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Shinsou wasn’t the most attractive person, in his opinion. He had eye bags for days and a perpetual bedhead that, added with his strange quirk, was a look that gave people the signal to leave him alone. So it was surprising to Shinsou when he became popular after his performance at the sports festival. He had honestly been so busy trying to bulk up after his embarrassing loss and survive high school; he didn’t even notice the looks he was getting- that was, until the confessions started pouring in.
It all started one day after English class when he made the slight mistake of asking Present Mic a question. Typically, he did not associate with anyone and promptly went to do some sort of training or studying, but he had a question to ask about an essay that was due soon. He left class, just to be roughly grabbed by a girl waiting outside the doorway. She was from a different class, and he didn’t recognize her. He immediately felt the dread rising in him, now that he had made his quirk widely known the bullying was going to start again. The peace had been too good to be true-
“Shinsou-kun, please read over my letter!”
The sound of the girl enthusiastically speaking to him cut off his train of thoughts. He looked down, robotically accepting the letter the girl thrusted in his direction. She ran off before he could react. It was in a nice looking envelope- covered in hearts?
Huh .
It took a minute for the gears in Shinsou’s brain to start turning again. This was a confession letter, not a threatening note or some kind of bullying technique…
Thankfully, he walked to his next class on autopilot. He sat down at his desk and opened the letter, still somewhat afraid of its content- still believing this was too good to be true. However, as he read over the letter, he couldn’t find a single thing that would lead him to believe this was anything other than a confession. He instantly put it away before any of his classmates noticed. The last thing he needed was more attention.
That incident opened up a floodgate of confessions from an assortment of different classmates. He guessed that girl had caused more of a scene than he noticed, giving everyone the go ahead on their own planned confessions. Even an upperclassman in the hero’s program had confessed to him- he was shocked beyond belief. However, receiving confessions was getting old fast and taking up precious time he should be using to train. Not that he didn’t have an interest for dating, he just had no interest in dating a stranger, and he didn’t have the time if he wanted to be considered for the hero program by next year.
This time he was on his way to the training gym when he was stopped again. It was another upperclassman he wasn’t familiar with. Shinsou could only hope whatever this was would be over soon so he could be on time to training with Eraserhead.
“Shinsou-kun! I am Katayama Ryuji from Class 2-H. Your performance at the sports festival was amazing! Ever since then, I have been admiring you from afar, and I think we would make a great match. Please go out with me!”
“I am glad you liked my performance, but I did not. I am sorry, but I can’t return your affections. Now if you will please excuse me, I have training to go to.” Shinsou tried to push past him because he was quite worried about making a poor impression on Eraserhead by being late. That was the last thing he would like to do, especially since Eraserhead had so kindly offered to help him.
A hand reached out and snatched him up, preventing him from his escape. “Wow, but you didn’t even give it any consideration. Come on, I am sure if you got to know me more you would like me too.” Katayama insisted.
“Sorry. I am not interested, Katayama-san. I really need to go now.” Shinsou responded dryly. He was trying hard to be on his best behavior, but he knew he had a severe case of resting bitch face and a deadpan voice that made him sound insincere.
“You’re not interested? Seriously!? You have to give me one legit reason why you won’t consider me!” He screeched out at Shinsou.
Oh no, this was causing a scene. Thankfully, there was no one too close to witness, but the whole event was sending Shinsou’s mind into a panic. At that moment, he saw a flash of blonde hair poke out from the corner of his eye- it was class 1-A Kaminari Denki watching the scene unfold with concern. He was somewhat hidden behind the building, but his blonde hair had given him away easily. Suddenly, Shinsou had a really dumb idea.
“Actually the reason I can’t date you is that I already have a boyfriend. I am dating him.” Shinsou pointed in Kaminari’s direction. Kaminari would hopefully play along. He remembered the blonde well from the sports festival- he had a cool, flashy quirk and he had shamelessly asked a member of 1-B out in his showdown. So from what he knew about him, he was very friendly and a well-known flirt- perfect to play the part to help him escape this persistent upperclassman.
Kaminari confidently strolled over, winking at Shinsou and sending him finger guns. Oh geez.
“That’s right, Toshi and I are dating.” Kaminari said smugly. He took Shinsou’s hand, interlocking their fingers as Shinsou tried to keep from looking shocked.
“Why else do you think his hair sticks up like that? It’s because of my quirk.”
He brought their interlocked hands to his mouth and gave him a peck on the back of his hand for show. A small electrical jolt went through Shinsou, making his hair stand up just a bit straighter for a second. Shinsou could feel the heat rising to his face. The blonde was going all out on playing the part- maybe he did theater in middle school? His thoughts were cut short by the upperclassman before them.
“What- you’ve been dating this entire time?!” Katayama choked out. “What about all those other people that confessed to you? Why didn’t you tell them?!”
That’s a good question. Shinsou’s mind was once again whirling as he tried to think of an excuse. He kept a straight face in the process, at least. It looked like his resting bitch face could have its uses.
Kaminari seemed to have studied for this test, though, as he took over responding again. “We were just trying to keep it on the down-low so our relationship wouldn’t outshine any of Toshi’s achievements- he’s been working so hard to be the best hero.” Kaminari answered easily, before turning to Shinsou with a mischievous look in his eyes. “Plus, don’t want to wreck his edgy loner image.”
Shinsou found himself laughing at this joke, despite the fact that it was at his expense- his panic washing away. “I am not an edgy loner! I prefer the term mysterious bad boy.” He retorted sarcastically, but was smiling at Kaminari nonetheless. Katayama looked back and forth between them, clearly feeling left out of the conversation. This made Shinsou smile wider and he made sure to direct it at Kaminari.
“Right babe… Just know I could ruin your entire image with those pictures I have of you and your cats. Everyone will know how soft you truly are.” Kaminari lied easily. Shinsou wondered how he had so easily guessed his weakness for cats.
“Alright! I have seen enough.” Katayama spoke up. “You guys are clearly in love. Sorry for bothering you, Shinsou-kun.” He turned and hurried away, while Shinsou and Kaminari continued to stand in place, watching him walk off into the distance. Shinsou awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.
“Thanks Kaminari,” he started as soon as Katayama was out of listening rage. “Sorry for throwing you under the bus like that. I was not expecting him to be so aggressive. I am not great at rejections, and I was trying to make it to training with Eraserhead in time so I kind of blew him off…” Shinsou looked down to avoid eye contact, and saw their fingers were still interlocked. He quickly let go, taking a step back from Kaminari for good measure.
“No problem dude!” Kaminari responded cheerfully, not seeming too disheartened by Shinsou letting go of his hand so abruptly. “I saw how awesome you did at the sports festival, and how hard you’ve been on that grind, dude. Honestly, not surprised you’re getting all the confessions. You’re quite the looker!”
“Well, thank you for having me,” Shinsou mumbled and bowed in Kaminari’s direction. Then he made a beeline for the training grounds where Eraserhead was waiting, cursing himself for having such an awkward response. Accepting compliments had never been easy for him, especially when such a cute boy was saying them. Wait - did he just think Kaminari was cute? This whole line of thought was giving him a headache, so he cleared his mind and mentally prepared himself for the gruesome training ahead of him.
Kaminari would have completely forgotten the incident if it weren’t for the fact that the very next day some ladies bombarded him. Now this was usually something he would enjoy, but today had other plans for him. A group that was mainly composed of girls surrounded him in the hallway and blocked his entrance to Class 1-A.
“HOW DARE YOU!” a girl he was pretty sure was in the support class shouted at him, before delivering a slap to his face.
“Huh?” Kaminari responded eloquently. He was used to getting some pretty violent reactions from the girls he flirted with and asked out, but he was pretty sure he had never put the moves on this girl. And he knew he definitely hadn’t tried to romance everyone in the group that trapped him.
“Today was my turn to ask out Shinsou, but I heard from Katayama that the gig is up because you guys are dating! I’ve been on the waitlist for weeks, just to find out you’ve been dating him this whole time!” the girl ranted at him.
Oh shit .
“Sorry guys,” he addressed the surrounding crowd. “I can’t help that Shinsou fell for my irresistible looks and my great moves.” He sent them finger guns awkwardly, before pushing through the crowd and speeding off toward Shinsou’s classroom.
“Hey babe!” He called at Shinsou as he entered Class 1-C. Shinsou immediately shot him a look that said “I haven’t had enough coffee for whatever shenanigans you’re trying to pull.” He grinned back in response and grabbed a chair, pulling it up to Shinsou’s desk.
“So I just got ambushed by your fan club, and they think we’re really dating.” Kaminari whisper-yelled at the taller boy.
“My fan club….?”
“Yes, dude, apparently there’s a whole waitlist to even be able to confess to you and let me tell you they were NOT happy with me. What do we do?!”
“Kaminari, I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but I am not interested in whatever prank you’re trying to pull right now.” Shinsou glared at him.
“Dude, I love a good prank, but I wouldn’t joke around about something like this. Seriously, you're crazy attractive so I am not surprised you have a fan club.”
Shit . He didn’t mean to voice the crazy attractive part out loud.
He used the diversion tactic before Shinsou could notice his bi panic slip-up. “Do you see this hand imprint on my face?” he pointed at his face for emphasis. “That’s from one of your crazy fangirls who slapped me because it was her turn to confess today!”
Shinsou continued to give him a skeptical gaze, before relenting. “So explain the situation again.”
“So, I was on my way to class and then the entrance was blocked by your fan club. That’s when this girl from the support class stepped up and slapped me. She told me it was her turn to confess to you today and she had been waiting a long time and it was all my fault now that you are taken. So then I said ‘sorry, I can't help it that Shinsou fell for my irresistible looks’ and ran here.” Kaminari concluded.
“Your irresistible looks, huh?” Shinsou raised an eyebrow.
“You know it.” Kaminari flipped his hair. “So what should we do?”
“Well, this is more of a me problem than a you problem, I will figure it out.” Shinsou responded dismissively.
“Bro, you’re the one who got me involved in this situation, and now you’re going to tell me it’s a ‘you’ problem? I’m the one that got slapped! We are friends, dude! And friends help friends!” Kaminari stressed. He had made a joke yesterday about the taller boy being a loner, but he was now seeing that he hit the nail with that comment. Shinsou seemed to have some kind of aversion from accepting help, he must have been really panicked yesterday when he got Kaminari involved to begin with.
Shinsou stayed quiet for a moment, and Kaminari feared he came on too strong with his power of friendship propaganda.
“We’re friends?” He finally questioned.
“Yes!” Kaminari shouted back, not caring about being too obnoxious at this point. He was getting fed up with Shinsou thinking he was alone and was so eager to prove him wrong.
Shinsou cracked a little smile, and it made Kaminari’s heart melt a bit. It was even better than yesterday’s shit-eating grin, this one was wholesome and cute and made Shinsou’s whole face look softer. Kaminari found himself smiling in return. Shinsou then looked down, grabbing the back of his neck with a nervous look on his face.
“In that case, Kaminari, will you be my fake boyfriend?”