TIME STOPS | BNHA x male! reader

5 - sweet strangers

/ please forgive me, this was pushing 3000 words, it took forever/

8:12 P.M. JST      Upstairs, Ichino residence

          You stood at the top of the steps, mentally preparing yourself for whatever was below. Maybe you were just thinking too much? Probably but you paid no attention to your most reasonable thoughts. You probably should have with how long you had been standing there but this was all too late. No more 'what if' or 'I should have', it was time. You took one last breath and made sure to straighten your posture as you walked down the stairs. You tried to hold yourself with grace as Naomi often did, mimicking some of her movements you had seen before. Keeping your head high and your shoulders low, without worry. The feeling was calm but foreign to you, though it made you smile softly. 

          As you became within view of people, some clapped or did little cheers as a congratulations. You didn't know how to respond so you just looked around and waved, continuing to smile. It was your grand entrance of sorts. You didn't particularly enjoy all the attention but it was fine. You appreciated the amount of thought that went into the party, even down to the colors on the decorations which were most your favorites. Nothing strikes you as overwhelming more than the crowd which was much larger than expected but otherwise you were sure this would go just fine. As long as you didn't exert your energy to socializing too much. 

          As you entered the crowd you could feel eyes burning their stare into your being. It was unnerving to you, it made you shiver just the slightest and wonder how many people knew you now. How many people knew you from being curious or being heroes or from the media always having such a watchful eye on you. It was wild to think about it. How many could be paparazzi or did they even let just anyone in? You highly doubted that but still part of your mind wondered all of this. You even wondered if you should be so deep in your thoughts if you were still walking through a sea of people. You felt so out of place with your weird fashion sense and weird vibes you probably gave others. 

          Maybe you were overthinking all this? You definitely were. As you lifted your head to the crowd and came back to the world, you noticed how there were quite a few people your age sitting across the room. Most of them sat in little cliques of their own but one stood out to you. Hara was talking with them which only made you curious as to who they were, as you had never thought of what Hara's outside life could be like. You stopped to look, there where 3 people from the exam and 2 others you had never seen before.

          You decided to talk to them. Hara was your friend after all and you were guessing these were mostly people who either wanted to be heroes or applied to UA. You were greeted by two very kind smiles as you head towards the group. Hara was the first to greet you, "Hi [your name]" he spoke softly, you could tell he was being selective and careful with his tone of voice and choice of words. You wondered if you should start calling him by his first name, as he always did so with you. But then again that was simply because you gave no other name for him to call you besides your first. You didn't like the formality he spoke to you with, it scared you in a way.

          "Hey Hara, who are your friends?" You looked at them curiously. You already knew Kawaguchi and Akiyama, but you remained unsure of the name of the other girl from your exam and had no idea who those two others were at all. 

          Hara gave a short glance to them all, seeing Akiyama smile and nod to you, but the rest, besides Kawaguchi, just shrugged. "Well it seems you already know some of them. But I'd be glad to introduce the rest." He placed his hand on the shoulder of the girl next to him. "This is Yoshida Manami, next to Kawaguchi is Tsukiyomi Eimi and next to her is Kuroba Akiyasu." The red haired girl next to Hara gave a friendly smile while the other two simply said hello or waved.