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If Nejire had to describe how her week is going, she would say it’s “like the night.” Depressingly dark and painfully cold, but just like the sad and lonely night sky, she found a star that would begin to be her unfailing companion.
Even though a few days have passed, the memory remains as fresh in her mind as if it had happened only a few hours ago.
She remembers how overwhelmed she was. Up until then, she had probably been going through a bad streak for about a month—between being disappointed on a couple of dates and having problems with all of her friends. And god, that last part really depressed her for a long time.
It all started because Mirio and Yuyu met another group of friends they got along well with—three girls and one boy. She doesn’t remember their names anymore, and it’s probably for the best. Anyway, taking advantage of a free weekend, they invited her to go out to eat and have some fun. Since she had no plans, she agreed to go. Besides, her friends were already a little down because Tamaki had refused, which was obvious.
Once the day arrived and they were settled at the place to eat, the beginning of the problem showed itself. They were all loud, extremely extroverted, and had a sense of humor far too aggressive for her taste. She doesn’t remember everything clearly, but they “joked” about many things related to her—attacked her for her somewhat “childish” tastes, or even for her insatiable appetite and favoritism toward sweet things. What hurt her the most, though, was hearing her friends say some of those things and laugh along with the others.
As much as it hurt, she pretended. She pretended to have fun because her friends were happy, right? She couldn’t be the party pooper and ruin their day. So she endured it until the end of the day, and after crying for quite a while, she fell asleep thinking that this would simply be a bad day and nothing more. How wrong she was.
Apparently, Tamaki caught up with the others. She discovered this at lunch when he made a joke about her being as smart as an animal—one she honestly doesn’t even remember. The others laughed and congratulated him because, as Mirio said, he was “coming out of his shell.” She pretended again.
This repeated itself over and over for days. Nejire simply pretended and pretended—laughing at the painful comments from her classmates again and again—until she decided to stop having lunch with them altogether. She used the excuse that her food was getting cold because she spent too much time painfully laughing with them, and that she preferred to eat alone while her food was still warm. They understood. They didn’t completely stop with the comments, since they still made them from time to time, but less frequently—after all, they spent less time together, and they couldn’t criticize what or how much she ate if they didn’t see it. Would they have mocked her if they knew she’d recently been having trouble eating at all? She preferred not to know.
And finally, the straw that broke the camel’s back was a comment from Mirio during a heroics class. She was exhausted—she hadn’t eaten anything that day except lunch (which she threw up)—so she didn’t have much energy and was careful with how she used her quirk.
It was a simple exercise: outdoor rescue practice in a debris-filled environment, in teams of three. And unfortunately, chance decided that she would be grouped with her two “friends” that day.
Everything went well at first. They defined their roles: she would focus almost entirely on scouting the area and searching from the air, while Mirio and Tamaki would handle the debris and carry the rescue dummies to a safe area. There were thirty dummies in total, and they had fifteen minutes to plan and retrieve them.
Only one was left. She informed Mirio and Tamaki through the communicator to head to the designated area where all the dummies needed to be at the end of the exercise. She took noticeably longer than usual and prayed they wouldn’t notice. Because she hadn’t been eating properly, her quirk no longer had the inexhaustible energy backing she was used to. Instead, she felt like if she misused her reserves, she’d lose control of the energy she used to move.
And while she was descending—far enough away that they wouldn’t hear her without shouting—she heard through the communicator:
“You took longer than usual, Nejire,” Tamaki said, followed by Mirio.
“Maybe if you stopped eating so much, you’d fly faster,” Mirio added, laughing at his own comment, accompanied by a small chuckle from Tamaki.
She froze. She didn’t know what to do, and she lost control of her descent—though she was low enough to land safely and disguise it as a dramatic fall. She wanted to disappear. Without thinking twice, she left the dummy where it belonged and, with a subtle movement, turned off her communicator and did what she was best at—and what hurt her the most. She pretended. Until class ended. Until Friday came to an end. And she pretended she had things to do, so she’d have to go to her apartment. She just wanted to get away from them, so she wouldn’t be staying in the Class 3-A dorms that weekend.
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And here she is now—Monday at lunchtime. As part of her routine, she’s sitting on a blanket laid out on the grass, alone with her lunch: three onigiri filled with things she genuinely doesn’t remember. But there’s one small difference from the other days—she’s waiting for a certain green-haired boy.
She didn’t think it through very well that day on the rooftop. She really did want to spend more time with him, since from their few interactions, he seemed kind and fun… and cute. And a little silly—but she wouldn’t tell him that. Somehow—she’d probably ask him later—he managed to get Present Mic to give her a note with his phone number and a small message.
We could have lunch together sometime this week. Text me whenever you want >.<
~Midoriya Izuku
She texted him right away to have lunch together. She was in a good mood, avoiding her “friends,” and decided to take advantage of it. He was taking a while to arrive—or maybe she got there too early? She didn’t know, but it didn’t matter. He said he’d come, and the spot she chose was fairly secluded from the main cafeteria. Thanks to that, she had all the privacy she wanted, so she waited patiently. She had so many questions to ask him. Maybe she should write them down so she wouldn’t forget…
…But Nejire didn’t have to wait long. Soon, the green-haired boy appeared, blushing, with a bento in his hands.
“Sorry, Nejire!” he said as he quickly sat down beside her. He looked tired and out of breath, to which she tilted her head to the side, silently asking What happened?
Understanding her gesture, Izuku took a breath and began to explain.
“On my way here, I ran into some guys from Class 1-A. They caught me! Turns out they wanted me to go have lunch with them.” He paused to breathe. “But there were too many of them, Nejireee!” he said, dragging out the ‘e’ in her name. “So I obviously said no and came here as fast as I could. I’m not good with crowds.”
He finished his explanation… then added softly, turning his head away,
“Besides, I’d rather have lunch with you.”
To Nejire, that was like a bomb of information—and she loved it. He had just answered some of her questions without her even asking. And he said he preferred having lunch with her! Didn’t that make him even cuter? To Nejire, yes. She simply laughed, and though the green-haired boy looked confused at first, he soon laughed with her too.
After that sweet moment, they began eating their lunches while chatting about how their day had been so far. Nejire learned that Izuku had been involved in the USJ incident with Class 1-A, after being previously invited by Aizawa. It turned out to be a good thing, since it was supposed to be Aizawa, No. 13, and All Might—but All Might had a last-minute issue to deal with and arrived later. Which he did—but if it hadn’t been for Izuku, things could have been much worse. Nejire genuinely couldn’t imagine how Aizawa would’ve handled fighting so many villains alone, especially since Izuku mentioned it was a tough fight and that he’d rather not go into too much detail right now. Understanding this, Nejire decided to change the subject and finally asked the question that had been on the tip of her tongue.
“Hey, Izukuuu~” she started softly. “Tell me—how did you get Present Mic to give me that note in secret?” she emphasized those words. “In all my time at UA, I’ve heard a lot of things he’s said out loud. He loves gossip,” she finished, picking up her last onigiri as Izuku responded.
At the mention of the note, the green-haired boy blushed and choked slightly on his food. Seeing the beautiful girl in front of him waiting for an answer, he coughed and prepared to explain how he got the professor famous for spilling student gossip to keep a secret. Setting his chopsticks aside, Izuku gave her a serious look.
“Tell me, Nejire—if I tell you an extremely secret secret, do you promise to keep it and not tell anyone?” he said, half joking, half serious. After finishing her onigiri, she replied,
“Yes, Commander Midoriya,” playing along and earning a laugh from him.
“Well, this starts around the middle of my first year. Back then, I had a part-time job at a cat café—which, by the way, has really good desserts…” He paused. “W-We could go sometime if you want. It’s a really nice place.” Before she could answer, he interrupted himself. “But that’s not the point!”
“The good thing about that café was how calm it was. It could be full, but it never felt overwhelming…” he said, slowly noticing that Nejire’s eyes were fixed on the leftover karaage in his bento.
So Izuku did what anyone in his place would do—he offered her everything that was left of his lunch. It wasn’t much, and Nejire hadn’t eaten much. She refused at first, but thankfully for him, she gave in after he said:
“Food makes people happy, and it makes me happy to see the people I care about enjoying something I cooked.”
With that resolved, he continued his story, smiling proudly as Nejire listened with a blush and a small pout.
“Anyway, that day I was covering a coworker’s shift. I remember being asked to take desserts to some regular customers.” He paused for suspense. “And those regulars were Present Mic… and his partner.”
“WHO WAS IT?!” Nejire shouted, making Izuku laugh.
“Well, I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone who it was—and that’s why Present Mic did me that favor,” he said, answering her first question. “Although, now that I think about it…” He rested his hand on his chin, looking up. “He never said I couldn’t mention that his partner mostly wears black, has long hair, loves cats, wears a ‘scarf’ almost all year round, and is usually in a bad mood.”
He lowered his gaze to see Nejire wide-eyed, about to figure it out—so he gave her the final push.
“…And he’s also a coworker.”
“AIZ—”
Izuku quickly covered her mouth, bringing his index finger to his lips and winking.
“It’ll be our little secret, Nejire.”
He removed his hand, and they both burst out laughing.
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And just like that, lunch came to an end, leaving behind a sweet memory. Before they went their separate ways, Nejire spoke up.
“So… you cooked your lunch?” she asked curiously.
“Yeah, sometimes I like cooking and experimenting a bit,” Izuku replied. “A-And… um, did you like what you tried?” he asked, looking down.
“I loved it, Izuku. Your cooking is really delicious,” she said with a warm smile that made him blush. “I’d really like to try other things you can cook,” she added, leaving him stunned.
Izuku felt like he was pushing his luck—but hadn’t everything gone well so far? After all, he managed to have lunch alone with Nejire. So how bad could it be to push just a little more?
“I could make food for you from time to time… if you’d like,” he said, staring at his hands, refusing to look up.
“REALLY?!” Nejire exclaimed, catching him off guard as she grabbed his hands. “I’d really appreciate that, Izuku,” she said with a big smile. Then she let go, leaving Izuku completely shocked, before starting to walk away. “Sorry, Izuku! My next class is soon and I don’t want to be late. We can talk later by text!”
…Before leaving, she turned around and showed him her face, flushed with a beautiful blush he was sure he wouldn’t forget anytime soon.
“And yes, I’d love to go to that café with you,” she said softly, and then she was gone.
Izuku was almost certain his face heated up far too much from the gentle words of the lovely girl.
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