Based on:
1) When Midoriya bumped into Gentle Criminal at the cafe mentioned just before the school festival
2) Yaoyorozu expressing her love for Golden Tips Imperial tea a few chapters before that moment
Tea. Yaoyorozu Momo's favorite type of drink. She can drink it anytime and any place. It is especially pleasant whenever she's studying. If she wants to start with more energy than usual, she'll make a strong mix before she hits the books. If it's for a break in the middle of studying, a moderate amount of leaves is enough and is usually accompanied by sweets. If it's a late night study session, she withstands her tea cravings for the end with not a lot of leaves and adds warm milk to it to help her sleep.
Her mother sent her a care package not too long ago with a her favorite Golden Tips Imperial tea that she can no longer find in the dorms. Well, she did always share it with everyone so it's not exactly a surprise if it ran out. She's learned that living with others means needing to be adaptable.
As she inspects the communal kitchen cupboards, she hears someone's presence. She can always greet them afterwards; she'd rather not lose track of where she's looking and be forced to restart her inspection. This proves to be a fruitless search; she finds snacks, spices, condiments, coffee beans… it's as though she can find everything except for tea.
"Hm." Yaoyorozu voices out a quiet groan in displeasure.
"Is something wrong?" The familiar voice of her friend and seatmate, Todoroki Shouto, asks her.
"Hello, Todoroki-san. I came down here to make myself a cup of Golden Tips Imperial tea if there still was some, but forget about that; I can't find any tea at all!"
"I see. My sister delivered me some tea recently. It's not the brand that you like, but it is tea. I actually just came here to drop it off. Do you want some?"
"If you are okay with it, yes, please."
"Of course."
"Thank you."
The tea that Todoroki's sister sent him is also high quality, she notices. They both make their own cup of tea and wait for it to cool down. A minute passes before he's the first to break the silence. "So that Golden Tips Imperial tea is your favorite?"
"That's right."
"Are you going to ask for more of it then?"
"I'm not sure. It depends on whether my mother can send it to me or not." She tries to figure out the reason he asked that because he's not someone that's fond of idle small talk. "Did you enjoy it and that's why you are asking? I can put in a request to my mother if you'd like and she'll know to send more. Though, it can be quite rare and difficult to obtain even if one is willing to pay…"
"It's not that- well, I did like it. But I asked because I'm worried about you. It seems like it's something important to you."
"Ah." She feels her face rising in temperature. "I do greatly enjoy it, but I can make do with other kinds of tea."
"You can take mine whenever you want."
"I can't impose myself on you like that."
"Why is that? You always share your items with the others in class."
She can't think of any defense when he says that. "That's… true."
"I think it's only right that I do the same thing for you when I can. Oh- by the way, when Midoriya was out buying the rope at the last second for the school festival, he mentioned he passed by a cafe that served the Golden Tips Imperial tea that you offered to everyone."
"Really?" Her eyes widen. "That's odd. Are you sure it's Golden Tips Imperial?"
"Yeah. That's what he said."
"The reason I asked is it's not commonly found. But that's great news! That means I don't have to wait for my mother to enjoy the tea. Where did he say this cafe was?"
"He said it was being served in what looked like a small, rundown house from the outside about a kilometer away. It was around that construction site."
"In a small, rundown building? That… sounds suspicious." She voices out her concerns.
"Suspicious? How so? Is it because it's supposed to be rare?"
"Yes, it's related to that. I'm not sure how a store with a poor outer appearance like that can have enough resources to have a constant supply of it. It could be a counterfeit product. Or, if that's not the case, it could be a case of money laundering."
"Counterfeit I can understand, but what do you mean by money laundering?"
"Say the store owner is also the owner of other businesses, but some of those businesses aren't legal to run. They can take some or all of the profits of the illegal companies and combine it with the cafe to inflate their profits so that they can pay more taxes."
"Why would they do that?"
""Because the remaining profits would then be legally obtained money in the eyes of the tax investigators. Purchases above a certain threshold needs to have a trail of how the money was obtained. For instance, buying a house requires a large amount of paperwork. A criminal would find it hard-pressed to obtain one legally if they weren't laundering money because then they wouldn't have proof of legitimate income. And then the banks wouldn't take it.""
"So people launder money so that they can put money in their bank and acquire stuff that they wouldn't be able to otherwise?"
"Yes, but that's not all. With that money, they could buy more quality products like the Golden Tips Imperial to attract real customers. The more real customers they have, the higher they can inflate their revenues. Of course, inflating too much attracts too much attention, but if they strike a balance, that makes it harder- if not impossible- to identify the real profits."
"This all sounds absurdly complicated. You really are the most intelligent person I know, that's beyond my capabilities to even understand these things right now."
'My only knowledge about these things are from watching foreign shows…' She decides to omit saying this because she feels her chest well up with pride to hear praise from her stoic classmate. "Well, even though I said all that, it would be almost impossible to figure any of this out without seeing their financial information. I'm just relaying what could be going on. This is all speculation until I see it for myself.
"Another possibility is it could be a front for a crime syndicate. A regular tea shop on the outside, while inside its doors all kinds of underworld dealings happen."
"That sounds like it could be dangerous. Should we go check it out?"
"You mean… the two of us?"
"Yeah."
"S-sure. Let's go there in… three days? Does that work for you?"
"Sounds good."
"Great! I'm looking forward to it."
Two days later, and one day prior to the aforementioned mission, the girls of Class 1-A surround Yaoyorozu's desk at dismissal. "Yaomomo, tomorrow's your date with Todoroki, right? Have fun! Do you need any advice?" Ashido comments after school.
"It's not a date… it's a mission." Yaoyorozu replies.
"Yeah, sure. If that's how you want to look at it." Ashido lightly smacks the air with her hand to show she's not taking that comment seriously in the least. "Maybe if you look at it that way, it'll make it easier to confess."
"I-I am not confessing! I mean- I have nothing to confess! How did you all even hear about this?"
"Hear about what, your date? You two were literally flirting and planning out a date in the open kitchen for everyone to see. And we loved every second of it."
"Are you sure that Todoroki-kun doesn't have a girlfriend, though?" Hagakure asks. "I mean, he's- you know, totally hot. He's definitely been confessed to before."
"Wouldn't Ochako-chan know, kero?" Asui quips.
"Huh?" Uraraka takes a step back when everyone, including Yaoyorozu, looks at her. "Me?"
"You're always hanging out with Iida, Midoriya, and Todoroki." Jirou comments.
"Uh- I can see why you think that, but to be honest, I don't know much at all about Todoroki-kun's personal life." A bead of sweat forms on Uraraka's forehead before a light bulb goes off in her head. "But maybe he really is seeing someone. Didn't he say he needed to visit someone before?"
"When?" Everyone asks.
"Remember that time we all went shopping with some of the guys before the training camp? The one after the first final exams? He said he couldn't go with us because he had plans to see someone."
"Oh, yeah. Now that you mention it…" Hagakure ponders.
Jirou rests her chin on her hand. "Maybe he really does have someone he's seeing."
"That might cause an issue, kero."
Yaoyorozu, who has finished packing for some time already, wonders how much longer this conversation is going to go on for. "Can I leave now?"
Ashido puts her hands on Yaoyorozu's desk and looks her right in the eyes. "Nope, this seems complicated. There could be drama if you go on a date with a taken man, Yaomomo."
"I already said this isn't a date…"
"Even if you believe that- which I still don't, by the way, so I'm still going to call it a date- there's no guarantee that his girlfriend would see it the same way."
"If it comes to it, I'll take responsibility and explain that it was for an undercover mission. Which is the truth, mind you all. If he does have one, she shouldn't be so unreasonable as to stop him from doing what's best for others. He's a hero in training and will end up being a great one. Which means he might go to more missions like this one."
"Wow, I had no idea you were that assertive. If you're going that far, there's nothing we can say. I guess we'll look forward to a future fight for Todoroki's love."
"...If there's nothing important, I'm taking my leave now."
"We can always help you out if you need it afterwards." They all say to her when they see she's really leaving.
Though Yaoyorozu doesn't let it show on her face, certain words of theirs are impacting her feelings more than she would like. She pushes them down so that she can focus on tomorrow's date- no, mission. She blames the others for putting weird thoughts into her head.