The Story Of Forever (Todobaku)

Pride and Shame

"This is so stupid."

Katsuki glared as he eyed his outfit in the bathroom mirror. The only thing more ridiculous than Eijiro customizing this shirt for him was his friend not checking the size before placing the order. Now Katsuki was stuck in this silly shirt that fell to his knees. He tucked it in, which improved his appearance by three percent max.

"Please?" Eijiro whined as he adjusted his hair in front of a wall mirror. "I want this to be perfect."

Katsuki ran his tongue over his front teeth. "It's not like she'll say no if it isn't."

Eijiro faced him. "Still. Mina's important to me. I want this to be special for her."

Tetsutetsu, also wearing that eyesore that Eijiro called fashion, threw his arm around the redhead. "We got your back, bro!"

Yosetsu Awase grinned. "Katsuki does too, even if he won't admit it."

Katsuki, still scowling, rolled his eyes. "I'm only doing this for Eijiro. If any of you dumbasses try pulling this same shit, count me out."

"What about you, man?" Yo Shindo asked. "Don't you plan on doing something?"

Katsuki's body went rigid. He flickered his eyes toward Eijiro, who now sported a somber expression. They communicated without words, as they often did these last few months. Katsuki wondered if the others ever picked up on it, but at the moment he didn't care.

"Come on," Eijiro cut in. "Katsuki's not into this stuff. You guys know that."

"Damn," Yosetsu said. "Getting dumped by Camie really fucked you up."

"It's not about Camie," Katsuki snapped at him, then instantly regretted it. He was only digging himself into a deeper hole.

Tetsutetsu clapped twice. "All right. Relax, guys. We're here for Eijiro, remember?"

Eijiro checked his watch. "I guess we should get going. You boys ready?"

"Yeah," Katsuki muttered.

He zipped up the jacket of his red tracksuit. Leave it to Eijiro to go overboard with the color red. At least he didn't get saddled with pink like Tetsutestu and Yo did. Yosetsu's tracksuit was red like Katsuki's, then Eijiro was in a basic black button up and jeans.

Tetsutetsu grabbed the bouquet of violets off the windowsill, handed them to Eijiro, and then they were off.

They looked ridiculous strolling down the UA hallways like this. Aizawa's classroom wasn't too far from the bathroom, but Katsuki couldn't decide if that was better or worse. True, he wanted to get this over with, but he also dreaded subjecting himself to such a silly shenanigan.

Aizawa's door was open. He was in the middle of teaching something that was bound to be a snooze fest. He was a cool teacher, but his lessons definitely weren't.

Katsuki pulled out the note from his pocket, the one Eijiro assigned to him. He read it over, half laughing, half cringing at how corny his friend was (On the first day of kindergarten, you smiled at me and told me you liked my teeth. I haven't been able to take my eyes off of you since).

Aizawa spotted them through the doorway, then abruptly stopped his lesson. He announced a brief intermission to his class and scurried over to his desk and typed something into his computer.

Soon, the song "10,000 Hours" played through the class speakers. Eijiro and Mina labeled it as their song not long after it was released. Apparently that was allowed.

Still, Katsuki noticed the way she perked up in her seat once she heard it.

The song was his cue, so he entered the room. He headed straight for Mina, dropping the note on her desk, a small smile creeping onto his lips. Katsuki was still a sucker for love, it seemed.