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Months have passed since discovering the shivering truth, the most joyful and dummy guy from class 1-A was a traitor. No one would have believed it if they hadn't witnessed his escaping show, hand in hand with another student no one suspected from.
There was no doubt, no mistake, they couldn’t even blame Toga for it since the girl was seen helping them. It was heartbreaking for them all, but especially for the girl who spent the most time with the electrical user, the one who was dating a guy who ended up being a complete stranger.
She wasn’t alone in her pain, though.
There was someone else, a person she, unfortunately, didn’t want to speak to at all because he was overly annoying and infuriating.
It was no other than Monoma Neito. The only other student that fell for a traitor’s trick.
The hardest of it all was understanding his suffering, but being unable to relate to his coping mechanism; the dude kept on pissing her class off with mean comments, every time cruder and ruder.
A bomb was bound to explode with all the tension.
One particular afternoon Neito was nastier than usual, testing Bakugou's patience, the red-eyed almost beat the shit out of him, but unexpectedly the one that made him stop was Jirou herself.
Not because the obnoxious blonde didn't deserve some consequences, but because she saw that deeply hurt soul through his eyes.
Monoma probably wanted that reaction because he didn't know what else to do with himself, and the violet haired couldn't blame him, as she felt the same way…
.
"I didn't need you to stop that rabid dog, you know?"
Jirou was sitting on a bench near one of the training camps of the UA, a place not frequented by anyone at this time of the day. It was her secluded, peaceful little bubble she used to get away from everyone and deal with her throbbing heart.
"You're still going about that? It's been days," she rolled her eyes, but there was no bite in her words, "and I did it for Bakugou's sake, not yours."
That was half true, if the ash-blonde was found fighting with one of the most affected students, he would get in more trouble than the other one.
Nonetheless, Jirou did sympathize with Monoma to an extent and didn't want him to suffer unnecessarily. Not that she would ever dare to admit that out loud.
"Do you think they chose us because we were the closest substitutes?" Monoma took a seat next to her as he asked.
Jirou's eyes widened with the sudden question, yet she wasn't completely surprised about his doubts. She, too, wondered if the hair color had anything to do with it, even if it sounded stupid.
Before giving an answer, the girl took a deep breath, she didn't open up about Kaminari with anyone… There was no soul who could understand her in her inner circle, so it was pointless.
But, well, Monoma Neito was the one who knew how it was, wasn't he?
"I'm not sure. I heard he… tried to recruit you, didn't he?"
She couldn't pronounce Shinsou's name, it made her feel stupid, however, anything related to his memory made her feel so bad.
It made her think he was everything she wasn't, strong, good-looking, and most importantly, the one who had the heart of the person she had fallen for.
"Yeah, that did happen."
"Then maybe there was more to it."
Silence, both of them remained with their mouths closed.
"You know, I used to think there wasn't a thing in the world I wouldn't do for him until he revealed his plan." The guy took a pause, he wasn't looking directly at her, yet he had the need to avert his face even further from her sight as tears started dripping from his pale blue eyes.
"What about you?" Monoma said with a broken voice.
"What about me?" Jirou laughed, her eyes were glassy too from the rush of feelings contained inside of her.
Monoma glanced towards her, as they never spoke before, he couldn't quite read the expression on her face. Nonetheless, it was evident she wasn't thinking anything good.
She was thinking about the fact that Kaminari hadn't asked her to switch sides. Aside from playing with her feelings, there seemed to be no point in winning her trust.
"You were right all along, Monoma. At least about me, I'm not a top-class student, you're clearly better than me." There was no malice in her words, no making fun of the blonde.
She at least managed to keep a steady tone, her voice didn't break, even if the pain was evident. Jirou finally let out one of her harshest thoughts that were hunting her internally, something that oddly aligned with Monoma's constant pestering.
Before the blonde could muster a word, he heard the short girl sobbing. There was nothing he could think of saying, —not without sounding like a complete hypocrite—.
Without thinking about it too much, he grabbed one of her arms and pulled her into his embrace.
The tightest, yet most comforting hug Jirou had received came from no other than the annoying pest from class 1-B, what an irony, she thought.
They stayed like that for a while. Jirou allowed herself to be vulnerable in front of him and let all her sadness out.
This whole time she had waited until she was alone in her room to cry, it was soundproof after all. So it was the first time she had allowed herself to let another human see her like this after it all went down.
When the slim girl broke the hug, she realized her companion had cried too, a few tears were still falling down from Monoma's eyes. Out of reflex, she used one of her jacks to clear the remains from his face, to which he blushed.
"I-I'm sorry." She wasn't sure why she had done that or why she was apologizing for it, but she felt ashamed of touching him so casually when they weren't exactly friends.
He smiled at her, though. A kind gesture no one from class 1-A knew he was capable of doing.
"What for?" He half smiled, "This is sort of dumb, but it's really nice not needing to explain a thing because you get it. Not that anyone has expected me to explain, but you know, they have no idea what this is like."
She hummed, of course, she understood what he meant. People's pity sucks and no matter how grateful she felt for having such supporting friends around, she still had that huge void of feeling alone in her misery, a feeling she didn't have while being with the annoying boy sitting next to her.
None said another word, just letting time pass like that; sitting in silence, looking at the front, their hands slightly brushing by the side.
A gentle breeze caressed their faces, they relished in the tranquility of the moment, of not hearing anything but the other’s breathing. Jirou of course could hear some more, she noticed how calm their heartbeats had become, which was soothing in a sense.
They stayed like that until the temperature started dropping.
Then the time for the curfew approached. They knew they had to go to their own dorm, but both felt reluctant to get going.
"Can we meet like this again?" Monoma was the first to break the seemingly endless silence between them.
The two students glanced at each other sideways, not turning their heads to face properly.
There was a slight spark in those pale blue eyes, something different from the despair he normally had these days.
Was it hoping? Excitement? A sense of peace?
“Sure,” the girl replied nonchalantly, she also felt something weird creeping from inside the most profound depths of her wounded heart.
Monoma gave her a side smirk while getting up, he extended a hand to help her up, but she ignored it and simply rose from her seat, making the guy chuckle.
This understanding between the two didn’t mean much by itself, however, it connected them.
Two broken hearts that still needed time to heal found the other.
Those who played them might have wanted replacements for their lovers, but the two who were left behind didn’t.
They could wait.
Wait and mend the scars, wait and search for a place to grow something else inside their little torn hearts, wait and see if something new could flourish between the two.
Only time could tell what was to come for those who once were deceived and who now had begun to heal.