Chapter 49: Opposites Don’t Attract

Recap:

"During that release period, I saw a flag hidden under a pipe. So I grabbed it and stuffed it into my clothes; we then met up, and after a...harsh debacle, I ended up under his control."

"Harsh Debacle? What did he say? You like someone or something, and you sputter out incoherent noises that fulfill the response condition of his quirk or something."

Though Suijin said that speculatively, when he looked up and saw the beet-red face, his mouth dropped.

'Seriously? Who would it b—Oh Hakagure. I do remember the two staying together often.'

"Are you sure?"

Suijin, changing topics, returned to the flag as he wasn't too sure about taking it; with the time left, it was almost guaranteed failure should Ojiro give it away.

"Yeah."

The blond-haired boy looked up to the sky with a far-away look only he himself would understand.

"I failed; I'm not weaker than him, yet I was under his control. If he asked me to attack another contestant, he asked me to commit despicable acts."

Suijin heard the grit with which he said that; he saw the furrowment of Ojiro's brows and wanted to console him, but before he could, it was all gone, like the boy found peace within that short period.

"I can't move forward. Not knowing the conditions, I thought that my passing would be a mere fluke and come at your expense. I won't change my mind for me, so it's yours."

Suijin said nothing else but nodded, and Ojiro, like a weight lifted off his chest, smiled before walking away.

'Well, that should be my last interaction in the sec—'

Like the gods enjoyed Suijin's peril at being wrong, when the boy looked up, he saw someone with multiple arms held together by a thin skin-like film.

His trademark mask stretched from the lower portion of his face to the bridge of his nose.

And the silver hair that hung down like a paid actor

'Shoji!'

Suijin quickly hid the flag behind him while tensing his body; he didn't want to meet his childhood friend this early, as he hoped they would both make it to the finals.

'I can try to run, but physically, he outclasses me, and with my little water reserves, I could only get a few seconds of distance before he catches up.'

Suijin's mind ran, trying to avoid an encounter with Shoji; yet another part considered what that entailed.

If Shoji was truly flagless, then if he wasted his time on Suijin, then he'd be out.

'What do I do?'

Shoji took that decision away when, like the wind, he turned around and left. Suijin, who had been loosely paying attention, recalled the image of Shoji's face.

His eyes read a message: [Not Now] were the words Suijin seemed to glean from the facial expression.

"AND THAT'S TIME, CONTESTANTS. EVERYONE REPORTS TO THE STADIUM WITH YOUR FLAGS, AND PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU'RE BEING WATCHED RIGHT NOW, SO ANY FIGHTING WILL RESULT IN AUTOMATIC DISQUALIFICATION FROM ALL OTHER COMPETITIONS."

'Now it's over.'

____________________________________________________________________________

"WHAT DO I DO" Inside an empty classroom, a pink-skinned girl seated on a desk complained loudly.

"Aren't the next steps pretty obvious?" said an invisible collection of mass.

"It is to me—Kero."

In front of the girl were her fellow female classmates seated as if they were students listening to a teacher talk.

  Kyokura, Momo, Tsu, Toru, Ochaco.

Repeating the names inside her head, Mina felt the joy of having friends she could confide in and inwardly felt grateful to have them here.

'But there's no way I can just go and do THAT!'

"I—"

"Sorry, but I don't know the next step either."

'Class Pres—Momo, right, she told me to call her that.' 

Momo raised her hand, exclaiming with a slightly embarrassed face. 

This was one of the few times the young girl had been completely clueless on a topic discussed, as although she was awarded the best education available when she was growing up, a chapter on boys wasn't one of them.

"Obviously, it's to go and straight up confess to him!"

A rather pumped-up Ochaco said so, looking excited at being able to participate in the blooming of a new relationship with her own two eyes.

"I-I CAN'T JUST GO AND DO THAT!"

"Why not, Kero?"

"She's right, it's not like he's that dolt Kaminari who'll let anything you say fly over his head."

Mina didn't miss that lonely expression that momentarily appeared on Kyokura's face, but she wasn't in the right headspace to address that, so she stored it and made a note to definitely talk to her about that later.

"W-What about you, Ochaco, if it's so easy, why don't you just go talk to Midoriya already?"

Instantly, the round-headed girl with brown hair bobbing towards her chin had her face alight with a crimson color. 

Waving her hands, she desperately defended herself, "I-It's not the rig—"

"It's alright, Mina; no one's here to attack you."

Tsu's comforting voice, missing her characteristic Kero, followed by a gentle touch on the shoulder, awoke Mina from her habitual retaliation.

"~Sorry,"

"It's fine."

Mina took a deep sigh before reluctantly explaining,

  "It's just… He seems really distracted with the sports festival, and he told me he'd explain why he distanced himself after the sports festival."

After she practically spilled her heart out, she looked up to see the most deadpan stare placed on everyone's face, even Momo!

"IT'S–"

Tsu placed a hand on Ochaco's shoulder, shaking her head, "Let me explain. Mina, you know Suijin's a boy, right?"

She shook her head at the basic question.

"And boys are usually—"

"—dense, stupid, idiots." Kyokura, butting in said.

"I was gonna say knuckleheads, but you get the point, right?"

Hesitantly, she shook her head yes. Surely not all boys are as she explained.

"Then, although Shimizu seems like one of the smart boys, his actions indicate that he's probably trying to win the sports festival for you."

Mina's flattery was instantly washed away with bewilderment and shock.

"Think back, before the festival began, were there any words he said to you about what he wants to change?"

Confusion still laced her mind, and in her stupor was a weak, "~I don't know?"

"Maybe it's because he felt too weak, or his pride was trampled on?" Ochaco was stumped as to what would make Shimizu change, as were the rest of them.

And Mina had joined them in the slump. That was until a memory surfaced, on the day they were talking in the classroom.

'I don't want that to be the version of me you think of. I don't want that to be how you recognize me.'

"Image~"

She whispered those words in her realization.

"Image, if that's the case, then he wants to implant the image of a champion, successor, into your mind."

"But why would Shimizu think you have a bad image of him?"

"That's what I also want to know since you seem so fond of him, Kero." With her trademark tick back, Tsu questioningly said.

But Mina wasn't listening; her embarrassment never surfaced as she realized the crux of the issue. 'I'm the problem.'

The day she showed that face, which perfectly reflected her current emotions at that moment, was why. 

She hurt Suijin, and he misunderstood that as himself hurting her. Thus, he was trying to fix his image in her mind by winning the sports festival.

It is messed-up logic, why go through all that effort instead of having a civil conversation, 'But romance makes you blind.'

She'd heard that quote before.

  'I mean the only reason I even sat down here with the girls is because I exhausted all of my brain thinking of what to do for the past few weeks.'

No matter whether she was in class, training, eating, her mind seemed distracted, always focused on one thing, Shimizu.

He invaded her heart's way through and ended up becoming a substantial part without her even realizing it.

She was only made aware of it when her Dad pointed out that her grades started to dip, not that she was shocked since she never rated her Schooling ability high.

  But the dip reminded her just how much she missed Suijin, and not just because he helped her with her homework.

Their study sessions, where he'd carefully go over each topic not getting angry when she asked him to reexplain a subject for the 15th time.

How after, they'd go out for a drink and laugh at whatever came to mind. 

How their occasional morning walks to school together that had been ramping up in frequency prior to the USJ changed from her initial thoughts of "Troublesome" to something she expected and was even excited about.

She started noticing just how much Suijin invaded her life like a parasite.

'No...more like a symbiosis where they mutually gain from each other.' 

Another tidbit of information he carefully explained to her.

Though she tried not to think about it, part of her thought of him as her best friend, yet that title felt distinctly odd. 'Friend.' 

Like selfish and shellfish, it seemed like an apt title, yet as time went on and the phrase was used more and more, the distinctions and tidbits of uncomfortableness built up.

'Do I want to be Friends?'

She didn't want to lose Suijin, as her current predicament showed, but she didn't want to be his friend.

'No, I don't want to just be his friend.' More, she wanted more than just that title; it felt inefficient to both explain their actions and her feelings.

And as if all the pieces clicked in place, Mina's desires finally formulated a solid foundation in her head.

"I want him to be my—"

'Boyfriend.'

She was too embarrassed to say the word out loud, but saying it inside her head felt just right. 

Not wanting this to be another 'Friend' situation, she bypassed the step of waiting for the word to passively be said and heard a bunch and manually did it.

'Boyfriend.'

It felt right.

'Boyfriend.'

The word rolled off her mental tongue and sent a burst of Dopamine through her body, coursing through her brain.

'Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend.'

"~I want Suijin Shimizu to be my boyfriend."

Her eyes widened partially because she realized she said that out loud and partially because of how happy she was from hearing that spoken into reality, as if her physical words would manifest her desire.

Everyone else in the room had their eyes widened from hearing that; well, at least four of the five present as she couldn't actually 'see' Toru's eyes.

"W-what do I do now?"

"You tell him," Tsu seriously said.

"As said earlier, boys aren't the smartest creatures." Though Kyokura said that, a softness she previously lacked showed through her voice.

"That should be enough to knock him into a stupor," Momo added, already picturing the scene in her mind.

"Allowing him to forget about his 'image' and allow you both to have a serious conversation," Ochaco added her two cents.

With all of their words complementing each other, the scene was constructed in her mind.

[LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE BREAK BETWEEN THE SECOND AND THIRD ROUND WILL BE ENDING SHORTLY. CONTESTANTS PLEASE RETURN TO THE CENTRAL AREA AND SPECTATORS PLEASE RETURN TO YOUR SEATS. I REPEAT—]

The girls stood up, with Ochaco and Momo planning to go to the contestant area and Tsu, Toru, and Kyokura to the stands.

They all gave a small smile as they thought she had everything in order. 

"See you later."

  Each said before leaving the room, though Ochaco had a 'You better spill the deets when this is over' look on her face before she shut the door.

Mina set on her next decision, took out her phone, and opened up Suijin's text contact name while going over her plan.

'It's true that he's doing this partially for me, but—'

She remembered that even before the USJ incident he had been excited for the festival; he even went on a tangent about why it was so important one time.

Mina was rather sure that her text may have distracted him if she told him the heavy news instantly, impeding him from succeeding.

Opening up his text messages, she saw how their last conversation over text was over a week ago.

She mentally clutched her heart while soothing herself, 'It's fine; this'll change soon enough.'

And instead of her fingers going to the buttons to spell out her drama, she started with a W.

Me [-When we meet, I have something to tell you.]

Sending the press, she heaved a huge sigh and placed her phone down.

'Who said Opposites don't Attract?' she sarcastically thought.