A/N:

This chapter isn't at any close, romantic, but please bare with me. I choose to make the two characters develop first since they don't talk too much in the anime. Their lovey dovey moments will come eventually, so please stay longer here, thanks :)))

[ P.S : This looks pretty rushed and messy tbh..But I swear I'll improve in the next chapter >:) ]

◇

Class has ended.

The students have already left to head to the dormitories. Well, not all of them. The girls have gathered together by Ochako's table, chattering. "Maybe we should head out to that new cafe nearby!" Mina exclaims, clenching her fists infront of her. "I heard it has the best cheesecake..!" Toru adds, slamming her hands on Ochako's desk, causing the brunette to bounce as she packs her things.

"Do they provide tea?" Momo asks, looking over to Mina from the side of Ochako's desk. "Hmm, maybe?" Mina replies, smiling at her. Tsuyu lifts her index finger to her chin, "Must be a nice place.." She tells herself, taking a short glance at Jirou, who's still contemplating in joining the gang. "They have really good chocolate cupcakes from what I heard.." Jirou says, her hand in her chin. Toru hears Jirou talking to herself, making her face light up (even when you can't see it, I still had to describe it oKaY), "Then we should totally go!" Toru states, clapping her hands from excitement.

"What do you say, Ochako?" Tsuyu asks, looking at her from her desk infront of her.
Ochako finally finishes packing up and gets up from her seat to face them properly.

"Alright, let's head to the cafe!" She declares running out of the room from excitement. The girls chuckle as they follow her out of the room.

The girls nearly reach the gates before Momo suddenly stops her tracks. "Hm? What's wrong, Yao-momo?" Toru asks, looking over to her. Momo takes her backpack of her and opens it. She digs in it, trying to look for something. "I-I forgot something..!!" Momo says, lifting her head to reveal her panicked face. The girls look at each other and back to Momo. "W-Wait--" Before Ochako could finish, she was suddenly interrupted by Momo. "I'm sorry, I promise to catch up with you all!" She replies, running off back to the school building. The group stay clueless, glancing at each other with their dumbfounded looks. "Should we head back to her?" Mina asks, approaching Ochako. "Uhm..I think so.." The young girl replies, her eyebrows lowering to reveal a worried look.

"Come on, Guys! She said she'll catch up anyways. Also, the cafe is popular in this area now, so it's easy to say that it's filled with people." Toru explains, reassuring them as she flays her arms around. "She's right. Let's get going.." Jirou simply comments, starting to walk ahead as the gang follows, still quite unsure of their decision of leaving their friend behind.

[ 🎒 ]

Momo rushes up the stairs, running in the hallways was obviously not allowed, but this certain item she has forgotten seemed important, to the point she'll break the rules. She stops herself from running after realizing she passed by her destination, causing her to slip.

She falls on her side and lets out a groan . She clears her throat and looks around for a bit before getting up to rub the side of her head, which apparently made contact with the cold ground too. She finally regains the energy to get up on her two feet. She brushes the dust off her shoulders and takes a deep breath to bring herself back to reality.

She walks towards the large door of her classroom and walks in, only to find an empty room with darkness consuming every bit of the area. None of the lights were turned on, making it difficult to see the room fully. She looks for the light switch on the side of the door and successfully does.

She presses it lightly as the lights flicker and turn on. She gazes at the bright lights for a while and back to her desk. It was empty. Nothing on top of it. Her eyes widen after her realization as she runs towards it. She looks at every part of her desk, searching for this certain item.
"Wh-Where is it??" She mumbled loudly, crouching down to peek under her desk. Eventually, she gives up in her scavenger hunt, "Mother will be so mad once she finds out.." She sighs in defeat after seeing nothing.

She leaves the room, turning the lights off in the process. She walks in the hallway with a devastated look, 'I'm sorry, mom..' She thought, gripping her necktie. 'I lost something you purchased..It's now a waste.' She sighed after the thought of her strict mother scolding her.

She walks in the hallways, lost in thought, unaware where she was going. Her head was filled with her mom's strict voice speaking instead of functioning to tell where she was going.

"You Lost it?! How dare you lose such a thing..!"

"I'm sorry, mother.." She mutters to herself, keeping her head down as she continues walking.

"Yaoyorozu."

Suddenly, she hears a cold and serious voice beside her. She stops walking and lifts her head. Moving her head to look to the left to this unknown person mentioning her name.

"Todoroki?" She blurts out, losing her train of thought. She turns her whole body to face him, who was sitting on the stairs with a book in his hands. "It's already the end of the day, aren't you suppose to be back at The Heights Alliance?" She asks tilting her head. He averts his eyes, shutting the book, clearly hiding the cover. "I was looking for you." He replies, making Momo confused even more.

"This is yours, right?" He asks, revealing the cover of the black book, which was a certain constellation.

Her eyes suddenly widened and immediatly ran to sit beside him on the stairs, taking it froms his hands immediatly. "D-Did you open it?" She asks, bringing the book to her chest, looking at him with her worried eyes. "How was I supposed to know who owned it? Of course I did." He says, no shame in his words.

"How many pages did you read?" She asks another question, clearly nervous from the thought that her property was in someone else's hands but was not aware of it.

"When Maru--"

"Nevermind!" Momo blurts out. She sighs in embarrassment with her face slightly pink. Her eyes were glued to her shoes, avoiding eye contact with him.

"Your writing is really good though." Todoroki comments, breaking the silence.

She lifts her head to face him with her eyes widen. The book she was clutching held a story she's been writing for the past 2 months. Her love for reading encouraged her to do so, using all the knowledge she had from books. Surprisingly, the genre she went for was romance, a cliché but quite a unique one.

"Is that so.." Was all she replied with, facing back to the front. Awkward silence was all that remained. None of them seemed to be interested in starting a conversation. Todoroki takes a glance at the book once again, repeating the words what he just read.

"So..Is Maru gonna go with him?"

He asks, referring to one of the characters in the book Momo has written. She moves her head immediatly, startled from his question, "N-Not..I don't know. She seemed like a character I wasen't intrigued in. Maybe she'll get her spotlight in the later chapters.." She replies, surprisingly going with the flow.

"But, isn't Shiro a jerk?" Todoroki asks, quite pleased by her reply of his previous question. She smiles lightly, "He's supposed to be." She states, letting out a light chuckle, thinking how odd it was for a guy like Todoroki to be so intrigued with a love story.

"I kinda wanna know more about the story actually.." He says, facing back to her, assuming she's fine with it after the questions he's asked and her reaction with it. Momo stares at him for a second, contemplating. "I-I..I'm not yet comfortable in handing my work to others..Sorry." She apologizes, scratching the back of her head from embarrassment.

"It's fine." He calmly says, looking away from her to look towards the window infront of them, across the stairs they were on. Momo notices the silence came back, making it awkward. She can't take it.
Obviously one of them has to leave or maybe start a conversation.

And that person would be Momo herself.

"B-But..Since you talked about M-Maru from Chapter 3, I guess I could let you finish reading it.." She says, looking away as she hands the book to him.

Todoroki looks back to her, noticing her eyes looking away with her cheeks slightly pink.

It was obvious she was embarrassed.

But, from his perspective, rejecting the oppurtunity would be harsh.

"Thanks." He says, gently taking the book away from her hands. He opens it and flips a few pages, murmuring "Maru, Maru.." Clearly looking for her name to appear in the pages.

She smiles after hearing him, thinking maybe he was really into the story, giving her the encouragement to continue writing.

"Why should Maru choose him anyways?" Todoroki exclaims, furrowing his eyebrows. Momo giggles, receiving a fan from her work made her simply happy and warm inside. "You'll see.." She replies, staring at every reaction he creates after reading a certain sentence.

'This is embarrassing..' She thought to herself. 'I chose this decision, I shouldn't regret it!' She thought once again, furrowing her eyebrows. 'If I don't have the courage to show my personal work to my friend, how am I supposed to have the courage to save the nation from villains?'

"A-Anyways, other than my book.. Aren't you supposed to be hanging out with you're comrades than look for me?" She asks, sparking another topic for some variety. He glances back to her, "Comrades?" He says. "Er..Friends, I meant to say.." Momo corrected herself, assuming he didn't understand what he meant.

"I don't really think of them as friends."

Momo flinches, her body bouncing from the sudden change of tone in his voice.

"I know their names, their looks, but do I truly know them?" He continues on, looking at her in the eye with a cold stare, making her nervous.

He moves his eyes back to the book,

"Everyone that I have met are strangers to me."

The cold statement made Momo smile awkwardly, her body cold as she shivers from the fear of his frightful tone. That question took a dark turn from her perspective. 'Does that I mean . . . I'm a stranger to him too?' She thought, anxious and nervous from the thought.

She sighs, looking back to the front without taking any more glances at him.

"Ah!" She gasps, realizing she has forgotten about her friends in the cafe, waiting for her.

Todoroki looks over to her startled face. "I have to go! I'll see you back at The Heights Alliance, Todoroki!" She bids him farewell, forcing herself to pull the black book from his hands and shoving it into her bag before running down the stairs.

He was left behind, dumbfounded and clueless. He lets out a sigh, getting back up to exit the building to walk back to The Heights Alliance.

[ ☕ ]

"She's taking so long.." Ochako says, looking around the cafe with a worried look, trying to find Momo. "What did she forget anyways?" Jirou states, taking a slice of the cheesecake. Mina started to smirk, "Maybe--" Before she could guess, she was interrupted by Momo's panicked voice.

"I'm so sorry I took long!" Momo cries out, panting as her hands rest on her knees beside the girls' table. "Jeez we got worried you know!" Toru states, furrowing eyebrows even when no one could see them. Momo pulls out a seat and plops herself, letting out a sigh. "Is there tea?" She says, rubbing her neck.

"Well of course!" Mina exclaims, passing her a teacup from across the table, "We ordered it early for you, ribbit." Tsuyu says, smiling sweetly to her.

"Thank you..!" Momo thanks them as her eyes start to glow after taking a light sip. "Anyways, what were you looking for?" Mina asks, taking a bite of her chocolate cupcake. "Oh, that's not important at the moment.." Momo replies, avoiding her question. "Oh, come on! We wanna know why this certain thing is important.." Complains Toru.

Momo tries to avoid reply by taking several sips from the teacup in her hands.
"So, how's school?" She says, clearly changing to topic to avoid her question. The girls became suspicious. "Jeez, just tell us!" Mina cries out, sounding childish. "Mina, it must be personal. Leave her be.." Ochako states, scolding her to prevent her behavior.

"Ah..S-Sorry.." Mina awkwardly smiles, scratching the back of her head as she averts her eyes to Jirou. Ochako sighs, quite annoyed by the girls' previous begging.

"Anyways, school seems to be going great!" Ochako says, replying to Momo's ignored previous question. "Ah..Y-Yeah!" Momo replies, giggling awkwardly. The rest of the girls sigh, trying to keep their curious questions inside themselves.

~

Moments passed. The little plates infront of the girls are finally empty, with crumbs scattered above them. Their cups too, were empty. With all their chattering, they were unaware the sky was orange, indicating the sun was finally setting.

Tsuyu notices the wide window across the whole cafe and notices the crimson sky. She gets up and grabs her bag unexpectedly, catching the girls' eyes. "What's wrong, Tsu?" Toru asks, looking over to her, confused of her actions. "It's getting late, we have to go back to the dormitories.." She explains to them. The girls look at each other before collecting their belongings and leaving the cafe.

"Thank you!" Mina calls out before walking away, leaving the employees with smiles invading their faces from her sweet farewell. The girls start to walk on the sidewalk, picking up where they left off at their previous conversation.

Momo simply smiles at them, no interest in the conversation. She takes glances at them from time to time to make it seem like she was listening.

Her eyes looks up to the sky instead.
The blue color fading, the pastel colors consuming the whole sky. The sun slowly falls to what seems like the edge of the sky as the clouds turn orange. She keeps her eyes glued to the sky, thinking and repeating Todoroki's sudden and unexpected words.

To be specific, she's always been thinking of,

"Everyone that I have met are strangers to me."

That cold statement as been making her quite curious of why. He helped Deku and Iida with The Hero Killer, Stain, He assisted a few of his classmates during their time at the Woods, he even became a great assist during the cultural festival.

'Strangers?' She thought in her head, her head slowly falling to face the ground as she clutches her backpack strap. 'Just when I thought you were a comrade of mine..' She continues to think before letting out a sigh.

'A person talking to you, a person who helps you during bad times, a person you know, a person you have met before..

Is that what you call a Stranger, Todoroki?'

She shakes her head from the thought, trying to change the image she saw Todoroki as. 'He's not a mean person, maybe he just doesn't know what having a friend feels like..right??' Her conscience speak, trying to encourage her brain to think Todoroki is still a good person like that way Momo saw him..before.

●

Have you ever felt this way?

Wait, I'll explain.

That feeling of being pathetic when you think a certain person is you're friend but they think of you as somewhat a stranger.

This certain odd feeling has been taking over Momo for the past days already. She was able to sleep without any of those type of thoughts invading her mind. But immediatly, once her eyes have opened to meet the sun, she'll remember his words just repeating in her head.

She was able to go through a whole day with a smile on her face, not letting his simple statement bother her.

Yes, it did feel painful to her, but not only that, it made her curious to get to know him.

Maybe he had a darker side than he usually has. But her drop of hope still is within her, maybe he has a lighter side, a soft spot to be exact.

The thought was easy to brush off, but once it comes to her head, it invades it. Nothing in the real world will stop her train of thought, nothing will take her attention away.

Once she gets back to reality, she'll just easily dismiss it and continue on what she was originally doing.

On this certain day, was the same for her as usual. Getting time to zone out and think about his words, then later getting back to her senses and simply brush it off as if she didn't care.

Even with this curious feeling captivating her, she didn't even talk to Todoroki. She didn't ask any question about his words, she didn't bother at all. She had the fear of thinking that she was talking to a comrade of her, but to him, she was simply a stranger, making her feel pathetic.

The day has finally ended, dismissal has arrived. And like what I mentioned a while ago, she could successfully go through a whole day with a smile without the anxious and curious thoughts taking over her mind, and that was exactly what she did again.

She rises from her desk, joining her group of friends, surrounding Ochako's desk like everyday, waiting for her to finish packing.

"How about the park?" Momo hears Mina suggesting another area for them to hang out as she walks over to them. "We've been there for like, three times already.." Toru states, pouting. Momo reaches their table, listening to their debate on whether to go to the park.

As Momo just takes glances at them, her eyes suddenly move over to the door across the room, seeing Todoroki leave. A sudden feeling struck her, causing her mouth to speak on its own.

"I have to go now."

The girls look at her in confusion, wondering why would she left immediatly.
"Wait, what?" Mina asks, chuckling, assuming Momo was just being sarcastic.
The rest of the girls stare at Momo, who's eyes are still locked on the door. "Yao-Momo?" Jirou says, tilting her head.

And as soon as the girls look at each other, Momo runs out of the room, leaving clueless and dumbfounded looks on the girls' faces.

"This is the second time she ditched us.." Mina pouted, crossing her arms as she sees Momo run out of the room. "Is she replacing us or something?" Toru says, worried. The group look down, clearly anxious about Momo. "It could be an emergency, you know.." Ochako reassures them, smiling lightly. The rest of them didn't seem to agree judging from their worried looks still on their faces. Eventually, the let out a sigh, signaling they believe in Ochako's statement.

》

Momo runs in the hallways packed with students. She bumps into them as she continues running, ignoring the glares they gave her afterwards.

Her legs kept running on their own, her eyes suddenly looking from left to right, finiding something she doesn't know.

She ignores why her feet kept running, and simply just letting it move on their own and see where they will take her.

Her mind goes through curious thoughts, and finally snaps back to reality, causing her to take control of her body once again.

She rests her hands on her knees, panting loudly from the exhaustion. After a short time of regaining her energy, she lifts her head and finds herself in an empty hallway. She looks from behind her to see doors, leading to a room she's not aware of. She looks to her left, and finds where her legs were taking her.

The staircase.

No one was walking on it, and it seemed pretty clean. The lights were still turned on, causing the stairs to slightly shine. She lets out a sigh, "Why am I even here..?" She mumbles to herself, walking up the stairs to rest. She sits down, looking from left to right once again, observing the empty and dull area she was in.

She removed her backpack and simply let it rest beside her. She closes her knees together, resting her elbows on them as she cups her cheeks with her hands. "My brain must've forced my body parts to move..right?" She mutters, slightly pouting from her cheeks being held.

"For what reason though?" She continued to mumble, her eyes slowly moving to face the ground. She lets out a sigh, giving up in thinking of a reason why would her body bring her here.

Out of boredom, she pulls out her black notebook and a pen. She started to write on the book that was placed above her lap. Her mouth would open and mumble out the words she would write down quietly. Her mind was already racing with words and sentences she wanted to write, to the point her pen couldn't keep up anymore.

In the middle of writting session, she lets go of the pen as it slowly rolls down on the notebook. She strectches her arms up high and takes a look around. Her stomach started to ache from the realization of the absence of other citizens roaming around and the awkward silence around her.

She gulps then immediatly shoved her hands into her bag to search for her phone. She pulled out her smartphone, with earphones plugged in. Her face lit up and directly placed them on her ears gently. She switched her phone on, which was previously resting on her lap.

She starts to swipe the screen and eventually finds the music app to play some songs into her ears, just to make herself comfortable. A sweet melody starts to flow in her ears, making her at ease. Her head slowly bobs from left to right, a smile slowly appearing to her face.

She looks back to her book, picking up the pen to continue writing on the story. She continues to bob her head as the song continues playing in her ears, she eve  starts to hum without even realizing it, as her voice echoes through the area.

"Yaoyorozu?" Someone calls out from behind her. Unfortuantely, she wasn't aware due to the loud yet peaceful music in her ears. "Yaoyorozu." The certain person kept speaking from behind, walking down the stairs to get closer to her to get her attention.

Suddenly, Momo's right earphone was pulled out from her ear, causing her to react quickly. She faces the certain person, who apparently sticked the earphone to their ear instead. The person's eyes were glued to the notebook, their head bobbing too.

Finally, their eyes meet, causing the person to get back to their senses. "Todoroki?" Momo says, startled. "Hello." Todoroki simply replies, breaking their eye contact by looking back to the book. "You're working on Chapter 5 now?" He asks, examining the book. Momo remembers the notebook on her lap and immediatly closes it, embarrassed.

"Y-Yeah!" She replies, embarrassed from him realizing. Todoroki notices her behavior, immediatly understanding her uncomfortable state. He thought she still wasn't comfortable with exposing her work to public, so he decided not to force or either look at it.

Silence.

It was the same as their time last time in the staircase aswell, a silent moment will remain between them for a while, and Momo would say something from the awkward silence.

Surprisingly, Todoroki was uncomfortable with this silent state unlike last time. "Piano?" He says, referring to the music they both were listening to. "Ah, yes!" Momo replied, her eyes suddenly sparkling as they meet his. "Who wrote it? It's quite nice and calming." Todoroki asked once again, averting his eyes from hers.

Momo's smile suddenly dropped, her face turning red a bit. "I-I composed it.." She says, smiling awkwardly at him. 'I'm sorry Mother! I didn't mean to brag about it but it's tr-true..' She thought, the redness of her face slowly fading to turn to a light shade of the color.

"Ohh." Todoroki simply said, taking a short glance at her. "You're pretty talented." He complimented, taking another glance at her. Momo's eyes widen, "Th-Thank you!" She smiled at him, truly grateful from such a simple compliment.

After those simple kind words, it was enough for Momo to think he has a kinder side, causing her to become more curious about him. The curious questions about him increasing in her head as the desperate feeling of getting closer to him becomes worse .. but in a good way?

With that being said, she realizes the only way to get closer to him was this black notebook, resting on her lap. Her eyes look down to it, as the song playing in their ears reaches to its climax. She furrowed her eyebrows, opening the notebook and grabbing her pen to continue writing, causing to Todoroki to flinch and look over to her.

"Chapter 5? That was fast." He simply comments, getting closer to her as she writes quickly. Momo simply nods as her pen goes wild on the book, but still having a quite pleasing to look at handwriting.

Todoroki watches as she writes, asking her questions from time to time, making Momo smile from his sudden obssession with this story. The sun started to set, but that wasn't going to stop the two from talking endlessly. If this was the only way to get closer to Todoroki, Momo would take it, ignoring how embarrassing it was to her.

Their conversation never seemed to end, to the point the stars were starting to twinkle in the sky, signaling it was almost night. "Ah..It's getting late, Todoroki.." Momo says, removing the earphones from her ear, looking over to the wide window in the hallways infront of them. "You're right." Todoroki replied, returning the earphone in his ear back to her.

"Let's get going."He says, rising up to reach the end of the stairs. He looks back to Momo, who was still packing her thing before running down to be with him.

The two walk in the empty hallways, the lights turned off.

They pass by unfamiliar doors and ignore them directly. They would glance at each other at times, and sometimes their eyes would even meet, causing them to look away from embarrassment.

The two seemed pretty calm and quiet as they walk past the doors and rooms. But, in reality, Momo was panicking inside.

Fear of messing up their new bond they both had. If she said the wrong word, she predicted their back to being strangers.

But does that truly mean their friends now?

Who knows, considering the fact of Todoroki saying everyone he met are strangers to him.

Momo didn't dare saying anything, but the dead and dull silent was making her uncomfortable, especially with the darkness engulfing the whole hallway they were walking in.

Todoroki didn't even seemed to speak. He was uncomfortable with the silence a while ago too, why not now?

"Ah.." Momo blurts out, stopping herself from walking any further. Todoroki stopped walking as soon as she did. He looked towards her, noticing her eyes to be locked to a certain door.

She started walking towards it, reaching her hand for the door knob.

The door revealed a room, windows attached to the walls like a normal classroom would have. The floor was made out of wood unlike the original classrooms. There was a used and dirty green chalkboard across the room, attached to the wall with messed up kanji  written all over it. There were bookshelves that were nearly empty, and were cleary dusty from the visible cobwebs. But, the most important element of the room that stood out the most was the grand piano. Beside it were nothing but scattered sheet music on the ground.

Momo's eyes widen, confused. "Why is their a .. music room?" Momo says to herself, walking into the room as Todoroki follows her. Momo places her fingers on the dusty keys of the instrument, tempted to play a song.

She lifts her fingers from the keys, reaching her hand out to the ground to take one of the sheet music.

"Lilac Time Serenade..?" She mutters, reading out the title. Todoroki, in the other hand, was walking towards the chalk board, trying to figure what the messed up kanji is trying to say.

Momo carried on picking up the sheet music and reading them aloud to herself. Out of all of the songs, one catched her eye.

"' What's Beside You?' " She mumbles. Her eyes trace around the paper, trying to figure who was the composer. No one. No name was stated.

She sighs. She takes all the papers together and placed them by the piano. "Let's get going now.." She tells Todoroki from afar, who was by the windows, examining the crimson sunset with the stars shining in the sky.

Todoroki looks over to her then the piano, "Can you at least play a piece?" He asks her, moving his whole body to face her despite their distance. Momo was already by the door and stopped her tracks to face the piano then to him.

Momo lets out a light sigh, walking towards the large instrument. Who would resist to play this gorgeous thing? She sits herself down, brushing her hands against the piano to release the little cobwebs.

Her fingers were already on the keys of the instrument, and just after pressing one of them, harmonious music was already soaring around the room, making Todoroki at ease.

Momo seemed pretty calm too, but after seeing Todoroki lean against the piano and seeing his bob to the song, this was enough for Momo to be pressured.

'He's Enjoying it? Okay. Don't make a mistake, there's a flat at this part and another one at the second..And there's also a fine so I have to repeat and..This is the hardest part, I'm going too fast, I have to stay at ease..!!'

She couldn't enjoy the music she was playing anymore, with all this panic inside, she couldn't put any emotion to the song, making it feel empty.

Todoroki was able to notice the panic and anxiety in her eyes, her fingers slightly shaking after pressing every key.

"Am I scaring you?" He asks all of a sudden, causing the song to stop. Momo faces him, her fingers finally calm, ans her eyes dazzling as usual.

"What do you mean?" She says, her smile looking awkward. "You're shaking." Todoroki replies, not even looking at her.

"I don't want to scare you like my dad did to my mother."

With that reply, it already made Momo uncomfortable. Why does everything she does causes Todoroki to state something personal?

Momo gulps, and smiles lightly. "You're not scaring me at all, Todoroki. S-So don't worry!" She reassures him, clapping her hands once before letting her fingers rest on the keys once again to play the piece she was originally playing, but with emotion.

Todoroki glances at her for a second before looking away to smile at himself. He bobs his head from left to right to enjoy the song.

Momo notices him, and she knows if she starts to tremble again, Todoroki will feel bad.

'I don't want to ruin the bond we have now!' She thought to herself, accenting every chord and note she did.

|| accenting: giving a stronger hit to a certain note or chord. ||

She resists her body from shaking through the pleasant piece, acting calm as possible.

The piece eventually ends. Her handa were up high after playing some kindnof chord in staccato.

||staccato: dettached; cut short in performing a certain chord or note..i guess||

Momo pants loudly after holding her breath for the most of the piece. Todoroki claps his hands, getting his back off the piano to face her, smiling lightly.

Momo's eyes slightly widen from seeing his smile up close. It was satisfying yet overwhelming to think he's smiling because of her.

She smiles lightly back at him before rising up from her seat and taking her backpack.

"Let's get going now, Todoroki!" She says, walking out of the room with him by her side.

The two were back in the hallways, chattering like what they originally were doing.

"Maru's confession to Shiro was tense." Todoroki states. "Because of Natsume peeking?" Momo chuckles, referring to another character.

"Definitely." Todoroki replies, smiling slightly. "But, jeez, her getting really mad about it was hilarious." He comments, making Momo giggle.

"I had fun writing that scene though!" She says, her laugh echoing through the empty and dark hallways.

The pair continued to chatter, talking mostly about Momo's book, then into their daily lives, getting to know each other to be exact.

□ □ □

And just like that, the pair has been meeting up by the stairs, declaring it as their secret spot to talk and just simply have fun.

After having their little chats by the stairs, they would walk together in the hallways to head out of the school building to get to the dorms.

Sometimes, they'd even take a stop by the strange music room to play the piano.

This has become their little daily dismissal routine, to the point they'd even leave the classroom together, but not always.

Maybe this was enough for Todoroki to believe she was a friend, not a stranger.

Just Maybe.

◇

Note:

1. When Momo was having thoughts that are like "I'm sorry mother..". That personality or whatever was insipired by the Official Drama CD of MHA. Specifically during the Ennichi Festival.

(I reccomend u look it up since it's basically a whole todomomo episode or somethin :D )

2. It was indicated in the manga that Momo could play the piano during the Cultural Festival Arc.

3. In the part where Momo's legs started moving on their own, it seemed pretty unrealistic, right? Well, yeah. It's stupid. But, this actually happens to me. When I'm walking, I'd feel my legs go numb and walk to different directions, and I'd just let them take the lead due to my curiousity, hehe. There's definitely no Scientific Explanation to this sooo yeh, no more further explanation.