(BNHA) The Path He Chooses Book 2: Scary Pasts

Chapter 15: Nejire Hado (Part 5)

FLASHBACK

"Why him? There are way better guys." A girl said.

"What makes him so special?" A guy said.

"Did you hear that Nejire was crying? Yeah, apparently, she's in the bathroom right now."

Those 15 words had Izuku running right back into the school building, up the stairs, and on the hallway for the 3rd years.

FLASHBACK END

Upon hearing that, Izuku ran back Into the school building. This whole thing was partially his fault, he couldn't let her think it was her fault when it wasn't. He had to do something, had to comfort her. 

The hallways were empty since school had just ended, and clubs didn't exist in Hero schools, so luckily he wouldn't get caught.

He didn't know where the girl's bathroom was, but he would find it. He searched for about 10 minutes before he finally found it. Taking a deep breath to collect himself, he reluctantly walked into the girl's bathroom. He really hoped there weren't any other girls in there, because god forbid he get caught walking into the girl's bathroom. 

Before he entered the bathroom, however, he was stopped by a voice. 

"Midoriya, what are you doing?" Crap, he'd been caught. He turned around to see, Mineta? What was he doing in this hallway? More importantly, why hadn't he seen him? Maybe he was too short for Midoriya to see him.

"I-I'm." Midoriya tried to explain himself but he couldn't. Mineta looked between the girl's bathroom and Midoriya who was right in front of it, and his face changed to one of understanding.

"Ohhhh, I see. I knew you were a fellow 'man of culture', go ahead, I won't tell a soul." Mineta saluted to Midoriya and sped off down the hallway.

Great, now Midoriya was already misunderstood. Oh well, Midoriya didn't have anything else to lose, other than his dignity. So, he walked into the bathroom to hear crying. It hurt his heart to hear her cry like that. 

It wasn't even a cry of acceptance, she didn't sound like she accepted the fact that she was upset, her cries were soft, and a bit muffled. As if she was trying not to bother anyone. Slowly walking up to the stall she was in, Izuku knocked on the door, and Nejire gasped, and her cries quieted down a bit.

"Hado-san, are you there?" His quiet voice was the only one heard in the bathroom. Soon after, Nejire responded, her voice carrying that of surprise.

"Izuku? W-What are you d-doing here? You know this is the girl's bathroom right?" She sniffled.

"Y-Yes, I am aware, I-I wanted to see if you were ok?" Stupid, she obviously wasn't ok, that was a dumb question to ask.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She lied, Izuku didn't believe that though.

"W-Well, I don't believe you, a-and I'm not leaving until you feel better." Nejire let a small part of her mouth turn into a smile at that, even though his tact was a bit off, she found it sweet. Izuku slid down the stall door before speaking again.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked. They sat in silence before Nejire spoke.

"I-I'm just.....tired. I'm so t-tired of everything, I tried so hard, so hard to pick my life back up, but it never works out, sure, I have friends. But that only goes so far, what's the point of having friends to comfort you, if you can't get over it yourself." 

Izuku didn't know 90% of what she was talking about, but she seemed to use this opportunity to vent, so Izuku let her.

"I-I don't know m-much of what you mean, b-but I do get what you mean when you say you're tired. I've felt that way many times before." He said, thinking about his time in junior high school. 

"N-Nothing is easy, and some p-people get dealt with some bad cards in life, but you shouldn't get up, you should press on. Do you have any goals?" Izuku asked.

"Yeah, I want to become a Hero, a-and, I want to get over my fear." Izuku didn't know what she meant when she talked about her fear, but he was happy that she no longer crying.

"Then focus on those goals, don't let what anyone does or say get in the way of that. A-And if you ever feel like this again, f-feel free to talk to me again, or any of your friends." Izuku felt like his job was done, she was no longer crying, so he got up, and left the bathroom, Nejire didn't know he was gone though.

"You know, Izuku, thank you. The truth is, I-" She proceeded to tell no one about her backstory, about what she had gone through before she'd come to U.A, and about her relationship with her mother, when he didn't respond, she opened the stall and looked around, only to find Izuku not there, she chuckled to herself.

'Thank you, Izuku.' She thought to herself, her heart beating a bit faster than usual. 

LATER THAT DAY

Izuku was lying in his bed, he had recently come to a conclusion. Ever since he had come into contact with Nejire, he had only been causing more trouble for her. For example, when he tried to force her to open up, he'd only done more harm than good, and when he went to apologize, even though he knew it was the right thing, this whole thing had happened, which resulted in a crying Nejire, something that Izuku didn't want to see again. 

So, he decided to stay away from Nejire from now on, for her own good. He didn't want to mess up her life any more than it already was. She had friends she could count on, which meant that he didn't need to be there.

Plus, he was going to be at a training camp pretty soon, so he wouldn't be speaking to Nejire regardless. Well, he basically told her to come to him if she needed to vent again, and he did mean that. But he'd just stop openly seeking her out. God forbid something like this to happen again. 

He wondered why someone would even do something like that. It wasn't any of their business. But then again, it was their fault for getting that close to each other in a classroom of all places. So, Izuku turned over, closed his eyes, and waited for the next day to come.