Latibule

31 - ᴘʀᴇᴘᴀʀᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱ

Something in the air shifted again and a frown pinched at Bakugou's brows but he seemed to make effort to brush it off as he pulled out his school things and faced us, this time looking as he usually did. "So what do you two not understand?"

"I didn't get this exercise at all," I admitted, pushing my notebook over to him.

Kirishima leaned onto the table, also peeking at the material. "Yeah, me neither," he agreed.

Bakugou sighed. "Alright, see here..."

A lot of explaining and a few angry outbursts later, we were finished with mathematics.

Kirishima leaned back, sighing as he drew a hand over his face. "So what do y'all want to drink?" he asked. "I'll go order before they kick us out."

"Fav./drink," I answered without missing a beat.

The boys' gazes were wordlessly questioning my quick answer.

"What?" I asked, shrugging. "It's my favorite."

"Alright. What about you, Bakugou?"

"Just get me a water."

"A water?" Kirishima asked, raising a brow. I, too, was pretty puzzled.

"Yeah, something wrong with that?" Bakugou asked.

"Nope, I'm already going," Kirishima said, spinning on his heel to go to the counter.

Bakugou sighed, leaning back as he pocketed his hands. "It's good for the skin," he muttered, glancing at me before looking at the table again.

I smiled the familiar warm feeling spreading through my chest as I leaned my face into my hand. "Y'know," I started, gaining the boy's attention. "I'm starting to believe you're not the angry freak everyone's making you out to be."

Embarrassment flared in the air and I could've sworn I saw Bakugou's cheeks flush at the comment. "Psh," he huffed, looking out of the window. "Of course I'm not."

A bit after Kirishima came back we decided to call it a day, agreeing to meet up in the same place two days later.

At the said time, I walked into the café again.

"You're late," Bakugou mused as I sat down. Kirishima had said there was an urgent family matter so he told us to meet without him at quite the last minute.

"Yeah, sorry." I smiled apologetically. "The bus got stuck in traffic for a bit, a car bumped into a lamp post and they had to clear that up."

Bakugou hummed, pushing a cup toward me. "I got bored so I ordered the drinks already."

"Is that—"

"Fav./drink?" Bakugou finished for me. "Yeah, you said it was your favorite."

I smiled, wrapping my fingers around the cup as if that could somehow support my heart that had started skipping beats. "It's impressive that you remembered."

"Of course I did." Bakugou eyed me, the air around him shifting but not taking a clear form because of his hesitancy towards something. "I'm not entirely an idiot, y'know?"

I smiled, breaking the silence by clearing my throat so it wouldn't get too awkward. "So, English, am I right?"

"Right."

><><

At some point Bakugou had stopped talking and I found the air quite odd by now — it was either filled with so many emotions I couldn't tell one from the other or it was just completely and entirely hollow.

"Katsuki?" I inquired carefully, wondering what could be going on.

The boy, however, just kept staring at me as if I was a riddle he was very close to solving. And, for some reason, I couldn't help but stare back, taking in the little details of his face. How his eyes twitched every so often and how the shadows casted by his hair reached his cheeks.

"Y/n, I've been meaning to ask you—"

My phone rang, interrupting the blond.

"I'm so sorry," I apologized before fumbling to pick up my mother's call.

My eyes widened at her words and I stood up, starting to pack my things as I listened to my mother ramble on about how worried she was about me.

Bakugou raised a brow at my actions, the air that used to be a mess of emotions now clear with alarm and worry.

I nodded to a clock on the wall and the blond's eyes widened, too.

In a minute, we were out of the café and I ended the call, promising to be home soon.

"We must've lost track of time," I said, pocketing my phone. "What was it that you wanted to say back there?"

"Nevermind, it was nothing." Bakugou kicked a pebble with his foot.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "You seem worried."

He sighed. "You can really read me like a book, can't you?" He offered me a small smile." But really, don't worry. If it had been anything important, I wouldn't have forgotten it."

"So you don't know what it was?" I asked, a bit confused.

"Yeah," the boy said, looking at the pavement. "Probably something about the exercise we were doing. Don't worry, though, I'll figure it out."

I frowned but didn't pry any further, for it was clear that Bakugou didn't want to talk about whatever had been on his mind at that moment.

Still, even an hour or so later when I'd been home for a while already, I couldn't stop thinking about the incident. It felt as if I'd missed a big opportunity.

The only problem was that I didn't know what the opportunity had been.