PAPER FLOWERS ( k. bakugou )

chapter 5

' vice versa '

━━━━━

Her feet has grown ice enclosed roots and stuck her to the ground, frost burgeoning in the spots where there were no sunshine, snowflakes falling incessantly and the ice from her throne wrapped every crevice of her body with its artificial coldness.

"What do you mean?" she asks, counting to sixty, calming her nerves. This was highly improbable- the prospect of Katsuki learning that she and Yuko were the same. It was a one in a thousandth probability.

"You're that bitch!" he said again, eyes widened, seemingly out of expletives until the next statement [accusation, really]. "The one who got lost and had to be carried to the police station!"

"Excuse me, Bakugou-kun?" she asked, unburnt thumb brushing against one two three folds of her pleated raincoat, trying to calm down, smiling casually on the outside. "I don't quite understand."

"That was probably four or three years ago!" he said. "You were that fucking crybaby! I'm not entirely sure but you look a lot different, because she had fucking lighter hair and shit for clothes?"

Oh. Oh.

The passage of time had affected his memory. In a way, she was that girl. The tears stop streaming. But that was when she was donning the mask that is Akihisa Yuko so she may have said something that reminded him of her. She hadn't realized that the serendipitous occurrence was such of great importance to him. He seemed almost fond.

"Oh," she said, counting one two three four five six seven eight nine ten in her mind, gathering her thoughts and figuring out what the proper course of action would be. He'd never let it go, wouldn't he? And chances of her escaping are all but lower than the number two. "Oh!"

Eyelids blink thrice, and after two minutes, one hundred twenty seconds, they stop staring at each other and she shatters the silence with her words. "Y-You're that boy?!"

The unhurt hand tries to clasp his cheek and she looks him straight in the eyes, supernovas create beautiful space nebulae and that crimson- varying shades of red are all melted and the liquid form drips and they create his eyes. "No way," she says, the disbelief too much to be real and when he swats her hand away (impossibly gentle), she keeps it frozen on her side. "It's really you!"

"Oh my god," she screams, continues to don the façade of breathless fangirl, jumps up and down in the puddle and sends droplets of rainwater scattering. "It really is you. The uncouth blond bit- I mean boy! Oh my, you became an awesome person. Holy-!"

"You're crying even now," he points out and she touches the streak of tears on her cheeks. Kaede is unaware that the blasted things were pouring out and she tries to wipe them off.

And Kaede rides along with the lie, and she knows that she's a thief for stealing moments with him, but it will be all right. Give her a chance, please. She's said her farewells, but she can't leave. Memories are just a collection of past actions and they can't will her to stay, but feelings are chains that hold her to the ground.

"Oh shut up," she says, uses her sleeves to wipe the tears, but they're still there and attempts to squelch the sobs only makes it worse. "You're still uncouth."

He glares at her. "You were shoving praises into my mouth earlier fucktard," he points out and she spins her head 45 degrees left, cheeks puffed as if everything was okay.

"Well I really really sort of admire you, so this revelation was an unexpected development," she lied and it feels light, so unlike the knives coated with lies she stabbed others in the back with.