MANIA - Katsuki Bakugou

fear ━

chapter 37

8 YEARS AGO
2 days after Midoriya's confrontation

Shimamura sat at her desk in the 1-A classroom, chatting with Kirishima who took the seat in front of her for the time being. He sat backwards in the chair so he was facing her, with his legs on either side of the seat. The redhead laughed along with her for some joke he made, grinning with his sharp teeth.

Class had just ended and the students were packing up to walk back to the dorms. But with the minimal amount of homework that Aizawa had assigned, some students were getting packed to hang out for the rest of the day.

"Yeah I'll meet you guys there!" Midoriya called to Uraraka and Iida as the two headed out of the classroom.

Shimamura peeked up at her green haired peer as he packed his belongings. Her eyes narrowed, watching him from afar. Kirishima didn't notice a thing though.

Feeling her eyes on him, he paused momentarily and locked eyes with her. She frowned and looked away.

Just like she had established the day prior, she would ignore him so that she'd never have to truly acknowledge that he knew her secret. She couldn't. She wanted to deny it and push the thought down to the deepest place it could go. Push it down to hell if she had to. As if, if she denied it all together, it simply wouldn't be true.

She'd been ignoring Midoriya because of it. Leaving him to sulk and reevaluate having told her what he knew. Some things were better left unsaid.

"Hey Shima!" Kirishima grabbed her attention. "Can we invite Bakugou too?"

Right... she and Kirishima were planning to go grab boba after school. She would invite Sayuri, but the girl said she had training with Aizawa immediately after school like usual.

Shimamura donned a smile and nodded. Her eyes wandered around the room before she spotted the blond fireball, standing up from his desk with his bag on his shoulder.

"Bakugou!" She waved at him as he glanced at the pair. "Come to boba with us!"

Current bipolar level: 6. She was more herself for the meantime.

Bakugou furrowed his eyebrows and grimaced at the thought. But under the surface, there was something else bugging him. Causing a disturbance of sorts. Shimamura noticed it.

He shook his head and walked out the classroom without a word to either of them. Kirishima shrugged it off and grabbed his bag. Shimamura lowered her hand slowly, a slight frown appearing on her lips. If Bakugou didn't want to hang out with Kirishima and Shimamura, that's fine. But that wasn't the way he would usually deny their offer.

If anything he'd shout at them. Curse them out sometimes. But never would he just shake his head no and leave. He was never this docile.

Why?

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That evening, Kirishima, Todoroki, Momo, and Shimamura all sat in the living room of the dorms with their bobas in hand. The pair had run into Todoroki and Yaoyorozu at the boba place, so they just decided to conjoin groups. But Momo seemed to be very flustered about the fact that they ran into them there. Stammering about them being "caught"... whatever that meant.

Shimamura sipped on her milk tea boba happily. The other three laughed and chattered about something Shimamura wasn't particularly paying attention to. If anything, she stopped listening to the conversation.