maybe | hitoshi shinsou x reader

~chapter 19~

A/N: i don't really do authors notes at the beginning of chapters, but here we go!

im sorry it's been a month and y'all have been waiting so long but thanks so much for all the support! maybe has 22k reads now and that's super amazing! when I finally logged back into wattpad yesterday and saw that i literally choked on air. i never really expected for it to get this kind of reception at all, much less during a month were nothing at all was posted, so this is a little mind-blowing

but yeah, once again, sorry for not posting for a month. there was summer work and my phone breaking (kind of? still trying to work around that) and some more personal family matters. i can't promise a semi-steady flow of updates like it was before, but stuff's been clearing up, so it's looking like a possibility.

okay done rambling! now back to your regularly scheduled program...

~~

The mall is amazing.

You've been in malls before, sure, and they were cool, but they've got nothing on this place. It's massive, with four floors and store after colorful store as far as the eye can see. The ceiling is a slightly curved glass dome that puts the blue sky on full display overhead, and lets the sun shine down on the palm trees and little pots of pinkey-purple flowers scattered down on the ground floor. Hundreds of people—hundreds, a veritable sea—dodge and bob and weave past each other in such synchronicity you'd have half a mind to think its choreographed.

All different kinds of people, too. Different folks of all different strokes congregated here in this hub of commerce, and some of them shout at you to try goading you into buying their wares, but some others recognize you and start yelling about the sports festival. Little cheers and whoops and playful jeers. It's surreal. They're strangers, but they know you and your friends, sort of, or at least know you well enough from having seen you pummel each other on live TV.

It's like being on a movie set, or inside of a movie itself, and you can't help the appreciative "ah" you make as you take it all in. Neither can Uraraka, apparently, as she's standing beside you in open-mouthed awe, but the rest of your classmates—and Shinsou—seem entirely unaffected. Well, Midoriya gets a twinkle in his eye and starts mumbling furiously, but that's mostly par for the course.

There's a bit of socializing, but it's not long before everyone starts flaking off into little groups with the goal of purchasing whatever camping supply they so ardently require. It all happens pretty fast, really. Eventually it's just you, Shinsou, Uraraka and Midorya that are left in the dust as your peers scatter in search of lanterns and whatever else.

"Wow, so fast..." Midoriya breathes, then turns to the three of you. "So, ah, what do you guys plan on getting? I'm thinking about some wrist weights."

A good question, though not one you've given a whole lot of thought. "Hm, I don't really have any camping supplies, so I guess just a whole lot of that. Y'know, flashlights and things."  Because it didn't really seem pertinent to pack for a camping trip when you were going to be moving to a metropolis, but here you are.

Uraraka hums in agreement, or maybe thought. "I need to get some..." She trails off, seemingly lost in the machinations of her own mind when her face suddenly lights up like a tomato, her eyes bug out of her head, and she stutters out, "b-bug repellent!" and then bolts, as fast as you've ever seen her run, somewhere in the general direction of away.