Kyouka Jirou felt her entire body go numb.

She could not bear to recall anything that had occurred after Ashido's remarks. Somehow, someway, she was now in a large hallway. The only reason she knew the dining room was nearby was from the shouting she heard, although the words were muffled. She chose to sit against a wall after a few moments, her brain swirling yet silent.

"How did this even happen?"

It was the first clear sentence she recalled saying after leaving the room. As much as she wanted to ignore it, she was still shaking, even after several minutes had passed.

Was Mina Ashido actually a mind reader? Did she somehow deceive everyone all this time? Or maybe Uraraka figured it out, and kept it a secret from the rest of Class 1-A? But still, why would Ashido reveal her full quirk over something like this?

"She's not a fucking mind reader. She can't be. She can't be. She's just a blabbermouth that can't mind her own business."

Jirou's shaking slowly subsided. She pounded her fist onto the wall behind her. The one and only secret she kept was now common knowledge amongst all her friends.

"Wait a minute..."

Jirou then envisioned the conversation again. From Uraraka's claim, to Ashido's "mind reading" of Yaoyorozu, and then of course, Ashido revealing Jirou's crush.

"Did... Did I not even deny it? Did I just accept it from the start like an idiot? What was I doing?! I'm so - ugh!"

Jirou then heard the words of Aizawa ring in her head. "Honesty, focus, instinct."

"Ha, I can't even follow sensei's advice. What a joke."

Remembering she had received a text from Midoriya earlier, she decided to look at the message instead of ranting. Perhaps Midoriya said something that would be perfect for the moment.

Izuku Midoriya: Hey Kyouka, hope you're enjoying yourself! The dorm's pretty crazy right now, but everyone's good!

Jirou sat and stared at the message. Enjoying herself? More like torturing herself. And it was through no fault of her own.

"Society sucks. Why is everyone so embarrassed about who they like? Why am I like this?"

Jirou then typed a quick reply to him.

Kyouka Jirou: Everything's great.

Right as Jirou had left the dining room moments ago, Yaoyorozu, Asui, Uraraka and Hagakure all remained seated. They looked up to Ashido, still standing from before, but her grin had disappeared. She wore an expressionless look on her face. Even her body language was nonchalant at most.

"Um, Ashido..." Yaoyorozu said.

Ashido then screamed and jumped up and down, pumping her arms above her head. She sprinted around the dining room and cartwheeled into a trademark break dance routine, going on and on as if her energy would never run out. At last, she came to a stop, and walked back over to the table. How would Ashido put her emotions into words?

"I'm Mina Ashido, the Matchmaking hero! I knew it! I knew it! It was so obvious! And Jirou's reaction was soooooo funny! That girl can't hide her feelings to save her life! Wasn't that absolutely hilarious?!" Ashido yelled, and afterwards, broke into a hysterical laugh as she replayed Jirou's reaction in her head.

"You really are the best, Ashido! I admit, I was growing suspicious of Jirou for spending all those lunches with Midoriya instead of us girls... but you were the only one bold enough to expose her feelings!" Hagakure chimed in.

Asui fidgeted in her chair before making a small ribbit. Yaoyorozu had no idea how to react.

Despite that, Uraraka was by far the most distraught of them all. She could not believe Jirou actually had feelings for Midoriya. She thought for sure that by doing this, Jirou would laugh in Ashido's face and put an end to her accusations, and Uraraka would be free. Oh, how she wished that was the case.

"Ashido... you n-never said you were gonna... gonna say Jirou liked D-Deku in front of us all..." Uraraka whimpered.

"Well, if I recall correctly, I said that was not Plan A. Once Jirou figured our plan out, all bets were off! So I'm sorry things did not go exactly as planned, Uravity, but it's mission accomplished as far as I'm concerned," Ashido said.

Uraraka slammed her hands on the table and stood up. Asui tried to put her hands up, but it was too late.

"Mission accomplished? What are you talking about? You told me we were going to corner Jirou when we played darts later so she would only tell you how she felt about Deku! You never said you were going to embarrass her! She literally couldn't even speak when she left the room!" Uraraka said.

"Yeah... and it was fucking hilarious too! That should have been Plan A all along! I - "

"So you were trying to embarrass her?" Uraraka interrupted.

"Jirou would get embarrassed if you said the slightest compliment to her! That girl blushes over anything! It's not my fault that - "

"Are you actually serious? Do you even hear yourself? You want to be a hero, yet you take pleasure in a classmate - a friend - being ashamed over how they feel?"

"Ribbit, please stop!" Asui then interjected, finally standing up now after shaking off the shock.

"Jirou would never in a million years admit she liked Midoriya on her own terms! It's not like it's gonna harm her that us girls know! It's not like I forced her to 'fess up to him!"

"Yeah, Ashido didn't do shit, Uraraka! Don't get all high and mighty on us!" Hagakure said.

Uraraka opened her mouth, but instead of speaking, she turned around. Just as Jirou had done, she left the dining room and entered the hall.

"I'm glad Kyouka is good," Midoriya said. "I mean, obviously she would be okay considering how strong she is, but still. Her quick truly is incredible..."

After pausing the All Might interview that was nearly finished, Midoriya rambled under his breath about Jirou's quirk and battle style. The words kept flowing for him, as they often did. It was all the more easier considering the subject at hand, too. Eventually, Midoriya stopped to gasp for oxygen, and laughed to himself.

"Kyouka's special alright. No wonder I'm in love with her... l-love?!" Midoriya raised his voice.

Right upon his realization, he again heard knocking his door.

"Can't these people leave me alone for one night?" Midoriya chuckled to himself.

Despite his frustration, he opened the door to see Ilda on the other side.

"Oh, hello Midoriya! I was wondering if you could help me with a question on the English homework?" Ilda said.

"Sure, why not?" Midoriya replied.

He figured it would help take Jirou off his mind, for now.

A few hours had passed. Midoriya had answered all of Ilda's questions, the partying began to quiet down in the Class 1A dorm, and things were mellow over at the Yaoyorozu house.

Yaoyorozu, Asui, and Hagakure enjoyed a rather quiet game of darts in one of the large recreation rooms of the house. Uraraka was also with them, although she opted to not play, with none of her classmates choosing to question her. Ashido was in a bedroom by herself, squirming not only from her earlier success, but also out of boredom for being banished for the night.

"Why do you think Ashido did that?" Asui said.

"What do you mean, Asui?" Yaoyorozu said.

"Why did Ashido want to embarrass Jirou so badly? She only ruined things for herself," Asui responded.

"I mean, was she in the wrong though? All she did was ask a simple question that she was curious about. It's not her fault Jirou doesn't know how to hold a poker face," Hagakure said.

"Poker face, ribbit?" Asui asked.

"A neutral expression. But still, asking other people sensitive questions like that is quite out of line," Yaoyorozu clarified.

While Hagakure took her turn throwing darts, Uraraka sat motionless.

"Competition for Deku? Would he really choose Jirou over me? Would he even choose either of us? What am I gonna do..." Uraraka thought.

"Hah, bullseye!" Hagakure yelled, interrupting her thought process.

With an answer from Jirou only came more questions for Uraraka.

While they continued their game, Jirou was back in the dining room, eating her re-heated dinner by herself.

She continued to reflect on the situation at hand as she ate. There was no going back now. Whether she could have handled the situation better or not did not matter. All that mattered now was how to navigate it. Damage control was the name of the game for her.

"One of these days, Ashido will shut her mouth. One day. But not today," Jirou said.

Jirou then sat still, pondering over all of the future implications from the matter at hand. Her feelings for Midoriya were now known by all of the girls of Class 1A. That included Ashido and Hagakure. Surely, she figured, they would not keep their mouths shut about it forever. It was all out of her control at this point.

"Or is it..." Jirou then whispered. "Maybe... if I just - "

She nearly jumped out of her chair as she saw a shadow from outside the doorway. All Jirou could do was beg the universe for it to be anyone but Ashido. Even a villain would be better to deal with right now than Ashido.

Looking down at her nearly empty plate, Jirou waited for a voice to begin speaking. But the only thing breaking the deafening silence was footsteps. Once the footsteps went silent too, she peered up.

An expressionless Uraraka stared at Jirou from the doorway.

"Hey," Jirou offered.

"Hi."

Uraraka crept over to the dining room table and sat across from Jirou. While Jirou finished her meal, Uraraka tapped her thumbs together. Jirou was too embarrassed to even consider monologuing the situation with someone else in front of her.

"So, we all knew Ashido has no respect for other's privacy... but who knew she was a mind reader too?" Jirou quipped.

"Oh, yeah..." Uraraka murmured.

"Quite fitting for a person like her," Jirou managed to fake a laugh.

"Look, Jirou," Uraraka interjected, finally finding her voice again, "I'm sorry about what happened. Blame me, not Ashido. I'm the one that should've stopped this before it even started."

Jirou tapped her now empty plate and gave a look to Uraraka - a look that neither of them could interpret. Regardless, the uncomfortableness of the situation continued to rise with every word, with every gaze, and with every tap.

"Go on," Jirou decided to add.

"Ashido threatened to blackmail me if I didn't go along with her plan. She said she was going to... 'accuse' you once the two of you were alone, but - "

"What plan? You didn't even do anything. Don't take the blame for someone like her," Jirou interrupted.

Uraraka gulped. Maybe she should have stayed back with the others and played darts. Right now, she felt like a directionless dart in this conversation.

"I was following her lead. I just feel guilty because that's not what she told me she was going to do. I would have stopped her if I knew that's what she actually planned on doing," Uraraka said.

"Okay, but it's Mina Ashido. She can't do anything that involves patience or silence to save her life. I'm still confused why you feel guilty, though," Jirou said.

"I should've told her to drop it from the start. I was too weak since she threatened to blackmail me, and - "

"Blackmail? What dirt could she possibly have on you that you're worried about?" Jirou again interrupted. She was getting impatient with the circular conversation.

Uraraka sat in silence.

"If it has to do with how you like Izuku too, don't worry, that's the only open secret bigger than my own crush," Jirou said while twirling her right jack.

"Uh... what?" A flushed Uraraka managed to say.

"Come on, we all know. Even Asui figured it out, and she's the last person to care about romance," Jirou added.

"W-Wait, Deku doesn't know, does he?!" Uraraka asked, not even caring about the fact Jirou somehow knew.

"Of course he doesn't. Not that I know of, anyways," Jirou said.

"Well, I guess two of us like Deku now..." Uraraka joked in a rather regretful way. "Mineta would be jealous of that!"

Jirou shook her head and sighed. Mineta was the last person she wanted to think about in that moment. Well, besides Mina Ashido.

"Listen, don't feel guilty. I'm not mad at you. I'm absolutely livid at Ashido, but... things will work out. Somehow, I guess," Jirou said, finally beginning to look at the optimistic side of things.

"Sure... but I have one question."

"Yeah?"

"Does Deku know how you feel about him?" Uraraka rushed to ask.

Jirou sat back. Deep down, she knew the real reason Uraraka was asking this.

"Nope. Not yet, anyways."

Uraraka blushed again. She nodded at Jirou, got up from her chair, and left the room. Jirou sighed. She figured it would come down to this at some point... but not quite in this manner.

"Looks like honesty, focus and instinct are more important now than ever. I can't mess up again. I won't," Jirou told herself.

A/N: Thankfully this update only took 7 days instead of 7 months! Based on how I am planning things, I believe we are about 2/3 of the way through the story, but this is only an estimate. Thank you for all of the favorites, follows and comments last chapter! I'm glad to see all of your support despite the hiatus.

Thank you for reading this chapter! Please feel free to leave a favorite, follow, or a comment if you'd like, they are all greatly appreciated and noticed. Also, if you ever have any questions regarding the story, I'll answer them in my A/N's.

As for some other news: Feel free to follow me on Twitter (CuriousPug5) for updates and other things (I will follow back anyone who follows me!). Also, I published a Pokemon Horizons oneshot on AO3 (CuriousPug5). It's not on FFN due to there not being tags for the new characters yet. Pokemon was actually how I first got interested in fanfiction to begin with, but MHA was of course the first fandom I actually posted stories for.

Thanks for reading, and see you next time for Chapter 23!