A couple of weeks passed, and the relationship between the abroad students and class 1-A hadn't changed; they actively avoided interactions as vigorously as possible and continued facilitating all communication. However, when it came to themselves and the other abroad students, they participated in conversations and even group activities; their demeanor hadn't changed, but they proved they could be civil.
No one from 1-A could comprehend how their junior and senior peers went out of their way to include them successfully, how they had gotten close in so little time, and how their attention gravitated towards them with ease; they always sat together at lunch, responded when being called over, grouping up in between school periods, allowing themselves to be close, even platonically touched- all. At the same time, their facial and body expressions remained stoic.
During today's joint training with 1-B, "We're almost a month into the new semester, and you all still haven't worked together on an assignment," Dictated Aizawa as he stood in front of his students, "As much as it annoys me to do this, you're leaving me no choice but to assert my authority as an educator: I will be choosing your partners for today."
An overwhelming sense of dread from the entire class followed a joint gasp.
"You know the drill," He mentioned while holding out a small basket of folded papers inside, "To make this easier on myself, come up and draw a number. Whoever you match with is who you're with- and no, you can't switch with someone else, but you're more than welcome to complain as much as you'd like."
The number of potential partners began to dwindle as soon as others had paired with their matches; sighs of relief could be heard as students found themselves content with familiar company. For the select few, however-
While Hagakure scurried about looking for her numerical match, she overlooked the large, hulking Native Hawaiian in her peripheral, attempting to grab her attention; not a moment too soon, she finally sensed his presence, letting out a small shriek.
"Eek! I—haha, I-I mean, hey K—Keali'i, looks like we're partners today! Heh." He didn't say anything in response but tilted his head to the side in confusion due to her reaction.
As Yaoyoruza questioned her peers about their number slips, she steered clear of the abroad students as politely as possible but found she may have been partnered with one of them. Without getting too close, she looked over at each of their papers until she saw her match and not much to her surprise, her suspensions were correct.
"Yemi," she hesitantly called out, her mind sorting through all possible scenarios before speaking, "L-Let's work together, please!"
Without an interface, it was challenging to determine Yemi's expressions. However, it appeared she did not object to Yaoyoruza's request.
Todoroki still needed to grow personally to become the person and hero he wanted to be, so when he came to terms with the fact that he may be teamed up with someone who may genuinely despise him for no apparent reason, he found himself struggling socially. Once he saw he was paired up with Shelby, conflicting emotions stirred within him. Was he this bad before Midoriya's impact?
"Shelby," he abruptly spoke, not expecting her to listen and turn her attention to him; as soon as Shelby focused on Todoroki, he couldn't find the words to continue his thought.
Midoriya had sought to find his partner amongst his classmates, hoping he would not end up working with one of the abroad students. Unfortunately for him, that was not the case. The instant he glanced at them, he saw his exact number in Arjan's hand, who happened to look over at Midoriya at that precise moment and see the expressive fear on his face. Arjan was perturbed, to say the least, but he wasn't oblivious as to why.