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Tetsurô had spent his break between his first and second year at UA in complete bliss since he had already gotten the news that his next door neighbour and childhood friend Kenma had been accepted there as well. They had, as usual, been joined at the hip during the these two weeks and he had to admit that he hadn’t suspected a thing. It’s only on the first day, for the entrance ceremony that he had gotten the first warning sign aka Kenma hadn’t met him at the door to head to school together. It had been unusual for them since as long as Tetsurô could remember they had always taken that path together when possible. Frowning all the way, he still was completely clueless as to why Kenma would have gone ahead. He arrived quite early, scanning through the crowd of excited first years for a distinct mop of mid-length black hair but was once again unsuccessful. Deciding to go directly confront him in his classroom, he looked at the assignments for his childhood friend’s name only to freeze, gaping when he finally found it.
Kenma knew he couldn’t hide this from Kuro for much longer but still, as he sat at his desk in class 1-B of the General Departments of UA, his legs didn’t stop shaking in anticipation. He took a deep breath to try to calm himself and just at this moment, as if on cue, he heard loud footsteps coming his way and the familiar, if unusually angry voice spoke up.
“Kozume Kenma !”
Instead of looking up to face the situation, he buried his face in his crossed arms on his desk though he couldn’t help but roll his eyes as his friend had taken his mom’s habit of calling his full name whenever she was angry at him.
A pair of long legs stopped right in front of him and the slap of a palm against his desk made him jump, uncovering his face. Two black eyes stared angrily at his and the hint of hurt prevented him from trying to avoid his gaze.
“What are you doing here, Kenma ?”
A moment passed before he got the courage to reply.
“It’s my assigned classroom.”
Kuro gritted his teeth, trying to reel in the anger but Kenma could already feel the desk melting.
“Why the General Studies ?? What happened ? Did you fail ?”
His voice cracked at the last word and Kenma knew he couldn’t keep it up anymore.
“I.. I never applied to Heroics.”
He had played this conversation countlessly in his mind and mainly Kuro’s reaction but he had to admit that even with all this preparation, he felt his heart ache. The crestfallen look in his dearest friend’s face was almost too much to bear.
He carefully watched as the hurt let place to incomprehension and then turned blank.
“Was telling even one of the option or was always supposed to find it like that ?”
It was low, but Kenma thought that he probably deserved this comment but before he could reply he got cut off.
“And please don’t feed me the ‘It depends’ bullshit. You knew how the options would play out and you still did nothing.”
The younger boy’s eyes widened as he realised what was going to come next. It had been one of the options, and it was simultaneously the best and worst one.
“You know, I really believed in you. I was ready to help you through it all so that you could gain confidence and save people and be able to become a Hero. But really right now all I can think about is all the moments I was stupidly getting excited on my own about childish, naive dreams of our future as Heroes and you just stayed there and said nothing.”
He let out a dry laugh and Kenma’s heart constricted a bit more. He hadn’t seen that one coming.
“I suppose you already know, but don’t bother showing up from now on.”
Fists clenched to prevent his rage from doing more damaged, he swiftly got out of the classroom barely avoiding collinding with the homeroom teacher.
Kenma sat back down, looking at the perfectly hand-shaped hole in his desk and soon enough he saw as tears fell right through it and onto the floor below.
He had made the right decision. He needed that statement he had been repeating to himself for months now to be true. He had already known what was going to happen, but he hadn’t been ready for it.
Shoving his hand in the pocket of his uniform, he started playing with the little micro the League of Villains had put on him to make sure he kept his word.