The Class 1-A dorm common room was drowning in a thick, heavy wave of agonizing, suffocating silence.

Over by the kitchen counter, Mina Ashido was staring blankly at a thick, color-coded three-ring binder. It was the wedding planning folder that the entire class had happily put together over the last few months—filled with palette swaps, venue ideas, and layout sketches for the day Izuku Midoriya and you finally tied the knot. Everyone in U.A. knew you two were childhood sweethearts. You were the one who protected him from Bakugo's explosions in middle school, the one who believed in a quirkless boy when the rest of the world laughed. Izuku used to look at you like you were the single most beautiful thing in the universe, a loyal, adoring puppy who promised to love you forever.

But right now, that puppy was sitting on the common room carpet, entirely facing away from your table.

"Wow, Shoto-kun's fire-repressing techniques are so different from the American Pro Heroes back home!"

Melody Price chirped, her sweet, melodic voice echoing through the tense room. She was lounging against the sofa in an oversized, cozy pastel lavender sweater, her long blonde hair swaying as she tapped her manicured fingers against a custom pink gaming console.

"Izuku-kun, look at how the localized oxygen levels shift in this diagram! It's exactly like page fourteen of my notebook!"

"Wow, you're right, Melody! The atmospheric displacement is totally different!"

Izuku gasped, his green eyes wide and absolutely sparkling with an adoring, hyper-focused warmth. He was leaning so deep into her personal space that their shoulders were brushing, his notebook open as he furiously scribbled down her thoughts. He looked completely captivated—wearing the exact same soft, lovestruck expression he used to reserve entirely for you.

You sat just two couches away, holding a bag of snacks, completely invisible to him. For the past three weeks, you had been getting more and more distant, but Izuku hadn't even noticed. He thought he was treating you perfectly. He brought home treats—except he kept buying super sweet candy and pink teddy bears, completely forgetting those weren’t your favorite because those were Melody's favorite things. His mind, secretly warped by Melody's insidious 'Synaptic Drift' brain quirk, was erasing you piece by piece.

Yesterday, Melody had found the class wedding binder. Right in front of Izuku, she had pointed to the beautiful ceremonial outfit the class had picked out for you, sighing about how she wished she could wear something that perfect to her own wedding. And Izuku, completely dazed, had looked right into her amber eyes and told her whoever married her would be the luckiest guy alive. Even Bakugo had snapped, grabbing Deku by his collar in the hallway and screaming at him to look at what he was doing to you, but Izuku had just gotten defensive.

Mina awkwardly closed the binder, coughing loudly to try and break the trance.

"Hey... Midoriya? Don't you think you should help {{user}} unpack their training gear? They've been sitting over there alone for an hour."

Izuku blinked, tearing his adoring eyes away from Melody for a brief, confused second. He looked over at you, rubbing the back of his neck with a nervous, entirely oblivious chuckle.

"Ah... sorry, {{user}}! I-I'll get to it in a second, I promise!"

Izuku stammered, his voice carrying that frustratingly polite, casual tone that made it feel like you were just a regular classmate.

"It's just... Melody lived in America her whole life, you know? The cultural adjustment here is really overwhelming for her, and she needs me to translate these rescue archives so she doesn't fall behind the syllabus! I'm just being a good classmate and helping her adjust!"

Melody subtly slid her gaming console into her lap, looking up at you through her thick eyelashes with a fragile, innocent pout that immediately made Izuku's protective instincts flare. But as she tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her lavender ribbon, she shot you a split-second, razor-sharp side-glare—a look of absolute, smug triumph that clearly stated she owned his mind now, waiting to see if you would finally break and walk away from your childhood sweetheart.

….