0𝙁𝙇𝙐𝙊𝙓𝙀𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙀ˢʰⁱⁿˢᵒᵘ

𝕣𝕦𝕟𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘ᶠⁱᵛᵉ

RUNNING —

chapter five

It had been two weeks since school started, meaning that the Sports Festival was all the rave amongst the students. Korei herself was uninterested, but she'd happily partake in it anyway. Shinsou was more interested in it than anyone else in the class, meaning that Korei was going to cheer him on either way. She probably wouldn't make it very far in the festival, being an overweight asthmatic kid with a smell quirk. She definitely wasn't hero material. But Shinsou was.

"C'mon, there's like a half a mile left. Keep running with me, Saito!" Shinsou panted out, his sides burning from the mile run the class was attempting. It was supposed to help get them in shape for the upcoming festival, but Shinsou just wanted to die.

"G-go on!" She waved, bent over with her hands desperately grasping her knees. She had already taken a puff of her inhaler, but she felt like she was going to have another asthma attack from this. A doctor's note got her out of any physical activity they attempted to put her in, but Korei was determined to stick by Shinsou's side to show support. "I ju-just need—" slow and deep breaths were taken to help calm her down, but the pain was too much. "—I need a second to-to calm down."

"I'm not leaving you. Fuck, want me to brainwash you to get you to the end?" He practically shouted, unable to speak any other way. These two were heavily out of shape.

"D-does your quir—" a large intake of air, "—quirk work like th-that?" Shinsou shrugged and Korei straightened up. The sun was glaring down on them as they stood on the sidewalk. Shinsou could spot the group of people walking further ahead of them, his calves burning severely. He couldn't see himself making it the rest of the way. "Doesn't matter! C'mon, let's just try to make it!"

"I'll pass out before we reach the finish line," he warned, a serious tone in his voice. Korei waved it off, swallowing thickly in an attempt to quench her thirst. She was just glad that this was the last thing to do before school ended. Then she could get a nice warm shower in the locker room and then head home. Dang, she had a nearly four-hour-long train ride before she got to her Gran's house to relax. "I'm gonna die."

"No! You can't die! You have to get into the hero course!" The gym uniform top was unzipped and yanked off, revealing Korei's sports bra. It was a heat of the moment thing, something she didn't think about before doing. This left Shinsou slightly flustered, forcing himself to not look down at her. "Let's go!" And with that, the two of them ran forward. Though it felt like they were going fast, they weren't. It was more of an awkward shuffle than a run, but mainly because their bodies were giving up.

Shinsou never claimed to be super athletic, in fact, that's why he failed the physical exam to get into the hero course. He relied on his quirk to get him by, but it didn't exactly work when he was facing artificial intelligence.

Korei wasn't the type to partake in physical activity. Sure, she'd do the occasional stretches just to keep her body limber but exercising wasn't something she did to pass time. Sadly, she wouldn't admit that to anyone. It made her uncomfortable when someone brought up exercise, mostly because that meant people would be watching her as she did her workouts. She wasn't interested in that.

"Shinsou! Saito! Great job, you finished the run in record time for you both!" He didn't bother to tell them that record time for them meant twenty-four minutes rather than thirty. "That's an improvement! Keep up the great work! I dismissed class a bit ago so go ahead and get cleaned up. Before you leave, your homeroom teacher would like a word with you two."

"Thank you, sensei!" Korei bowed, panting heavily. Shinsou just nodded, trying his hardest to not show that he was struggling to breathe. "Have a—" another large intake of breath, "—great day, SENSEI!" She didn't mean to shout the last part but she did.

"I'm literally about to pass the fuck out. This guy better get his head out of his ass," Shinsou grumbled as the two teens limped towards the locker rooms. Korei was starting to regain her composure, heavy breathing down to short pants.

"W-what's wrong, Shinsou-san? He's talked to you multiple times this week." She mumbled out, fanning herself. Shinsou's eyes flickered down to her, accidentally dropping lower and staring at the sweat slowly trickling down her cleavage before disappearing into her bra. He bit his bottom lip and hurriedly looked away, scolding himself for thinking about her like that.

"I'm not exactly passing the class with flying colors. Not every student can be the best." He would have nudged her arm to let her know he was talking about her but he decided against it. "I'm barely scraping by. Pretty sure I'm failing English."

"Shinsou!" She was shocked, dropping the 'san' from his name. Her hand smacked his shoulder lightly, catching his attention. "It's barely been two weeks, please tell me that you're joking."

"Nah," He shook his head, immediately relaxing when he felt the air conditioner bellowing out of the school building. The two of them rushed inside, glad to be out of that heat. "I'm failing because I didn't do the poems."

"But Shinsou-san, your poetry is beautiful!" He smirked at her praise, reaching up to brush a strand of hair off of her face. Most of her hair was sticking to her body, which most definitely irritated her, but the feeling of Shinsou's fingertip grazing her cheek sent her heart into a fit.

"That's just for you, Saito."

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