𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐙𝐀𝐖𝐀

23

Unfortunately the two weeks that Shouta was taking off were passing rather quickly and the day of him leaving was there before Y/N knew it. It was weird to imagine living on her own again, now that she had gotten so used to Shouta being around. They would share the chores, they would watch movies together and they'd have to get up in the morning together and somehow they had gotten into a rhythm for that. Y/N couldn't imagine not having that anymore if she was being honest.

Just thinking about it made her feel completely miserable. It would be depressing to come home in the evening to a cold home, have her dinner alone, just to go to bed, chuckle about some silly videos by herself, and to get up in the early morning again, exhausted and wrecked from the day before. Sure, the house was cold now as well, but at least she could share the experience with someone.

But that was the thing. Why would Shouta want to stay in a situation like that? He had a perfectly good apartment, he had money, it was one of the fanciest places that Y/N had ever seen in her entire life. Why would he give that up to live with her of all people? After all, she was just a former student and she couldn't even pay her heating bills. It was a little pathetic now that she thought about it. But that was how things were and there was nothing she could do about it.

Well, she could go and get a new job and do work that she absolutely hated and that would make her very unhappy, but that might let her have a little more luxury. She couldn't deny that she was tempted to do that some days, but she knew that if she worked hard now, she might have a shot at making it big as a hero. And that's mostly what mattered to her. If she was still in the same situation in five years, she could always rethink her situation. If she wasn't dead by then.

Either way, she didn't really know why she had ever thought that Shouta might be interested in her. He had so many more opportunities than her. He had secure employment, he made loads of money, he had everything he could want. Why he'd want to date his former student was beyond Y/N. It was a stupid thought, really. She thought there might have been some sort of connection, but by now she was pretty sure that it was just her and her wishful thinking again. She always fell for that and it hurt just the same every single time. It really sucked.

But her being stupid wasn't Shouta's fault and she couldn't blame him for it. She just had to live with how pathetic she was and hope to do better in the future. Maybe, if he was still single in the next two or three years, and if she finally managed to make it big... maybe then she might have a chance, but who knew. With the nature of their work, either of them could be dead by then. Or both of them, actually. Which brought Y/N to her current conundrum - to shoot her shot or to not shoot her shot.

She could just leave it and hope for the best and hate herself for the rest of her life... or she could shoot her shot and see what happened. Really, the worst that could happen was that Shouta would say no and he would tell everyone she knew and they would start making fun of her and she'd have to be embarrassed for the rest of her life and... no. No, that wasn't going to happen. Shouta could be a real asshole and be grumpy and mean at times, but he wasn't cruel like that.

Y/N was still undecided on what to do as she was sitting on the armrest of her couch, waiting for Shouta to finish packing up his stuff and say goodbye to her. She was really hoping that she would maybe manage to come to a decision on what to do about this whole situation, but she could already hear Shouta zipping up his bags and she knew that she wouldn't get the amount of time that she really wanted. And it was making her panic a whole lot. A lot more than she liked to admit.

"You okay there?" she heard Shouta say. He was standing in the door that was leading to her bedroom, leaning against the frame and mustering her with a look of concern. He had a backpack over his shoulder and seemed to be done packing up all his stuff. Which was great. Y/N was happy for him, she really was. She was happy that he got to resume his normal life that he obviously enjoyed and... bullshit. She didn't feel happy at all. Not one bit. She was miserable. Why did he have to leave her behind like that? It didn't feel fair. It didn't feel fair at all.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" she replied. Shouta raised his eyebrows at her and then shrugged, walking out of the bedroom and heading over to her, stopping just in front of the couch and mustering her again.

"Dunno, you just look like you've seen a ghost or something." he answered. Y/N laughed and shook her head.

"No, I'm absolutely fine. Nothing to worry about." she told him, before pausing and glancing up at him. She wasn't sure why she said what she said after that. Maybe she was feeling a little emotionally vulnerable, or rather a lot. "Feels kinda surreal, you know. That this is all over. I think I'm going to miss you."

"Wait, you're sad about me leaving?" Shouta asked. He sounded as if it was the silliest thing he ever heard and Y/N wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing and she wasn't sure if she wanted to find out.

"I mean, yeah. Of course I'm sad. We've spent a lot of time together and I'm definitely going to miss having you around. I kinda liked living with you." she answered, blushing bright red. Shouta smiled at her.

"Hey, it's not like I'm going to be out of the world. If you want to watch a movie again, you can just... you know. Ask me to come over or something. Or you can come over to mine and we won't have to freeze to death." he replied. Y/N chuckled and shook her head. She really hated that he was making this more difficult than it had to be. And it made her think that maybe... maybe she did have a shot at this. Maybe she should just go for it. Maybe she should just try and hope for the best.

"Well, I mean... that would be fun. Although I don't know why you'd wanna hang out with me even more after all this time." she mumbled.

"Hey, I enjoyed staying with you. I like being around you. You leave me alone when I want to be alone and you're not loud and... I just had a good time here. I'd like to... hang out again." Shouta replied. Y/N took a deep breath and looked into his eyes. Thankfully her blush had faded by now, although she was pretty sure that she was going to get another one pretty soon. She couldn't believe she was actually going to go through with this... this was crazy, wasn't it?

"Well, maybe... maybe you'd like to have a coffee with me some time? Maybe next week or something? After work?" she asked, rubbing her feet together, as she was nervously waiting for an answer. Shouta gave her a long and hard look and then finally nodded and smiled and Y/N thought she was going to have a heart attack from it. Had he actually just agreed to having a coffee with her? Like, as an actual date?

"Sounds good. I know a good place we could go. How about we meet Friday at the Naruhata police station and then we can have coffee and... I guess see what happens?" he suggested. Y/N could barely believe her ears. He was actually agreeing to go out with her. And the way he said it, it definitely sounded like he was seeing that as a date as well. She couldn't believe it. She was going on a date with Shouta Aizawa. She had shot her shot and it had worked out for her. This was insane.

"Sounds great! I'll meet you there. I'm looking forward to it!"