moving up

Chapter 3

Momo doesn't really need this job, but she's doing her best with it anyway. Her entire life, her parents wanted her to have the best of everything, and she went to all the best schools, had the best of everything money could buy. After all, her family has money, and lots of it. There's no need for her to work a retail job in a small discount store, but, during a gap year, that is exactly what she decides to do.

She hasn't worked here for too long, but from the beginning, she's determined to prove herself as the best employee she can be. Here, her family's influence doesn't matter one bit, and everything that she achieves, she knows that she achieves on her own merits. Nobody cares who she is or what her last name is, and that is why she throws herself into her work from day one, and is noticed by management very early on.

That is why she is considered a reliable employee, and why she is one of their better sales floor trainers. On the evening that she trains Izuku, she teaches him everything he needs to know about his responsibilities on the floor, and even Katsuki, one of their pricklier managers, has no complaints with the job she does. It feels good to work there, and know that she is doing her best, and that that means something.

Really, the entirety of the management team seems to think highly of her, even their difficult to read store manager who spends most of his shifts hidden away in the office. Aizawa is certainly an odd one, but from what she can tell, he approves of her. Katsuki trusts her not to "screw shit up," and Tenya often praises her, always so enthusiastic about things that it is nearly embarrassing. And Shoto...

Shoto.

Shoto gives her small smiles and tells her that she's fitting in great in a warm tone of voice she doesn't expect from someone as serious looking as he is. Shoto doesn't think less of her during times when she gets flustered and messes something basic up, and instead claims that it happens to everyone. Shoto is always so kind and helpful that Momo always looks forward to working with him, and she's starting to understand that her feelings for him are less than appropriate for an employee and their manager.

She doesn't want to admit to anyone, not even herself, that she has a crush on him, but it's getting hard not to acknowledge it. Of course, falling for him is not at all part of the plan for proving herself as an employee and she knows that, if she wants to continue on that path, she has to ignore her feelings and try to shake them. They could never have a relationship as they are and, what's more, he can never find out how she feels about him.

She isn't an expert on romance, but even she can tell that there's no way she comes close to deserving someone like him, money aside. Even if they weren't coworkers, she's sure he would want nothing to do with her if he knew that she liked him in that way, which is all the more reason to make sure that her crush stays a complete secret.

Which is easier said than done, she comes to realize. Though she thinks she's doing a good job, it isn't long before Kyoka figures her out. Kyoka is the stock room leader, and the two of them often have to talk about stock placement on the sales floor, which eventually leads to them becoming friends, and leads to Kyoka figuring out her crush very easily.

"It's pretty obvious that you like him," she says one day, and though Momo tries to deny it, it's impossible. However, she doesn't get her to say much else on the subject, only that she doesn't judge her for it, and that Shoto is conventionally attractive and is nice to her, so it's not like it doesn't make sense.

For the most part, they avoid mentioning it, because Momo really doesn't want it to get out to anyone else, and she tries to tone down her behavior in any way from there, but there are times when she discusses it with Kyoka because it is nice to have a confidante. Kyoka, at least, doesn't think she's a bad person for having feelings for a coworker and not being able to get rid of them, but Momo has reason to suspect that that's because of personal experience.

She doesn't know all the details, because most people don't, but she's heard rumors about a time before she started working, not long after a cashier named Denki began working there. Apparently, whenever he and Kyoka were in the same room, they did nothing but bicker and tease one another, and it wasn't long before it was obvious that there was... something going on between the two of them.

Whatever it was, nobody knows exactly how long it lasted or when it ended, but eventually, it was clear that it had ended, and that the two of them were suddenly colder around one another. If they had to be in the same room, there was none of the teasing, and very little conversation, and they avoided being in the same room whenever they could. At least, that's how things have been the entire time Momo has worked here, and it's almost hard to believe that the two were ever any different.

She doesn't feel like it's her place to ask Kyoka for details, so she doesn't, and instead does what she can to keep Kyoka from asking her about her disaster of a one-sided crush.

"It's not like I've told anyone," she says one day, when Momo shushes her, asking her what would happen if Shoto heard from someone else. "Well, except for Koji."

"What?" Koji is one of the stock associates, a soft spoken man that Momo doesn't really know much about.

"I didn't mean to, it's just, he was in the room while he were talking about it," she says with a shrug.

"He...he was?"

"You know how he is, he fades into the background sometimes." Again, she shrugs. "Listen, he's a good guy, and he's quiet anyway. He's not going to tell anyone."

"I guess," Momo says, still not completely convinced. It isn't that she has any reason to distrust Koji, and if Kyoka says that he won't tell anyone, she has no reason to think that he will. But she still doesn't want anyone to know that she has a thing for Shoto, because it is, simply put, incredibly embarrassing.

Everything else at her job is going well; in fact, things are going great for her, other than the fact that she's falling for one of her managers. If it weren't for that tiny detail, that feels absolutely enormous, she would say that everything is perfect. But until she manages to get over Shoto, and be able to focus everything on her work, she will continue to feel guilty.

She just hopes that that's easier than it seems like it's going to be.