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Lani POV:

I tapped my chopstick rapidly against the table, mulling over the past 24 hours like they were the only thing I knew.

My mind has been drifting all day long, and I certainly love to put myself in interesting situations.

Shouto had his dinner with the ex-girlfriend last night, and the thoughts of it have been driving me crazy.

I want to know how it went. The image of him going to his beautiful girlfriend's house was enough to burn itself into my mind for the duration of last night—and this morning. Shouto told me their relationship was always out of obligation for their quirks, but the fact he showed up to her place at all when they're supposedly broken up must mean something, right?

What did they talk about? What did he think after not seeing her for a month? That's a long time. Did they hold hands? Kiss?

....get back together?

A person can always say one thing, but it doesn't mean that's how they truly feel. Maybe Shouto really does have feelings for her, but didn't feel comfortable sharing that part of his life with me. I wouldn't blame him if that's how he felt.

I'm just his publicist after all.

Of course, after the shit I pulled on him the other day, I certainly didn't feel like just his publicist.

Memories of a few nights ago had my skin feeling hot and my stomach feeling heavy. Sleeping with him—I mean—falling asleep with him? What the hell was that about....

I know better—I definitely know better. I'm not new to this job and I always know the importance of never crossing boundaries with a client.

That's when things either start to sour, or decisions start being made based on emotion instead of what's actually good for success.

But...

Shouto was warm. Perfectly warm.

For a man whose so cold in personality, it should be illegal for him to be so warm in touch. So comforting and safe.

I felt my fingers running over my bottom lip distractedly as my brain melted back into the memories all over again, inhaling deeply at the phantom touch of his body against mine.

It's annoying, I can't get him out of my head. No matter how hard I keep trying to...

He'd let out these little sighs in his sleep, holding just a hint of his voice but mostly his breath. God, it was—one could have mistaken those sounds for something else. They were always short and subtle, but higher in pitch. Sometimes, a little more drawn out if he was really deep in his sleep.

Did he know how touchy he was during that moment? He probably didn't, but I couldn't forget. His hands were awake even if his brain wasn't, running along my back, and my hips, and my stomach so freely. Like he'd done so a million times. Like he'd wanted to do so when he was awake and no longer held conscious restraint.

Those sounds would fall from his mouth just a little more whenever he touched me, squeezing whatever body part he had in his grip and nuzzling instinctively closer. It's the most affection I'd gotten from him so far, and already I'm hopelessly addicted.

At one point, his head buried into the crook of my neck and it felt incredible. His hair tickled me and his lips grazed my skin, dewy hot breath rolling onto my sweet spot and making me melt into the floor.

My brain never felt so mushy, and stimulated, and just wanting of more. It simultaneously excited me and lulled me deeper into sleep. But, how is such a thing possible?

You're right. It's not. I hate things that I can't understand....

He's much less annoying when he's sleeping. Who knew, right?

But, what's really annoying was my body's response to it. I've only fallen asleep with him one time, and yet his absence last night didn't go unnoticed by my conscience.

Already, it's like an addiction. I tend to get addicted to things pretty easily. I'm tough to crack at first, but once I do? I'm the type of person to go all in. I can't help it.

Without him there last night, I suddenly noticed that my bed wasn't comfortable, and my body pillow didn't compare to his chest. His abs. I barely slept a wink...

That was also because I wondered where Shouto slept last night. Was it with his ex? Or in his own bed? Did he make it home okay?

Well, I'll tell you what. It's not my business—or my concern for that matter.

Which is exactly why I purposely ghosted him all day yesterday, trying to create some distance after the careless sleepover I pulled the night before.

The irony is that he probably didn't even notice my absence in his phone messages yesterday. Or, if he did, I'm sure he was glad for it in that annoying Shouto sort of way.

But, it ate away at me. Ohhhh, and it's still eating away at me like ants on a candy cane, with my thoughts only growing more convoluted and ridiculous with each hour that passes.

"Hmm..." I uttered for the countless time, barely aware of my lunch that was starting to go cold.

My best friend Kai looked up from her phone at my suspicious sound, taking another bite of her strawberry shortcake.

"What's got you 'hmm-ing' and 'mmm-ing?' so much today?" She muffled with a mouthful of food, wiping the lick of cream from the side of her lips.

I looked around the cafeteria of the HPSC like a little loser, cursing myself for trying to spot that head of red and white hair amongst the countless bodies of heroes and commission employees eating their lunch.

Gah. Nothing. Good. I don't wanna see him right now anyways. The nerve he has to be so...Shouto.

And, yet you were looking for him, you idiot.

Pressing my lips together, I lightly slammed my hand on the lunch table, watching Kai freeze mid bite.

"Is it weird to have dinner with your newly ex-girlfriend?" I practically interrogated, making it seem like she was the one with the problem.

But, Kai's been my best friend since kindergarten. She knows me—the real me. And, she's immune to my odd quirks by now.

"Weird in what sense?" She asked, stabbing her fork through the juicy strawberry atop her plate.

I relentlessly tapped my chopstick back on the table, mimicking the racing of my mind.

"Like—I dunno. Just....weird..." I said unhelpfully vague, hearing Kai hum.

"Eh. I guess it depends on the situation." She shrugged, taking the strawberry from the fork with her teeth. "But, in most cases, yeah."

See?—see? If Kai said it, I know it's true now.

"Mmmmhm." I mumbled with sassy confirmation, slouching in my chair like a bitter, old Scrooge.

She rolled her eyes lightly at my vague suspicion, licking the remaining cream from her fork before dropping it on her empty plate.

"Okay, what's this about? Another one of your failed dates tried to recruit you into his cult and open marriage?" She mused, chuckling smugly to herself.

I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms, giving her a small sneer.

"No—and that was one time." I pointed out, causing her to laugh harder. "It's about my client, actually. He had dinner with his ex and her family last night."

Kai nodded and remained silent, looking like she was waiting for me to continue.

She quirked a brow when I didn't, not understanding the point.

"So?"

I glanced at her with slight defense, leaning forward and resting my elbows on the table. "What do you mean so? Isn't it crazy?"

My best friend narrowed her eyes at me slightly, looking at me like she knew something.

"Since when have you ever cared what your clients do outside of work?" She effectively called me out, never hesitating to do so when I'm acting off. "So long as they keep everything private and your job safe, it doesn't matter, remember?—your words. Not mine."

She held her hands up in surrender when she knew she made her point, causing me to sigh tiredly.

Because I know she's right. As long as I've been in this job, I'll be the first to admit I've never really seen heroes as people with lives. They're just walking dollar signs to me. So long as I get a paycheck and they don't ruin things for my job, I don't care what they do off the clock.

Look, I work for the hero commission. I already know I'm not the best person for that reason—and other things...

But, with Shouto, things are just...different. If anything, I'm more interested in what he's doing off the clock than what he's doing on it, if that makes sense.

Regardless, Kai did call me out, and admittedly, I didn't really have a good explanation.

"Well—yeah, but—I mean, I'm supposed to make him a heartthrob, remember?" I mumbled less convincing, grasping for straws at why I cared.

"Yeahhhh..." She said more suspiciously, causing me to speak slower and more obvious.

"And I can't do that if he keeps seeing his ex."

Kai flipped her hair off her shoulders and shrugged, looking around the crowded cafeteria.

"You act like you've never trained a hero who's in a relationship before." She said a little quieter so no one would hear. "Most of them are. It doesn't mean anything for their status. Hell, if they're dating someone of equal popularity, it actually enhances their own."

I said nothing to her words, furrowing my brows and looking down at the table.

"But, you already know that." She glanced back at me, propping her chin in her hand.

I do. Which is why we both know there's no reason for me to be so curious. From a work standpoint.

I could see the gears turning in Kai's head as she studied me, not wanting to stick around for whatever she'd say next.

Our relationship is incredibly honest, Kai and I. If we're feeling or thinking something, we usually just say it.

And I really don't want to have this particular conversation right now. Because whatever she's thinking, it's not true.

Puffing out my cheeks and pushing my lunch aside, I quickly rose from my chair, signaling my departure.

Kai pressed her lips together knowingly when she sensed I was trying to evade the conversation, throwing me a bone and staying silent as she looked up at me.

"I gotta get going. I have another meeting with Yuna about Shouto's progress." I said, grabbing my briefcase from the empty chair next to us.

She nodded and said nothing, making me think I was in the clear as I brushed past her.

But, she quickly caught my wrist at the last second and looked at me, turning serious with her words of warning.

"Lani, you need to be careful." She said, causing my stomach to churn knowingly.

I couldn't look her in the eye, instead, glancing around the premise as I waited for her to let go of me.

"I....I am-"

"The last thing you need is to get close to a hero." She followed up, causing me to gently pry my wrist out of her grip.

"I know—I'm not getting close to him." I reassured her, smoothing out my skirt. "I just really want that promotion, okay?"

She sighed with hints of concern in her voice, allowing me to catch her parting words as I walked away.

"If you say so."

*

I couldn't say I wasn't nervous walking into my boss Yuna's office. Especially after our last conversation.

"You and your hero failed the first test, Lani." She said last week. "One strike already means your job security isn't looking too great."

In other words, if I have another failure on my hands today, I'll probably be kicked out of the running completely and lose my job.

And then Shouto will fail, too.

To make matters worse, in all my daydreaming teenage girl angst this morning about the half and half guy, I only realize—walking down the hallway to Yuna's office—that I haven't prepared my presentation properly.

I'm supposed to show her Shouto's Instagram and pictures after introducing him on the HPSCs social media the other night. It's been over twenty-four hours since I did that, and I foolishly haven't checked on his page since then.

In other words, I have absolutely no idea how he's been received right now. There was a time I didn't suck so bad at my job.

"Shit..." I groaned, face palming into my hand as I approached the door to Yuna's office.

Last time I checked—which was good minutes after I posted that announcement, he had only gone up a few followers, taking him from 29 to grand whopping total of 31...

Yikes.

Feeling my shoulders sulk, I grabbed onto the handle of Yuna's office door, about to push it open before a bracelet clad hand gripped onto it with more force.

Oh great.

I groaned as I looked up at my intern competitor, Mai, seeing her bright pink curls bouncing back and forth like a bobblehead.

"Good afternoon, Lani. How was your lunch? Nutritious and so delicious?" She beamed overly bright, causing my teeth to grit down on each other.

She's so evil. Can't you tell?

"No." I said blandly, trying to push on Yuna's door before Mai pulled back on it.

Jesus. Her strength surprised me.

"It's such a shame Yuna didn't like your opening article about your client last time. What was his name? Something Shouta? Oh. Ha, I guess it really wasn't that memorable if even I can't recall." She cringed, concealing her smugness behind a sweet, pity-filled smile.

I pushed on the door harder, having no success as Mai's pulling force increased.

Is this girl on steroids or something? What the hell?! Then again, I guess it takes a lot of strength to hold up that heavy pile of hair on her head.

"His name is Shouto and he's fucking amazing, thank you very much." I scoffed, trying to downplay the dumpster fire that was our partnership. "Incredibly charming and a total panty dropper."

Mai hummed and continued pulling back on the door with minimal effort, meanwhile, I was huffing and starting to sweat as I repeatedly body slammed into it.

"I hope you have better luck with his social media page. I've just checked Bakugo's instagram and he's already up 200,000 followers from two nights ago." She sighed in content, glancing at me with a more competitive smirk now. "We really are the perfect team, don't you think? Yuna will be so happy to know."

I tried to keep my cool, but internally, I was now freaking out.

200,000?? My competitor's hero has already gone up 200k followers in 2 days!?

That means, in order to win today's 'battle' against Mai, Shouto's page would have to surpass a 200k increase. And if he doesn't...

I'm fired.

Fuck.fuck.fuck.fuck-

My thoughts remained unheard as I continued shooting Mai a tight smile, putting on my best poker face.

"Yeah. Just make sure he doesn't open his mouth, because I've met him and he's a total dick." I said, grasping at whatever I could to make her nervous.

But, this girl...

"So, in words for his publicist writer, you're telling me he's misunderstood with an underlying soft side just waiting to be uncovered?" She easily twisted. "Thanks. I'll be using that."

"Ugh, Mai." I groaned, anchoring my high heel onto the ground before pushing on the door with all my strength. "Just move!"

Mai intentionally released her pulling force at the same time, causing my eyes to widen as I went flying into Yuna's office, triumphantly stumbling in my stilettos before crashing into the ground.

My briefcase fell out of my hand and I landed on the wood floor, face down, ass up—and not ready to fuck as I'm convinced my pussy was collecting dust and cobwebs from months of vacancy.

The room went quiet and I felt Yuna's eyes on me as I remained on the floor, already giving up before the day began.

"I'm not surprised. Just disappointed." My boss said completely unfazed, instantly returning back to her computer typing.

I heard Mai's fancy shoes clack elegantly as she stepped over my pile of limbs, greeting Yuna sweetly.

Blowing the strands of hair out of my face, I scrambled to my knees—as best one could in a tight pencil skirt—fixing my wrinkled shirt and bra not-so-properly.

"I would explain. But, there's really no point, is there." I huffed, trying to find my balance so I could rise to my feet in tight clothes and heels.

"Not a single one and you've already been docked a point for the emotional trauma of having to see your thong just now." She explained casually, causing me to sigh and stumble back up to standing.

"That is so fair."

"Good. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's get to it. I'm in the middle of my Pilates class as you can see." She peered at Mai and I strictly, gesturing to the screen behind her.

The television was currently doing a Pilates class. But, Yuna was still sitting down at her computer with a half eaten brownie next to her.

Honestly, same.

"Alright. Social medias. Let's see these bad boys." Yuna clapped her hands together, turning down the Pilates instructor's cheering before gesturing to the screen at the front of the room. "Who wants to go first?"

Mai's hand shot up instantly before she was already on her feet, taking the daintiest, cutest steps over to the projector before hooking up her laptop.

How annoyingly Y/N of her.

All I could do was slide into the chair uneasy as I watched Mai pull up Bakugo's instagram on the big screen, feeling my career dying in my vision when I got a look.

Katsuki Bakugo
759k followers

"Ohhh...." I whined barely audible, slipping down further into my chair with guilt.

Maybe I can still apply for the job of being Present Mic's discord 'kitten.'

The pink haired girl looked pleased as she displayed the hot head's instagram, starting to scroll down the rows of pictures.

"Bakugo went from 559k to 759k followers in a mere two days, thanks to my help!" She exclaimed, clicking on one of the most recent pictures. "Let me show you the photoshoot we had the other day."

It was Bakugo at the beach—shirtless, wet, and looking at the water like he wanted to simultaneously piss in it and fight it all at once.

"He looks like a douche." I coughed subtly, rubbing my chin and looking around the room like I didn't say a thing.

Mai hummed unbothered to my words, clicking on the next picture of Bakugo holding a kitten—also shirtless!?

"It's called duality." She said smugly, scrolling through picture after—thirst trap after thirst trap.

It's important to note that most of the focus in these pictures is his body and not his mean mugging face. Yeah, the guy's got a great body, I'll give him that. But, we can barely see his face!

"Interesting." Yuna scratched her chin in thought, looking at each picture Mai took before coming to her conclusion. "Love it. Mai's in the lead."

Mai cheered sweetly as I looked at Yuna with an unattractive grunt. "Wha—well, of course she is. Because I haven't presented yet-"

"Oh, you're still here?" Yuna looked at me over her glasses, lazily waving me towards the front with a bit of pity. "Right. Okay, go on."

With bubble guts in my stomach, I scrambled to my feet and grabbed my briefcase, feeling Mai knock into my shoulder as we passed each other.

Definitely on steroids.

I took my time hooking up my computer to the monitor with shaky hands—ensuring all of my slutty fanfics had absolutely no way of finding themselves on the screen again.

Phew. Okay, deep breath. Deep breath.

Stalling time, I stiffly turned to Yuna, trying to bullshit my way into keeping my job.

"Okay. Um. Lemme just preface this by saying...I urge you to see the...bigger picture-"

"Get on with it, Lani." She said boredly, causing me to sigh and nod.

"Right."

The search bar of instagram appeared and I quickly typed in Shouto's name, navigating to his profile with my heart pounding out of my chest.

Last time I checked it, he had 31 followers. I would need a miracle for him to surpass Bakugo's number.

With a gulp, I clicked on his profile and displayed it on the screen, looking at it for the first time with Yuna and Mai....

Shouto Todoroki
434k followers

"WHAT?!" Mai and I shouted in simultaneous shock, both staring at the screen with bulging eyes.

434,000–Shouto went from 31 followers to 434k in two days!

But...

It doesn't matter. Because it still didn't surpass Bakugo's 759k total.

And, for some reason, I couldn't find it in myself to be upset, seeing Shouto's face appear on the big screen.

Memories of our day at the park played in my mind as I clicked through the pictures we took at our photoshoot, feeling a sense of calm satisfaction overtake me.

His page had been built much different from Bakugo's. The explosion guy gave you this frantic sense of fire and intimidation, which admittedly does draw people in.

But, Shouto's page gives you this soft feeling. This acceptance and blissful aesthetic that we created together.

It's authentic. It's beautiful. It's him. And I don't want it any other way.

I know that's not what Yuna was looking for, and I unintentionally did it again without even realizing it. There aren't any thirst traps or shirtless pictures on here.

She noticed that, not saying a word as she narrowed her eyes at the page.

I smiled sadly as I knew I failed, knowing I needed to power through my presentation anyways.

"Um. So, as you can see, Shouto and I took our photoshoot at the park. The theme was golden hour, and the vibe was carefree bliss." I said quietly, free of my usual poised charm. "His most recent picture racked up 36,000 likes, and let's see what the comments say."

Omg! This is the new hero?? He's so cute 🥰

Shouto! Ur adorable.

Marry me

@Bokuto'ssexcdummpyyy see? This is the one I was telling u about. Im officially in love

What a pretty smile 😍

You should win hero of the season!!

So much rizz

I WANT HIM

I chuckled softly as I scrolled through the comments, feeling my heart completely elated by what I read.

They love him. The people love him.

And that makes me so happy. Not because of my job, but because he deserves this.

From a job standpoint though...

I sighed heavily once I scrolled through all of Shouto's pictures, powering down my laptop and turning around to face the room.

Silence filled the space and I awaited the dreaded termination from Yuna, watching her bore her eyes right into my soul.

She turned off her Pilates class and leaned forward in her chair, giving her consensus.

"Alright. I'll bite—Lani wins this round."

Once again, Mai and I shared a single brain cell as we looked at Yuna through bulging eyes before the pink haired girl shot up from her seat.

"Huh!?? But, Shouto didn't gain nearly the amount of followers that Bakugo did!! Bakugo has almost double-"

"No, no. Bakugo already had 579k followers without your help." Yuna corrected, wagging a finger at Mai. "If we look at just the increase, Bakugo only increased 200k in two days, while Shouto increased 434k. From that standpoint, Lani was more successful."

Shit. She's right!?

I kept my doubts to myself, quickly nodding when Yuna looked my way.

"R-Right..."

She hummed in confirmation, not allowing me a moment to celebrate as she narrowed her eyes at me again.

"But, I'm still not happy with what I saw. I remember asking you to spice things up a bit, and you didn't." She accused, causing me to quickly bow.

"I understand-"

"Good." She quickly interrupted, folding her hands on her desk sternly. "So, the next pictures I see of this Shouto better be hot and shirtless. Got it?"

Unease sat in my stomach at the order, knowing I didn't have a choice.

"...got it."

Shouto and I live to see another day. But, now...

It's time to finally undress him.