My Hero [ Aizawa Shouta x Reader ]

Chapter 57: Right Person, Wrong Time

**Todoroki's POV**

Once the clacking sound of her heels dwindled, the whispers and chatters of the crowd intensified. I stood in the forefront of the flabbergasted people as mother got onto her feet, inching forward from the side of my eyes.

Who would've thought the typical runaway bride trope in movies, just occurred to me in real life—abandoning the groom at the altar for another man. Still, I wasn't too fazed because I had prepped myself way beforehand. I went ahead with it knowing damn well this would happen. But having that conversation with her that day made me feel somehow relieved even though I knew a heartbreak would come my way.

'So this is what a break-up feels like... huh?'

My hands balled into a fist. In front of the ladies and gents who anticipated the wedding, the people who traveled so far to visit us and the people who helped to assemble this event, I bowed down with utmost reverence, lower and longer than I ever had. My eyes met the milky-white ground, the carpet folded and creased beneath my feet.

"I deeply apologise for the inconvenience we have caused and I hope you will accept this sincere apology," I said before rising up again.

"Unfortunately, the wedding will not proceed however, you can still help yourself to the buffet set up for you in the building next to this glasshouse. Please enjoy and once again, I greatly apologise."

Without meeting the eyes of the crowd or my mother's, I stride down the aisle in a constant pace that didn't seem like I was rushing off. I entered the building and into the groom's waiting room the same way I left—jittery with my stomach in knots.

I slumped onto the chair and heaved trembling breaths that sounded as if I ran a marathon but never quite reached first place no matter how fast my legs carried me. Just like how I could never reach her heart.

My mind started mulling over the conversation we had weeks before the wedding.

—-
Y/N was in the small kitchen of our apartment, preparing my usual comfort food, cold soba, like she always did whenever my body felt lethargic.

I creeped behind the defenceless girl in blue apron, her bare neck tempting me. My hand coiled around her waist as my lips sank into the crook of her neck.

"You smell amazing," I hummed.

The clattering sound of the bowls stopped the same time as her hands.

"God bless Bath & Body Works," she replied, turning around with a smile plastered on her face. "I'll use this fragrant on our wedding day then."

My lips parted slightly at the painful sight before me. It was the same expression mother used to have, one that tried to convince me that everything was fine but with a contradictory voice.

Y/N and I had been together for almost 7 years yet her lingering feeling towards Aizawa never once left her side as if they were bounded by fate. I've thought about this too many times to count; in the crack of dawn, in between lunch breaks, the journey back home, just before sleeping. And I eventually became reconciled to where I stood in her life. Definitely nowhere near her heart and nowhere as important as Aizawa.

"Y/N," I murmured gently. "I love you. More than anything. And if i have to let you go to see you become genuinely happy, then I would."

"What do you mean?"

"Your heart is yearning for him, I know that. So I permit you to call off the wedding."

"Don't be ridiculous. We're 2 weeks away from the wedding, we can't cancel it now-"