If Bakugou Katsuki thought that this was all gonna blow over, he...was probably right.
Jirou could already feel her heartrate calming as she left homeroom and walked to her next class, AP Physics, with Yao-momo. Surprised? Well, just because the students of UA aspired to be heroes didn’t mean they were exempt from taking STEM classes. A lot of people had the misconception that UA was just a hero-grooming school, but in actuality it was quite academically oriented and well-rounded. Plus, for Jirou, her decision to take AP science classes was a no-brainer...literally. Science and math were easy for her. Yao-momo was also the top of their grade with one of the highest GPA’s in the entire school, so no shocker that she also wanted to take classes like AP Physics.
After her first year, UA had decided to start integrating all classes together - A through K of each year - for all periods outside of homeroom (which was essentially their 'gym' or the hero training course class). The teachers thought it would be better for the students, to have them develop some form of inner-grade unity. It worked to a degree, but also didn’t. The students still tended to stick to the people in their assigned class, but the animosity and rivalry between classes diffused quite a bit.
As they walked, Yao-momo had tried to broach the subject of Jirou and Bakugou’s partnering, but Jirou had told her that she’d rather not talk about it right now. She had understood, immediately dropping it to link her arm through Jirou’s, patting her hand sympathetically. Yaoyorozu was one of Jirou’s best and closest friends, and Jirou was thankful she knew her so well. She never pressured her to talk when she didn’t want to, never pushed for more than Jirou was willing to give. She gave Jirou the space she needed to let her mind recoup, a lot of their time as friends spent studying together in companionable silence. She didn't know what she would do without Yao-momo in her life, and after graduation, she would certainly miss her dearly.
The rest of Jirou’s day went by in a blur. She attended all of her AP morning classes and took notes as diligently as she could, but her mind was distracted. Thankfully, she didn’t share any of her classes with Bakugou besides homeroom. By the time the bell rang for lunch, she felt that time had barely passed, but really it had been hours. She had received a few texts between periods from Mina and Toru asking about how her talk with Bakugou went earlier, but she hadn’t really known how to reply. She didn’t want to lie and say it went fine, but she also didn’t feel ready to talk about it without getting upset. She hoped her friends didn’t think she was ignoring them.
She strode into the lunchroom, immediately wincing as she was bombarded by a wall of chattering sound. Sometimes she forgot to dull down her increased hearing before entering a loud environment. She hadn’t forgotten in a long time. Today’s exchange with Bakuguo must be getting to her more than she initially realized.
Mina and Kirishima waved her over to their usual table near the windows facing the courtyard. She spied Bakuguo at the end of their table, but he was eating his lunch and not looking at her. That was fine, she really didn’t want to talk to him right now anyway...not that they ever really talked.
“Hey, guys,” Jirou greeted, trying to sound upbeat. “How’s your day been so far? Anything you wanna chat about?”
Jirou sat down across from Mina and shrugged her backpack onto the ground. Bakugou eyed her as she sat down, but he said nothing. He just stared at her, face blank as he took another bite of his burger.
‘Ooookaaaaay…’ Jirou thought, feeling a bit unsettled by his stare, but she decided to focus on the outcome of her question instead. No use pondering on the inner-workings of that dude’s mind. ‘Please Mina, Kiri, take the bait. Don’t make it weird, don’t make it weird, don’t make it-’
