Shoto POV
"Now that everyone... or at least the majority of individuals... have received their Hero licenses. We'll begin what's known as work studies. But we'll get into that in a bit more detail later. I have an important announcement to make right now." Mr. Aizawa spoke as I opened my notebook for class
It's been a day since the license exam. It's been a day since I failed.
I sighed and turned to face Nora, who was attempting to balance the tip of her pencil on her finger.
It's been about a month since I told Nora about my feelings.
I didn't fail the licensing test because of you. When you didn't see my name on the board, Nora, I saw it all over your face. You believed that by ignoring me, you were causing me to become distracted and fail the exam.
It was entirely my fault that I failed the exam. Because of my stupidity and hatred for Endeavor, I became distracted.
You didn't have to stay up all night crying about it.
Despite the fact that you've been doing so for the past few days.
Nora, I've noticed everything. I'm not that stupid. I can see the dark rings under your eyes that you attempted to hide with makeup. It's very easy to notice your puffy and red eyes.
Or perhaps I'm the only one who notices it.
There's something you're hiding. Something big. That is preventing you from being with me.
I could see the fakeness of your smile as clear as glass every time you plaster it on your face. I see the broken wreck you've become.
The reason for this is clearly because you feel guilty about rejecting me.
I shouldn't be allowed to complain because I've already rejected you twice.
I'm not sure what's keeping you from me. You were flustered when I told you that I had feelings for you. The next thing I know, you're getting a call, and you're freaking out.
You're being held back by something or someone.
I'm not going to let you get away with it. After all, you've driven me insane for you.
You're all on my mind right now. And things are only getting worse.
"Since the beginning of the year, you've been putting in a lot of effort. With the USJ attack, the Sports Festival, the Internships, the training camp, and now your license examinations, you've had a lot on your plate." As I continued to stare at Nora, Mr. Aizawa remarked. "As a result, the Hero Commission has decided to give you guys a 'break.'"
As I continued to gawk at Nora, I observed her cheeks becoming pink from the side. She was well aware that I was analyzing her.
It's almost funny how things have changed in the last few months.
"UA will be hosting a Formal Party."
I pay attention to him as Mr. Aizawa speaks. I raised an eyebrow as I realized what he'd just said in front of the class. The whole class broke out to excite chatters.
"Don't get too worked up just yet. The party would be a formal Hero course student's one. Other hero course students from other schools will also be there." Mr. Aizawa says, his face as worn as ever. "Since top heroes will be in attendance, make sure you don't do anything stupid and create a good first impression."
Mr. Aizawa proceeds to put on his sleeping bag, letting out a tired yawn before continuing.
"It's in one week so make sure you have something decent to wear." He walked away, collapsing to the ground and fell asleep.
The class exploded into enthusiastic discussion the minute Mr. Aizawa closed his eyes. I tilt my head in the direction of Nora. She also appeared to have picked up a text book and begun reading it at the same moment.
Nora began to hide her face with the textbook, which caught my interest. Her eyes scurry through the text at a lightning speed. I sighed and shook my head as I glanced forward once more.
Dummy, the next time you try to avoid me, don't hold the textbook upside down.
I look around the class, disappointed, seeing everyone conversing happily to each other.
Everyone is excited, and they're talking about the party.
This isn't the first time I've been to one. I've attended a lot of parties as a representative of Endeavor. I've been out with a lot of random girls whose faces or names I honestly don't remember.
This time, I know exactly who I'm going to go with.
I gather my confidence and shift my eyes to Nora. I spoke after taking a deep breath.
"Nora..."
A shudder ran down her spine as she slowly turned to face me, flashing one of those dumb fake smiles that she tries to flash to everyone to show that she's happy.
"Sup' Shoto,"
Nora smiles at me and I look at her blankly. I rub the back of my neck, letting out a sigh.
"I had a question for you..."
Nora fakes interest by raising an eyebrow. She turns slightly in her chair and tilts her head to the back to have a better look at me.
She's acting as if she doesn't know what I'm about to say.
"You have a question for me?" She smiles and neatly places her hands on her lap.
"Can-"
"-Wait! I know!! "You want that book, don't you?" She beams and clasps her hands together in delight as she interrupts me in the middle of a sentence.
I look at her, puzzled, as she swiftly takes out a little, messy bullet journal from her desk and places it on her table. With a blue pen, she begins to scribble something on it.
"When you went into my room you were looking at my bookshelf! I knew it! You wanted one of my textbooks because you lost your own copy or something." She blabbed, writing ten times faster in the process."I was going to give it to you before but I keep forgetting! This time I won't since I've written it in my nonsense book."
I extended my palm out to stop her from continuing to write, my jaw slightly dropped open. I watched her close her book and place it in her bag, cursing myself for not being able to say anything.
"I'll give it to you by tomorrow morning!" She says, as she starts walking towards Mina on the other side of the room, her bag slung over her shoulder.
I return my frustrated eyes to my desk, a quiet and irritated scoff escapes my mouth. I put my hands on my desk and rested my head on it as I reverted my attention to Nora.
I won't allow you to keep doing this.
That is a promise.
And if you're bothered by me, you shouldn't have entered my life and made me crazy for you.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Midoriya uninvitingly pulls the dining table chair next to mine and takes a seat beside me. As I glanced forward, he turned in his chair and looked at me with increased curiosity.
"What's wrong, Todoroki?" He asks, tilting his head to the side in concern.
A visible frown forms on my face as I continue to stare forward remembering how Nora kept avoiding me like I don't exist or am some random other friend.
Midoriya raises an eyebrow at my look, at the same time, Iida comes up to us, taking a seat beside Midoriya.
"It's Azumi-san isn't it?" He sighs, turning his head to look at the table in disappointment.
Midoriya was quick to figure out how I felt about Nora. For the first several days in the dorms, he spotted me glancing at her. It didn't take him long to notice that she was avoiding me.
Iida figured it out as well when he heard us talking.
I keep my eyes focused and let out an audible grunt as I don't respond to Midoirya. He bites the insides of his mouth as he hums in understanding.
"Well it's kind of your fault for rejecting Azumi in the first place." Iida finally spoke.
"That's not really helping Iida..." Midoirya nervously chuckles, looking towards Iida as a cold sweat drops on the back of his next
"No... he's right." I sigh, finally looking up at Midoriya and Iida.
Midoriya and Iida look at each other before trailing their eyes back over to me with looks of concern.
"I kept her away from me despite knowing how I feel about her... I guess this is my punishment of some sort."
"If you're putting it that way... Then yeah, what you did was pretty stupid-" Midoiyra mumbles, stopping his sentence short. "Wait! I'm sorry... I didn't mean anything rude please forgive me, I was just you know-"
Midoirya started ranting about how he was disrespectful for calling my acts stupid and that heroes shouldn't call people stupid, I turned to look at him blankly.
Iida uses his stiff hands in front of Midoriya's face to discipline him for bad behavior and shifting the subject, and my eyes widen slightly.
I took my gaze away from those two and moved it to the sofa in the main living area for the dormitory, where Nora and her friends were sitting. She was cackling at her "Katsuki-kun," who had spilled food on his shirt.
She seemed to get along nicely with Bakugou...... Did she develop a crush on him as well or something.
I guess I'm just being dramatic right now. Nora has always shown her affection for me. She simply went away when I eventually told her I liked her back.
It hurt.
It still hurts.
Every memory I've had with her has been good.
I'll never forget the time she asked me out, the time I helped her save Benjiro from the fire, and the time she proved her might to everyone at the Sports Festival...
I remember every detail.
I'm not going to let it all go just because something is preventing her from being with me.
Because nothing can keep me from being with her, not even fate.
"I'm sorry Todoroki, Iida... all I'm trying to say is that you can't just stay in one place and do nothing." Midoriya says, poking me in the shoulder with his index finger to get me to stop staring at Nora.
My focus is pulled to him, and I tilt my head in confusion, trying to figure out what he was trying to say.
"Nothings going to happen if you just stay in the distance and watch her. You've got to make some sort of move..."he says, putting his finger on his chin. "Perhaps the party could help. You could use it as an opportunity to impress Azumi. Perhaps asking her to be your date..."
I stare at him, perplexed, before returning my eyes to Nora. I stand from my seat after taking a big breath.
"Yeah. You're right. And I'm going to do it right now."
Midoriya and Iida exchanged glances as I walked towards Nora and her friends, my hand in my pocket.
"Hey! Wait a minute, Todoroki. If you ask her out in front of everyone you might risk embarrassing yourself-" Iida whisper shouts, from his seat. I couldn't see him but I could tell he was making gestures with his hand.
"Todoroki wait-"
I walked towards Nora's friend group and ignored Midoirya and Iida's silent screams. She wasn't laughing at her 'Katsuki-kun' like she had been before- instead, she was chewing on a bar of chocolate while watching Kirishima and 'Katsuki-kun' interact.
Nora's eyes shifted to me for a split second before instantly returning to Kirishima. She's a natural actress. No one would have noticed anything was wrong between us if it wasn't for my constant staring at her.
"Nora." I say, standing a few meters away from the couch.
Nora turns around to face me, and Mina, who was seated beside her, does too. The rest of the group was too busy in calming an angry 'Katsuki-kun.'
"Hey, Shoto..." She says, smiling at me as if I'm just extra in her life.
"You didn't give me a chance to finish asking you my question during class." I say, causing her to raise an eyebrow.
I nonchalantly glanced behind me at Midoriya and Iida, who were still seated at their tables, staring at me, scared of what was about to happen.
I looked forward, back to Nora, shrugging my shoulders at them.
"Oh yeah?" She mumbles, smiling at me weakly.
"Yeah so-"
"So?"
Nora had cut me off in the middle of a sentence for the hundredth time this month, and I stared at her blankly. I continue, letting out a sigh.
"I want to ask you to-"
"You wanted to ask me to...?" Nora cuts me off again with her words.
"Yeah, basically I want--"
"Basically you-"
"The book."
Nora's eyes widened in slight surprise as said 'book' a little too loudly. She clenched her lips and tilted her head to the side, dumbfounded.
Her cutting me off irritated me a little.
"The textbook. I need it right now." I say, putting both my hands in my pocket as I looked at Nora boredly.
"Huh?"
"The textbook... remember... you wrote it in your notebook as well because you have a bad memory. I can clearly see the affects of your bad memory-"
"Oh... OHHHHHH! RIGHT!" She suddenly beams, swinging her arm excitedly. "Yeah. You can wait here. I'll get it for you in one second."
Nora leaps up from the couch a little too chirpily, as I watch. She starts walking towards the dorms' elevator. I began to walk behind her, following her to the elevator, without much thought.
"I'll accompany you."
Nora chooses not to answer this time, instead turning her head behind her shoulders and staring at me blankly. She sighs and looks forward once more.
I keep forgetting to update :(
Just a reminder that standing up for yourself is different from being dramatic or getting offended easily. If someone disrespects you (even if not on purpose) you have to make sure it doesn't happen again.