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Shinsou was... he was something. Bakugou didn't know what to make of him. He was some guy who joined their class at the same time someone else left. It made no difference to him whatsoever—purple guy gets replaced with another purple guy. So that leaves him wondering: why the fuck do I know his name?
It was when he was playing Monopoly at Kirishima's room. Kirishima, Kaminari, Mina, Sero, and Bakugou were playing Monopoly on the floor of Kirishima's room, sitting in a circle around the board. As of right now, Kirishima was winning the most, but only because he was lucky the first few rounds and somehow managed the get all three cards of the red and the green set, which made him the most richest. Bakugou landed in jail three full times, and he was still the second most rich. He really should stop being friends with these dumbasses.
"What are your thoughts on Shinsou?" asked Kaminari. "I think he's pretty hot."
Sero looked at Kaminari, rolling his eyes. "You think everyone's hot."
"And? That doesn't change the fact that he's hot," Kaminari replied. "Kirishima, thoughts?"
Kirishima nodded. "I guess I can see where you're coming from. He gives off the vibes of someone who doesn't care to do anything but still gets through. He's pretty cool."
"Cool and hot are different," Mina said, "but you know what, you're both right. Shinsou's cool and hot."
Bakugou frowned. "Isn't that room temperature?"
They all laughed. Kirishima looked at Bakugou. "You, sir, are a man of many talents. Using teenage slang—no, any slang—is not one of them."
"Shut the fuck up," Bakugou replied. "It was meant to be an insult, I think."
"Bakugou, Bakugou..." Sero drawled, "you're so cute."
Before Bakugou could snap back, Kaminari put an arm behind Bakugou. "What are your thoughts on Shinsou?"
He shrugged. "I don't know; I guess he's alright."
All of them except Bakugou exchanged looks. Mina then looked at Bakugou. "Do you know who we're talking about?"
"Yes," Bakugou replied, frowning. "Why would I not?"
"Hm. Any other thoughts?" Sero asked.
"His quirk is pretty cool. Honestly, I don't know why EraserHead would teach him how to use a scarf the same way he does, because I don't think it's particularly useful for his quirk. At least for EraserHead it makes sense, since he has to use physical combat against his enemies, but for Shinsou it's not really important. Unless there's something else I'm missing. Like, if the guy was gonna teach something not specific to his quirk, then why not teach the rest of us? Seems pretty biased to me. Anyway, then there's the fact that Shinsou's eyebags are so fucking huge I think it's part of his quirk, but it's not...? Like what the fuck? Make up your damn mind about what you wanna do—"
"On second thought, I regret asking," Sero admitted, at the same times Kaminari sighed.
Kirishima chuckled. "Sometimes I forget why Midoriya and Bakugou are best friends."
Bakugou gave him a death glare. "What did you say?"
"Sorry. I meant like, your grades are on par with each other."
Bakugou didn't relent.
Kirishima gave him a 100 dollars—in Monopoly money, of course—and a kiss to the cheek. "Forgive me?"
Bakugou wiped his cheek roughly. "Don't do that ever again. Any of that. Whatever the fuck you did."
"Kiss you?" Kirishima asked.
The blond visibly cringed. "Ugh."
"Aw, are you shy?"
"Kill yourself."
Kirishima laughed it off.
Sero looked at Bakugou. "I'm pretty surprised that you knew who we were talking about."
"Shinsou, right? Mindfreak? Eyebags? I'm not wrong."
"Baku, no one said you were wrong," Mina reassured. "Just wondering how you were right."
"What—" Bakugou started, but caught himself. "Wait a minute. You're right."
Kaminari was counting his dice roll. "Hm...?"
"How do I fucking know his name?" Bakugou asked himself.
"Is this 9?" Kaminari asked.
"6 plus 4," Sero said. "Nah. It's 7."
"It's 10, you fucking dumbasses," Bakugou interjected.
"Sorry. I actually knew that one, though," Sero said. "I accidentally divided to six by two and I just thought about 4 plus 3."
Bakugou frowned. "How the fuck did you do that?"
"I see where you're coming from," Kirishima said, nodding.
"No, you don't!" snapped Bakugou. "If anything, you should remove one from the six and give it to the four so you get 5 plus 5."
Mina looked up from her phone. "Is it my turn yet?"
And that's how Bakugou found himself staring at Shinsou every single fucking day. The guy was nothing special. Sure, he handed his work up on time and he was pretty good with cats, but that was no reason for him to stand out. Maybe it was the fact that EraserHead could not shut up about him every second of the day. Bakugou could not think of any other reason. Even now, during lunch, Shinsou was just eating his packed lunch in school. It was nothing special—just store-bought onigiri—so what the fuck did he do to earn name privileges?
Shinsou turned to look at him. "Hello."
Bakugou glared at him.
The purple haired boy sighed. "You're not very scary, you know."
Bakugou decided to leave and go to the bathroom. He had this sudden urge to punch something.
"Stop," Shinsou said, just as Bakugou reached the door. "It's just the two of us here. Wanna tell me why you've been staring and stalking me the past week?"
Bakugou didn't stop. He opened the door, and stood in the hallway, finding nothing to do. A bunch of students walked past, lowkey staring at Bakugou but not really acknowledging him. They had their own conversation to care about, Bakugou figured. Just as Bakugou was about to really go the toilet since he had nothing to do, the door opened.
"Uh, I'm still waiting for your answer."
Bakugou turned to find the purple freak looking at him.
"There's about 30 minutes before lunch ends, and I assume you have nowhere to go, judging from where you spent your lunches this past week," Shinsou said. With me. The unspoken words where hanging in the air.
Bakugou just stared at him. Fuck. What am I supposed to say? 'I wanted to know why I know your name even though you introduced yourself two weeks ago'?
"I won't use my quirk, if you're worried about that," Shinsou said.
Bakugou frowned. "Why the fuck would I be worried about that? You're a fucking dumbass."
Shinsou pursed his lips. "Maybe I will use my quirk. You've convinced me."
Bakugou made his way to the classroom.
"So," Shinsou summed up, "you were surprised you knew my name."
"It sounds stupid now—"
"Shh, shh," Shinsou interrupted. "It's not dumb. This level of stupidity is normal for you. I'm not surprised."
Bakugou gritted his teeth. "Fuck you."
Shinsou laughed. "Quiet down, Bakugou. Let me bathe in the compliment you've given me."
"What?"
"I'm proud that you know my name. I'm also very proud that you've taken time out of your life to stalk me."
"I didn't fucking stalk you!"
Shinsou tilted his head, looking at Bakugou. "Are you sure?"
Bakugou chewed on his cheek.
"It's fine, Bakugou. It's a compliment. I think that being stalked by you is a very prideful thing," Shinsou admitted, patting Bakugou's head.
Everytime someone pats Bakugou's head, it leaves him in shock—for some reason, the fact that someone can move his entire head down a bit from just a bit of non-threatening force is very shocking. No matter how many times it happens, Bakugou's left to blink in shock and just be confused to what happened. Which is no different in this case.
"Bakugou?" Shinsou asked. Was that worry on his face?
"Shut up," mumbled Bakugou.
The bell rang. Surprisingly, Kirishima and the rest were the first to come back—Bakugou was once again painfully reminded that All Might was giving Midoriya's group extra lessons during lunch.
"Baku, we got some food for you!" Mina cheered.
Kirishima stared at them. "Uh, are we intruding?"
"No." Bakugou sat down in his seat and removed Shinsou's hand from his head.
"No?" Sero asked, clearly trying to bait someone.
Kaminari looked at Shinsou. "No?"
Shinsou shrugged. "I put my hand in his hair."
Kirishima looked at Bakugou. "Did he, now?"
"No. Die."
"Bakugou's very cute when he's not screaming," Shinsou supplied. "Kind of like a cat."
Shinsou's good with cats, Bakugou remembered. His cheeks felt warm.
Another Monopoly session.
"So, your conclusion?" Kaminari asked. "About Shinsou."
"I don't fucking know why I know his name, and I've decided to accept it," Bakugou said.
"Bakugou," Sero sobbed, "you grow so fast."
"Shut the fuck up."
"Why so mature? C'mon, Baku, tell us your deep dark secrets," Mina said.
Kirishima rolled an 11. "Hell yeah! High rolls!"
"High rolls are nothing if you go to jail," Bakugou retorted, ending Kirishima's short-lived happiness by moving his dinosaur character to the jail cell.
Kirishima put his head in his arms. "Momma, I'm a criminal."
"No thoughts on Shinsou, at all?"
"Nothing. He's good with cats, I guess. That's pretty much all there is to him. A pretty diligent student compared to you guys, and he eats store-bought onigiri like a regular student instead of buying expensive food from the cafeteria. He's tall. He looks like he knows what to do with his life. I still don't fucking know why he has eyebags as huge as Todoroki's wallet, but I give up."
Mina sighed. "Bakugou, this is young love waiting to blossom."
"Excuse me?"
"She's saying you're in love," Kirishima explained.
"I fucking knew that!"
"You're telling me you aren't at least a bit attracted to Shinsou?"
"I'm not! That guy looks like he would kill himself for thirty cents!"
"Isn't that hot?" Kaminari asked.
"The bar is on the floor," Mina sighed.
Kaminari rolled a 3 and a 5. "Is this 8?"
"It's 6.5." Sero said confidently.
"No, it's not!"
"Sorry. I divided the 3 by 2 and then I just added 1.5 and 5—"
"How the fuck?!"
Shinsou was boiling water at 3am.
Bakugou had been sneaking out to the living room to just sit on the sofa and do nothing.
"Sup," Shinsou greeted, walking to the sofa as well.
Bakugou nearly dropped his phone. "Uh—"
"Don't shout. It's night."
"Hi," Bakugou greeted. He proceeded to look at his phone. There was really nothing to look at, so he was playing Tetris.
"What are you doing awake?"
"I could ask you the same thing," Bakugou retorted.
"I'm eating. Cup noodles taste the best at 3am, and it's a waste if I don't eat it at this timing."
"That's stupid," Bakugou replied. "I'm doing nothing. Just wanted to sit here and do nothing."
Shinsou laughed. "Valid."
There was silence for a while, where Bakugou was playing Tetris with all his might and then losing. "Fuck!"
"Don't shout," Shinsou warned.
"Sorry," Bakugou apologised. He put his phone down. "Do you wanna share that?"
From what Bakugou remembers, Shinsou isn't saliva conscious, and neither was he.
"You can have some," Shinsou said. He passed Bakugou the cup. "Don't eat all of it."
"You didn't pay for it," Bakugou accused.
"Did you?" Shinsou dared.
"...No."
Lunch was horrible.
"Wow, you're with me again? What an honour."
"If I knew you'd be here, I wouldn't be here."
"You knew I was gonna be here."
Yep. Shinsou wasn't wrong. He knew. Stalking goes a long way.
"I buy shit from 7-Eleven, okay? It's a waste of money to eat shit from the cafeteria."
"Same," Shinsou said.
"I know," Bakugou grunbled.
"Of course you do. Wanna go together next time?"
"Why would I?"
"Because I will make sure I follow you either way, and this is the more civil way to do it. I know the guy gives you a discount," Shinsou said.
Bakugou narrowed his eyes at Shinsou. "How did you know that?"
"I'm smart like that."
"You stalked me, didn't you?"
"No."
"Then?"
"Actually, you're right. I did."
"What a fucking loser."
"Same to you."
Before he knew it, Bakugou's life was full of Shinsou—save the Monopoly matches.
7-Eleven trips, lunch, late-night cup noodle times—all with Shinsou.
"Dude, get these too. The truffle chips are like a dollar."
"Shit, really? Okay."
Shinsou passed him 8 cups of noodles and the truffle chips. "How much is it?"
"What the fuck? Why so many?"
"Because we eat one pack every week and we come here every week."
"That's only 7!"
"Plus one because I feel more secure that way," Shinsou replied.
"Fine," Bakugou sighed. "How much, uncle?"
The uncle looked at the price. $15.00, the cashier said. "Eight dollars."
"Thanks," Bakugou said, paying for the both of them.
As they walked out of the store, Shinsou put an arm behind Bakugou's shoulders.
"Don't think I forgot about your share."
Shinsou sighed as he took his wallet out of his pocket. He gave Bakugou four dollars.
They walked back to the dorms together.
3am times happened every day, it seemed. It went from coincidences to an expectation to a kind of schedule. Shinsou would be at Bakugou's doorstep at 3am, and they'd go down to the kitchen to decide which flavour of cup noodles they wanted to eat that day.
"What about the seafood?"
"Put in chili."
"Fine, whatever." Shinsou poured in a delicious sum of chili. "Any other special requests, princess?"
"Nothing. I'm gonna get ready the chess pieces."
They'd resorted to playing random board games the UA dorms supplied, and it was very amusing. They even played two-person UNO, which was incredibly boring but funny at the same time. Chess was a recurring game, since 1) Shinsou loved beating Bakugou at it, and 2) Bakugou hated moving on with a loss. So Chess was stuck.
Shinsou let Bakugou get first taste of the cup noodles. "Damn. Pretty good."
Shinsou rolled his eyes. "Of course it is." He brought the chopsticks to his mouth, eating a generous amount.
Bakugou snatched the cup from him, after. "You ate so much."
"Can't blame me. I won Chess."
"That's not a valid excuse," Bakugou said.
Shinsou took the cup noodles and fed Bakugou a chopstick's worth of noodles before feeding himself. "Just take it."
"Winner keeps the set."
Shinsou groaned as he stood up from the seat.
Lunch was very boring, too. But good boring.
"Is this meant to be a 5?" Bakugou asked, pointing at Shinsou's math work.
"It's a 3. Get glasses."
"I have glasses. I don't bring them because the amount of bullshit in this school will make me blind. I'd rather not see that shit," Bakugou said.
"You've seen enough," Shinsou laughed. "Wait, really?"
"No. My glasses are in my bag."
"Oo, wear them," Shinsou said.
Bakugou took the glasses and wore them. "Your 3 still looks like a 5. Cry about it."
The glasses looked too big on him, but just right. They were round and had a thin outline.
"You look cute."
"Bitch," Bakugou replied.
"It was a compliment!"
"Nah," Bakugou said, removing the glasses.
"Keep them on."
"No. I've seen enough." Bakugou took an onigiri from Shinsou's lunchbox.
Monopoly session six.
"Are you dating Shinsou?" Mina asked Bakugou.
"No?" Bakugou said, unsure why she would ask that.
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Is that 'yes, I am dating Shinsou' or is that 'yes, I'm not dating Shinsou'?" Kirishima asked.
"It's 'shut the fuck up'."
"That wasn't an option," Kaminari said.
"You're never an option," Bakugou retorted.
Silence met him.
"Not cool, man," Sero said, comforting Kaminari.
Bakugou frowned. "What?"
Mina looked at Bakugou. "We've been stalking you."
Bakugou blinked. "Everyone's been stalking everyone recently."
"You're dating Shinsou, whether any of you know it or not," Kirishima added. "We stalked you guys together with Tokoyami and Jirou. They wanted in because Shinsou's their friend."
"Okay?"
"You guys go shopping together. Then you hang out in the wee hours of the night, just the two of you. And you share cup noodles from the same cup and the same chopsticks! Then you eat lunch together from the same lunchbox, and you guys can't stop hugging each other!" Mina squealed.
"We're friends, that's all."
"Do you do that with Kirishima?"
"No, but Kirishima does it with you guys."
"You are not Kirishima. This is not normal. You guys are dating."
Bakugou sighed. "No, we're not."
Kaminari sobbed. "I've tried so hard to get in a relationship, and Bakugou doesn't even know he's in a relationship—why?"
"Bakugou," Sero said, "you grow so fast."
"Whose turn is it?!" Bakugou shouted.
That night, Bakugou and Shinsou was playing two-person Go Fish.
"Mina thinks we're dating." Bakugou said.
"Oh, really? Jirou said so, too."
"You're not surprised?"
"I'm very surprised."
"Oh."
There was silence.
"So?" Bakugou asked.
Shinsou shrugged. "Let them think whatever. Do you have a 5?"
Bakugou passed him the 5 of Diamonds. "You wanna let them think whatever? Isn't that risky? 7."
Shinsou shook his head. "Go Fish. Then, what do you wanna do? I don't see a risk. Queen?"
Bakugou passed him the Queen of Hearts. "On second thought, there's no risk, I guess. Do you have a King?"
"Go Fish. You know what? Maybe I do wanna do something about it. What do you think about me? 7."
"Seven?!" Bakugou complained. "This is cheating."
"You're a sore loser." Shinsou won the match.
"Winner keeps the set," Bakugou said, leaving the cards on the table. "Anyway I think you're a pretty cool guy. You're probably my best friend at this point."
"Really?"
"Shitty Hair's my best friend, but you're closer to me than he is to me. So I guess that makes you kind of like my—"
"—boyfriend?" Shinsou finished. "Damn, we even finish each other's sentences."
"Don't interrupt me," Bakugou said, frowining. "And wow, you said exactly what I was thinking."
Shinsou nodded. "Thanks for the compliment."
"Please stop praising me. My ego will go through the roof and no one will like it," Bakugou said.
"Yep. My goal."
"Haters will hate me because they do not like me at all," Bakugou said, taking a line from a meme he saw a while back.
"Wise words from a wise man," Shinsou agreed. "My goal is to make sure no one likes you except ne."
"Why?"
"Because you're mine, princess."
Bakugou stared at the ceiling. "That's what's gonna make everyone hate me. My ego is gonna kill everyone."
"I'm surprised you're so considerate."
Bakugou put his head in his arms. "Please stop."
"Aw, are you blushing? C'mon, your boyfriend praising you is nothing to be ashamed of."
During lunch, Shinsou decided to take the effort to bring Bakugou to the cafeteria.
"Why?"
"Because we gotta make our debut."
"I forget why I decided to be friends with you."
"Love knows no boundaries."
"Fuck you."
"I'll fuck you later tonight, so suck it up, baby boy."
Bakugou turned bright red. "What?" he squeaked.
"It's a joke. Get it out of your head."
They entered the cafeteria, hand in hand. Well, to Bakugou it may seem normal, but for everyone...
"Holding hands!" Mina shouted.
And everyone screamed.
"Princess, what are your thoughts?"
"I'm gonna murder everyone."
"Not me, I hope," Shinsou said.
"Including you. You're first."
"Fuck—"
"Princess?!" Jirou gasped.
"You know what, I'm starting to hate that the thing that started our relationship is also something threatening to end our relationship," Shinsou said.
"What do you mean?" Kaminari asked, taking pictures.
"We are in the middle of the fucking pavement and we're walking to 7-Eleven for cup noodles! This is not special!" Bakugou shouted.
"You mean, middle of the fucking pavement and walking to 7-Eleven for cup noodles while holding hands and kissing each other every 5 seconds," Sero said, pointing at the hands.
"Die."
"So, why did you know my name?" Shinsou asked. They were in Shinsou's room.
"Room temperature," Bakugou said.
"What?"
"I don't know, it's probably because you're hot as fuck."
"Thanks."
"Anything else I need to know?"
"When did you stalk me?" Bakugou asked, ignoring Shinsou's question.
"Like, the week before you stalked me."
"Damn, what the fuck."