Chapter 7 - Lunch 

Another day in the same room with nothing but the sound of the brush clanking in the glass jar of water every time Ochako wash off the paint of her brush. Meanwhile, next to her was a boy who is always resting in his arms for the whole club activities time period before lunch time. But even during lunch time, he still stayed there until afternoon classes.

Sometimes when he gets really hungry, he would leave the room to grab lunch and never come back in the room but just stayed in class instead. 

Today, is the same a usual. There were times where some students come in the room when they caused some trouble but it happens rarely since not a lot of people are that much of troublemakers. Nowadays, the school is so busy with the school festival that the outside is just full of footsteps and people talking loud here and there with some screams, basically people just having fun preparing for this event.

As for these two, they got the time for themselves missing out all the fun the others have outside and they got nothing to do but just listen to the cold air-conditioner breeze whirring out of it. 

There were times where they have short conversations, it's not even a conversation at all, it would just be sentences like "Turn off the air-conditioner when you're done." or "What homework did we have today?" and the other would just answer and that's that.

Nothing personal, nothing fun but just formal conversations. But honestly, Ochako didn't feel the slightest awkwardness with him or even annoyed by him. It was really, really strange for her to act this way.

But today, she decided to just ask a simple question where it could possibly lead to a nice conversation.

After the tension of this silent atmosphere, the abrupt question has been asked from the cute brunette.

"Why won't you just join the art club?" 

Izuku didn't seem to show any reaction or any response at all. Ochako just continued her painting, at the same time, glancing at the boy from the corner of her eye. She sighed.

"If you're always here, might as well just join this club. The girls that used to be here quitted a while ago and you won't get to do anything here."

Izuku answered back. "And why can't I just not join any club?" 

"I mean, you should try to join one, it's a one time experience in your life." She replied.

He said, raising his head to face her. "Why would I join this boring one?"

"And is there any club who would ask you to join theirs?"

Izuku got taken aback with what she said and furrowed his eyebrows in embarrassment. He had nothing to say but admit that that was a fact. He rested his head on his hand in defeat by not saying a word back.

Ochako smiled at him, knowing the face of "I guess you're right" face. "So, you joining or not?"

He stayed silent, staring at the nothingness of the wall before answering her with a big sigh. "Whatever, I'm not gonna do anything here, you hear me?"

With those words, Ochako gave off the brightest smile at him, clasping her hands with joy. "Thank you, Midoriya-kun!"

Izuku then felt a spark in his chest when she suddenly said those. Right now, his name that was called by her own voice started replaying in his mind. His eyes were widened with pure shock. This was the first time she has ever called his name properly.

And with a face like that, has his heart raising out of nowhere. 

He sighed with a shaky breath, still unable to maintain his cool a little. "Why would you want me to join?" He asked in a low tone, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"Oh, you've been staying with me during my art activities so I guess you're the reason why being in this club doesn't make me feel lonely." She answered him, with a small smile on her face.

Once again, he felt his heart getting worst and worst by beating very quickly to the point where it could possibly explode anytime.

This was dangerous, he's feeling very weird now.

Those words she kept saying is actually making him feel squeamish and it was such an odd feeling he didn't really like. He let it go by tightening his grip on his arm, trying his best not to show his face again like last time.

He scoffed softly bowing his head lower, resting it on his hand. "Whatever." He said, immediately looking away from her. 

But with that, it put a grin on Ochako's lips as she continued with her work.

He actually accepted in being part of her club.

She could feel her heart feeling a bit light, because after all those days of being alone in art class with a bunch of people who she can't even call her own "clubmates" but just nuisances to her presence, she finally feels happy being in this club with a friend. Even if he doesn't see her as one, he's still not as bad as she thought.

Now that she think about it, she starting to come to a liking to his rude kind-of attitude, more like, she doesn't mind at all. Unlike before, she just found it annoying and hard to deal with but now that she sees him more and in a closer way...

...he actually wasn't that bad.

-

It has been a few minutes since they last talked and all they get from those hours were just filled with silence along with the whirring sound of the air-conditioner.  Ochako sighed, feeling her hands, covered in a little paint around, cramping due to long minutes of painting.

She stretched her arms in the air, releasing her stiff position. She then glanced at the boy next to her, still resting his head as always. It was already lunch time and usually the students would either take a break or continue with their club for the preparation for the upcoming festival.

Since Ochako didn't really want to go outside in the cafeteria to eat there, she packed up her own lunch and of course, it was her favorite, mochi. She opened the same lunch box she always brought and opened the cover. She started taking a piece and began eating it.

Just when she was about to finish the last piece, she heard a strange noise inside the silent room. Her head moved around, surprised with the sound of the noise.

The sound of a stomach grumbling. 

After she looked around and realized, she looked over to Izuku, noticing his ears were tint red. Her lips couldn't maintain the laughter that she began to giggle at him. 

"Why won't you go out and get food?"

"The fuck you talking about?"

Ochako replied with a frown. "Well, you seemed to be hungry."

"No, I'm not."

"But your stomach star-"

"Shut up."

She got cut off, as she gave off a pout. She looked over to her mochi and spoke to him, grabbing a hold of it. She then looked over to him and handed him one. She pat on his arm with the back of her hand, holding the mochi. Izuku flinched a bit from the touch then raises his head to see why she patted him.

Then there revealed was a piece of mochi on her hand. He gave a surprised look before looking at her. She was smiling at him.

"Do you want one?" She asked him. "I remember I gave you one last time. You ate it, didn't you?" She gave off a chuckle at the end.

Izuku stayed silent, looking at the mochi in her hand, already sensing the aroma of the sugar coming from it. It reminded him of the taste that he had last time when he ate.

He felt his throat gulped. He felt hesitant and just sighed deeply, sitting up properly and taking the piece of mochi from her hand. 

"Fine, how annoying." He took it and ate it before going back in his original position where he bury his face in his arms.

Ochako wasn't expecting him to actually accept her offer but she was glad he did. She felt happy.

"By the way, why don't you eat lunch these days?" She asked him, covering her lunch box. "I can tell that you were hungry."

He answered her. "The cafeteria food wasn't really my taste."

"Oh, so you're saying my mochi is nice?" She gave a cheeky grin.

He furrowed his eyebrows, peeking at her in his arms. "You were just too persistent."

"Huh? I wasn't forcing you or anything." 

Izuku looked away and just kept quiet and continued with hiding his face. "Whatever."

"Pfft." She whispered her laugh under her breath.

Why can't this guy just be honest?

"So obvious."

The guy hiding his face, was closing his eyes and slowly losing his conscious and began to daydream of a flashback that reminded him of this moment. 

He furrowed his eyebrows in distress after remembering the details of this flashback.

He's starting to dream of it. The voice echoing in his mind and the aftertaste of the mochi was turning bitter due to the memory being unlocked in his brain.

The voice of his old friend faded in with a glimpse of his face with a smile. A few years ago.

"Do you want one?" 

Izuku was sitting on the grass next to a tree as his arms starts wrapping around his legs. He lifted his head to peak who was that voice.

He sees a young boy that looked around his age with a spiky, blonde hair with red, crimson eyes. He saw an apple on his hand reaching out to him as if he was offering it.

Izuku just stared at the apple before looking back at the boy. 

The boy seemed rather confused why wasn't Izuku responding. "You're not hungry?"

He asked again, drawing the apple closer before Izuku hesitantly reached out for the apple but as soon as he took it, he ate a whole bite of it. It just shows how much he was hungry.

The boy gaped his mouth with surprise. "Man, so you were hungry."

Izuku lowly glared at him due to him being a total stranger. 

"By the way, my name is Katsuki Bakugou! I just live over there!" He pointed at a house which is just in front of Izuku's. "I notice that you're always out here for the whole day whenever I happen to pass by, even after school hours, so I thought you might be hungry, seeing that you didn't eat today."

Izuku stared at him, chewing the food before taking one last bite. He wiped off the small pieces around his mouth with his wrist. "I don't like being inside my house. And school hours are just too short for me to stay away from here."

Bakugou squatted down in front of him and smiled. "I don't like being inside mine as well. You have guts staying outside for the whole day, my mom would scold me if she ever knew I stayed outside."

He chuckled a little from that sentence which made Izuku quirked a small smile. 

"What's your name?"

The blonde asked him.

Izuku answered back. "Mi-Midoriya Izuku."

"Nice to meet you! You can call me Kacchan! But do you have a nickname?"

He shook his head in response.

"It's alright, we'll come up with one soon!" Bakugou then stood up and reached out his hand to him. "You wanna play with us? There's a playground just a few blocks away!"  

Izuku nodded, feeling excited hearing the word playground. He never experienced playing in a place like that. So he took his hand and stood up with the support of Bakugou.

"There's a person I want you to meet, I've been friends with her since I started playing in the playground. She also lives near there as well!"

The two then started walking towards the direction of the playground. 

After just 10 minutes, Izuku found himself in front of an empty playground with a girl sitting on the swing, with her back facing them. She had blonde hair as well with pigtails which were tied as bunheads. 

She heard the sound of footsteps behind her and turned around. "Bakugou-kun! What took you so long!"

She hurried her way to them. "Sorry, sorry. I just made a new friend!"

The girl looked at Izuku and smiled at him. "And who might you be?"

"Midoriya Izuku." He replied to her.

"Nice to meet you, Izuku! I'm..."

-

-

-

The distorted sound played in his head causing him to wake up from the dream. He looked up finding Ochako missing and he was left alone in the classroom. He looked at the time but it still wasn't time for the next class.

Where did she go?

Other than that, that was a bad memory he had, that was the last thing he ever wanted to see in his dream. 

"Why the fuck did I remember that?"

He then heard the door open as he swiftly looked over to see who it was. He saw Ochako coming inside the room with a lunch box on her hand. She saw Izuku awake as she smiled at him.

He watched her sitting next to him. "You're awake." She opened the lunch box. "This was supposed to be for my snack later but it looked like the mochi wasn't enough for you." She chuckled.

"You sure eat a lot." He rested his head with his hand. 

She pouted as she glared at him. "Take one." She handed him over the lunch box with waffles inside.

Izuku furrowed in confusion. "I'm not eating that." 

"Just take it, it's really good!" She said, drawing the food closer only making Izuku back away more.

"I told you I don't want it." He then turned around away from her.

Ochako pouted and placed the waffles on the corner of his table. "Just take it if you want, I'll leave it here."

"Ugh, I said I don't wan-"

"Hey, guys!"

The sound burst through the room, with the door banged opened, revealing Bakugou with a big smile on his face, making both of them jolted with surprise.

Izuku scowled at the sight, seeing him with that smile on his face, makes him want to punch it. 

"Ba-Bakugou?" Ochako looked at him, surprised that he wasn't busy with his club.

"Man, I'm glad my club finished early today." As he made his way towards them, his eye caught something at the corner of the table. "Ooh! Are these waffles? Let me take one!"

Just as his hand touched the waffle, Izuku instantly swift it away from him. "You fuckhead, that's mine." 

Bakugou looked over to him. He had a cold glare in his face, which the man can fill the aura itself getting colder and it sent him chills.

"O-Okay." Bakugou answered back with a nervous chuckle, still afraid of what he saw from that expression.

He then looked over to Ochako who was covering her whole face. Bakugou looked rather confused with her reaction.

"Are you okay?"

Behind Ochako's hands was the face of a person trying not to show her laughter.

"I-I'm okay." She muffled still holding in her laughter.

Izuku noticed and furrowed his eyebrows with his cheeks burning in embarrassment. He could tell Ochako was laughing at him.

He really is a funny guy.

-

-

-

A smile plastered on her face as she stepped out of the vehicle. Her grin grew wider as she looked around the neighborhood.

She looked around the place in awe.

"This brings back so many memories."

The lady then hopped around the empty road with houses in between as the sunset lit up the place very nicely making the atmosphere warm and nostalgic for her.

"How nice, it didn't change."

She giggled, joyfully hopping her way to the area.

The area of a playground.

She then arrived at the swing as she touched the chain of it. There was no one playing in this place anymore.

"I wonder how are they?" She said to herself.

Her head turned back to the area on where it first met.

She imagined the scene in her head, showing two boys and herself, talking to each other.

She smiled widely, just imaging the scene. "Can't wait to see you again."

The scene of the three kids started playing on the area where she was imagining.

"And who might you be?"

"Midoriya Izuku." He replied to her.

"Nice to meet you, Izuku! I'm..."

She smiled only the wider, tilting her head at him showing how interested she was.

"...Toga Himiko."

-

A/N: Sorry for the wait HAHA I literally was writing this during class periods since that was my motivated free time HAHAHAHA butttt final exams is finally doneee. Hope you enjoyed this chappp (*˘︶˘*).｡*♡ see you in the next one!