Iruma Miu wasn't a princess. She didn't really want to be. She was hard working, intelligent, independent. She never had anything handed to her. Worked hard to struggle through life. Not many people liked her, and she was fully aware of that. Mostly fine with it, too. At least, she didn't make it a reason to change herself.

Amami Rantarou could be described as a princely type. He was very good looking; model potential, really. He gave off flirtatious vibes. Just some other pretty playboy type, though he discouraged other people from saying so. He had a pretty face and a carefree attitude. Open and warm to people he didn't even know.

She shouldn't have given a damn about him. He wasn't worth her time.

She was an inventor! A creator of genius! The stunning symbol of a brighter future!

He was an adventurer. Acting as though most of the world hadn't already been discovered. As if his talent wasn't useless.

He had a lot of friends; a lot. He was constantly surrounded by all sorts of people; even from other classes! Ouma, Saihara and the rest of them constantly surrounded him. Even Kaede hung out with him when she wasn't around.

She was alone. She had no one. Kiibo and Kaede were the closest things she had to friends. She couldn't help but consider them misguided; everyone else sure did.

This made it easy not to care about anyone. Made it easy to prioritize herself. She was the most important person to herself. But she was still garbage. She was still worthless despite it all. Her confidence was fake; a shield. If she made herself sound so great, no one could tell her otherwise. If she cussed people out and hurt them first, they couldn't hurt her. Those were the rules she lived - survived - by.

Despite this; despite all of it. She somehow was face to face with Amami Rantarou behind the gym one day after class. His honeydew hair shifted slightly with the breeze, contrasting softly with the suspiciously sweet shade of pink dusting his cheeks.

She regarded him nervously. Miu had no idea why he had called her out to speak with him. Several scenarios went through her mind… and none of them were favorable. He was either trying to fuck her or he was trying to blackmail or hurt her somehow.

"The fuck do you want, Rantarhoe? I don't have damn all day to just stand here looking pretty while you find out where your voice went."

"Ah," he rubbed the back of his neck, looking embarrassed. "Sorry about that, Iruma…"

"No need to fucking apologize; just hurry up and spit it out." She wanted to get this over with… if it was blackmail, she needed a solution. If it was the other thing…

"Right… umm… I might as well just get on with it then, huh? Ok…" He took what appeared to be a calming breath, before saying, "I like you."

That caught her off guard.

"W-what?"

"Yeah. I've always thought you were super smart and, like, really cute y'know?"

She stared at him, silent.

He looked somewhat embarrassed. "Ah, sorry… that might be overstepping some boundaries… But I just had to tell you. I've been sitting on that one for a while and thought it might kill me if I didn't get it out. Ahah…"

What the fuck?

Miu had no clue what the hell was going on. A confession!?

A goddamn, motherfucking confession!?

That certainly hadn't been on her list of possible scenarios. She figured he'd be after her body or try and use her for her inventions, like a lot of the student population.

Though… Amami was never really like any of the others of Hope's Peak… He wasn't selfish and wasn't the blackmailing type. He… actually thought she was smart? He was one of the only ones in their class who ever put up with her, now that she thought about it.

"You… like me?"

"Yeah. A lot." He offered her a kind smile. "I want to get to know you better… The version of you I know in my head is probably not quite exactly right. I want to be given the opportunity to make that right."

"..." She didn't know what to say. A trembling hand met with the roundness of her cheek, and she found herself shocked at the juxtaposition of her cool fingers against her suddenly burning skin.

He saw that he had affected her somewhat. He smiled, thrilled at having been able to make the girl he liked blush. Rantarou seemed calm and composed outward, if not a little embarrassed and shy. On the inside, he was panicking and his heart was racing, threatening to burst from his chest.

She's so cute...

She probably thought he was trying to bully her; he'd seen it happen before. Their classmates were usually pretty decent to her. If not a little put off by her unique demeanor. The rest of the school was ruthless, Rantarou knew this.

He knew he was one of the only ones who truly put up with Iruma. In fact, he could see he was one of the few who was actually rather interested with her. He thought she was amazing; her creations - though sometimes rather out there - were incredible. She had such talent and wit and used it to create such innovative and often helpful devices.

And while their classmates understood this - to a degree - he knew he was the only one who looked past the "surprising" intelligence and saw a good girl who had good intentions. Sure, she cursed a lot and made innuendos so strange and out there it would cause anyone to question her.

He knew better.

He wanted to know her better. Not just his projected vision of her. But the real, down to earth Iruma Miu.

Rantarou knew she liked cookie dough ice cream. Rantarou knew she and Kaede, their only real mutual friend, watched cartoons in the morning on the weekends. Rantarou knew she got depressed when an invention didn't go right or she was in a slump. But… he also knew she smiled like the sun when she finally had a breakthrough.

He wanted her to smile like that for him too.

Her mind was racing.

Amami FUCKING Rantarou likes me!?

She never would have thought that in a million years. Kaede was much more suited to this kind of guy. All charming and smiley. The bastard looked like he could be on the cover of vogue or some shit; why was this happening? Why her?

"Are… are you sure about that?"

"Huh?"

"You know… I'm kind of… Gross? I mean, I'm hot as hell, sure. But… personality wise-"

"Iruma, please stop that."

Her jaw made a small clicking sound as it snapped shut.

"I think you're incredible. You're so smart and, personally, I think you're incredibly funny. Though, admittedly you are a little… crass, perhaps. But I don't mind that at all. Just a different way of expressing yourself that makes you unique and interesting!"

How… optimistic.

"You sure got an interesting way of… translating behavior, I guess?"

"Hmm… Maybe less 'translating' and more like decoding?" He offered her a kind smile. "I truly think there's much more to you than you let on. I want to get to know that side of you better. If you would let me."

She blushed deeply, hoping it wasn't as apparent as it felt.

"You tryin' to ask me out or something?"

"Something like that, yeah."

She paused. Iruma didn't really know much about Amami. In her mind, he was just the avocado head bastard who talked smooth and looked nice. She never really stopped to think if there was more to him. Never really thought he'd been thinking about what was more to her.

"... I-"

"You don't have to answer now," he put his hands up, almost in surrender, trying to show her he had no bad intentions. "You don't have to answer at all, if you don't want to. But I definitely wanted to put it out there. I'd really regret it if you started dating someone while I was mulling over telling you."

"R-right… Then yeah… I'll get back to you on that…"

Amami smiled, wide and bright. "Sounds good to me. Thank you for your time, Iruma."

She went home that night, back to her dorm room, and flopped into bed. She felt compromised. Amami had no fucking right to just come into her life out of nowhere and dump that huge fucking load on her.

Sure… he's good looking. Not bad at all. But… that's not all that's supposed to be to dating, right?

She felt the sudden need to call Kaede. She didn't want to bother one of her only friends with something that was probably considered pretty trivial but she certainly felt mixed up. Kaede had a way more normal view on life and helped Miu see that a lot of her ways were just… not how people were supposed to be. And… while she certainly didn't want to bug her…

Fuck it.

Kaede answered after two rings.

"Miu? What's up?"

"Kaede… what is dating supposed to be like?"

The other line went quiet for a couple of moments, a pregnant pause.

"Oh my god Miu, do you have a crush on somebody?"

She pouted. "No. But… someone has a crush on me.

Kaede burst at that one, "Did someone confess to you!? Is that why you didn't come hang out after school? Oh my god Miu, who was it!? Someone from our class?"

Miu hesitated for a moment, but shook it off. She could trust Kaede. She was doing so well… she could open up. Put some faith in her friend. Kaede wouldn't tell anyone.

"... it was Amami," she mumbled.

"Rantarou!?"

Ah. She had forgotten that Amami, the green haired bastard, was part of Kaede's other friend group with Saihara and the others.

"Rantarou confessed to you? What!? I didn't even know he liked you! That jerk! He didn't tell me anything," Kaede was ranting. "Wait until I get a hold of him, I swear-"

"W-wait up! Kaede, chill… I…"

Kaede seemed to sense Miu's genuine desperation and embarrassment, stopping in her rambling. "Ah, sorry Miu. This isn't about Broccoli boy being a liar."

"Kaede…"

"Right, right… so? How do you feel about him?"

Miu ran a tired hand across her face, frustrated. "I dunno. Never… fucking thought about him that way."

"He's cute though, right?" She could practically hear Kaede smiling.

"Well sure," she admitted, easily enough. She could tell she caught her friend off guard. "He's good looking. That's just… apparent? Like you fucking look at someone and you can tell if they're hot as hell or not. That doesn't have to deal with…" she felt her cheeks grow warm for what felt like the hundredth time that day, "personal feelings and shit…"

Kaede hummed. "Well… what's most important is you, Miu."

"Huh?"

"You… I don't want you to feel obligated to give him a response, okay?"

Miu's brow crinkled. "Isn't he your fucking friend, Kae? Don't you want him to be happy?"

"Yeah…" Kaede hesitated. "But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be happy too. I'm sure he's thinking the exact same thing. He doesn't want you to make this about him. This is supposed to be about you. If he's confessed to you, Rantarou's already sure of his feelings. You need to figure out what's going on with you. If you don't like him, don't go out with him. You…" Kaede took a deep breath. "You don't have to do those things anymore, Miu. We care about you."

Miu's chest felt tight and her cheeks strained with her smile. "Thanks, Kaede…"

"Now you go think on it. Don't let it stress you out though. You have a bad habit of getting tunnel vision and hyperfocusing. Go to bed and give it a go tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay…"

"Alright. Goodnight, Miu."

"Night."

The next morning, she woke with a vengeance. She began immediately tinkering with her latest invention. She knew she told Kaede she'd take it easy… but old habits die hard. Miu figured there was no harm in drowning out her thoughts with some good old fashioned hard work and elbow grease.

After that, in class, she found herself looking towards Amami. He has such pretty eyelashes… I never noticed that shit before... She didn't realize she'd been staring until the boy turned to cast a look behind him, catching her eye. He smiled, lazy and warm, and gave her a little wave of his hand.

Miu blushed and looked away, pointedly.

She could see Kaede teasing Amami from the corner of her eye, feeling the heat creep up her neck.

She tried to envision herself and Amami as a couple, the following week. They'd be a damn good looking pair. With her bodacious self and his playboy looks… they'd be a model couple. But… did that matter?

Twirling her hair around her finger, she saw him helping Maki with their geography homework. He would go over and talk with Gonta about different environments and topography - usually related to where different kinds of bugs lived. He'd go up to Kaede and fix her hair or sweater that had been slightly messy. Smiling and laughing all the while.

He's sweet…

Once she got that thought in her mind she couldn't be rid of it.

Amami Rantarou was just… kind. He was good and sweet to all of their classmates, and to basically everyone who crossed his path. He was one of those kinds of people to leave the world better than he found it.

Part of her knew she didn't deserve it. She had almost the opposite effect on people. When Amami came into the room, people lit up. When she came into the room, people scowled or cringed. Miu rubbed people the wrong way and laughed and cussed about it.

The other part of her so strongly wanted to be a part of it. Wanted to be enveloped by that syrupy sweet, warm heart and smile. She wondered what it would be like for him to hug her… To hold her smaller hand in his…

Snap out of it! Miu!

She found herself, face to face with Amami once again after classes for the day had wrapped up. He smiled, somewhat shy. His green eyes glittered with… some sort of hope. Her tummy churned oddly with the thought that he was hopeful about her.

"So, have you thought about it? Us?"

She looked down, nodding. "Yeah…"

"It's okay, Miu. If you don't want to then -"

"I want to try it out," she blurted, catching Amami and herself off guard. "I… want to give it - us - a try." She kept her gaze on her shoes. "I'm… not great at this kind of stuff. I've never actually, um, dated… someone before. So…"

Miu heard him scuffle towards her and when she looked up she was met with sparkling eyes. He reached for her hands and held them.

They're just as warm as I thought…

He was overjoyed. She may not love him or anything of the sort - he would go as slowly as she would need and then some - but she wanted to give him a chance!

"Oh Iruma! Thank you! I promise we won't rush into anything and we'll take our time, okay?" He was practically vibrating. He didn't know what to do. Steady boy… contain yourself.

Amami had been so worried and nervous the week following his confession. He knew she'd never thought about him like that, but had strong hopes. And now she was actually considering it!

"Yeah… thanks…"

"So, do you wanna try going out this Sunday? I'll take you to a cafe and a museum!"

"A museum?" she questioned. Not that it was a complaint, but she was confused. Do normal teenagers go to museums for their first dates?

"Ah, if you wanna do something different we can! I just figured with both of our talents, a museum would be cool. You can tell me about technology stuff and I can tell you about places. Though, Korekiyo would know more about the actual culture of stuff… but I can google a bunch before we go."

She couldn't help it. She gave a little giggle at that. Not her usual, preposterous laughter. But a quiet, breathy little laugh. Almost like ringing a small bell…

Amami's cheeks and the tips of his ears suddenly went flaming red, and he looked at her in wonder. She felt her own face warm. No one had ever looked at her quite like that before.

"Well… alright, Amami. It's a date then!"

"It's a date!"