Hana tears through the crowd of people. She pushes through them with all her might. Feeling her breath shortens, the girl stops.

She shouldn't hesitate.

If she hesitates, she won't get a second chance.

Hitoshi is right. She can't know if she doesn't try. But it's so darn scary to know. Whatever that is waiting for her on the other side of the conversation, she might not even like it.

Would it be fair to let herself be hurt?

If she just turns back now and locks away these feelings then no one would have to be the wiser.

'Move!' comes the angry voice from Bakugo that snaps her out of her own insecurity. The boy sounds even angrier than her memory of him.

It could be a sign. It could be someone trying to tell her that there is nothing waiting for her back at U.A. and her childhood bully is here to deliver the message. Her feet drag back, one by one away from the threatening boy. She can't bring herself to run away. She couldn't turn her back. Something inside definitely does not allow her. It was as if someone is questioning her loyalty. Someone is questioning her will.

'You useless nobodies should have just stayed down' Bakugo grunts and glares as she passes by him.

Though Hana had no idea what he meant by that, she has no interest in sticking around to clarify it either. It was tiring enough drowning out the unapproving screams inside her mind. She doesn't need any more trouble than it's worth.

She wants to trust her instinct.

She wants to trust her friend.

'Midoriya-san!'

Hana calls out, barely able to catch up to the figure with which she is ever so familiar.

It only takes her a second, but she instantly notices his casted arm. Her blood runs cold at the sight.

'You're hurt?!' she exclaims, restraining herself from putting her hands over his injured limb, but it just turns out to be an awkward hovering of her hands above his bandages.

She could never get used to seeing him get hurt. It's even worse when she doesn't know the situation surrounding it. Hana was neither in the position nor the right mind to help him back then. Well she can now. And she's going to make sure he's safe… as soon as she finds out how to keep him from harm's way.

'Oh. This is nothing' Midoriya grins shyly, 'I'm just not used to my Quirk yet'

'Wait- you have a Quirk!?'

Hana asks, surprised.

She didn't know this. It didn't even cross her mind once when she found out he got into the Heroic Department. Now that she thinks about it, there should have been a feeling that things were out of place when Midoriya made it to the course without any Quirk. But she made it to Generals too even though she didn't manage to take down many robots during the exam. Maybe he's just a late bloomer.

Still… Can you get that hurt because of your Quirk though? What is his Quirk even?

'Yeah but actually' Midoriya answers, 'I only got it, recently'

'Well, I'm sorry you got hurt. It looks painful' she comments.

'It's alright. I'm trying to become used to my Quirk. I didn't plan on using it, but Kacchan kind of-'

'Wait. Why is Bakugo-kun in the story? Were you getting bullied again?! Are you alright?!'

Midoriya smiles brightly. 'Yeah!' he replies, 'It's for the class. Our team went against each other. My team won actually'

'Oh wow!'

Hana notes, slightly taken aback.

She stares at his costume.

It was so silly of her, not even noticing his uniform. Half of his left sleeve is burnt – courtesy of Bakugo no doubt. He's smiling brightly. His eyes shine with pride at the mention of his victory. Suddenly, Midoriya seems ten times cooler and she is ten times happier for him. U.A. did him good. It's amazing to see him stand up to Bakugo and won. She could never imagine something like that happening back at Orudera. No one would. It sorts of make Hana wonder as well if she could do the same. She'll probably fail miserably and die though. If Bakugo is kind, maybe she'll have a body for her mom to bury.

'So, what's up?' Midoriya asks, pulling her back to reality right away.

Her face starts to heat up. 'Oh', she squirms, 'It's stupid. But erm… I was wondering if w… iend?'

'I'm sorry. Can you say it again? I didn't catch that'

He says, leaning in closer to her. His warm breath practically grazed her skin. Quickly, Hana pushes his body away and before she even knows it, she was at the top of her lungs.

'FRIENDS! I WANTED TO KNOW IF WE'RE FRIENDS!'

Silence fills the space right after her outburst. She keeps her head down, mouth closes shut. Hana clutches her skirt, studying every stitch in her toe cap. What the crap did she just do?!

'You surprised me there' she hears Midoriya snorts and looks up.

He seems somewhat relieved and a bit happy too if she's not wrong. Hana bites down on her lips, hopeful.

It's good that at least he doesn't seem offended by her yelling directly into his face. Oh god, did any of her saliva got out? Mentally, the girl tries to replay the scene in her head… if there was even anything registered to replay.

'Of course,' Midoriya grins, 'I would love to be friend with you! I-I mean if you don't mind it? Do you mind it? You're not asking because you didn't want to be friends with me, right?'

'No!' Hana chokes, 'Oh god no! I really wanted to be your friend. I didn't know if you want to or not'

'Oh, in that case' he says, looking pleased, 'Let's be friend then'

'O-Okay!'

Hana couldn't believe herself.

She actually went and did it.

She actually asked Midoriya to be her friend and he actually agreed. Hitoshi needs to hear about this. He'll be really proud of her when he hears about this.

And at that moment, she realized. She has a friend to tell stuffs to now. No, she has two friends to talk to now. She has people who would be interest to know what she has to say or what she has seen.

Gathering up her courage, Hana asks.

'May I…May I ask for your numbers too? We could text sometimes… if that's okay'

'S-Sure,' Midoriya says, struggling to get his phone with the still intact arm.

Right away Hana sets down her backpack and pull out her notebook. How thoughtless of her to bother an injured friend. Quickly jotting down her numbers, she tears off a page and hands it over to Midoriya.

'Here,' she says, 'This is my numbers'

'Oh! Thanks! Sorry, my arm is a bit…'

'Oh no no! It's fine!'

She beams, backing away from him. 'I guess I'll see you in school then!' Hana declares, turns around and heads for the gate.

Today is a good day, she notes, Good things happened today.

She feels rejuvenated, almost as if she just got out of exercising. She can't wait to let Hitoshi knows how the conversation went down. She herself is actually quite proud of her little accomplishment.

Hitoshi is such a good friend.

If it wasn't for him, she would never have the courage to talk to Midoriya.

Hana shivers with delight. She needs to make sure he knows that. She needs to be nice to Hitoshi and show him how important he is to her.

Contrary to her prior thoughts, sharing a lunch with Hitoshi is beyond awkward. Hana knew that it wouldn't be easy trying to strike a conversation when she has not many topics to talk about but she didn't know that it would be so damn hard to ask her friend how he is enjoying the weather.

The boy keeps slurping his tea while looking at her. She doesn't even have to guess. His face screams second-hand embarrassment.

'Okay. Fine' she sighs, her nose scrunches as she drives her chopsticks through the piece of egg, 'I wanted to thank you. For your advice on the whole thing with my friend from the Heroic Department'

'You could have just start with that' Hitoshi smirks, 'And yet, we spent ten minutes of silence over the weather'

'To be fair' Hana pouts, 'You kept quiet, not me'

'To be fair. You suck at small talk. Not me'

Her friend cheekily counters.

His eyebrows seem to fuse together when he does. Hitoshi sets down his cup and clasps his fingers together. Extremely interested all of a sudden, she notices.

'…So' he starts, 'He's your friend now'

'Yep!' she replies, popping the piece of egg inside her mouth. The sugary taste revives all of her senses.

Without any effort, she digs into her skirt pocket and pulls out her phone. Immediately, the girl shows her friend her Line contact list.

Hitoshi raises his eye brow. 'Friend and contact number' he knowingly nods, 'Are you sure you needed my help?'

Hana swallows hard, punching the food stuck in her throat down. Her friends offered his tea but she declines, taking in a fresh breath of air.

'Course I did! I'd never had gone if you hadn't talk to me about it'

'Did you sprout anything?'

'Nope! I got through it without any dangling flower!'

She points at herself with pride. Hitoshi makes no comment, just simply goes back to sipping his lukewarm tea. She's understanding him more, little by little now. Him and his judging look. Hitoshi can be a great friend and he really is. He just doesn't really seem eager to jump into her flow of the conversation.

But Hana doesn't mind.

She's more than happy to have someone to listen to her stories… as well as sometimes to peer-pressure into sharing his own.

'What makes you want to be this kid's friend anyway? The Heroic Department kids are awfully obnoxious as far as I am concerned.'

'Midoriya-san is different' Hana smiles, shaking her head, 'I've never met anyone as kind and brave as he is. He's really hard working. And he will not let bullies walk away. He's smart and he's strong'

'Sounds to me it's more like you have a bad case of a cru-'

A sudden alarm flares up throughout the cafeteria and both Hana and Hitoshi look around, utterly confused. All the other students rush out of their seats and head for the exit door. Her friend does as well, gesturing to the large exit.

'Let's go Morioka' he speaks with haste, 'Villain must have gotten inside the school ground! We gotta get to a safe place'

Hana follows him, but quickly becomes overwhelmed by the number of students packing up the hall way. For God sake it's not subway during rush hour. There's too many people pushing each other for them to even move.

'Morioka! Morioka, where are you?!'

She can hear her friend calling her, but no matter how much she tries to look for him, his purple hair is nowhere to be found. Someone's elbow strikes her in the back and she cough, gasping for air.

Hana didn't realize this before but compare to the students, she's almost a head shorter than them. With them pushing around and threatening to climb over each other for escape, she's slowly being pushes down onto the floor.

'H-Hitoshi-san!' she yells out, using every bit of strength she has left to stick her hand above the crazy river of people.

Someone grabs onto her hand right away, pulling her towards them. 'I got you' she looks up to find Hitoshi, worriedly shielding her away from the terrified stampeding students.

'Grab onto my arm' he instructs, 'We gotta get out of here'

Having no other choice but to follow him, Hana nods.

But before any of them could even make an inch forward, an unbelievable scene unfolds in front of their eyes. More specifically, above their heads.

A familiar figure floats above, then before she could make a comment, he starts rolling in the air, moving forward with a speed that she can only describe as similar to riding a bicycle if people have the ability to cycle airborne.

'EVERYONE!' the glass-wearing boy shouts, pinning against the small surface above the exit door like an enlarged sign of the escape route, 'IT'S ALRIGHT! IT'S ONLY THE MEDIA! EVERYTHING IS FINE! THIS IS U.A.! LET US BEHAVE AS THE BEST OF THE BEST!'

The crowd seems to calm down after Mr. Emergency Exit made his point clear. The pushing and pulling around her stop. Hana looks up, slightly blushing at the close proximity between her and Hitoshi.

'Hey…. Erm…. Hitoshi-san?' she shyly calls, prying away from his arms.

Her friend appears to have noticed their almost hugging situation and let go, trying as hard as he could to put some space between them in the sea of people.

'S-Sorry' he stutters.

That's the first time Hana ever see him get fluster. Hitoshi is so chill all the time that it's hard to imagine him being disturbed over anything. Then again, he's also a boy. Being near another girl must be unsettling for him.

'Thanks for saving me back there' Hana cracks a grin as she gives the body of students a mocking look.

Her friend scans around. He silently scoffs at the students slowly leaving for their classes. As the crowd clears out, Hana pulls up her sleeves, checking the dully aching left arm.

That's gonna stick around for a while, she winces at the sight of a nasty bruise bravely sitting right below her elbow.

'You okay?' Hitoshi turns to her. His eyes filled with concern.

She shrugs. 'I'll be fine. C'mon! Let's go back to class!'

Giving her one last worried gaze, he finally agrees to return to 1 – C. They had the scare of a lifetime thanks to the media, but now that she knows they are safe, Hana actually sort of enjoyed that little chaos just now. It felt nice knowing how much Hitoshi cares. She was happy he tried to protect her.

Things are starting to look up for her in U.A. ever since she met him. Hana can't wait to tell mom about this incident either. Though mom would probably be talking about all the heroes that showed up on the news and everything, she knows that mom would be proud and happy that she managed to made two friends. Mom would definitely want to meet them. And when she found out both of them are boys, there is bound to be some talking. Mom can be weird like that. Regardless, Hana wants invite Midoriya and Hitoshi to visit her hometown one day. She has faith that they'll love it just as much as she does.

Hosu is quite a beautiful place after all.