At lunchtime, Len went to sit with Shoji again, but now his heart was racing. The multi-armed boy only nodded silently in greeting, continuing to eat.
Len picked at his food, feeling sort of confused about all this. "Hey, Shoji-san," he said, testing the waters. "It was pretty cool of you not to vote for yourself."
Shoji swallowed and cleared his throat. "It was the noble thing to do. It's a shame my vote ended up going to waste, though."
Len's eyes widened. "You voted for me?"
"I did. There wasn't any particular reason behind it. I wonder who the other person was. I suppose you were telling the truth when you said you didn't vote for yourself, since you turned down the position. Who did you vote for, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Oh, uh, Tsu."
"Ribbit."
Len nearly jumped out of his seat in surprise. Tsuyu was right behind him, holding her lunch tray, that blank stare on her face. Her wide mouth stayed flat.
"Ahhhh, Tsu! I d-d-didn't s-see ya there… heyyyya, why don'tcha sit down, ehhhh?" Len felt the yellow energy stir up again, and his speech came out all garbled.
Tsuyu sat down next to him, not next to Shoji like she'd done the day before. "Lenny, did you say you voted for me?"
"Uhhh… yeah." Meanwhile, Mina had sat down on the end of the table.
"Ah. I voted for you, ribbit." Her cheeks were faintly red, and she actually broke eye contact to look down at her food.
"Well, that solves the mystery," said Shoji. He turned to Mina. "Hello, Ashido-san."
"What's up, Sho? How are you?"
"I'm doing well… Sho?"
"Hehehehe."
Meanwhile, Len and Tsuyu were trying not to look at each other, silent and awkward. What's with this atmosphere?
Hagakure showed up, with Sero in tow. "Hey, everyone! Is it okay if he sits here?" she asked perkily.
Sero scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "It's not that big of a deal."
"Yeah," Len said, chewing. "Just let the man sit if he likes. Come on, Sero. No one's got a problem."
"I do. I hate Sero, a whole, whole lot," said Mina in a fake childlike voice.
"Silence, you."
Hagakure and Sero sat down, and now they were six. Len felt a strange feeling inside him, different from the yellow. A… golden feeling. Shoji and Tsu both looked up from their food in confusion, looking around the table. As if they'd sensed it too.
Everything in its right place…
"So," said Mina, breaking into the silence while loudly chewing, "whoooo did everyone vote for?"
"Myself," said Sero bashfully, at the same time that Toru exclaimed "Myself!"
"Same here," Mina sighed. "I guess we exposed ourselves with that. But heyyyy, Mr. Teleport here got two votes! Aizawa was fully ready to give you the position and everything!"
"It was these two," Len said plainly, flexing his finger back and forth between Tsu and Shoji. "Can't imagine what their reasons were."
Shoji shrugged. "Like I said, no particular reason."
"Lenny and I voted for each other, ribbit," Tsuyu said, more quietly than usual.
There was a moment of silence at the table, and then Toru gasped. "That's crazy! What are the odds? It's like, ohh…" she swayed back and forth in her seat dreamily. "Like you're meant for each other…"
Sero half-choked on his food, and Mina started laughing like a maniac. Tsuyu's blush deepened.
"Hagakure," Len scolded. "You're embarrassing the poor girl. Now she'll be thinking of nothing but dating me, and how awful that would be."
"There he goes again with the self-deprecation." Mina rolled her eyes.
Tsuyu seemed to have regained her composure. "I wonder why Aizawa-sensei picked Kagamine over Midoriya initially, ribbit."
Sero scoffed. "It's Aizawa. There probably wasn't any thought process behind it. He just picked the first name he saw."
"It is possible that his attitude is just a front, though," Shoji suggested. "You never know."
Len swallowed, remembering how he'd made eye contact with his homeroom teacher in that moment. "Whatever. I'm sure Midoriya will do fine."
"Ehhhhhh…" Sero squinted his eyes and tilted his head in order to show indecision. "The verdict's still out on that, I think. At least Yaoyorozu will make an excellent president."
"Oh, definitely," Mina drawled. "She seems so refined and classy."
Toru began to say, "I don't know if…"
BRRRRRRRRRRRR.
All the students in the cafeteria began to look around wildly. The sound repeated.
BRRRRRRRRRRRR.
"It is the intruder alarm," Shoji said calmly. "We have to move."
Len's heart skipped a beat. Intruders? Truly? The cafeteria had begun to go wild. The alarm continued to blare, and students surged toward the exit en masse.
Mina let out a little yelp. "We gotta go!"
The six of them abandoned their lunch and joined the crowd. Len kept an eye on Mina, with her bright pink skin, jostling through other students ahead of them. If I could just warp to the front…
The crowd compressed, moving slower and slower. Len had lost sight of Mina. All around him, students were chattering. He thought he recognised a few voices, but…
"Sero! Tsu! Is that y…" someone bowled past him, nearly knocking him over into getting trampled. Students were closing in all around.
The yellow had begun to panic, threatening to burst out. Len was sweaty and short of breath. Am I having another panic attack? He couldn't even see if they were out in the hallway yet. The alarm was so loud. And everyone around him wouldn't shut up. Just shut up, shut UP…
"EVERYONE CALM DOWN!" A voice RIPPED through the crowd, and suddenly everyone went silent.
Len looked up. Iida was floating against the ceiling, pointing out the windows.
"IT IS ONLY THE PRESS! PLEASE FOLLOW PROTOCOL!"
Len craned his neck to peer out the windows, just as everyone else did the same. Indeed, a stampede of reporters was approaching the school. That was all.
The crowd began to disperse, and Len let out a gasp of relief. Iida had managed to calm them all down, just like that.
Later in class, Midoriya gave his class rep position to Iida. No one argued.