Chapter Text
It's not that Hanta dislikes his classmate.
He thinks Ho Hae-Won is pretty chill, actually. She's tall, muscular -he thinks she does some sort of fighting sport ?- and her straight hair with the bangs that cover her second pair of eyes make her look very serious. She's always very serious, her face sort of... emotionless. He doesn't like that word, emotionless, because most people feel things even if they struggle to express it. She's very stoic. There.
Ho doesn't talk much, and when she does it's with a Korean accent that's hard not to notice. She does well in class though, and she seems to have no problem understanding Japanese.
She's very good in Hero Training, but she seems to focus all of her work on the physical rather than use her quirk. Hanta has only seen it once, that first week where Aizawa threatened them with expulsion. She pulled up her bangs and looked at her competitors. The way they fell was kinda scary, but they all breathed again when Sato started snoring loudly. Awesome quirk. That she never uses.
Hanta doesn't really get it, but it's not his place to judge. He thinks it's pretty cool to be able to defend yourself without your quirk.
Her Hero costume is sleeveless, and when she punches it shows off the muscles in her tan, beautiful arms- ahem. Anyways.
All of these things make her pretty mysterious, in the end.
Right.
So, he might be a bit intimidated. But in his defence, who wouldn't ?
Kaminari thinks Hanta doesn't like her. Ashido thinks Hanta likes her. Neither of these are true, but arguing only makes them think they're right. These two are waaaay too into gossip, honestly.
It takes a few months of classes and a few Villain fights no one expected before he's finally put up against her in Hero Training.
"... Hey," he tries.
She looks at him for a bit, and then she nods, once. Right.
It's a good thing she doesn't use her quirk much, because he would be gone so fast. Kinda hard not to look at your opponent in the third and fourth eyes when you're supposed to be fighting them.
Hanta grunts as he shoots another bit of tape from his elbows, trying to back away as he does. She evades, and then she's right there.
Oh, her face is pretty. Her skin is tan, her eyes small and her nose is hooked. She has high cheekbones and- ouch, man, what the hell !
1-0 for Ho.
She almost looks mean as she stands over Hanta. He clutches at his stomach with a grimace, rubbing the place she hit. Yep, that's definitely going to bruise.
He looks up when he sees fingers enter his field of vision. She's extending her hand, looking somewhere at his chest.
"I did not hit too hard ?" she asks.
Her voice is surprisingly soft. Not as deep as he'd expect. Her accent is kinda cute. He wonders why she doesn't talk more.
"Nah, you're fine. I need to learn to take a hit, anyways."
She nods again, and she pulls him to his feet easily. He almost trips into her once he's up, unstable. He looks up at her, and wonders about her height. She takes a smooth step back, and he finds his footing again.
"Thanks, Ho."
She bows, the way Hanta has seen boxers do after fights, and lets go of his hand. She rubs it against her pants, and he suddenly gets self conscious. He's sweaty - he's always sweaty since puberty started, and his hands especially have always been something he struggled with.
She jogs away to their classmates on the sidelines, and Hanta follows, feeling his face warm up in embarrassment.
"You got your ass handed," Kaminari laughs when he reaches him.
"Shut up."
"She literally got you in one punch."
"I think I remember her handing you your ass last week ?"
That sobers him up. She's won against most of them in one-on-one fights, usually without using her quirk at all. Aizawa presses her to use it more, which Hanta gets, but also. She wins her fights, quirk or not. Maybe she has a personal reason not to use it, or maybe the side effects are too harsh. Hanta mostly gets dry skin, but Bakugou has to be careful about everything he touches and they all see the consequences of Midoryia's quirk overuse.
Hanta has only seen it in action once or twice- the most memorable being the one time she used it against Bakugou, who's strategy is basically "explode everything until victory."
Seeing him fall down suddenly was a surprise. He truly is much better when he isn't shouting at everything and everyone. Kirishima was the one to bring him to the infirmary, of course. This guy had a soft spot the size of Japan, which Hanta does not get.
He thinks Hibernation is a pretty cool quirk, and he admires Ho for the way she trains her physical form despite having a quirk that works without physical contact.
Hanta works a lot on his arms strength. He wants to be able to shoot himself up with his tape and then hold on, hopefully with one arm so he can fight with the other. It's difficult, but no one has ever expected UA to be easy. When he sees the way everyone tries to hard to get stronger, faster, better- well, it only encourages him too.
When the dorms are implanted, they all get together and decide on some rules. It takes way longer than Hanta has patience for (and he has younger siblings, so that's something,) and Aizawa ends up involving himself.
A lot of it is pretty basic : take turn for chores, don't leave a mess in the common rooms, keep the showers clean, check out groceries at least once a week.
And then they have the other rules; the ones that aren't written down but everyone respects anyways. Knock on every door, don't hog the hairdryer, don't comment if you hear someone's nightmare.
Hanta thinks he's a pretty trustful guy. He keeps the things he's told or heard quiet, especially if he thinks they're personal. Sure, he likes gossiping as much as the next person, but he doesn't tend to start it. Mina and Denki annoy him a bit sometimes, with how into gossip they are. He loves them anyways.
The summer air is warm even in the evening, but there is a little breeze that feels nice. He sits on a lounge chair on Mina's balcony, his friends' voices and laughter coming from where the window is almost closed. They have so much energy, it feels nice to take a little breath sometimes. Katsuki left them a while ago already - it's a miracle he even joined them at all. They're getting to him, slowly but surely. (Hanta thinks he has a soft spot for Eijirō, since he only ever agrees to join their study sessions when he's the one who asks. It's cute.)
Hanta has two younger siblings. He hasn't told them about every fight with the League of Villains, because he doesn't want to scare them. They're so young, still.
His parents are worried, but he keeps telling them that this is what being a Hero is about. He calls often, and it always feels nice to slip back into Thai. He wishes he spoke it better, but it's still familiar and comfortable all the same.
He hangs up after one last ฝันดีนะ, smiling as his parents' voices answering at once.
The night is almost quiet, if not for the sound of his friends and the cicadas singing outside. It feels nice, too. Comforting. If he wanted to be a bit philosophical, he'd say he feels like he's truly part of the world at this moment.
There is a rustling noise from the next balcony on his left. He hears the door slide open, soft footsteps on the concrete and the sound of someone settling down on a chair.
"안녕", he hears, "how are you ?"
The voice is unfamiliar, which means it can only be Ho.
Hanta doesn't want to listen in, but he also doesn't feel like going back inside just yet. He opens Instagram to scroll mindlessly for a few more minutes. It's a lot of meme videos and cooking recipes, as usual.
After a while, he takes one last deep breath and gets back up. He tries to be quiet, because he doesn't want Ho to think he's been listening- and he really hasn't.
It's just... he's pretty sure she's been talking about sharks this whole time. Like, the whole time. That's cool. He likes passionate people. It also reminds him of his little siblings when they start infodumping on their special interests - My Little Pony and the French railway system, these days.
Actually, Ho reminds him a lot of his siblings on their more non-verbal days. The stoic face and the not-looking-into-people's-eyes is a lot like Hoshiko, while Hinata is loud and doesn't when to stop looking into someone's eyes. Either way, Hanta wonders.... well, it's personal, and it's none of his business. Unless Ho doesn't know and would like to be told. How do you approach someone you barely know just to tell them "hey, fyi, I think you might be autistic" ?
Yeah, no. No way. Not yet.