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20. Dad Jokes

Rule 50: Manners. Just manners.

Walking out of the classroom that afternoon was an interesting experience. She hadn't noticed it during the morning, but during her last two lessons Otsuka had definitely seen Bakugou turn around to look at her more than once, and considering he didn't usually pay much— if any— attention to her, it was quite concerning.

Trying not to suspiciously eye him right back, she decided to pack a little slower than usual. Every other day, Bakugou was the first person out of the classroom with Otsuka close on his tail to get to her catchup lesson as quickly as possible but not today. Today, Bakugou was discreetly glancing back at her, matching her slower pace. Alright, that was definitive proof right there, something was up.

Otsuka glanced around, considering who she might be able to ask for help, except she'd delayed too long and most people were already gone. She preferred to avoid any sort of confrontation with anyone, let alone Bakugou the human bomb whose first choice of hero name was 'King Explosion Murder' who also required a muzzle and chains after the festival because of his extreme anger at how the last match went— at least, that was what she'd heard.

Relief soothed her fast-flowing blood as he finally walked out of the classroom. So much for 'definitive proof'. She'd just been imagining things, brain running off with the fairies. She needed to keep her head in the game.

Checking the clock and doing some quick mental maths, she realised her stalling had left her only eight minutes before she had to be at her catchup lesson. Oops. Otsuka sped up her packing and wove her way through the desks, saying goodbye to a few people as she hurried out. 

Even as her feet swung her through the thinning crowds of students emptying out for the day, her mind wandered to what she'd get to do in the catch up today, she hoped Nezu wasn't planning a surprise visit again. He'd done it a few times now and every 'evaluation' or 'appraisal' or 'simply just out of curiosity, young Otsuka' left her feeling like she'd never be anything more than a deadly science experiment.

She didn't like Nezu much— it wasn't like she hated him, or anything, she just wasn't particularly fond of him and generally mildly discomforted by his presence. But she owed him for letting her join the school, and paying for everything she needed, and not mentioning her parent situation, so she went along with all the demonstrations he asked for without complaint, it was all stuff she was used to anyway. People had asked much more of her in the past.

She turned sharply, a hand hovered where her left shoulder had been. "Oi!"

Stepping back away from the sudden arm, Otsuka's feet shifted into a defensive stance. One armed stayed close to her chest, the other further out to create and enforce distance, palms flat because her knuckles would almost certainly break before she managed to do any real damage with her fists.

"Bakugou!" she exclaimed, dropping her arms (even though she was half-tempted to keep them up) as she took deep breaths to calm down. "Don't sneak up on people like that!" She rolled the shoulder he'd almost grabbed, tracing careful fingers over the back of it until it felt less like somebody else was about to grab her by it.

He clicked his tongue. "When we were eavesdropping-"

"You were eavesdropping," Otsuka corrected, "I was lost." All she wanted to do was get to her lesson. This wasn't really the time for him to be bringing up the festival.