"Hey Yaomomo, what do you think of this one?" Jirou looked over to her best friend, earphone jacks gesturing at a large purple and black duffle bag on the rack in front of her.

Momo smiled. "I think it suits you."

Jirou grinned back, carefully taking it off the rack to get a better look at it. Her face fell when she saw the price tag and she immediately put it back where she had found it.

"Haha…never mind."

Momo watched as her friend walked to the other end of the store where the section marked "SALE" was, and scurried over to the bag she had been eyeing, fumbling around for the price tag. Her eyes widened and she guiltily stepped away from the bag, tracing Jirou's path to the sale section.

I guess I never really realized…how fortunate I am. The time she had spent with Class 1-A had made her increasingly aware of her family's wealth, and how extravagant her lifestyle was compared to the majority of her classmates. She would have bought the duffel bag Jirou had been eyeing in a heartbeat. Momo considered offering to buy the bag for her friend, but wasn't sure if that would come across as rude or embarrassing. Her birthday *is* coming up soon…

As for other things that were coming up even sooner…

Momo's thoughts jumped to the party that was fast approaching. She couldn't believe how relieved she had felt when Todoroki said he would come. While she was usually good about making contingency plans, this was one scenario where she hadn't thought things through as thoroughly as she'd liked. She had yet to inform her parents that she had invited someone, but there was no doubt her mother would be asking her about it soon. Momo imagined if she had failed to invite someone…

...well, she was lucky Setsu was with Tsumiko and the other Seto brothers were much too young.

…But then again, her parents knew a lot of people. Yaoyorozu shuddered at the thought of being paired off with the child of one of her father's random colleagues. Sure, she wasn't keen on the idea of her parents trying to set her up with one of the family friends, but a complete stranger—it sounded like something out of the historical romance novels she used to devour under the covers late at night.

Evidently running all these thoughts through her head by herself was going to drive her insane. She looked at Jirou, who seemed to have settled on a satisfactory black duffel bag.

"Hey, Jirou…"

The girl's earphone jacks perked up."Yeah, what's up?"

Momo swallowed, hesitating. "…Have your parents every tried to set you up with someone?"

Jirou stopped what she was doing and slowly turned around, a curious look on her face. "Wait, what? Wow, Yaomomo, where is this coming from?" She smirked. "You're never one to bring up the topic of boys. That's something Mina would do if she were here."

Momo crossed her arms. "It's more so on the topic of parents than boys," she responded, pointedly.

"I'm just messing," Jirou responded, giving her friend a playful shove. "Let's see…my dad likes to tell everyone I'm not allowed to date until I'm married," Jirou mused, one finger tapping thoughtfully on her chin. "And that he will vet any boy I bring home."

"Ah…"

"He's just being an overprotective father," she smirked. "But to answer your question, no. I mean, my parents got together through circumstance and they've always encouraged me to forge my own path. It doesn't seem like something they'd do." She snickered. "Though that may change when I'm 40 and still single."

Momo rolled her eyes. "Jirou, I am positive you will meet someone before then." In fact, I might already see a potential candidate...

"Not if I can help it," she shot back, teasingly. Jirou paused momentarily before looking back at the vice president with a sly grin.

"…so who's the lucky guy?"

Momo's face turned bright red. She should've known that bringing up a topic like this would lead to uncomfortable follow-up questions. "What!?"

Jirou was evidently enjoying her flustered reaction. "Ah, you're right—scratch the 'lucky' part."

"Wow, ok," Momo responded in mock hurt, hoping that would be the end of the conversation.

"Is it anyone I'd know?"

No such luck. Momo shook her head. She wrestled with the idea of telling Jirou everything—about the party, about how all the rich families would be there, about all her wealthy peers bringing dates, about inviting Todoroki…but she didn't. It was becoming more and more obvious to her that her classmates were not as well off as her family and she wanted to avoid drawing attention to the wealthy lifestyle she led as much as possible. She didn't want to seem like she was flaunting it around in front of them. "Nah…it's a family friend of my parents."

"A good-looking family friend?"

Momo made a face. "I'd be a terrible judge of that." She never liked these kinds of questions. Whenever the girls all hung out, someone—usually Mina—would bring up topics of a similar nature. She never knew how to respond.

She also never expected this kind of questioning from Jirou of all people.

"Ehhh that's what you always say," Jirou grumbled as she slowly made her way over to the line for the cash register, Momo following after her. "C'mon, there has to be someone you think is attractive."

She shrugged her shoulders. There wasn't anyone in particular she could think of. Even as far as the celebrity Pro Heroes went—All Might, Edgeshot, Kamui Woods—for her, it was their personality and charisma that made them attractive. Momo had never been one to look at outward appearances—she tended to pass judgements based on a person's character and abilities.

Jirou seemed to be pondering something. She looked at Momo pensively. "…Todoroki, maybe?"

"Hmmm…" The name of the boy made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Momo was aware that the other girls in 1-A—ok, maybe just Mina and Hakagure—put him at the top of their "1-A's hottest guys" list, but she herself had never really thought much of it. In keeping with her usual assessment of people, she admired Todoroki for the strength of his character as well as his heroism and intellectual capability.

When she talked with Todoroki, though, she did find herself looking into his left eye often—no one else she knew had bright turquoise eyes. One could say the way his hair was evenly split between red and white was also aesthetically pleasing. And he was taller than her—she had always been somewhat self-conscious of her height when she was younger since most guys had been shorter than her then. His smile, though. She smiled a bit herself, thinking about it. If he smiled more— "I guess so."

"Huh." Jirou was giving her a strange look. The girl opened her mouth to say something but stopped when the woman at a newly opened cashier waved her over. Momo herself walked towards the front of the store to move out of the way as she waited for Jirou to finish paying.

Her thoughts lingered on Todoroki. He's probably visiting his mother around now…Momo found herself wondering what type of person Mrs. Todoroki was. Given Todoroki's outstanding academic and heroic abilities, was she strict like her own mother was? It occurred to her that despite the fact Endeavor was the No. 2 hero in the country, there was relatively little info released to the press about his personal and family life. She had wanted to ask Todoroki more when they had talked yesterday, but thought better of it—he seemed like a pretty private person. The fact he had said he was visiting his mother, though…Momo couldn't help wondering what that meant. Did his parents not live together? Were they divorced, maybe? And if so, why?

"Hey Yaomomo, you didn't need to get anything?" Jirou asked, swinging around her shopping bag as she approached her. Momo shook her head. In all honesty, she had decided to come with the rest of them to the mall just to hang out with her classmates—she had everything she needed at home. That, and she had never been to this particular mall before.

"Oh, ok," Jirou continued. "Then back to what we were talking about earlier—"

A sudden buzz from the phone in her pocket diverted Momo's attention. She reached for it automatically, relieved there was an excuse to avoid continuing their earlier conversation.

Uraraka: Everyone~Midoriya was approached by a villain in the main plaza. We don't know if there are others around. He's not injured or anything, but I called the police and mall security should be making an announcement soon. Please be careful and come back to our meeting spot as soon as possible!

Momo's eyes widened at Uraraka's message in the class chat. A villain? Here?

She motioned Jirou over to look at the text and a similar expression came over her face. All thoughts of their previous conversation were overshadowed by the unnerving situation at hand. Momo looked wordlessly at Jirou, who nodded back.

The two of them rushed downstairs.


In terms of the timeline, I've more or less been basing stuff off of this post: r/BokuNoHeroAcademia/comments/8n8ihr/an_unofficial_timeline_update_12/

In which case there was maybe a week or two between the events at the mall and the start of training camp. That's when the next few chapters (and the party) take place~

Am currently debating how in depth I want to go w/ OC backstories~names/people will make more sense soon, hopefully s*cough* party chapter *cough* /s