as he grumpily walked away, his back in a slouch and hands in his pockets.

"Well," Kirishima turned to the others with a chuckle. "I think that's as close as a yes we can get from him."

Kaminari popped a large piece of tofu into his mouth from his plate. "Sho fwat now?"

"We can't go through with the original plan," Kirishima rubbed his chin in deep thought. "So we'll have to approach this from a different angle," he turned to the pink-haired girl. "Ashido?"

She swallowed her noodles before giving him a mock salute. "Don't worry. I'll handle it."

Kirishima returned with a thumbs up and grin. "Cool."

"Damn," Sero sighed and looked down at his food. "We knew this wasn't going to be easy but I didn't expect it to be this difficult."

Kaminari took another long sip of his juice.

"Yeah, me neither. I mean, how hard is it to tell a girl," he cleared his throat before altering his voice to sound like a horrible impersonation of Katsuki's gruff one. "'I'm sorry for rejecting you and being a jerk. You look prettier than the stars in the sky. Date me.'"

Mina pressed her fingers to her lips to stifle her laugh. "It doesn't work that way, Kaminari. And he doesn't sound like that either."

"I know," sighing, Kaminari rested his cheek on his fist and stared at the juice box's cover. "Should we enroll him in a relationship skills program?"

"He'll rip us a new one." Kirishima said without missing a beat.

"Yeap," Mina nodded.

"Totally," Sero added.

"He'll definitely do that," Kaminari agreed.

Silence followed after, lasting for a few minutes before Mina broke it.

"So..." she asked, "What do we do tomorrow night now that we're free?"

The four exchanged blank looks before shrugging.

***

The day ended quite uneventfully for everyone.

Right around the last of the day's classes, (Y/n)'s social battery had run out and she had retreated to her room for some downtime once they were back at the dorms. It had taken a lot of convincing to assure worrywart Midoriya that she was fine and that she needed to be alone for a while. It ended up being successful and he let her go, but only on the condition that she'd tell him if anything went wrong.

She had also opted to skip out on dinner, which was code for she didn't want to see anyone else until the next morning. Her friends thankfully understood and so they didn't push it further.

Alone in the dim room, with only her desk lamp illuminating it, it was the perfect opportunity to reflect on why she wasn't good enough and why Satori had to go berserk on her. But she chose not to. Instead, she decided to occupy her mind constructively and got started on her report, with her earphones in to block out the outside world.

Halfway through the first paragraph, she received a message. Placing her pen down, she grabbed her phone and propped her elbows up on the desk to read the text.

Mina💅:

Hey girl ( ' ▽ ' )ﾉ

(Y/n):

Hey. What's up?

Mina💅:

Not much

Mina💅:

Hey, about the movie tomorrow. Sorry but I can't make it <(_ _)>

(Y/n) grimaced. Oh shit, I totally forgot about that.

Shaking her head, she quickly typed a response.

(Y/n):

Will you be busy?

Mina💅:

Yeah.

Mina💅:

I want to start early and work on the report

(Y/n):

I am filled with doubt (;¬_¬)

Mina💅:

I'm serious XD

(Y/n):

Okay fine

(Y/n):

We can go some other day then¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Mina💅:

Thanks. You're the best!（〜^∇^)〜

(Y/n):

Sure ｡^‿^｡

Realizing that she had nothing else to say and that they pretty much had nothing to talk about, (Y/n) sent out another text.

(Y/n):

Good night

Mina💅:

Lol. I'm not Bakugou XD I don't sleep at 8

(Y/n):

Oh yeah. Oops XD

When she didn't receive a reply to her text, (Y/n) pressed the back button to check if there were any other messages. Her eyes landed on Satori's last message, which was under her dad's and her face fell. She had received it the morning before, telling her that she was going to sit next to her with no further discussions on the subject.

(Y/n) placed the phone on top of her papers and threaded her hands through her loose hair. More than twenty-four hours later, her contact remained undeleted.

She wondered what she was still waiting for because honestly, there was really nothing left to wait for. If so then, why didn't she just delete it from her contacts?

Fingers still in her hair, she stared down at the phone. The thought of checking on Satori's social media platforms to see if she had posted anything new crossed her mind but she quickly banished it as soon as it came.

She sighed and folded an arm on her desk and laid her cheek on it. She picked up her phone and quit the message app. She swiped across the different apps, searching for one to occupy her short attention span but found none.

At the back of her mind was the nagging idea to just check on Satori's social media and then quickly quit but the rational part of her knew that it was a bad idea and that she'd only get hurt if she saw something that she didn't like. However that thought alone wasn't enough to convince her irrational part against it. That part incredibly wanted to not give a fuck and check.

She couldn't count how many times her thumb had hovered over the social apps, only for her to press on another miscellaneous app to distract herself. But as time went by, her curiosity steadily grew to unbearable levels and so did her impatience.

Just when she had had enough of it and was about to let the irrational part win, a new message popped up with a ping.

Not in the mood to reply any time soon, she instead swiped down the notification bar to read the text preview.

Tododonkey🔥❄️:

At the end of the day, we're all just brains trapped in a meat suit

(Y/n) made a face.

Straightening up in her chair, she reread the message again. She then placed the phone down and covered her mouth with her hand as a loud snort escaped it.

Closing her eyes, the snort turned into uncontrollable giggles which slowly transitioned into hysterical laughter that filled her dim room and dispelled the gloomy aura that once surrounded it.

***

(Y/n):

You're weird...

(Y/n):

But thanks for the laugh ٩(^ᴗ^)۶

***