The Ultimate Unknown

Three

Ena POV

After some time studying and talking with Hajime, we decided that it was getting a little too late, so we cleaned up our mess and I walked Hajime to the door.

"Hey Ena, did you want to walk to school together in the morning? I'll wait for you at the bus stop."

I smiled brightly and said "Yeah of course! I'll make sure to get up a little early. I take forever to get ready and I don't want to have you waiting."

"No worries I won't mind the wait. I asked because walking to school will give us more time to see each other, besides eating lunch and walking home together."

"Yeah that's a great idea! See you later Hajime"

After Hajime wished me a good night, I immediately took a hot shower and headed to bed. Before turning off the lamp near my bed, I thought about how well things seem to be turning out. I had absolutely no one to make me feel comfortable at school, but ever since Hajime and I became friends, I look forward everyday to seeing him at school - and now I even get to walk with him beforehand!

Without further thought, my room echoed with the simple click of my lamp turning off - and my room and eventually my mind filled with silence and darkness.

*THE NEXT DAY*

I stood on the crowded bus, holding the pole next to me for dear life. I'm slightly out of breath - this morning was hell. I slept 10 minutes into my alarm. As soon as I woke up, I started panicking and rushing around trying to gather my things, and without thinking I tripped down the stairs. Luckily I didn't injure anything and I was able to catch the bus in time.

I hope Hajime isn't annoyed by how late I am...

Finally the bus came to its stop. I rushed out the door and I saw that Hajime was waiting patiently with his bag in his hand. I ran up to him and I started talking so fast trying to explain what happened this morning - at one point I couldn't even keep up with my own words. Suddenly Hajime grabs both of my cheeks and squeezes them in his hand as he looked at me with a neutral expression.

"Calm down" he said with a hint of amusement on his face. "Here."  He reached in his bag and pulled out a warm breakfast bagel. "I had a feeling you wouldn't actually be on time, so I picked this up just in case."

I took the bagel out his hand and immediately started digging into it. "Thanmfk youmf" I said with my mouth full of dough.

We started walking towards school and I blushed thinking about his kind gesture just now.

"Hajime, let's say if I was on time this morning and I already had a nice snack to eat, what would you have done with that bagel then?"

"Then I'd just have it myself."

"Really?" I asked surprisingly. Honestly, I'm not sure what I was expecting him to say instead.

"Yeah, and anyways I'm glad I let you have it - you'll need the strength considering how exhausting it must be dealing with Ultimates every day."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "You literally have no idea and honestly you wouldn't want to know."

After some time, we finally approached the gate of Hopes Peak Academy. Hajime and I said our goodbyes and agreed like always to have lunch together, and he reassured me that he would be waiting at the gate after school to walk home. As we parted ways, I looked around and realized people were staring at us. I continued walking up the school steps and the looks and whispers seemed to intensify. And then I understood exactly what was going on. The idea that an Ultimate was seen hanging out with a reserve course student probably weirded out some of the students.

I took a deep breath and decided to ignore the glances that came my way.

Well, today's off to a good start...