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Some say ignorance is bliss, and she couldn’t agree more.
“You like Midoriya, don’t you?”
The question made her frown. Why did everyone ask her that same thing about her friend? And why was Aoyama talking about it in the middle of the test?
“Of course not!” she answered, annoyed. “The one I like is…”
The shock of that sudden realization made Uraraka widen her eyes, letting go of the rail, being sucked by that vortex until she accidentally kicked the teacher on the face.
And she never really recovered from it.
After that, it became impossible not to pay way too much attention to Asui whenever she was around. The way she talked, her unusual but cute gestures, how she would always smile easily when they were together. Uraraka tried to keep all those things out of her mind, but they were stronger than her will, and soon she would find herself observing her friend again, as if trying to memorize every detail she could.
Ughh … What should she do?
Of course she knew Asui was someone important to her. She had many friends, but she always felt closer to her than to the others, as if she could talk to her about anything, and spend hours together without ever getting bored. It felt good being close to her, and Uraraka felt butterflies in her stomach whenever she managed to make her friend laugh…
Now that she thought about it, she was surprised she hadn’t noticed her feelings before.
But she didn’t expect Asui to return her feelings. As long as they could keep spending time together, like that, she would be happy.
“Ochako…” as usual, Asui sat beside her during lunch. “I got some candy from Mina. We should share.”
She took a few candies in colorful wrapping from her pocket, placing it on the table.
“Ah, that’s great!” said Uraraka. “Thanks!”
They finished their lunch, and then started eating those sweets. First they ate the chocolate bonbons, then the gummies, until there was only a pair of bubble gums left.
“These ones come with stickers, don’t they?” said Uraraka. “I wonder what I’ll get…”
“I hope it’s something nice.”
She undid the wrapping, placing the gum in her mouth, while looking at the inside of that paper, to the drawing of a cartoonish T-Rex, followed by a short trivia.
DID YOU KNOW? Despite the popular belief that most dinosaurs …
And it ended there. The sticker had been cut in the wrong place, and the lower third of it was missing. Uraraka frowned a bit: most dinosaurs what? They couldn’t just leave her curious like that…
“Ah… Mine is cut in the middle,” she told Asui in a slightly disappointed voice.
“Mine too.”
“Really?”
She looked at her friend’s hands, seeing there the familiar drawing of a T-Rex and the phrase she had just read, ending in that same suspenseful note.
“Ah, I got the same!”
She showed Asui her sticker, identical to the one she was holding.
“And they’re both cut in the same place,” observed Asui in an amused tone. “That’s funny.”
That’s destiny! Uraraka had to hold back an annoyed groan, directed at her own, stupid inner voice. Was she really having those delusional thoughts because of stickers, of all things?
“What even are the chances of this happening?” she asked.
“Pretty low, I would say.” Asui laughed to herself, placing the sticker in her pocket. “I’ll keep mine, as a memory.”
“Yeah, me too!” agreed Uraraka, doing the same. “As a reminder of our luck. I mean… Lack of luck. Since they were cut in the wrong place.”
Why?
Asui, however, didn’t seem bothered by that awkward response, smiling at Uraraka.
“In a way, it was pretty lucky,” she said.
Uraraka felt her heart jump a little, but managed to keep a natural face, smiling back at her friend.
“That’s right.”
Later that day, already in her room, Uraraka saw herself looking again at that sticker. It was just a simple, cheap thing, made to be collected by little kids. And still, it meant a lot to her. It was silly, yes, but even something as small as that was enough to make her feel happy.
She decided to put it on her phone. However, the thought that maybe Asui would see it there and think it was weird stopped her. It was a silly worry, she knew it, but saying it to herself was useless. Instead of debating with her brain, she found an alternative solution: taking out the back cover of her phone, she put the sticker inside. Done! Now she could always carry it with her, without anyone noticing! She was such a genius…
The days passed, and the thoughts of the sticker almost left Uraraka’s mind. She would still look at it sometimes, but now there were many other new memories she made with Asui to keep her thoughts occupied.
They were spending that weekend together, in Asui’s room, just chatting, when Uraraka’s phone buzzed, calling her attention. She took it out of her pocket, seeing a familiar name on the screen.
“Ah, it’s a message from Deku!” she said, and then her eyes widened. “Wow! Tsuyu, listen to this!
“What is it?”
“It seems like Iida asked him out!”
“Really?” she got closer to Uraraka, trying to look at the screen. “Let me see it!”
Uraraka turned her phone in Asui’s direction, so she could see that message… And, of course, her cell phone slipped from her hand. She tried to grab it, but only managed to slap it once before it fell on her foot, bouncing once before flying in front of her on the ground. Why didn’t she activate her quirk in time? She groaned, cursing her dumb brain for always making she look like a fool in front of her friend.
Asui, however, didn’t make fun of her, helping Uraraka get the phone, which had been separated from its back cover and battery with the impact.
“It’s not broken,” she informed. “I think your foot helped break the fall.”
“Ah, that’s good,” she sighed, feeling a little relieved: at least some good news. “Thank you, Tsuyu…”
But her relief didn’t last long, because soon Asui’s eyes were in the inside of the phone’s back cover, where she had put that silly, wrongly cut sticker weeks prior. Her heart almost stopped: could anything in the world make her crush more obvious than that?
“Ochako,” said Asui in a low tone, her eyes still on that cartoony T-rex, “you kept the sticker.”
A million excuses passed through her mind. I forgot about it! I don’t know how it ended up there! It’s another sticker! I just really like T-rexes, you know?
But she knew it was useless to deny it at that point.
“Yes, I did…”
She felt her face burn, and braced herself for the worst possible reaction. Tsuyu didn’t say anything for a while, then opened a light smile.
“I’m happy,” she said. “I thought I was the only one who kept it.”
Uraraka looked at her, a little surprised.
“You too…?” she asked.
Asui agreed with a nod.
“I have it on my notebook,” she said. “I like to look at it sometimes.”
There was a moment of silence between them, in which a thousand things passed through Uraraka’s mind.
“Tsuyu…” she said, not looking directly at her friend. “How about we have ice cream together sometime, after school? Just… The two of us.”
Asui looked at her, then her smile widened, and she reached for Uraraka’s hand, hesitating just a little before holding it in hers.
“I’d really like to.”