Point Based Dating

A Week Off From Quests: Part 1

    Without the anticipation of who is to be doing something with Bakugou, the students felt a bit weird. It's like they were missing something.

    Bakugou also felt weird. For three weeks he had something more than studying to look forward to. He knew he should be studying. He knew it was important, especially for his future. Still, it was nice to have something different.

    "You look down, mon ami." Aoyama says.

    He and Mineta were in Bakugou's room, playing a game of shogi on the floor. Aoyama was losing badly, but he wasn't upset about it. Mineta was actually, surprisingly, among the best in the class when it comes that game. The only one he regularly loses to is Momo, and that's because he is a massive simp.

    "He's just upset that he isn't going on more dates, that lucky bastard." Mineta says after successfully taking one of Aoyama's pieces as his own.

    "That's not it." Bakugou says. He closes his text book and turns around to look at their board. "It just feels a bit boring now."

     "Of course. You had something different going on every day for almost a whole month. Now you are on day three of doing the same thing. Your only difference is what you are working on." Mineta says.

    "You should take your nose out of the book for a bit. You still have the teacher's permission to leave campus on weekdays, right? Let us take you somewhere." Aoyama says.

    "I only have that permission when it pertains to quests. Not to use whenever I want." Bakugou says.

    "You're no fun." Mineta says, having been excited at the thought of getting to go somewhere on a weekday.

     Before Bakugou could argue, there was a knock at the door. He gets up out of his chair, and goes around the two that were taking up quite a bit of his floor space just to get to the door. On the other side stood a very nervous looking Sero. What could this be about?

    "Do you need something?" Bakugou asks.

    "Er, yeah. It's about the quest." Sero says.

    Bakugou stands aside to let him in. This is the first time someone has come to him about this whole competition thing. Is Sero planning to drop out or something?

    Sero sits on the bed just like he had earlier this week. He looked over at Mineta and Aoyama, who were both no longer focused on the game. Their current favorite reality show is now playing out in front of them? They have been blessed.

   "Do you need them to leave?" Bakugou asks Sero.

    "No. They can stay. It's not really that personal or anything." Sero says. "I'm just shocked that you are letting them hang out in here."

    "Eh. I can't really hang out with anyone competing since that would give them an unfair edge. So these two idiots took the spot. So, what's up?"

   "Oh! Right. Um. My favorite food is an orange." Sero says.

    Bakugou sits down and looks at Sero with the same confusion that the other two were giving him.

    "Why are you telling me this now? It's not Saturday yet, and your group hasn't been chosen." Bakugou says.

    "Do you not see the problem?" Sero asks.

    "No. I don't see a problem with oranges being your favorite food. I actually already knew they were your favorite food. Every time I made grocery runs you would ask me to buy you a big bag of oranges." Bakugou says.

    "You said we would make our favorite foods as everyone's dinner. I can't make an orange. Plus oranges aren't a meal." Sero explains.

    "The orange becomes the ingredient then." Mineta says.

    "Mineta is right. The orange is now an ingredient. You can make many things with oranges. Desserts, sauces, salads, and many other things." Bakugou explains. "All I asked is for you guys to figure out what your favorite food is this week, and possibly figure out what you'll make."

    "Oh. That makes sense. A lot of our classmates have been freaking out over this. They'll be relieved to hear that it's ok to have something not a meal as the answer." Sero says.

    "Don't tell them." Bakugou says before Sero could get up and leave. Now Sero was shocked. Why couldn't he tell them? "If they can't come to me with their real favorite food, then they fail the first part of the challenge and don't get the points. You already came to me with your real favorite food, so you pass. Granted it wasn't in the allotted for it, but you were still honest. If they can't be honest without you easing the pressure for them, then they can't pass."

    "Oh. So you worded it that way on purpose. This was a test." Sero's eyes widened as he realized what was going on. Then he smiled wide. "This was a test and I passed."

    "Yep. Congratulations." Bakugou says.

   Sero's smile falls as quickly as it came, which shocked the trio. He was so happy, so what now?

    "Do the oranges have to be the main dish, or can I come up with a side or desert and then make something else?" Sero says.

    "Don't worry about that. It can be whatever you want. Oranges just have to be used somehow that night. And if you can't think of anything then I'll just come up with something for you to make." Bakugou says.

    "Oh. Good. Then I'll try finding something to make online that involves oranges." Sero says before leaving the room.

    After he left, Bakugou found the notebook for Sero. He wrote down the points he would have gotten for telling him the food and made a note stating what those were for on a sticky note that he placed on the page.

    "Better do that before I forget." Bakugou says.

    He puts the notebook back up and pucked his notes back up. They still seemed far more boring compared to other things, but he knew he had to study as much as possible.

    Seeing that Bakugou was once again focused on his studying, the other two decided to go back to their game. At least they had had an interesting distraction.