Time passes and things change. When there is a lack of communication or concealment of feelings in a relationship, it gradually accumulates and eventually has a bad effect on the very people in relationship. It doesn't matter if it's a romantic or friendly relationship. There have always been many ambiguities between Bakugou and Midoriya. It probably all started to get even worse from the time they were four years old. Both of them couldn't say how they felt, which caused more and more problems.

- Why did you even think you can be a hero? You..." Katsuki hesitated for a second, not knowing how to put it. - Useless D-Deku!

Izuku flinched as Bakugou's fist pressed against the wall, causing her to gasp slightly, making her unable to step back. She turned her frightened gaze to him. He glanced away irritably and walked away without even looking at Midoriya.

It was insanely upsetting. Neither her mother nor her only friend supported her aspiration to enter the heroic faculty. None of them believed in her. And if there was still hope for Bakugou that he would accept, understand, after this situation, it seems that not only her faith in her friend, their friendship itself has been shaken. Inko was very worried about her daughter's future, so she asked Mitsuki to talk to her son. She hoped that at least a close friend could encourage Izuku to think about more real things. And as much as Katsuki didn't refuse, at one point he just couldn't keep quiet. It was then that it seemed to him that to ignore the problem would be worse than to say all that he thought. However, he did not take into account that he does not know how to talk about his feelings.

Bakugou walked alone after school that day. Midoriya left early, citing her mother's request, and given that Mitsuki was going to visit them today, it was understandable that they were in a hurry. It seemed like what could have happened? It's the usual. The warm rays of the sun warmed him up, and the bag was pulling on his shoulder a little, so he had to pull it up from time to time. There was only one difference. Suspicious silence all around. Probably it was the already familiar muttering nearby, but it seemed as if this silence foreshadowed something bad.

It seems his premonition was not deceived. Turning off the road, Bakugou noticed the familiar curly hair. Midoriya was standing in a dark alleyway in front of a crowd of guys. The Izuku's whole body trembled, but she didn't move. Behind her stood a boy about seven years old, clutching something in his hands. It looks like these guys jammed the boy to take away what he was hiding, and he didn't keep his balance and fell. Bakugou hated the mere notion that Izuku was getting into something again, but leaving her here alone wasn't a good option either. Katsuki stepped closer to deal with it, but the boy pushed Midoriya away and ran up to the bullies, dousing them with water from his palms. Midoriya's spontaneous act seems to have hurt him.

- Do I look like a weakling? - With tears in his eyes, the boy shouted and ran out of the alley. - Fool!

The boy actually turned out to be so strong that Midoriya fell due to the push. She looked around in confusion and looked again at the bullies, who were now standing completely soaked, looking with the same embarrassed gaze after the runaway child. He didn't seem to intend to fight back at first, but he didn't want to share his possession either. He was scared, but somehow the fact that a seemingly frail girl stood up for him made him angry. The criminals looked at Midoriya and left, finding nothing of interest in her. Before they finally disappeared from view, they could still be heard muttering their displeasure.

Bakugou stepped closer, glancing at Midoriya, who was still sitting on the ground. In any other situation he would have given her a hand to help her up, but now he was too angry.

- He's right, you fool," Katsuki said, shoving his hands in his pockets. - Why did you help him?

- He cried," Midoriya muttered to herself.She got up off the ground and shook herself off. - He was being bullied by those guys, so I decided to help.

- Did you help? - Bakugou's voice sounded sarcastic. He tried to hide, to suppress the anger that was getting brighter and clearer by the second. Katsuki himself could not understand the reason for its appearance, but for some reason it was difficult to keep himself in check.

- What do you want, Kacchan? - Midoriya asked, looking up. On the contrary, it seemed as if she was a little proud of herself. - Even if my help wasn't necessary, I'm glad that everything in the end turned out well.

Bakugou frowned and kept his eyes on Izuku for a while. He couldn't understand where this feeling of irritation was coming from lately when he looked at his friend. And especially now that she looked like that. Lately, the situation between them had been heating up. There were more and more forbidden topics that should not be brought up in conversation. If before they could spend almost all their time with each other, now the silence between them became tense.

Midoriya headed toward the street. Before she finally exited the alley, she looked back at Bakugou.

- You coming?

Bakugou and Midoriya walked side by side. No one wanted to start a conversation, so now each step was clearly audible. At times the wind howled, picking up a sparse piece of paper from the ground. The sun was sinking lower and lower, and the way never seemed to end. Really, it's the same as before. Nothing changes. And that may have been what ruined the friendship of these two. And it almost did.

- Which high school will you go to?

Midoriya was in a hurry to get home, so she walked a little ahead, but when she heard the question, she hesitated, turning to her friend.

- What?" asked Midoriya. She hoped she was just imagining things. And if that wasn't the case, perhaps Bakugou would realize that it wasn't something that could be asked now.

- Where will you go to school next? - he continued to insist.

Katsuki's question was unexpected. Initially, he wasn't going to bring it up at all, despite all his mother's requests. Now, however, he wanted to see if this was really the cause of his irritation and dissatisfaction:

- Why do you ask? I've already told you so many times.

Katsuki stopped. Yes, that's it. To the point of disgust, to the gnashing of teeth, this unpleasant certainty. What seemed to be the dream of heroism in Midoriya's situation? But she still kept doing and thinking about it. It was as if she didn't realize that she was burying herself deeper and deeper into the abyss of disappointment.

- You're not going to the UA," Bakugou said firmly. He stopped, causing Midoriya to have to stand in front of him, too. They had practically reached her house and were now standing next to the wall of one of the apartments.

- Why?! - Midoriya shouted, and immediately regretted it. Bakugou stepped closer, pushing her friend against the wall, causing her to bump slightly.

With a wince of unpleasant pain, Izuku looked up and flinched in fright. She had never seen her friend so angry before.

- Because you're quirkless!

At that moment, silence reigned. Ever since he was a child, when the boys in the yard had first started teasing Midoriya, Bakugou had always driven them away. Friends or not, the mockery of Izuku was the only reason to break off all relations with them. This happened after the girl got very upset when she was called quirkless. And from then on, Katsuki never talked about it. Until today.

Perhaps this indulgence was the reason Midoriya could not give up the idea of heroism. Simply because she wasn't shown in time that she just can't do it and that she shouldn't get her hopes up, because then it will only get worse.

- B-but it's worth a shot.

- Who gives a shit about you?!

Hearing Bakugou, Midoriya flinched. Her eyes darted from side to side and her lips quivered, but she only clenched her hands into fists harder. Katsuki only got more heated. Bakugou was very angry. In fact, everything sounded much more focused in his head, but at the peak of his anger he just couldn't express his thoughts in any other way.

- What makes you even think you can be a hero? You're a useless D-deku!

It came about as a child. Deku, who is not capable of anything. This was originally a joke, but became an unpleasant nickname that Bakugou later suppressed.

- You can't even answer me! - Bakugou spat out with irritation. - Don't get in my way, Izuku.

Even though he now called her by her first name, as he always did, it sounded different now. He said it with such a sneer in his voice that Midoriya thought it would be better if he had called her Deku than as if he were mocking her.

Midoriya felt Bakugou's superiority for the first time. It was the first time that, even though he was so close, he seemed distant to her. Katsuki was so angry that his fists began to smoke. Realizing that he couldn't hold back now, Bakugou pulled away and walked away, leaving his friend standing in the same place.

The bell rang quite unexpectedly, causing Midoriya to flinch briefly.

The end of the year was approaching, so she was too far in her thoughts to be taken by surprise. The teacher noticed a movement on her part and turned his gaze back to her.

- Did you want to ask me something, Midoriya?

- N-no, nothing," she stammered.

The teacher shrugged his shoulders. He didn't really care about any of this, and the question was asked purely out of respect. Not intending to stay long in class, the teacher walked out the door, followed immediately by several laughs. Midoriya covered her head with her hands. She knew it was all directed in her direction. In a couple of months it was hard not to get used to it. During the same time, she was able to get used to hiding from her classmates by just pretending she wasn't there. It was bad, but it helped.

The laughter subsided. They seemed to have lost interest in her again. Midoriya lifted her head slightly and looked around the classroom. No one was looking at her, so she reached into her backpack to change her books for the next class.

- Now, of course. When I was left alone, they immediately became so brave as to make fun of me," Midoriya thought as she pulled out her English textbook. Along with the textbook, she snagged a notebook, which successfully fell to the floor.

When Midoriya looked at it, she froze for a second. She hadn't taken out that character analysis notebook in class for some time, preferring her room to the many prying eyes. Reaching out to pick it up, Izuku was suddenly stopped by an alien hand intercepting the notebook. In that second, she was numb, afraid to look up. However, it didn't look like they were going to give it to her. A classmate was standing in front of her. She hadn't approached Midoriya much up to that point, but she often glimpsed her close proximity.

Izuku reached out to take her notebook, but the girl continued to flip through the pages, not really looking at the entries. She finally pulled away from her notebook and saw Midoriya's hand still outstretched. Seeing this, Izuku twitched, pulling her close to her.

- Don't you get tired of it? - A classmate spoke up.

- Excuse me? - Midoriya didn't expect anyone to approach her at all. Let's not talk about it.

- I ask you if it's boring to keep this notebook. I've seen another one before, do you have more than one? - the girl continued to ask. There was no sense in her questions or in approaching Midoriya at all, but she seemed desperate for an answer.

- Mm, no," Midoriya replied with a shrug. Habits were stronger than fear, so Izuku couldn't keep quiet. - I think this will help me in the future. I want to be a hero, so analyzing the quirks of others can help me during battle, and it helps me a lot.

Midoriya's voice became dreamy in a moment. She couldn't hide the humble smile, so she put her hands to her face. She was so used to saying whatever was on her mind, whether it was stupid or not, that when a stranger came into her conversation, Midoriya, out of habit, would not hold back her thoughts. When she remembered that it wasn't Bakugou in front of her, Izuku faltered as she looked at her classmate. It was as if she were looking at a small child who was talking outright nonsense.

- Nevermind," the girl said, returning the notebook to its owner. She came closer and leaned over and asked: - You brought the extra English assignment, didn't you? We went to the arcade yesterday and you weren't with us. Clearly there was time to do it.

- Yes, I did," Midoriya answered, pointing to her notebook.

- Fine," the girl smiled, but her smile didn't seem sincere. - Lend it to me, because I was so busy yesterday that I didn't have time.

- You said you played," Midoriya thought unhappily, but held out the notebook anyway. This was the first time anyone had spoken to her since her fight with Bakugou, and it was also the first time anyone had spoken to her with a normal request. Despite what had come before that moment, it was still nice.

- You're my hero," shouted the girl, giggling.

She really is a fool. Midoriya was convinced of that again. Even a simple request ended up being mockery. None of them wanted to be Izuku's friend, and she was so hopeful. Indeed, she was like a little child.

Is it just because Midoriya doesn't have a quirk? But she's not the only one. She's practically no different from anyone else, so why is she being mocked? Probably because they don't want to, so they found someone weaker.

Midoriya shifted her gaze forward to Bakugou's desk. Now, and for months on end, all she could see was that back. And it was now that she realized how far away he was. Would it be possible for them to get closer again?