Chapter Text
A week had passed since hero agencies had extended internship opportunities to the participants of the Sports Festival. Kaminari Denki, a first-year student, paced back and forth outside the school cafeteria nervously. He looked up and saw the pretty girl with vines for hair eating a salad. She was sitting next to her friends, other girls from class 1-B. He wasn’t sure what he was going to say, he just knew he had to say something . She never gave him an answer after she beat him during the sports festival, but that was understandable. He probably wouldn’t have understood it then anyway.
Denki gathered himself and walked into the cafeteria with all of the false confidence and bravado he could muster. Shiozaki’s back was turned so she didn’t see him approaching. Two of the girls she was sitting across from looked up and giggled when they spotted him. One with black hair leaned across the table and whispered something to Ibara.
Shiozaki Ibara and the orange-haired girl she was sitting next to, Kendo Itsuka, if he remembered her name correctly, turned to look at him. Ibara smiled softly and quirked an eyebrow before turning back around to her salad. Kendou and the other girls kept watching him. It made him even more nervous than before.
Denki faltered for a moment but soldiered on. I’m already here, backing out now would be so uncool, he thought to himself. He stepped up to Ibara and sat down at the table next to her.
“Hi!” Oh, smooth move Denki, she’s totally going to be impressed with that! “I wanted to ask you-hey what are you doing?!” The girl had snatched his hand and started writing on it with a pen. Denki sat there in shock while she wrote on his hand. She let go and capped her pen, then went back to eating her salad.
“W-what is-” Denki started to stutter out, completely thrown off-kilter. He stopped talking and stared at the numbers and words on his hand. The two girls sitting across from them giggled but he couldn’t bring himself to care about being laughed at again, Ibara had set down her silverware and turned to look at him. She fluttered her eyelashes and locked her eyes with his.
"My answer is yes. I’ll go on a date with you. This is my address. Pick me up at six tomorrow evening, don't be late. Wear something nice, but not formal. A button-up shirt and a nice pair of jeans will do. Wear a belt and consider a tie. It would make my parents happy. Don't wear sneakers. Bye!" Ibara got up to take her empty tray to the dishwashers. Denki didn’t move from his seat, he couldn't believe what just happened.
The other girls all got up to leave as well, also finished with their lunches. Itsuka patted him on the back and the brown-haired girl that had been sitting across from her waved goodbye as she left. Jirou Kyoka, a girl from his class he was sort of friends with, took one of the vacant seats across from him.
"What's up Jamming Whey? Did she turn you down again?" She teased. Denki suppressed a cringe at the nickname.
"N-no. She gave me her address and told me to pick her up at six. I have a date." Denki stared at his hand for a moment longer before it finally clicked in his head. "I HAVE A DATE!" He ran out of the cafeteria whooping and hollering with joy.
Shiozaki Ibara couldn’t stop smiling as she walked back to her classroom. She could hear her friends running to catch up, but maintained her sedate pace. Setsuna reached her first, splitting into many pieces and reassembling in front of her.
“Girl what was that?!” Setsuna all but screamed.
“Tokage, you are disturbing people who are trying to study, please quiet down.”
“Oh no, You can’t distract me this time! You said yes! To a boy! You’ve shut down all the guys from our class who asked you out, what’s so impressive about this guy huh?!”
“Calm down Tokage. There’s no need to announce it to the entire school.” Itsuka interrupted the mini-rant, walking up to the pair with Kinoko in tow.
“Aw come on class prez, I need to know!” Setsuna whined. “This is a huge deal!”
“She’s kind of right, you know,” Kinoko agreed with a mischievous smile. She poked Ibara in the arm. “With the way things have been going we thought you would never agree to date a boy, much less a wannabe playboy like him.” Ibara hummed in lieu of responding. Itsuka rolled her eyes and pushed Setsuna down the hall towards their classroom.
“Stop bothering her, she’ll tell us about him later when we aren’t on our way to being late!” She gently scolded the other girls.
“But Ituska-”
“No buts! If you wanted to interrogate Shiozaki you should have submitted your choice for internship earlier!”
“Aww! I’m not going to forget about this Shiozaki! I’ll get to the bottom of it if it’s the last thing I do!” Setsuna vowed as Itsuka shoved her into 1-B’s classroom. Ibara and Kinoko followed them inside. The bell rang and all thoughts of Ibara’s potential boyfriend were momentarily forgotten.