Much to Mina's dismay, Kuri and Bakugo hadn't talked for almost two weeks. Not since that day when the three of them had been absent from school. To be fair, they had no reason to speak, but Kuri and Bakugo had been hanging out for the first few days, and she'd thought things were going to be smooth sailing from there, but apparently not.
It seemed like those first few days had just been a coincidence. But Mina was sure that they should be together. Or at the very least, they should be friends. And Mina was starting to think that maybe it wasn't just chance that had caused them to suddenly stop talking. Something had to have happened.
She had tried to ask Kuri about it the day when they came back to school, but Kuri had just looked away guiltily and said, "I'd rather not talk about it." Though Mina really didn't want to take that for an answer, she thought it'd be better not to ask. Plus, she knew that Kuri would probably tell her sooner or later anyway.
That day, after it had been two full weeks since Kuri and Bakugo had spoken, Mina and Kuri were taking the elevator back up to their rooms, she noticed that Kuri was looking more upset than usual (since she had been a bit down ever since whatever had happened with Bakugo). She was leaning against the elevator wall, and kept sighing, almost as if she was trying to get Mina to ask what was wrong. Since Mina was fed up with not knowing what was up, she decided to just ask again.
"Kuri, can you just tell me what's wrong?" Mina asked. Kuri looked over, slightly confused. You've been down ever since that day when we stayed home from school. I promise I won't tell anyone if you also wanna keep it a secret." Kuri tilted her head slightly, then sighed.
"Yeah, okay I'll tell you now," she said. The elevator reached their floor as she said that, so they got out. "So, it has to do with Bakugo."
Well, duh, what else would it have been?
"Remember when you said that I should go back to his room to watch over him?" Kuri asked. Mina nodded. How could she forget? It had been an improvised part of her master plan. "Well, things were going okay-ish, and when I was leaving, I called him Katsuki to tease him and he got mad. He kinda pushed me or whatever, so I got kinda mad."
HE PUSHED HER?! God, I'm going to have to have a word with him. Though Kuri probably shouldn't have pushed his buttons like that…
"It didn't hurt and I wasn't sad or anything, but I'd just woken up, so my eyes were being funny and I teared up," Kuri said. "I thought that it seemed so dramatic, and I decided to say something cool, just for laughs."
Just woken up? Wait, that's not important right now.
"What'd you say?" Mina asked.
"I said, 'For the record, Bakugo, I despise people like you.'" Mina gasped.
"What?! How'd he react?" Mina asked. Kuri really isn't that smart after all… She may be intelligent in class, but she sure doesn't have common sense. Not that I have room to judge though.
"Oh, he didn't do anything," Kuri said. "I left the room, and closed the door behind me, then I sprinted back to my dorm and locked the door because I had immediately regretted my decision. I'm pretty sure he thought I was being serious. I really should've said that it was just a joke… Anyway, I haven't talked to him since then."
"Why not?" Mina asked. Kuri really was creating serious roadblocks on the path to getting her and Bakugo together.
"Well, he's probably angry at me now. I mean, he scowls at me all the time."
"He scowls at everyone."
"Fair point."
"Why don't you just go down the hall to his room right now and tell him that it was a joke?" Mina asked.
"Because I bet he's going to be even madder."
"You don't know that," Mina countered.
"I also don't like apologizing," Kuri added. Mina groaned. Kuri opened her dorm room door. "I'll just wait until this all blows over. I'm going to bed now. Good night."
Mina sighed. How were Kuri and Bakugo supposed to make up if the more reasonable one was going to be stubborn? She really didn't want to continuously play mediator for the two of them, but it seemed like the author didn't have any other ideas on how to resolve the issue. Or the author could force Kuri and Bakugo into another situation together so that they could do things themselves? In any case, there was nothing Mina could even do at that hour. She just wanted to go to bed.
"Yeah, goodnight," Mina said, waving goodbye as Kuri pulled her door shut.
Kuri flopped down onto her bed with a thump. She knew that she should've been apologizing. It probably would've been in her best interest to just waltz into Bakugo's room right then and say sorry for being a dummy, but Kuri didn't think she had it in her (not to mention that she really needed to quit invading the privacy of his room). How was she supposed to explain the reasoning that went down in her brain that caused her to say something she didn't really mean? Or did she sort of mean it when she'd said she despised him? That was the other thought that Kuri had been wrestling with.
Bakugo was an interesting person, and she really didn't know much about him at all, but her first impressions of him were not that good. He was aggressive, rude, arrogant, and his constant anger could be annoying sometimes. Plus, it was slightly annoying how he seemed to be good at everything. Then again, Kuri found him amusing, and she always seemed to find her eyes drifting to him whenever he was around as if she couldn't help but watch him. Kuri was very sure as to why her eyes kept doing this, and it was because she thought that Bakugo was hot.
She didn't necessarily question her attraction to him if it was only based on looks, but being drawn to looks usually resulted in Kuri learning more about the person and developing a crush, and having a crush on Bakugo… wasn't something she necessarily wanted for herself. Not to mention that he seemed to be pretty intelligent as well, which only served to make Kuri be drawn to him even more, being the little nerd that she was.
Kuri had realized that she had been following a path to falling for him if she kept hanging out with him all the time, so maybe that had been why she'd said something that she knew would put a rift between them. But that was all just speculation of her own brain, which always confused her, and she needed to get to sleep anyway, so she tucked herself in and turned off her light.
Kuri woke up with a start in the middle of the night. Her nightlight was glowing very faintly, and she wondered why it wasn't bright enough. She sluggishly pulled herself out of bed and opened the door, revealing the pitch-black hallway. She couldn't see very well, but she sensed a presence in front of her, and looked up and saw that it was Bakugo.
"Hey," Kuri said. What's he doing here? It's nighttime. Not that I'm really complaining though.
Bakugo tentatively placed his hand on her cheek. Kuri didn't think twice before grabbing his face and pulling him in for a kiss.
And then she heard her alarm, and she woke up. As if she'd get to have the satisfaction of getting to kiss him, even if it was in a dream. Kuri reached over to turn off her rude awakening, and laid back down with a sigh. It looked like she was catching feelings if that dream was anything to go by.
But she didn't want to accept it yet. Just one more day to think it over, and then she'd either suppress her feelings and make them go away or see where this newfound attraction took her. In her head, she said that she wanted the former, but she knew that not very deep down, she hoped it could be the latter.
Bakugo didn't know what Nakano's problem was with him. She suddenly says she hates him then leaves, as if he would just do nothing about it. Technically, it had been nearly two weeks and he still hadn't done anything, but he also didn't really know what to do, not that he wanted to admit it.
He for sure didn't like her either, but why did it kind of hurt to hear her say that she didn't like him? Not that it really mattered if she liked him or not, since he knew he was the best anyway, and that her opinion of him didn't matter. He'd thought that she was going to continue to pester him for as long as they went to school together, but she'd already stopped talking to him. It was annoying, and he didn't know why.
It should've been great that she finally stopped bothering him, but he instead found himself replaying their past conversations in his head and wondering if there was a way that he could get her to talk to him again because he didn't want to be the one to initiate a conversation.
He decided he'd try to figure out a way by that day, and if he didn't, he'd stop caring, that is, if he found enough time in his day to care about trying to talk to her because again, he doesn't care about her. Did he mention that he totally doesn't care about her opinion of him?
Anyway, Bakugo's morning passed by normally, and then came the time for math class, where they were taking a test.
"Aw, dang it. I totally forgot to study for this!" Bakugo heard Mina complain. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Nakano tried to convince her that it'd be okay. She briefly looked his way—so briefly that he almost didn't notice.
Bakugo wondered what he could do that'd force her to speak to him. He could probably just rely on the chance of them having to work together in class since that was bound to happen at some point, so all he really had to do was play the waiting game. Though, it was highly unlikely.
The tests were passed out, and Bakugo didn't have any problems as he was completing it. When he was about three-quarters of the way through the test, he noticed Nakano lean over and let her forehead rest on the desk.
Giving up? I thought she was smart or something…
Nakano placed her arm under her head as a pillow and turned over so that she was facing him instead, and Bakugo noticed that her eyes were closed and that she was slightly smiling as if she were planning to go to sleep.
Wait… sleep? So did she finish the test already? Actually, I don't care, and I need to finish my own shit. She probably bombed it anyway. That, or she actually is pretty smart. If she is… then what? I'm wrong about everything? Fuck it, I need to stop thinking about her so much. After all, it's not like I actually care about her.
When class ended, everyone passed their tests up to the front and headed to lunch.
"That test was easier than I thought it would be," Bakugo overheard Nakano say. "How do you think you did, Mina?"
Damn, so she actually is smart. Or she's delusional… probably just smart though. Why am I even making such a big deal about this? Shit, why is she messing with my mind this much?
Kuri stood to the side with Mina and Hagakure as Mr. Aizawa began to tell the class about what they were going to do during training that day. They had come out to Ground Beta and Kuri assumed that they were doing something special (or, as special as P.E. could get), since this was the first time since she'd transferred that they were wearing their hero costumes for class.
Kuri's costume was a simple one. It was practically just leggings (with pockets!) and a long sleeve shirt. They did have a sort of interesting design in light blue and white, plus some bright orange accents that matched her costume's glasses, but overall her costume was plain. The only unique features were the knee pads (it only took her about 50 scrapes to the knees during flubbed landings before she thought to give them some protection) and her boots. The boots helped lessen the impact of her landings when she was coming back down from extremely high up. There was only so much damage that her ankles could take after all.
Since this was the first time they were wearing their costumes for class, Kuri took a quick glance at what other people's costumes were like. She didn't have many comments, but she pitied Hagakure and was very confused about what the heck Mineta was wearing for his pants. A boat? A diaper? Whatever.
Saving Bakugo for last, she took a longer look at him, wondering in the back of her head if those giant grenades on his hands were heavy. After that dream she had had, it was getting a lot harder for her to stop herself from looking at him all of the time. He always seemed so much calmer when he wasn't talking to people, and Kuri found it soothing to just look at his pretty face. If that makes her a weirdo, then so be it. Although, pretending to fall asleep in class so that she could look at him through her squinted eyes was a pretty strange move…
Hopefully, she could try to control herself a bit more, or get convinced not to like him by the end of the day. It was already their last class, so her hope of suppressing her feelings by that day was fleeting rapidly (not that she was ever truly hoping that she'd stop liking him), but she believed that there would be a chance to end her little crush on him during whatever thing Mr. Aizawa was making them do that day.
"You'll be doing one-on-one battles today, since we have an even number of students again, due to Koda's absence," Mr. Aizawa said, pulling out a small black box from the depths of his sleeping bag. "Come draw a number from this box and match up with whoever has the same number as you. You'll go in numerical order out here in the street and have five minutes to spar, or until one or both of you becomes incapacitated or surrenders."
Everyone went up to draw a number from the box and began looking for the other person with their number.
Lucky number seven… Maybe I've got Mina?
Kuri turned to Mina, who was high-fiving Hagakure. Mina turned around grinning.
"Ayo, Kuri, guess what? Hagakure and I are gonna be fighting!" Mina said. Kuri smiled. At least her friends got lucky. Well, maybe she'd be lucky too.
"Oh, cool! Well, I've gotta go look for my partner now," Kuri said. She turned around and walked over to Jirou to see if she had the same number as her.
"Hey, Jirou, what number do you have?" Kuri asked.
"I've got nine," she said.
"Did you say nine?!" Mineta asked, having just walked over. Jirou's face fell.
"Don't tell me you have nine…" she said dejectedly. Mineta collapsed to his knees and put his face in his hands.
"I wanted a hot girl!" he whined. Jirou flinched at the implied insult, then sighed. Kuri gave a sympathetic look and walked off.
It figures that Mineta wants to be with a girl he thinks is hot. He probably wanted to "accidentally" slap her ass or something while they were fighting. Oh heck, that reminds me, I never actually thanked Bakugo for stopping Mineta from straight-up molesting me on the first day of school. Yikes, how could I have forgotten to thank him? Oh no, I'm falling harder… In any case, I'll get to that after class.
Now, who else can I ask…
"Oh, Kirishima, do you have seven?" Kuri asked. He turned around and smiled apologetically.
"Nope, sorry, but I do know who has seven," he said, his eyes drifting to right behind her.
"Bunny, you've got seven?"
Kuri screamed internally.
Of all people…
She turned around, trying to hide her grimace. Bakugo had a grin bordering on sinister.
"Yup, I do," she said. Unfortunately… At least this gives me an excuse to talk to him and thank him for dealing with Mineta.
"I look forward to fucking you up," Bakugo said. Kuri raised an eyebrow at that, smiling a bit.
"I feel like that sentence could be interpreted in another way," she said.
"You know what I meant," he said, growling. "And it wasn't even that suggestive, dumbass."
"Oh well. Hope you have fun trying to beat me up," she said.
"You'd better not hold back, or else," he said. Kuri laughed. He would try to beat her up either way so what was the point of threats.
"I promise I'll make it fun for you, or at least as fun as I can," she said. "I know that you're probably still mad at me from… oh, there's a lot you could be mad about, huh? But I'll make sure that you can take out your frustrations during this fight. Then maybe afterwards we can talk about how I've been avoiding you for two weeks and I can clear some things up?" Kuri asked hopefully.
Bakugo thought about it for a second before responding.
"Whatever you say, Bunny."
