How Do I Feel About You?

Chapter 5: Teenagers Doing Teenage Things

"Ochako-chan~!" Someone behind her sung her name playfully. Uraraka turned around to see the pink, bubbly student herself, Mina Ashido. She was waving her hand up high, a regular greeting for the bouncy hero-in-training.

Uraraka, as well as the other students of Class 1-A, were walking towards the high school from their dorm rooms, a plethora of students exchanging elongated yawns and groans as the early morning started. Uraraka slowed her pace, allowing Ashido to catch up to her.

"Mina-chan! Goodmorning," she replied, holding in a yawn creeping up in her throat. She had only gotten a couple of hours of sleep before her alarm rudely interrupted her from the weird dream she was having, not wanting to get up from her bed at all.

"I didn't get a chance to talk to you yesterday after practice! So...how'd it go?" she cheesed, now matching Uraraka's pace. Her facial expression softened, a tint of red appearing on her cheeks from embarrassment. Mina perked her face up into a sly grin.

"'Chako-chan...you sly girl," she continued, nudging her arm lightly with her elbow. Uraraka's face grew a deeper shade of red.

"I-It wasn't like that! In fact, it just made me even more confused about...everything," the last of her words trickled out softly, leaving Ashido a little dumbfounded. She raised an eyebrow and lowered her head to view the expression on her flustered friend's face. Uraraka was cupping her face now, trying to hide her reddened cheeks.

"Did it...not work?" she questioned, placing a finger below her lower lip. Uraraka looked at her with doe eyes, hoping that it would be a satisfying enough response. Ashido sighed.

"Then we'll just have to try harder! Mm-hm!" she squealed, putting an arm around her friend. Uraraka let out a shuttered sigh and put on a small smile.

While her conversation with Bakugou yesterday did help her put things into perspective (both her feelings and her combat skills), she still couldn't register what the pit in her stomach was telling her everytime she thought of Deku. The fight was more of Ashido's idea than her own; she just added in the more practical aspect of the reason why she wanted to fight him to be more believable. In truth, her ultimate goal was to flesh out her confusing feelings about Deku, which were getting even more complicated the more she hung around him. Yeah, maybe space was all she needed to figure these things out.

"Mina, how about we stop this for a bit? At least until I figure out how I feel about Deku," she fumbled with her fingers nervously. Ashido planted a finger on her lips.

"I thought for sure you liked him though, 'Chako. What changed?" She waited for her response for a few seconds. Uraraka parted her lips after a few moments of silence.

"Well, I was talking to Bakugou—"

"To WHO?!" Ashido exclaimed a little too loudly, Uraraka jumping at the sudden outburst.

"I-I know! It was weird of me to do! But we were both on the elevator and I was just so desperate to talk to someone about this—"

"Ochako-chan, hold on a sec," Ashido jumped in front of her and placed both of her hands on her shoulders. "You're telling me King Explode-a-lots actually stopped to talk to you about Deku?!"

"Well, it wasn't easy," she said sheepishly. Ashido cocked an eyebrow.

"I—well he gave me some advice on what I should do and..."

Ashido kept staring at her with a look that said go on.

"I don't know! But now my feelings are all over the place and it definitely didn't help that we had an unplanned meet up last night—"