bus rides | midoriya izuku

10 | dreamy tears

EYES LIKE IZUKU'S RAIN DIAMONDS TOO

The next day, Izuku boards the bus as if nothing happened, and by that, Aiko meant that their acquaintance or like so, didn't happen.

The tiniest prick somehow managed to tingle her sinking heart when he went to his regular seat instead of the two spaces beside her. Aiko didn't catch his green eyes when he entered nor catch him smile when he sees her. She didn't. She couldn't. The person that made her reality a daydream sat lonely where people could see but couldn't—only if one pays attention. And that's only her.

Aiko looked away, her finger fidgeting with the corner of the comic page, feeling as if their existence together was a short-term thing. Thinking that she only met and know Izuku through incidents and common interests, but an ending with no explanation of the plot. Even though they've only met for less than two weeks, Aiko wondered if they were friends at some point—when time doesn't make up for memorable words being shared through mutual bonds.

The bus was once gloomy, but his returned presence had perhaps light up the vicinity a little, though not as much, but enough for the comfort of familiarity like one fits well in society. Other passengers once made her feel as if she was really invincible in the background, but with Izuku, they made her feel invincible with him.

A hopeless sigh left her dreamy lips, closing her comic shut before proceeding to pack her bag and steadily walk down the moving bus to the empty seat beside him, plopping down with another sigh.

Izuku jolts in reaction, staring wide-eyed at a sheepishly smiling Sumire Aiko.

"A-Aiko-chan! I-I didn't notice you were on the bus!"

The smile on her lips slowly faltered, though in a joking manner.

"I'm hurt," she pouts then chuckles despite him taking it seriously. Izuku's cheeks morphed a little bit of red but eventually looks away with a distant look, making the wisteria girl paying heed on him again. "Something happened, didn't it?"

The boy instantly froze at that, a choked gasp stuck in his throat as his emerald eyes bulged out in space, only to soften in a split second when reality dawns upon him. Izuku spares a glance at her, though their contrasting eyes didn't meet, and smiles forlornly—the kind of smile Aiko admired and disliked.

"Um.. no. Actually I—"

"It's okay."

Izuku finally faced her properly, wide, round eyes meeting hers. "W-What?"

"I know you're not okay. And you don't have to tell me what happened," Aiko simply smiles, leaning back on her seat. "It's not like we're close enough to have that kind of conversati—"

"H-How would you know something happened to me?" He interrupts, rosy face enveloped with different emotions, but Aiko knows the one tugging his heartstrings from the diamonds hidden in his emerald eyes.

"I'm a reader of sorts, Izuku," she said. "Not just comics, but I can read you too."

It was silent. Accompanied with the screeching brakes, the blatant creaks of an opening door, the unwelcoming sound of footsteps, followed by the ghostly presence passing by their row of seats.

Then, Izuku burst into tears.

He looks at Aiko through thick tears, "I can finally become a hero."