𝓼𝓮𝓷𝓼𝓲𝓽𝓲𝓿𝓮 ~ 𝓲𝔃𝓾𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓪

cold soba

"I forgot how quiet life could be," Mina admitted to the starry sky. The city was asleep below her. She could see the U.A campus not too far from here if she squinted hard enough. The snow from earlier had been replaced with small puddles of water, but the wintery chill remained. She shuddered and brought her hands into her jacket.

She closed her eyes, zoning everything out except the sound of the wind howling in the night. Everything seemed so far away; this was the peace Mina had been fighting for. Her peace didn't last long; she began to turn away from the balcony. Her mind started sorting through excuses to tell everyone inside.

Suddenly, the door to the rooftop swung open, and a familiar freckled face rushed through, out of breath. He leaned against the doorframe, taking a second to catch his breath, when a wide grin spread across his face.

"You didn't like the soba?" He had moved slightly away from the doorframe and walked towards the girl.

Her lips curled into a smile, and she began to walk towards him.

---

Mina had nestled herself in a small corner of the library. Her dorm had proved to not be the best place for studying now that Kyoka's band had started practicing again. It was only two days out of the week, but Mina had a quiz on foreign diplomacy the next day, and she wasn't all that interested in the lecture today. The textbook she needed was on two shelves above her. Determined to get it, she pushed her chair up against the bookcase and began to step on the chair.

"If you needed help, you could have just asked, Mina." A voice called. She nearly fell off the chair but regained her balance and clutched to the bookshelf.

"Jesus, Kiri," she sighed. "You nearly scared me, man."

"I think I did, but whatever you say, Mina," He snickered. His little comment made her blood boil a little, but she decided to play along with his antics. He made his way over to the bookshelf and offered a hand. "Need help getting down?" She rolled her eyes but took the redhead's hand as she jumped off the chair.

"I need Settling Arguments for the Sake of the World, Vol. 1," she yawned. "Wasn't you paying attention to the lecture today?" He nodded and pushed the chair over.

"I don't see it." He frowned.

"It's the one next to the pink book, two shelves above you," she pointed out. He nodded and grabbed the book.

"Y'know, this reminds me of when someone in our middle school scaled the bookshelves to jump someone." He chuckled. "Man, those were the times." He tossed the book back to Mina.

"I have no recollection of this." She scoffed.

"What!?" He laughed. Mina couldn't tell why he found this so funny. There he was, dieing from a fit of laughter in the library, everyone giving menacing glares at the pair. "You saw what was happening and tackled me so I wouldn't get hit by all the flying books!"

"No recollection," she shrugged. Kirishima scratched the back of his head and looked around.

"Man, that bums," He shoved his hands into his pockets and sighed. "It was one of the few good memorable parts of middle school, for me anyway," he said hurriedly. Kirishima was always dicey around the subject of middle school. Mina personally blocked most of it out of her mind since those were the years her parents were going through a divorce. She would ask him about it one day, just not today. She sat back down with her book and offered him a smile, signaling the end of the conversation.

"Well, I'm going to get back to work." She tapped on the table. Something was on his mind, but if he didn't want to talk about it, he didn't have to. "I'll see you around, Kiri." She gave a little wave and buried her nose in her textbook.