A couple of days later, UH released the official results of the entrance exams. Green Boi's class was in an uproar upon finding out that both Angry Explodey and Greenie had been excepted into the ultra-exclusive Plus Ultra Academy High School. The students were bouncing in their seats, cheering.
"I can't believe it!" shouted their homeroom teacher. "I can't believe that, not one, but TWO students from Shitty Middle School are going to UH!" The teacher laughed. "And to think you're one of them, Mr. Bean Child. Haha, I honestly thought you'd die during the entrance exams."
Is that a laughing matter? Green wondered, as the traumatic memories of the exam resurfaced. No, bury those images deep, deep down in your subconscious. He told himself. Dig a deep ditch and never let them out.
Explochan, who apparently just heard about Green Boi's acceptance right then and there, shouted, "Hold up, what the hell did you just say Teach?"
The teacher cowered behind the desk. "Nothing!"
"No, what the fuck did you just say? TWO of us got accepted? And one of them is this asshole?" He pointed to Green Boi.
"Yes sir!"
Explochan yanked Green Boi by the collar of his gakuran jacket and dragged him out of the classroom. No one dared to intervene, because no one dared to cross Angry Explodey Boi. Greenie kicked and screamed as he was dragged all the way to the back of the school, to an abandoned alleyway. He found himself thrown against the outer wall of the school. Angry Boi's hand tightened against his collar. Greenie couldn't breathe.
Angry Boi got closer to Green Boi, leaning forward, getting so close their foreheads touched. Angry Boi made a fist. Green Boi braced himself for the impact.
The wall behind them was the victim this time. Angry Boi punched a hole through solid brick. He was boiling in rage. It was sheer ire the likes of which Green Boi had never seen before. Angry Boi's face was so red that it looked like it could catch fire. "Whoa, dude, calm down," Green Boi said. "Did that hurt? Your quirk is explosions, not super strength."
This time, Green Boi's face fell victim to Angry Boi's punch. "Who the fuck said you can get in to UH?" he roared.
"Fuck! My face!" winced Greenie.
"Oh, I'll fuck your face! Can't take a punch?" Angry punched him again. "Well that sucks ass, because heroes get punched all the fucking time, huh?" Another punch. "How the fuck did a weak ass punk like you get in?" Another punch. "You cheated, huh?" Another punch. "Whose dick did you suck to get in?"
"Explochan! You're hurting me!" shouted Green Boi.
Another punch. Green Boi's lip was bleeding and his cheek was bruised. Angry's eyes were wild, and his fist was trembling as he reared back for another punch. "I'm supposed to be the only kid from Shitty Middle School that's going to UH!" Another punch. "You just had to fuck that all up, huh?" He went in for another punch.
Green Boi caught it.
Angry Boi's eyes doubled in size.
"Stop punching me you violent stupid fuck!" Green shouted. Angry was surprised because Green Boi's voice didn't crack. His eyes didn't waiver. He locked onto Angry Explodey and glared at him.
Angry Boi had never seen that side of Green Boi before.
So Angry listened. He released his friend, but said, "Don't go to the fucking school, ass breath."
"You don't wanna go to the same high school? I thought we were friends." Green Boi laughed. Blood was trickling down his chin, his left cheek was swelling and he had a cut above his eye, but Green Boi was genuinely laughing.
"I fucking hate you," the angry little bomb said as he turned around. He put his hands in his pockets. He marched away.
Then he stopped. He looked over his shoulder. Green Boi wasn't chasing after him. Green Boi was walking in another direction. "You coming?" Angry asked.
"Nah," said Green Boi. "I need to go to the nurse to fix my face. You should come too. Looks like you fucked up your fist."
Angry Boi watched Green Boi leave. Angry Boi balled his hands into fists in his pockets. He felt the blood coating his fingertips. "Damn nerd," he swore as he followed Green Boi to the nurse.
…
At the end of an otherwise quiet school day, Green Bean packed up his notebook and prepared to go home.
But someone grabbed his shoulder tightly. The air was filled with the scent of rage and burning clothing. "Dammit Explochan, stop charring my clothes," Green mumbled, facing his friend.
"You, me, ramen," demanded Angry Boi.
"Oh. Okay. My treat?"
"You think I'm poor, you punk bitch?"
"Fine, fine. You pay. But I'm ordering a big bowl."
Thus the two were eating at a nice little roadside ramen shop. It was the kind of place that had a couple of seats at a counter, and customers could watch the chef make the ramen right in front of them. It was a place that they had visited every so often since they started middle school.
As usual, Angry Boi gulped down noodles angrily. He made a lot of noise as he slurped up the broth. Then he threw his bowl on the floor, shattering it. "MORE!" he demanded. The chef, an old grandpa that had been running this stand for years, laughed. "No one loves my food like this kid does," he said proudly, as he prepared another bowl.
Green Boi liked the food too, but he simply couldn't eat as fast as his friend. Besides, it was hot and he needed to blow on it first. "Hot hot hot," he mumbled, as he slurped a little bit. "Ah! Yum!"
"You eat like a cute little girl!" Explochan yelled. He buried his face in his second bowl.
"You think I'm cute?" teased Precious Green, with a wink.
"The fucking cutest." Angry Boi tilted the food into his mouth. Then he smashed the empty bowl on the floor. "MORE!"
Grandpa Ramen Maker said, "Coming right up."
A light blush settled on Green Boi's face. He ate some more ramen.
When his third bowl arrived, Angry Explodey shoveled the noodles into his mouth. He ate like a pig, and then set down the empty bowl on the counter.
"You done?" asked the Grandpa.
"What do you think Old Man?" Explochan leaned back and exhaled. The old man took the bowl. Explochan watched as Green Boi finished up his food.
He had first met Green Boi when they were very little. The two boys were friends because their moms had been friends back in Mom School. Explodochan and Greenie Beanie were playmates before they were schoolmates, and they had shared the same class in both elementary and middle school.
Yet Angry Boi hadn't realized that until Green Boi had said, You don't wanna go to the same high school?
"So you're just chasing after me, is that it?" Angry Boi asked.
Green Boi was handing his empty bowl to the Ramen Grandpa. "Huh?"
"You wanna follow me to high school. Is that it?"
"No. I want to be a hero." With his head held high, Green Boi smiled. "Someone I admire very much told me that I can be a hero. So I'm going to be a hero."
Angry couldn't help but scoff. In his mind, there were only two types of heroes: the ones that could save everyone, and the ones that would die trying. Angry thought of himself as the former. His quirk was strong. Not only that, but he trained himself to be physically powerful too. Angry Boi worked out. He ran, he lifted weights, and he watched martial arts videos on YouTube. He was sure that once he started classes at UH, he'd be a top tier hero in no time.
But Precious Green…
"The food was great, Gramps!" the adorable ball of greenness said to the Ramen Shop Owner. Then he faced Angry Boi. "Ready to go?"
"What do you think you piece of shit? I've been done for over ten minutes." Angry slapped down the money to pay for their meals on the counter. Then he got up and led the way down the street.
He was a fast walker. He always had been. He walked faster than everyone else he knew. He was the one that set the pace during class outings. He was the one that people followed. Same thing in terms of running. He could sprint faster than any student at Shitty Middle School.
But if he were to run an extremely long distance race against Green Boi, Angry Explodey knew he would lose. Green Boi never knew when to give up. No, Green Boi couldn't give up.
He knew that Green Boi was going to go to UH. He knew that Green Boi was going to become a hero. And looking at that dumb, satisfied smile on his friend's face, Angry Boi knew that Green Boi would be the latter type: the kind to die trying to save everyone.
"Grandpa Ramen makes the best ramen, right Explochan?" Green Boi said, while patting his belly. Angry stopped walking. Green Boi bumped into him.
"Don't go to UH," Angry growled. His shoulders were trembling. He was angry. But it was a, a, well, a higher sort of angry. Usually the rage stemmed from his gut, near his stomach. This time, it stemmed from his chest, near his heart. And for some reason, his eyes were stinging. This was a really weird sensation for Angry Boi. It felt like liquid would start dripping from his eye sockets.
"Whoa, are you crying?" Green Boi asked, leaning close to his friend. "What are you crying for?"
"Is that what it is? Is this what they call crying?"
"Uh, yeah. What, you've never cried before?"
"NO! I'M ONLY CAPABLE OF ANGER!" Angry Explodey raised his hands up and blew up a large cloud of smoke and flames. "THIS ISN'T CRYING! THIS IS HIGH ANGER!"
He saw Green Boi roll his eyes. "Okay, so what are you 'high angry' about?"
"Don't go to the fucking school! The entrance exam put you in the fucking infirmary!" He seized his friend by the shoulders and started shaking him. "They said you broke 75 percent of your limbs! How the ass-fucking fuck did you do that? How the fuck did you pass?"
Green Boi kept silent. Angry Boi blinked back his high angry eye water. He shoved his friend away. He kept walking.
He didn't hear footsteps behind him.
He turned around. Green Boi was standing a couple feet behind him. He said, "What are you waiting for?"
"Nothing." Green Boi waved goodbye. "See you tomorrow, Explochan." He walked away in the opposite direction.
…
Angry Boi had always been what some would call a "problem child," or "problematic favorite". He was often described as "loud" or "mean" or "rude" or "violent". In fifth grade, after Angry Explodey had beaten up a classmate, Angry Boi's mom had to come to the school to meet the teacher, and the kid's mom.
"Apologize!" she had demanded of Angry Boi.
"No way! He looked at me funny!"
"What the hell is wrong with you? Even if you don't mean it, just apologize!"
"What the hell is wrong with you? I'm not gonna apologize if I don't mean it! He should apologize to me for looking at me funny!"
"Just apologize and end this embarrassment! Otherwise I'm gonna go to jail, because I'll have to beat the smug look off that bitch's face." She pointed to the victim's mother, who had been giving Angry Mom a my-kid-is-well-behaved-and-yours-isn't look. (Both the mother, the kid, and the principal were in the room while the Angry Mom and Son argued. Needless to say, the kid's mom dropped that smug look really quick.)
The day after his half-assed apology to keep his mother out of jail, Angry Boi was met with admiration by the rest of his classmates. They whispered about him. "He's so cool!" they had said. They had thought he was the most amazing kid in the world.
They treated him like a demi-god. They were cautious around him, speaking to him only when spoken too, and idolizing him from a distance. Plus, it wasn't just kids. Adults did it too. Everyone put Angry Boi on a pedestal.
But that meant that no one hung out with him. In fact, the kid that got beat up ended up with more friends than Angry Boi. Everyone wanted to know how it felt to get punched by the coolest kid in town. But no one sat with Angry Boi at lunch, or played with him at the playground.
Except Green Boi.
"Why'd you have to go beat up Weak Student Number 5?" Greenie asked, while poking Angry Boi on the nose with one of his chopsticks.
"He was looking at me funny."
"How was he looking?"
Angry Boi scrunched up his face like a chipmunk. Green Boi laughed, saying, "I would've beat him up too. Haha."
Explochan rolled his eyes, but he smiled a little.
Angry Boi had never made friends. He made groupies, followers, goons, and flunkies—people who would hang around him, and then leave as soon as they felt the true force of his fury. No one could deal with the magnitude of his attitude.
Except Green Boi.
Angry Boi could fly into a rage and beat the hell out of Green Boi, but he would forgive him the very next day, no, the very next minute. When Angry did that to his goons, they apologized and ran away.
No matter what Angry Boi did, Green Boi would shrug it off. Just this morning he had punched Green Boi so hard that his knuckles bled. Yet they just ate ramen together like it didn't happen. Angry could curse him out, call him names, fight him, scream at him, whatever. But Green Boi never left his side.
Part of Angry Boi suspected that it was only a matter of time before Green Boi realized that he didn't have to deal with his shit anymore. And that's what Angry had thought when Green Boi stopped hanging out with him all year. Angry thought that maybe he had broken the final straw and crossed the final line, and that he had lost his only real friend forever. Angry had thought that he had finally ascended to his destiny of being superior to everyone around him, at the cost of forever being lonely.
Yet today, Green Boi had smiled and said, I thought we were friends.
Angry Explodey hated to admit it, but he did like eating ramen together with Green Boi. He did like having a buddy to walk home with. He did like reading Green Boi's Blonde Superman fanfiction. He did like the dank memes Green Boi would share with him. He did like the weird way that idiot would mutter to himself. He did like that Green Boi risked his life to save him that day he was in trouble.
It was fun to have a friend. It was fun to have someone that understood him. It was fun to have someone who only mildly feared him, and didn't idolize him, or worship him, or fanboy over him. It was fun to have someone that treated him like a human being.
And it might be fun to go to the same high school as that person.
"Damn nerd," Angry said to himself, as he continued his walk home.
