Villainous

Chapter Three - Stalker

With five minutes until lunch started, Ochako left the bathroom after she'd calmed down. No longer crying, she began making her way to the cafeteria door. She silently practiced her excuse to anyone who asked where she was for the past few hours. For obvious reasons, she couldn't say: "I was being briefed for a secret infiltration mission!"

As Ochako walked through the double doors leading to the cafeteria, she was surprised to see Tsu standing there. Keeping her excuse in mind, Ochako smiled warmly and greeted her worrying friend.

"Hey Tsu!"

"Oh there you are. You missed two classes Ochako! You said you'd only be gone for a few minutes." Tsu said quickly. Her brow was furrowed in confusion as she scanned her friend's face.

"Sorry, I told them about my suit, and that only took ten minutes, but then I got roped into trying out tech and modeling suits for their whole department." Ochako said, rubbing the back of her neck. "I didn't mean to worry you." She sighed, meeting her friend's eyes sadly. This part was 100% the truth. She didn't like making people worry about her, especially not people she was close to.

Tsu sighed, though it was hard to tell if it was out of relief or something else entirely. "People always ask you to do stuff like that because you don't know how to say 'no'." The frog-like girl said.

"I just don't want to upset anyone, I know how to say 'no'. I've always told you when I didn't feel like going out somewhere." Ochako reasoned. Okay, maybe she had a slight overcommitment problem, but it wasn't anything she couldn't handle.

"You just missed two classes to help out our entire mechanics and suit department!" Tsu almost laughed at the situation. She was glad her friend was so helpful and caring, but at the same time, it was sort of a character flaw. Ochako cared too much at times, like today, and tried to make everyone happy when she needed to focus on herself.

"Okay, fine. I have a little problem with helping everyone, but that doesn't matter! I'm hungry right now." The gravity hero complained, turning to walk towards the lunch-line that awaited her. She wasn't hungrier than usual, if anything the briefing ruined her appetite, she just wanted to leave the conversation behind. Because okay, maybe the entire reason she was losing sleep for the foreseeable future and lying to everyone about practically everything was because she couldn't just say no when a group of pro-heroes told her she was perfect for a mission.

That wasn't relevant though!

Tsu sat down beside her, watching curiously as her friend scarfed down her meal and stood up. "I'm going to go train while everyone finishes lunch. I need to make up for lost time." Ochako said to Tsu, before running off.

This wasn't entirely strange for Ochako, she was always trying her hardest in class and putting in the extra work. Tsu knew she'd be a great hero one day, if she could finally find a way to overcome her blindingly obvious feelings for a certain green-haired boy and maybe get rid of her inability to decline requests while she was at it.

Tsu thought about following the gravity hero and helping her train, but she knew Ochako didn't like being interrupted once she got into the rhythm of something. So, the frog-like girl moved her meal to the next table over and talked with her other friends as the small group ate their lunches.

- - - - -

It was 12:15 when Ochako finished her lunch and left the cafeteria. She didn't have an exact destination, and what she was doing wasn't exactly training, so she was glad when she didn't see her friend following after her. She eventually found a secluded spot behind the school, right beside one of the hardly used back exits. Ochako sat down in the grass with her back to the wall and pulled out her phone. She wanted to be ready when she went searching later, so she decided to plan a route in advance.