The next day at U.A. was quiet for Izuku, as usual. He moved through the halls with his earbuds in, listening to some underground rap that only he seemed to know. Everything about him screamed indifference—his walk, his posture, the way he barely acknowledged anyone around him.
Jiro, however, had started to see through the cracks in that wall he kept up. After the night at the skate park, she found herself thinking about him more. There was something undeniably intriguing about Izuku—something she couldn't ignore.
As she sat in class, pretending to focus on the lesson, her eyes drifted toward Izuku again. He sat at his desk, his hood up, staring out of the window like he was miles away from the hero training they were supposed to be absorbed in. His friends—Kaito, Ren, and Emi—were probably hanging out right now, skating somewhere, not a care in the world. And Izuku would be with them soon enough, she knew it.
Her thoughts were interrupted when Aizawa cleared his throat, announcing a mission for the day.
"Today, you'll be splitting into teams for an off-campus mission. The details will be given at the site, so be prepared for anything," he said, his usual tired tone carrying little excitement. "Group assignments are already decided."
Jiro blinked in surprise as she glanced at the list. Her team was—Izuku.
---
Hours later, the class arrived at the mission site, a rundown building on the outskirts of the city. It looked abandoned, the kind of place that had long since been forgotten by anyone who wasn't causing trouble.
Jiro and Izuku's team was tasked with surveillance and possible intervention if they encountered any suspicious activity. But as soon as they entered the building, Izuku's mood shifted. His usual aloofness turned into something a little more intense—though still nonchalant, like he was more comfortable in this shady environment than anywhere else.
As the mission dragged on, Jiro watched him from the corner of her eye. He was quieter than usual, if that was even possible. She couldn't figure out what was going through his mind, but there was a strange sense of calm about him, even though they were in a potentially dangerous situation.
At one point, they split up to cover more ground, and Jiro found herself wandering down a dark hallway alone. The air was thick with dust, and the place reeked of neglect. But what really caught her attention was the faint scent of something else—something familiar, but out of place.
It didn't take long for her to find the source. Around a corner, just outside of sight from the others, was Izuku. He was leaning against a cracked wall, his back to her, holding something in his hand. It didn't take her long to realize what it was.
A blunt.
Izuku brought it to his lips, taking a slow drag, his nonchalant demeanor still firmly in place as he exhaled a cloud of smoke into the stale air. Jiro froze, watching him for a moment. It wasn't like she hadn't seen people smoke before, but seeing Izuku—quiet, detached Izuku—doing it in the middle of a mission caught her completely off guard.
For a split second, she thought about confronting him. But then she thought better of it. Instead, she backed up quietly, deciding to give him his space. If this was how he handled stress—or whatever it was he wasn't saying—she wasn't going to pry. Not yet, anyway.
---
The mission wrapped up without much incident, and the group made their way back to U.A. in silence. Jiro kept her distance from Izuku, not wanting to make things awkward, but the image of him smoking in that abandoned building stayed with her.
Later that night, Jiro scrolled through her phone, half-distracted by social media, when she noticed something.
It was a video. From earlier.
Her heart skipped a beat as she clicked on it, watching as Izuku's friends—Kaito, Ren, and Emi—posted a video from the skate park. It showed them hanging out, laughing, and skating like they always did. But then the camera panned to Izuku, sitting casually on the curb, blunt in hand, smoke lazily curling around him. The caption? "Chillin' with the crew."
Jiro's stomach flipped. They had posted it. Publicly. And she wasn't the only one who had seen it.
Within minutes, the video had comments from their classmates—Mina, Kaminari, even Bakugo—reacting to the unexpected side of Izuku.
"Yo, Deku's got a whole other life?!" one comment read.
"Didn't know the nerd had it in him," another from Bakugo.
Jiro couldn't tear her eyes away from the screen. She had known Izuku was different, but this was more than she expected. The video was starting to gain traction, and sooner or later, the whole school was going to see it.
As the notifications rolled in, Jiro couldn't help but feel a strange mix of emotions—surprise, curiosity, and something else. Something she wasn't ready to admit.
All she knew was that Izuku Midoriya was nothing like the hero she thought she knew, and she was starting to like that.
