A/N: ‼️Gonna try to update twice this week! I wanted to post this LAST MONTH but I decided to change the last scene of Ch 68 and first scene of 69, so I recommend you reread those bits. I spent a lot of time thinking about it and decided to change it since the change also slightly affects future chapters I haven't posted yet :0‼️

Anyways! Expect the next chapter on Friday (hopefully). I spent the past week or two drawing several chapters so I should have stuff backlogged to post a bit more frequently this month (and school is ending next week eyyyyy ;DDDD). Now back to Hitomi's regularly scheduled dumbassery 😔

Art -

[Complete Gallery] Add /21axlkt3bolc to the DeviantArt Stash URL.

[Ch. 71] Add /0dvy9z69j7h to the DeviantArt Stash URL.

Hitomi sat on a bench at the opposite end of the street, hugging her knees to her chest.

She needed some time to cool off. Bakugou had been a nuisance, irritating her and hounding her on what was wrong with her, when the answer had been him.

He was the problem. He was the reason she was constantly feeling like crap, he was the reason she was dealing with so much anxiety, he was the cause of so much frustration, he was the one who… who…

Hitomi looked at her hand, staring at the pink Hello Kitty band-aid wrapped around her finger. Her frown deepened and she slouched further into the bench.

…That wasn't it.

It was her that was the problem. She was the one being ridiculous, blaming him for something that was the result of her own feelings. Bakugou hadn't done anything wrong. He was just being himself.

And instead of being grateful, saying thank you for helping her with the cut, Hitomi… had snapped at him. For reasons unknown to him.

She felt awful.

What… is wrong with me…?

She had to get rid of these feelings as soon as possible. So she wouldn't act so foolish, so unreasonable. So dreadful to him. So she could just be friends with him again. She felt horrible for saying the things she did, even if he couldn't understand a single word of it. The way she'd acted was completely unacceptable.

Hitomi sighed, resting her forehead on her knees.

She… needed to apologize to him.

She didn't move from her seat, only thinking back on what she'd said to him.

"Ayoko ko ikaw."

"I hate you."

Well, at least she'd still been able to speak Tagalog fluently without having to think about it too much. She laughed to herself bitterly.

"Kanetsukabe?"

Hitomi looked up, finding Todoroki's tall frame looming over her.

"…Todoroki? What are you doing here?"

The heterochromic boy shrugged, gesturing towards the plastic cup in his hand. "I was at a food stand nearby and I saw you sitting alone on the bench. You looked…" He seemed to pause, looking contemplative. "…upset."

"Oh…" Hitomi's eyebrows furrowed. Was she really sulking that badly…? "It's… nothing, Todoroki." She stared at the cup in his hand, eyeing its contents thoughtfully. "So… you bought halo-halo?" Quick to change the subject.

Todoroki stared down at the dessert. "Is that what this is called? I didn't think to ask, I just saw it had ice cream… I don't know what else is in it, though."

Hitomi finally smiled, albeit crookedly, and patted the spot next to her. Todoroki understood the gesture and took a seat on the bench. "Good thing you have me," she laughed sheepishly. She observed the cup for a few seconds, pointing out the various ingredients inside.

"You could probably already tell that's shaved ice at the bottom, but it's sitting in evaporated milk, which is a main ingredient of halo-halo. Looks like there's also some sweet palm fruit and coconut gelatin… Oh, and mango too. Up there on the top is leche flan and ube ice cream."

Todoroki blinked, staring down at the cup. His gaze drifted back to Hitomi, who had leaned back against the bench and was staring up at the sky listlessly.

He held the cup out to her, pointing out the two spoons that had been stuck in on opposite sides. "…Do you want some? You look like you kind of need it."

Hitomi blinked, staring at him. "I do?"

Todoroki shrugged. "Yeah. You seemed a little… dead-eyed, to be honest."

Hitomi huffed, shaking her head. "What is it with people and my eyes?" she mumbled, yet grabbed a spoon anyway.

Bakugou was, to put it lightly, very very confused.

He'd only wanted to ask Hitomi if she'd seen the other idiots he called his friends. He didn't expect her to be holding a large piece of glass, or that she'd cut herself on it by accident. He didn't expect that he would be cleaning the blood up for her either, let alone that he'd be using Mina's Hello Kitty band-aid to cover it.

But the absolute last thing that Bakugou was expecting…

Was for Hitomi to yell at him the way she did.

She sounded really angry, her voice shrill as she shouted at him in a language he couldn't understand. And there was this look in her eyes that seemed to cause a small sting in his chest. Bakugou was left dumbfounded as she ran off, staring at her back in confusion as her figure receded.

What… the hell…?!

"Bakugou, there you are!"

The ash blonde turned around to see Kirishima running towards him, the redhead waving as he approached. "Yaoyorozu told us not to wander off on our own, didn't you hear her?"

"I did hear her, Shitty Hair!" Bakugou scowled, shoving his hands into his pockets. "But you idiots are the ones that wandered off on your own, and you left me to go looking for your dumbasses."

"Sorry, sorry," Kirishima laughed. "You coulda just called, y'know."

"I did. But none of you picked up."

"Oh, is that right?" Kirishima said, running a hand through his hair sheepishly. "Sorry about that, then. But hey, everyone's back at the… what was it called, 'lechon' stand…? I told them to stay there while I looked for you. Come on!"

Bakugou tched and rolled his eyes, trudging behind Kirishima as they walked over to the next street. "You better hope those dumbasses are still there, then."

Kirishima only laughed again in reply, the two making their way down the path. As Bakugou followed the redhead, his mind drifted back to Hitomi.

He'd thought they were… friends.

After all, she'd asked him if they were only two days ago.

But when she yelled at him, she seemed…off.

It wasn't like back when she was angry at him during their final exams.

This time around, it almost seemed as if…

As if she didn't want anything to do with him.

Bakugou frowned, his eyes narrowing.

Something… was definitely up. It was undeniable at this point.

And he was going to get to the bottom of it.

…

"Hey, Blasty Boy's back!" Kaminari exclaimed, waving at Bakugou and Kirishima as they approached.

Bakugou scowled, stopping in front of the group as he glared at all of them. "Next time you all decide to go off on your own, I am ditching your asses."

"Aww, Bakugou, don't be so mean!" Mina pouted. "We all know you love us!"

The ash blonde scoffed, looking away. Though he didn't deny it.

"Anyways," Sero began, moving on, "I was talking to Jirou earlier, and she said there was this food stand near the front of the street that she suggested we should try. She said the food was called 'pancit', or something… apparently it's noodles."

"Ooh, let's go then!" Kirishima exclaimed, getting excited. "I think Hitomi's mentioned that dish once or twice."

The group finally left their place by the lechon stand, making their way down the street to the front. They got distracted along the way of course, making stops at the other food vendors to try their snacks. As this was all happening, Bakugou found his mind drifting back to a certain silver-eyed girl.

Before she'd ran off, she'd said something that stuck out to him.

"Ayoko ko ikaw."

Bakugou could only remember the phrase because he'd heard her say it several times. Everything else, he had no idea.

Bakugou pulled out his phone, opening his browser app. He pulled up a translator website, setting it to translate Filipino to Japanese. Bakugou scowled as he struggled to sound out the spelling with the romaji keyboard, but he beared with it. Once he'd finally typed in what he'd heard Hitomi say, the website having to autocorrect it since he'd spelled it wrong, his eyes widened at the translation.

"I hate you."

What…?

Hitomi… hated him?

Bakugou felt something weird in the pit of his stomach.

He didn't want to believe it.

He hit the speaker icon in the corner, which would read what he'd typed out loud. And it sounded incredibly similar to what Hitomi had said. He'd definitely typed it in correctly.

Which meant…

That Hitomi had said she hated him.

If this had happened at any other time… Bakugou's first thought would've been that that was complete bullshit.

But… what Mineta had said yesterday had Bakugou thinking about her lately. About how she acted when he was near.

And it almost seemed… to make sense?

The weird feeling in his stomach got worse, his fingers tightening around his phone.

She almost always seemed to have something to do when he approached, and she would be all nervous and jittery when she didn't… and those looks she gave him…

Was it really because of him…?

He'd thought it was a little weird… but, for it to mean that Hitomi hated him?

He looked up from his phone, seeing Mina unwrapping what looked like shortbread. "Hey, Raccoon Eyes."

"Hm?" Mina hummed, her attention split between her friend and the snack she was currently enjoying.

Bakugou hesitated, putting his phone back in his pocket. "...Do you think Kanetsukabe's been acting… off at all, lately?"

"Huh…?" Mina tilted her head in thought. "Well, I haven't really noticed anything in particular. She did say she's been preoccupied." She looked up from her snack at him, raising a brow. "Why do you ask? Wait- why are you even asking?! That's not like you!"

"It's not that unbelievable for me to ask about this kind of shit!" Bakugou shot back. He scoffed as he ran a hand through his hair, looking away. "Moon Face just… yelled at me earlier," he grumbled. "But she did it in Tagalog. She's never done that before."

Mina placed a finger on her chin, humming in thought. "Well, you probably did something stupid to make her mad." A tick mark formed on Bakugou's face but she only continued. "Like yesterday morning, remember? Except maybe this time, she said some stuff she didn't want you to understand, so you wouldn't react badly and make a scene. I'm sure it's nothing serious. You can be pretty loud and blow things out of proportion, after all."

Bakugou frowned and his eyes shifted to the ground, his hand fiddling with his phone in his pocket.

So she's only been acting weird around… me.

Nothing serious, huh…?

I fucking doubt that.

…

The Bakusquad had finally made it to the food stand Jirou had suggested, the group inhaling the thick smell of soy sauce.

"That smells delicious!" Sero exclaimed, his lips upturned in an eager smile. "I can't wait to taste it!"

The squad chatted for a while as they waited for the food, talking about whatever it was they loved to talk about. Bakugou only grunted or begrudgingly responded, finding his mind kept drifting back to the only member of the squad that wasn't there.

Hitomi hated him.

Hitomi hated him.

The reason this was bothering him so much… confusing him as much as it was… was because up to now, it sure as hell hadn't seemed that way.

Even at the start of the school year, when they didn't know each other that well… she didn't seem to hate him. She was obviously nervous around him at first, but over time… it felt like she got more comfortable around him.

At some point, she seemed to enjoy being around him. She talked to him with ease, sought him out when she needed help with homework, fuck, she'd even confided in him when she was sick, showing a more vulnerable side of herself that he'd never seen before. She opened up to him.

And yet she… hated him.

When Bakugou really thought hard about it, her behavior had felt a little off recently…

Had she always hated him, and he was just now noticing it?

Or was it… that something happened recently to cause the sudden shift he was feeling in the way she acted?

Bakugou's train of thought was interrupted by Mina's squeal, the ash blonde turning to find their food was finally finished. They each grabbed their own plate of pancit, beginning to make their way out of the street to find a place to sit.

Mina suddenly gasped, stopping the group in their tracks. Kaminari hadn't picked up on it though, gleefully making his way out onto the main street before Mina grabbed him by the collar, dragging him back to the rest of them.

"What's the big idea?!" he exclaimed, only for Mina to shush him.

"What's up, Ashido?" Kirishima asked her.

Mina peeked around the corner of the booth stand, the rest of the group following her example as the food vendor gave them an odd look before returning back to work. She pointed somewhere, whispering excitedly. "Look!"

Bakugou's eyes trailed to where she was pointing, his eyebrows raising slightly at the sight.

Hitomi and Todoroki were sitting on the bench, sharing a dessert as she laughed at something he had said. She was holding her stomach, a wide smile on her face.

"Woah… Hitomi looks… really happy," Kirishima said, smiling at the sight.

"Is this what you meant on the plane when you said it was a guy?" Sero asked, glancing up at Mina from his place crouching on the floor.

Mina nodded, smirking. "If it is what I think it is, color me impressed. Hitomi managed to thaw the heart of our local ice prince!"

Kaminari continued to stare at the two, eating a forkful of his pancit. "Now that I think about it, Hitomi has been hanging around him a lot lately. She even asked him to be on her team when we did our test of courage last night!"

Kirishima glanced back at Mina. "Do you think that maybe they're…?"

Mina squealed before he could even finish. "Oh, I hope so!" She sighed dreamily, placing a hand on her chest. "I'm just wondering why this has never come up during our girl talks… 'Tomi knows I love this stuff!"

Bakugou heard Sero sigh in exasperation, seeing him shake his head. "Guys, please don't let this be like last time. As much as what it looks like, we don't know if they're actually dating. If Hitomi doesn't want to tell us yet, she doesn't have to. She can tell us when she's ready to."

Mina shrugged, adorning an innocent look. "I never actually said anything about dating…"

"Yeah, but that's what you implied, shithead," Bakugou grumbled, taking a big bite of his own pancit.

In all honesty, Bakugou couldn't care less about Hitomi's love life.

But as he watched her smile at Todoroki, saw her laugh easily beside him…

All Bakugou could wonder was why she no longer seemed to do that around him.

A/N: Apparently I created the file for the art on March 7th. Meaning it took me over a month to finish this chapter's art, because I completed it on April 18th 😳 A lot of that time was spent on school and IRL stuff. And also me still hyperfixating on Ghost. Most of it was probably just me being so hyperfixated on him honestly lmao. THEN it took me another month to post 'cause of the change I made to 68 and 69. Oh well. I'll try to update on Friday 😂