Work Text:
Minoru considers Midoriya one of his closest friends, but he can’t ignore how jealous he, where Midoriya is concerned. He supposes he has a good enough idea of where his jealousy stems from, but there are times when he isn’t able to really understand it.
He figures out, eventually, that Uraraka has a crush on Midoriya and he is jealous, but he is jealous in the way he is when Jiro teases Kaminari, when Ashido pokes fun at Aoyama in that way , when practically everyone in the class can tell that there's something going on between Ojiro and Hagakure, perhaps before even they know, and when he decides he could absolutely kill Todoroki for getting so close to Yaoyorozu. Minoru decides that he’s only jealous because, yet again, another guy is getting that much closer to a girl, whereas he is sure that he will never make any progress on that front.
It’s the kind of jealousy he knows he can never cure, because he’s past the point of hoping that he can get any girl, least of all anyone as hot as his classmates, to take an interest in him. He’s past the point of actually trying to be cool, even though that’s all he’s ever wanted, and past the point of holding back, since he doesn’t see a point in that in the first place. If no one is going to find him appealing to begin with, then that’s all there is to it.
Asui starts to get close to Midoriya as well. That’s to be expected, he supposes, but it isn’t until he watches the way that they interact that he starts to realize he was still stupid enough to hold out some hope for her. Just because she complimented him once or twice, he must have somehow convinced himself that that canceled out everything else, that that meant he had a chance. Well, he should have known better than to be that stupid.
Still, sometimes he can’t help but think that it isn’t fair, that Midoriya gets so much attention, but then he feels bad, because Midoriya is genuinely one of the best people he knows, and if anyone deserves it, it’s him. Minoru’s known for a long time that he’s had no chance, so there’s no reason to become bitter, when it’s one of his few friends involved.
He can’t help being jealous, any time he sees someone lucky enough to get close to a girl, but with Midoriya, he tries not to let that cloud their friendship. Except, when he notices a girl from another class hanging around after school, waiting for him, he starts to feel irritated all over again. Is there no end to Midoriya’s popularity?
He brings this up, rather bitterly, to Kaminari, even though he feels bad talking about one of his friends. “Why do all the girls just adore him?”
“It’s not just girls either,” Kaminari replies with a sigh.
“Wait, what do you mean?”
“You know Iida has to have more of a reason for tagging along all the time, and it sure doesn’t look like he’s after Uraraka. And have you seen the way Tokoyami, or Todoroki look at him?” He laughs before saying, “And don’t even get me started on Bakugo.”
Now that’s something Minoru really doesn’t get, and so he brushes it off, saying, “Whatever, I was just talking about girls. It doesn’t matter if guys like him or not, that’s weird either way.”
But the thought sticks with him, and he starts paying more attention to how guys look at and act around Midoriya, and he has to admit that there’s some truth to what Kaminari’s said. It really shouldn’t matter to him either way, since he only cares about getting girls to like him, but it bugs him all the more, and still he tells himself that it’s just Midoriya’s popularity that’s getting to him.
With all the people liking Midoriya, he can’t help but wonder who it is that Midoriya likes. On first glance, he would assume Uraraka, but something about that doesn’t feel right, and he isn’t sure why. However, he doesn’t really get any special vibes from any of the others who seem to be madly in love with his green-haired classmate, and he isn’t sure if it makes him more or less jealous, to know that Midoriya has this following but doesn’t seem to return any of their feelings.
Is there someone he would prefer that he doesn’t even have a chance with? Is he just not interested? Either way, Minoru knows that he’s wasting a golden opportunity, but he can’t bring himself to think less of Midoriya, all the same. Nothing starts to make sense to him until a day on the weekend, when they end up hanging out together.
He doesn’t know why Midoriya invites him out, nor does he know why he responds so quickly, overly excited at the prospect. Perhaps he just hopes there will be girls around, he tells himself, but he’s not nearly disappointed enough once he knows that there won’t be. But he doesn’t get to hang out with people outside of school often, so he tries to tell himself that that’s enough of a reason to be this excited.
Hanging out with Midoriya is fun, but all the while, Minoru keeps wondering about his own feelings, and wonders about why Midoriya invited him, of all people, to begin with. After all, he could have invited Uraraka or Asui or the girl from the other class or...hell, he could have invited Iida. Then he could have gone on a date, something Minoru would absolutely kill for the chance to do.
But this definitely doesn’t count on one! He totally doesn’t want it to be one, and Midoriya didn’t ask him out anyway, and he doesn’t even know why he’s suddenly thinking along those lines to begin with. It isn’t a date, and he definitely doesn’t want it to be a date, so there’s not a problem and he can move on.
Who does Midoriya like? he finds himself thinking, yet again.
Eventually, the time comes for the two of them to go their separate ways, but both dawdle at the station, not really talking about anything, but not making any move to head home, either. Minoru wonders if he’s supposed to say something, but he has no idea what that would be. He doesn’t even know why he’s still standing here, when he could have said goodbye by now.
“Um, Mineta, this is going to sound like a weird question, but…” Midoriya trails off, looking up- because, Minoru supposes, if he doesn’t want to look at him, then looking down isn’t an option. “I know how you...you know, um...but is there anyone in particular that you…”
“How I what? A-anyone I...what?!” Is this going where he thinks it is?
“Y-you know, that you...that you like!”
“I-I-I...who do you like?!” he shoots back, almost defensively, and Midoriya’s face goes red.
“O-on second thought, I really do need to get going! I’ll see you at school, Mineta!”
Even though it would be easy to stop Midoriya, he doesn’t. Instead, he remains frozen in place, with the same questions playing over and over again in his head.
Why did I think he was going to say me?
Why did I want him to?
I know I’ve been really jealous lately, but... who was I jealous of?