Chapter Text
Living in a world with soulmates is… interesting to say the least.
The strings showed up at different times, seemingly random. Some saw their strings before they even presented the concept of love, others saw their strings on their deathbeds, though those are extreme cases. But only those two people could see their strings. Only they knew that they had found their other piece.
She dreamed of finding her person, imagining what it would feel like to have the string tug at her pinky to the person she was destined for. Who it would lead to, how they would meet.
Attending one of the best high schools in the country was no easy feat, but she managed. Even though she didn't make it into the hero course, she was proud of her accomplishment of making it into the General Ed course. Yet she would always get lost in her own little world, thinking about the imaginary string on her finger, wondering when it would appear. Romance books were hidden in her backpack as she imagined different scenarios and timelines, hoping and waiting.
Her first year was full of excitement, of a new school and environment, so many new people. Maybe she would meet them here, among the different students and classes. Some people made a small impression, others faded from her nightly daydream before sleep as quickly as they appeared.
There was only one boy who made his appearance known, who stuck with her.
Bakugo Katsuki.
She saw him at her first sports festival. It was a series of different games and challenges, to see who would come out on top. Students from all departments are allowed to participate, and it is a chance for heroes in training to show off what they can do for Pro Heroes in the audience, to increase their chances of possible internships or recruitment, as well as for students from the Support and Business courses to promote their support items and further develop their business sense, respectively. When she first entered the arena, she was in awe of everything she saw. She was buzzing with excitement to compete with the different classes along with her fellow classmates and friends.
She heard him before she saw him.
“I pledge… that I'll be number one.”
An uproar from the students below brought her attention to one of the large screens of the arena, where she saw a boy with spiky blonde hair and red eyes. People from the stands cheered and some booed, it was chaos.
But oh, he was gorgeous.
After seeing his performance at the festival, she began noticing him in school. In the hallways, in the lunch room, while she was walking to class she heard explosions from the training area sometimes and would wonder if he was training. He began to be the only one on her mind for a while…
About two years went by as she admired him from afar, watching and admiring him with every event the school held and through every hero headline. They moved into the dorms sometime between the years. She sometimes saw him while walking around the campus, with a few of his friends from 1-A. She never thought she had a chance, that her chance of becoming his friend was as good if not worse than her chances of meeting All Might.
One night as she read through her latest book, she began to feel dizzy, disoriented. She decided maybe she should go to sleep to feel better, after all she had been staying up late these past few nights.
Sleep wasn't much help that night, tossing and turning, weird dreams and places. She woke up in a sweat, groaning softly. Ugh, she felt so icky, she definitely needed a shower before heading to class. She sat up, groaning softly as she kicked off the sheets that felt like they were suffocating her. She grabbed her phone, checking the time…
School starts in five minutes.
Her eyes widened as she rushed to get ready. “Shit!” she hissed as she changed. Forget the shower, she didn't have time, she would just have to get ready. She quickly sprayed her hair with a little water, and put some gel before tying it back. She frowned at her ponytail’s unevenness, but had no time to redo it. She stuffed her books into her bag and raced out of her dorm.
She raced through hallways, up stairs, to finally arrive at class five minutes late. She panted softly as she set her bag down and quickly began writing notes. That's when she noticed the soft red glow on her pinky and gasped softly.
Her soulmate string!
She waited until lunch to follow the string and see who it led to. Maybe they were in the support course? Or visiting from a different school? Maybe-
She froze as she saw him. Bakugo.
He was her soulmate? Him? Her heart began to race. Maybe she had a little luck on her side after all, if the universe paired her with someone like him. He slowly feels a tug on his pinky and looks at her. She looks at him, waiting for a reaction…
Only to see him scoff. He grabs his snack and turns away, walking to the lunch hall. Her shoulders sag, her excited expression faltering. He… was disappointed, wasn't he? Her heart squeezed at that as she walked dejectedly back to her class to pick up her lunch, forgotten in the hurry to find her soulmate… who didn't even want her.
The string faded at the revelation.
Days passed, and she grew more hopeless with each one. At first she thought, ‘maybe he’ll come around? Maybe he was just in shock? Maybe-’
But with each excuse she found herself losing hope for herself, and the string dimmed more and more. He never came to speak to her, never tried to acknowledge her even. She lay at night, imagination lost, because she could no longer imagine her soulmate loving her at all. Was she really that bad?
She stopped waiting. Stopped hoping for the love she knew wouldn't come from him. And the string turned a dark grey.
One night, while a rainstorm raged outside, she lay in her bed observing the string that had first glowed a bright red, now fading deeper and deeper into a black. She teared up as she looked at the faded string, no longer flickering and trying to connect back to the red it had been. It had given up trying, just like she had.
“Why have a soulmate… if they don't even want you?” she murmured into the silence of her room. She glanced over at her desk and hesitated before picking up the scissors that looked so tempting, so promising.
With trembling hands, she opened the blades, sharp, promising a clean cut. As the metal touched the string, a sharp pain struck her chest as she cried out and fell to the floor. She hissed at the pain, glancing again at the string that faded to a deep black now. She glared at it, a source of suffering and hatred, turmoil in her life.
Cutting it would be worth the pain. She would be free of it, of him, surely he wouldn't mind, he didn't even want her. She tried and tried multiple times, each time another sharp pain in her chest. As she was about to try again, a loud knock sounded at her door.
“Open up you fucking extra!”