𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘦𝘴

04. taijin kyofusho

[kill your social anxiety]

No matter how Rin wished it, it was always the same eyes as the villain Tempest staring her back in her reflection. When her father went to jail midst her start of middle school, it was clearer than ever before. Suddenly, her eyes gave it away, among her two younger siblings. It was her fault Raiden Hayate had been ripped from a life he'd settled down into.

So she pulled her hood up, tucking that life behind the idea that Hinata Rinko wants to save others. Really, she is still trying to save herself.

At the gate to school grounds, reporters swarmed the entrance in a mob so large Rin was sweating. She made a beeline for the entrance, panickedly pushing a woman's mic out of her face and ignoring the whines that came after.

A deep sigh escaped her as she slumped against the wall once safely inside. She pulled out her bento breakfast, considering she had time to eat in the morning and didn't want to be disrespectful on the train or while running. Natto—her favourite—with rice and soup her grandmother sent over.

"I took the courtesy of going over your marks and evaluations from yesterday," Aizawa-sensei said once they'd all seated in class. He lectured Bakugo on working like a seven year old, Midoriya on being reckless. Ashido and Aoyama charging in blindly. "And Hinata, maybe All Might dismissed it because of his energy and your overall performance, but you panicked and your emotions could have hurt your classmate. Learn to keep a cool with your quirk, you aren't learning it for the first time."

Thought invisible, Rin dropped her eyes. She could think of a few times her immediate fear had rushed out at alarming rates. That's what she came to fix.

On the list of to-dos, a class president. Studious Yaoyorozu had Rin's vote, she was the kind of level-headed smart that didn't just come from books, even if the sophistication in her every action went against the way Rin was raised to react to her type.

Her vote only got vice president, but Midoriya got president. He was well liked, for a shivering coward at the front of the class. Not like she could talk, she was the unliked, shivering coward.

Lunch came with Ochaco offering a seat but Rin awkwardly declined in favour of sitting on her own in the corner.

Getting caught up in the burdensome trouble of making friends was not in her interests. While yes, Rin trusted her judgement of people motives for why they did a lot of things... being her friend was tricky business. Betrayal, being used, being secretly bullied, for their own gain, out of guilt, Rin had met them all.

But she didn't blame them.

Those "friends" were better off if they were getting something "good" out of the friendship, because Rin knew all too well the burden she'd been on the people closest to her. They would get hurt, they'd get driven crazy, the list went on. Rin, more than anything, hated being a burden like that, watching people suffer because of her. That's why she lived alone, stayed alone.