That Saturday, the different groups got together to practice for their performance. The previous night, the band team had agreed to meet up in the kitchen at one to start practicing. Kuri made her way down there at around 12:55, unsurprised that Jirou was already there. Kuri hopped up to sit on the counter as they chatted while waiting for the others to arrive.

"So, Jirou... where are the instruments?" Kuri asked.

"Oh, they're all up in my room right now, sorry," she said, slightly blushing. "I would've brought them down, but that's a lot of stuff, so I thought it'd be easier for us to all get it together."

"Okay, cool," Kuri said, swinging her legs back and forth. Then, Tokoyami and Bakugo emerged out of the elevator and walked over to them. Kuri unintentionally stared at Bakugo and quickly looked away when he caught her.

Kaminari was the last to arrive, finally joining them around 1:03.

"Okay, let's go get the instruments now," Jirou said, leading them back into the elevator. Kuri immediately went to the back corner, and surprisingly enough, Bakugo stood next to her. She looked down at the floor, noticing that Bakugo was wearing All Might socks. That's cute.

"I like your socks," Kuri said, glancing at Bakugo. He raised an eyebrow.

"I like my socks too," he said. He looked at her socks. "Are those supposed to be like cat paws?" Kuri nodded.

"I've got three more pairs like this in different colors."

"...That's dumb," he said quickly, turning his face away. Kuri was about to roast him back, but the elevator doors opened, so she decided to spare him from a read that would've cost him his dignity.

They walked to Jirou's room, and Kuri stared in awe at the number of instruments she owned. Jirou tucked a purple folder under her arm and handed guitars to Kaminari and Tokoyami. Then she picked up a bass for herself and told Kuri to grab the keyboard. The others assisted Bakugo in carrying parts of the drum set but Kuri had her arms wrapped around her own instrument, so she didn't offer her help.

"Hey, Bunny, hold this," Bakugo said, shoving drumsticks at her.

"Oh, uh, here," she said, sticking out her hand just enough so that her wrist still supported the keyboard. He handed them to her, and she held them tightly, a small grin on her face. He spoke to me! Wait… you dumb bitch are you out of your mind? He's spoken to you on many occasions. Pull yourself together! If I could verbalize the crying emoji right now, I would, because that is how I feel about your stupidity. Dumb simp.

When they got back to the elevator, they all crammed back inside, Kuri squishing herself into the back corner again. Bakugo was once again next to her. Why does he keep standing next to me?! My heart cannot take this! I miss the days before I realized that I liked him.

She tried to distract herself by looking at anything other than him and practically crushed the keyboard as she gripped it in her panic. After what felt like five minutes, the elevator reached the first floor.

"So, Jirou," Kaminari said, placing down the cymbals that he'd been holding for Bakugo. "What song are we going to play?"

"It's a song that I wrote a bit ago…" she said, opening up her folder. She handed sheet music to the others. Kuri placed the keyboard on the floor and looked over her part. Cool, I'm just playing a bunch of chords. That's not too hard.

"Bunny," Bakugo said, and Kuri turned to him with a quizzical look on her face. He stuck his open hand out, and Kuri just stared at it.

"You- You wanna hold hands or something?" she asked jokingly, though just suggesting it made her embarrassed.

"What?!" he exclaimed. "No, give me back the drumsticks." Kuri's eyes lit up in remembrance, and she quickly handed them to him.

"Right, sorry. I forgot I was holding those," Kuri said, blush creeping across her face.

Jirou said that they should practice individually then reconvene after they had an understanding of their parts. Their asynchronous tunes filled the common area, and Kuri found that her part wasn't all too difficult. Bakugo seemed to be getting the hang of it as well, and Kuri found that impressive.

She'd already learned during her time at UA that Bakugo was talented, and that was attractive to her. She wasn't sure why. Maybe it all just stemmed from her physical attraction to him, and all other justifications for her crush were just excuses that she'd thought of.

In all honesty, she didn't know him that well. To her, he was just that hot guy who was always angry and could make her laugh from time to time, though he wasn't doing so intentionally.

And weirdly, he made her feel accepted. He wasn't necessarily nice and was actually pretty rude at times, but his bluntness made her feel like he had skipped the awkwardness of acquaintanceship and gone straight to seeing Kuri as an equal. Even if he didn't seem to like her.

She understood why though since she was pretty annoying. Well, she actually hadn't been that bad yet. She wondered what Bakugo would think of her if he had known her when she was in middle school. As Kuri would often say, "Middle school was a… time."

After a bit, they started working on the song as a group, and everyone had gotten things down pretty decently. Well, everyone except for Kaminari, who was struggling with… hell if Kuri knew. She didn't play the guitar.

"Denki, if you need extra help later, you can come by my dorm," Jirou said offhandedly. Kuri smirked knowingly and wiggled her eyebrows at Jirou, which earned her a warning glare.

After they had practiced for a couple hours, they decided to take a short break. Kuri bounded over to the kitchen area in search of a snack, checking her phone's notifications on the way (there were none, sadly). She hopped up and grabbed her large, mostly empty bag of peach gummies from the top of the cabinet, which she'd stored up there for safe-keeping. She popped a couple of the candies in her mouth as she walked back and noticed that Bakugo was eyeing her food.

"Do you want some?" Kuri asked between chews, holding the bag out to him.

"I don't like sweets," he said, crossing his arms.

"More for me then," Kuri said.

They stood next to each other in silence for a bit before Kuri thought of something to say.

"Are you excited about the school festival?" she asked.

"Not really."

"I feel like that contradicts all that stuff you said before about 'killing UA with our sound' and whatnot," Kuri said, digging into her bag for another gummy. Bakugo rolled his eyes. "Anyways, I'm pretty excited. This is the first school festival I've ever been a part of, and now I get to do a performance in front of the school! I can't wait, even if I am a bit nervous," Kuri giggled.

"You're acting like this is the most exciting thing to happen in your life," Bakugo said. Kuri tilted her head back.

"Hm, well, I wouldn't say that. I've had more exciting points in life… I think. Like…" Kuri trailed off. Like just a few months before. July 28th. Kuri's hand went to her left forearm, fiddling with the soft fabric of her sweater. Technically, that could be referred to as an 'exciting' time. Though a more accurate word would be traumatizing.

"Hey, you good?" Bakugo asked, looking at her with a hint of concern on his face. Kuri furrowed her brow.

"Yeah…" she said, her voice suddenly shaky as if she were about to cry. "Oh gosh, sorry, I don't know why I feel so nervous, but I wanted to tell you something."

Kuri closed her bag of candy and stuffed it into her pocket, looking down at the wood floor.

"Um, so Mina told me that you…" she said, her voice cracking slightly. She cleared her throat. "Sorry, I just get like this when I try to talk about personal stuff. Anyway, she told me that you were kidnapped." Bakugo bristled next to her.

"Bunny, I don't want to hear about how you feel ba-"

"I have something else to say too," Kuri said, cutting him off. She took a shaky breath. "I just wanted to let you know that I may understand how you felt. I'm sure that our situations were much different, but I was kidnapped a couple months ago too, just for a few hours. That's when I got the mark on my arm," she said, holding her left elbow.

They stayed quiet for a long time after that. Bakugo didn't say anything in response to her revelation. Kuri didn't mind since she preferred silent solidarity rather than questions.

But one thing had shocked her. Bakugo's presence had become so incredibly gentle that she wondered if he had changed into an entirely different person. One that cared about her. One that loved her. Not even in a romantic sense, but just in the simple way one cares for another human being.

And then, it was as if all of her feelings towards him, in all their complexity, suddenly merged to form one coherent realization.

I am in love with Katsuki Bakugo.


Denki sat on his bed, plucking at the guitar strings with a look of concentration on his face. He played a phrase wrong and groaned, laying back on the mattress. Everyone else was already so good at their instruments, and here he was, trying to play alongside them with zero experience. Why did they even let him join the band team?

He sighed, then remembered what Jirou had said a few days before about extra help. He sat up quickly, then fumbled to grab the guitar and sheet music. How could I have forgotten about that? I should just go now.

He left the room and headed to the girls' side of the floor. It was so convenient that he and Jirou were on the same floor. He was about to knock on the door when he heard singing from the other side. He pressed his ear to the door and listened. Jirou's voice was so beautiful that sometimes during practice it made him want to cry. He was no match for her.

He knocked on the door, and the singing stopped abruptly. There was a pause before he heard Jirou get up to answer the door. The door swung open, revealing a blushing Jirou. Denki grinned down at her.

"I heard your singing," he said. "It was nice."

"Is that all you came here to say?" she asked, glancing at the guitar he was holding. Noticing her gaze, he held it up.

"Can you help me practice?"

For a while after that, they sat on Jirou's bed as they ran through the song together, and she tried to teach him different chords. He seemed to be improving just a bit, but there was only so much you could do in one practice session.

He played something wrong again and winced, then let the guitar rest in his lap with a sigh.

"I'm no good at this…" he said, looking down at the guitar strings, then to his fingertips riddled with cuts.

"That's not true, Denki," Jirou said quickly, shifting closer to him. His eyes darted to where her knee was now touching his thigh, and he felt his heart rate speed up. "You're doing very well for a beginner. If you just keep practicing, I know that you'll be good enough in time for our performance."

He lifted his head up a bit and looked into her eyes. They were shining with such an intensity that he had no choice but to believe her. God, she was so beautiful.

"You think so?" he whispered, leaning his face closer expectantly. Jirou stared back at him with a slightly open mouth, a cherry tint covering her cheeks.

"I…" she uttered. Their faces were so close that Denki thought he could feel the heat radiating off of her skin. Or maybe it was just his own body heat because he knew that he was definitely blushing like crazy.

And then she pulled away from him.

"I think you should head back to your dorm now. It's getting kind of late," she said, standing up and collecting his sheet music for him.

Denki could've sworn that he felt a stabbing pain in his gut. Is this what rejection feels like?

"Yeah, you're right," he said, taking his stuff from her. "I should go." Then he turned away quickly and left, not wanting to let Jirou see the look on his face.


It was finally the day of the school festival. Kuri was bouncing on the balls of her feet in anticipation of their performance. They were behind the stage, waiting to go up. She shook her hands out and squatted on the floor, reviewing her sheet music for the billionth time. She already had it memorized, but there wasn't much else she could think to do to calm her nerves.

She stood back up with a sigh, then started half-heartedly doing the choreography that Mina had shown her that they were going to do.

"What the hell are you doing?" Bakugo asked, eyeing her.

"Dancing away my anxiety," Kuri replied. She tilted her head in confusion and looked at the t-shirt in his hand. She wondered why he wasn't wearing their class shirt, then decided not to question him.

After all, maybe he planned to put it on over his other shirt. Kuri was also wearing two layers: a black long-sleeved shirt and the orange one they'd made. She then noticed that she and Bakugo were matching because he had on a black button-up.

"Stop being so nervous," Bakugo said. Thanks, dude, I'm cured. "If you're nervous, then we won't be able to kill UA-"

"With our sound, yeah, I get it. You're really impressed that you came up with that line, huh?" she said. He rolled his eyes.

"Whatever. As long as you play like usual then you'll be fine," he said.

"So you're saying that I play well?" she said, raising her eyebrows.

"No."

"Sure…" she said with a grin.

"You're really annoying, you know that?" he said, crossing his arms. She grinned. As always, he demonstrated his disdain for her, and yet it made her smile. Maybe she really was a masochist. Or maybe she just liked him that much.

"Yeah, I know… Katsuki."