After a relatively uneventful winter break, Kuri and her classmates all returned to their regular classes. Most of the school day had passed on by, and it was time for training. More specifically, it was their first time doing joint training with Class B. Kuri would finally be meeting the other students in the hero department.
Her class was walking to the locker rooms to change into their hero costumes, and Kuri was chatting with Mina.
"Dude, don't you think you should try to make some moves on Bakugo?" Mina asked. Kuri raised her eyebrows and glanced at Bakugo, who was far out of earshot.
"I guess I should?" Kuri said. "I'm not a very flirty person, nor am I confident, but I'll go try something, I guess."
She slid up beside Bakugo, who made no note of her presence other than a glance.
"Hey," Kuri said, much less smoothly than she'd planned.
Oh no, how do I flirt subtly? Is this what I get for never talking to guys? This is going to be terrible.
"So, are you still mad at me?" she asked, sticking her hands into the pockets of her blazer and finding a random coin. Bakugo rolled his eyes.
"I thought we resolved this a month ago."
"Well, I'm just making sure... Anyways, wanna walk back to the dorms together after class? Since we're totally friends now," she said sarcastically.
"No."
"Bruh. Whatever, I'll follow you home then," she said with a laugh. "Oh, and open your hand."
He gave her a strange look but still followed her instruction and held his hand out. She pulled her hand out of her pocket and placed the 500 yen coin in his palm.
"What's this for?" he asked.
"I don't know. A bribe?" Kuri mused. "I'll talk to you later!" She made her way back over to Mina quickly.
"Girl, I'm terrible at this," Kuri said. "I literally gave him a coin."
"No, you're not terrible~," Mina said. Kuri gave her a look of disbelief. "Okay, you may be a bit unskilled, but he's not really an easy target. You'll do better next time!"
Kuri sighed. Why was she even trying? She was never much of a go-getter when it came to finding relationships, so why was she putting more effort into Bakugo? Kuri guessed it was because she knew he wouldn't pursue her. The only way for anything to happen was to initiate it herself.
A little later, after everyone had changed, they walked out onto the field and were met by the other class.
Class B's teacher, Vlad King, said how the training was to be done in groups of six, with three students from both classes, then began listing the teams.
"Kendo, Koda, and Monoma versus Nakano, Ojiro, and Shinsou."
As expected, I don't know anyone in my team other than my classmates. And I don't even talk to Koda and Ojiro. This'll be boring...
After the groups were all named, they were told to group up. Kuri hopped over to Ojiro and Koda. Ojiro had a troubled look on his face, and Koda seemed to be trying to frantically cheer him up.
"So, who are we with?" Kuri asked. After she said that, three people walked over: a girl with long orange hair, a blond dude, and a purple-haired guy that Kuri recognized from somewhere. Then it clicked.
"You were in the sports festival," Kuri said, pointing at him. "The one who was up against Midoriya." The purple-haired guy raised an eyebrow at her.
"And who are-"
"That's right!" the blond guy exclaimed, cutting off the purple-haired one. "Our very own Shinsou of Class 1-B fought and almost won against your class!"
"Monoma, I wasn't even in your class when that happened. Stop lumping me in with your stupid class rivalry," Shinsou said. Monoma ignored him.
"So you're the transfer student from America..." Monoma said, looking down at her with a smirk on his face. "Don't you find it unfair that you got into Class A immediately, but Shinsou had to put in an incredible amount of work just to be put in our class?!"
"I guess it is unfair, but I worked hard too," Kuri said. "I had to study a bunch just to catch up with your school's curriculum."
"You don't have to talk to him, Nakano," Ojiro said, looking at Shinsou warily.
"But we kind of have to for this assignment."
The orange-haired girl sighed and pushed Monoma aside.
"Sorry about him. He doesn't like your class for some reason," she said, smiling apologetically. "I'm Kendo, by the way."
"I'm Kuri. Nice to meet you," she said, smiling politely. "Also, may I ask what your quirks are?"
"I thought you remembered me from the sports festival?" Shinsou asked. Kuri was about to reply but held her tongue and narrowed her eyes at him. She did sort of remember his quirk. He brainwashes people when they verbally reply to him or something?
She gave him a thumbs up and a smile.
"I wasn't going to do anything to you," he said. Kuri laughed and squatted so that she could write her reply in the dirt: You never know...
"My quirk is Big Fist," Kendo said. "I basically just make my hands big," she said, enlarging her right hand to the same size as her body.
"And Monoma...?" Kuri asked. He smirked again.
"I'll show you," he said. "But first, what is your quirk?"
"Super Jump," Kuri said. "It lets me jump very high and far." Monoma placed his hand on her shoulder. Kuri looked at his hand and back at him questioningly.
Then he jumped. And he went very high. Considerably high.
Well... he's definitely gonna break his legs. Maybe I shouldn't just stand here and watch.
"Kendo, catch him when he comes back down," Kuri said. "If you don't, he'll probably break his leg bones when he tries to land."
Monoma plummeted back down, and Kendo snatched him out of the air right before he made contact with the floor.
"What the fuck?!" he exclaimed, wriggling away as Kendo let him out of her grasp.
"Sorry," Kuri said. "I told her to do that because seeing you break your bones would've been gross."
"Why would I have broken my bones?" he asked.
"Well, I've built up a tolerance to the impact of landing high jumps, but you have not," Kuri said. "If you were to try to land after going as high as that, your ankles would've snapped, at the very least."
"Thanks for not letting him get hurt, Kuri," Kendo said. "It would've been nice if you'd transferred into our class."
"Instead of me?" Shinsou asked sarcastically.
"What? No-"
"Yes!" Monoma said. "Your stupid cat sheds so much that whenever I pass your room, my allergies start acting up!"
"You have a cat?" Kuri asked, a hopeful grin on her face.
"It's just a random stray, but yeah."
"...Can I see it?" she asked.
"Sure. After class," he said.
After class... I guess I won't be walking with Bakugo then. He'll probably be happy about that.
"Yay, thanks!"
-----
The school day had ended, and Bakugo was headed to the building's entrance, wondering when the hell Nakano was going to show up to follow him back to the dorms as she'd said.
Then, he heard her laughter coming from down the hall. He turned his head and saw her talking to Shinsou as they walked down the hallway. Bakugo scowled.
Why is she with him? Is this just because they did training together?
Nakano turned her head and made eye contact with Bakugo. She grinned and bounced over to him, leaving Shinsou behind.
"Hi, Bakugo!" she said. "You're in luck today because I won't be following you home today after all! I'm going to go and see Shinsou's cat, so you can walk back without having me around to bother you."
Shinsou walked up behind her, and Bakugo glared at him for a second. Shinsou raised an eyebrow in return. He looked back down at Nakano.
"Okay," Bakugo said, turning to leave. "Bye."
He hurriedly walked away, pushing past other students. He didn't know why he was in such a rush. He just really wanted to get out of there. Something about her flaking out on him to be with another guy didn't feel right.
The coin Nakano had given him still sat in the pocket of his pants. At first, he'd thought it was kind of funny that she'd given it to him. He wasn't amused anymore.
-----
Kuri sat on the floor of Shinsou's room, the cat sitting in her lap as she petted it. It was comfortably silent in the room, since they'd hit a lull in their conversation. Kuri was fixated on the cat and Shinsou was looking at his phone.
Suddenly, he placed his phone down and leaned back in his chair.
"Do you like Bakugo?" he asked. Kuri froze, then she sighed deeply.
"Yeah..." she said. "Is it that obvious?"
"A little bit, but I'm sure he hasn't caught on," Shinsou said. He started fiddling with stuff on his desk. "Don't you think you're setting yourself up for heartbreak?"
"Probably, but I just can't seem to stop liking him. I don't know why." Kuri scratched under the cat's chin, causing it to purr. "Do you think I'll ever have a chance with him?"
Shinsou thought about it for a bit.
"I don't know," he said, and Kuri looked down dejectedly. "You're fine as it is, so just be yourself, and maybe things will work out."
Kuri stifled a laugh, then grinned and looked up at him.
"That was such a cheesy thing to say," she said. He chuckled.
"Whatever. Maybe you could give him something homemade for Valentine's Day?" he suggested. "It's coming up after all."
Kuri contemplated the proposition for a bit.
"He once said that he doesn't like sweets... What do I give him then? Crackers?" she said, laughing at her own idea.
"Hm... that could work," Shinsou said. "Do you think you could make rice crackers?" Kuri nodded.
"Yeah, I've made them with my grandma before. Wait, this is such a good idea!" Kuri exclaimed. Then she noticed the time. "Oh, I should probably head back now. I've got homework to do."
She picked the cat up and placed it beside her, then stood up and grabbed her bag. The cat hopped up into Shinsou's lap.
"Thanks for the advice, Shinsou. Let's hang out again sometime!" Kuri said, opening the door.
He waved goodbye and smiled.
"See you later."
(A/N)
it was interesting writing this chapter cuz I had to do monoma and shinsou and idk how to do their dialogue 😻😻. shinsou probably ended up being ooc but idc (i just realized rn that i never explained why or when shinsou got into class b but who cares)
anyways, happy new year if you're reading this when i post it lol. i'm gonna stay up to bring in the new year with my animal crossing villagers. here's to 2021! may it be at least slightly better than this year.
-chris 🍾