ᴊᴜsᴛ ɢᴏ ᴡɪᴛʜ ɪᴛ • [ᴅᴇɴᴋɪ ᴋᴀᴍɪɴᴀʀɪ]

Ch. 9

hanae made her way into class 1-a with tired eyes, throwing her book bag onto her desk and laying her head down on her hands, absolutely exhausted aster staying up until 3 in the morning last night. the first of her friends to enter the classroom after her was kirishima, who simply gave her a sympathetic look as he made his way to his seat. sero raised an eyebrow but just walked past her into his seat as well. denki walked in practically dragging his feet, he smiled slightly when he saw hanae and stopped to talk to her.

"sorry for falling asleep on you," he said bashfully, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked down at her. hanae lifted her head and grinned at him, shaking her head slightly.

"i fell asleep like 10 minutes after you stopped answering my texts so it's fine!" denki rolled his eyes and laughed lightly before making his way to his desk. mina was the last to make her way into the classroom with entirely too much energy. she wouldn't stop questioning hanae about her lack of sleep even into lunch. hanae stabbed into her salad with her fork and glanced at denki before answering mina.

"i was texting kaminari all night," she murmured, eating the piece of lettuce on her fork and smiling lightly upon remembering the strange conversation from last night. mina let out a gasp and she looked at denki then back at hanae, a diabolical grin spreading across her face.

"are you two dating," she murmured quietly, looking at hanae. hanae felt her face heat up as she looked at mina wish her mouth agape.

"n-no! god we're just best friends." hanae glanced at denki and then at mina, shocked at the question. sure, denki was absolutely amazing in many ways. he was cute and funny but sweet and caring all at once. he knew what to say to make her laugh  and how to make her feel so much more confident about her quirk. all at once, hanae was hit with the realization that maybe, just maybe, denki wasn't just her best friend. he made her heart flutter and her mind race. hanae genuinely liked denki as more than a friend, and that was absolutely terrifying for her.

in hanaes eyes, denki deserved a lot better. he was sweet and funny and absolutely stunning to look at. hanae didn't think she was good enough for him. in her eyes, she was awkward, and sometimes a little rude. she thought she wasn't attractive enough for someone like him. and that realization hurt. so rather than saying anything to her friend who stared at her with curious eyes, she gave her a tight lipped smile and kept her thoughts to herself. lunch continued with hanae staying mostly silent, much to the concern of her friends. she dismissed the concern with her just being tired, giving them a fake smile that seemed to convince the group.

after lunch, she sat at her desk and doodled idly in her notebook, her mind racing as she thought of how stupid she was to think that denki was just a friend and not realize her true feelings for him. her train of thought was interrupted by something small hitting her arm. she looked down to see a crumpled up piece of paper at her feet. when she picked it up and opened it, she saw a small question scribbled on the top corner asking if she was doing okay. when she looked behind her she locked eyes with kaminari's worried yellow eyes. she smiled and gave him a thumbs up, her heart fluttering at the thought of him worried about her.

'no, hanae. he's being a good friend. that's it,' she told herself, dejectedly going back to doodling on her paper. she tried to pay attention to aizawa's lesson, but her mind just kept wandering back to her conversation with mina. by the end of the day, she somehow managed to convince herself that she didn't even have a crush on him, she just liked him as a friend.

so why then, when she met up with the group to walk to her house for game night, did her heart race at the sight of kaminari? she shook her head and instead focused on talking to kirishima about his quirk, trying to keep her mind off of the blonde who was talking to his best friend in the world.