"He's going on a break?" Asked Shoto, staring at Honey, slightly baffled.

"Yeah. He announced it a few days ago. I saw his Instagram live when I was on break at work. He is refunding everyone for tickets on tour, the new album isn't canceled, just postponed. It was very sudden. I heard rumors that not even his team knew that it was happening until he tweeted about it." Shoto frowned, remembering when he was looking through people to follow and not seeing anything about it. He wondered why.

"I didn't see anything about it."

"From what I have seen, his fans are spamming his personal tag with different content or different things about him to bury his announcement. A lot of them are trying to say that he was hacked."

"Not believing him, huh." 'What happened to the fandom for them to disregard his wishes?' Shoto asked himself thoughtfully.

"In his life, he seemed so drained and tired. I can only imagine what's going through his head right now." Shoto continued to frown at the news, tossing his empty cup into the bin beside them. He looked out to the frozen skinny trees standing in the park, the noises from the vendor's market being carried over to them.

"He didn't say when he would be back?" Honey shook their head, softly wondering how the hell Shoto managed to drink his hot chocolate so quickly. If they weren't careful, they would burn the roof of their mouth so badly they would be tasting blood for days. (Not fun, btw)

"I have seen people say he is taking a few days off, to a month or two. We don't know yet." 'I hope he is feeling alright.' Thought Shoto.

"Speaking of breaks, we need to talk about what happened. Months ago, perhaps even almost a year, when he first debuted 'I Hold On' you just up and disappeared. What happened, Genna?" Despite them knowing his real name, it was easier and felt more right to call Shoto by his pen name. The same vice versa for Shoto when it came to Honey.

"Everything seemed to crash around me. I was still living at home, I live in the dorms now thankfully, but I am back at home for break," He clarified quickly, "My father- Is very overbearing. Anytime I would listen to Sato, he would somehow ruin it. It became a cycle until the point of me not being able to enjoy anything that he did. I thought-... When he released 'I Hold On' it would be different. Nothing happened, I was able to enjoy it with you guys, listen to it, watch him go into the crowd, imagining myself be there in the crowd, seeing his smile, the tears streaming down his face. Then..." He trailed off, leaning over, head in his arms. Heterochromatic eyes closing with a deep breath.

"...It was ruined for me again, I couldn't take it anymore. I needed time away. I thought I was only going to be gone for a few weeks, just enough time so I could still reactivate my Twitter and keep everything. But... I got too busy. Weeks turned into months, and now here I am." Honey stared at their friend, worry in their usual bright and happy eyes. To hear that... To hear the intent behind his words, the small clues coming together about something that Shoto couldn't tell them directly himself- Created a new idea in Honey's head on what Endeavor was truly like.

They didn't want to press any further, resting their hand on the back of the teenager's shoulder, a comforting smile replacing their distasteful frown meant for the new number one. "When do you go back to UA?"

"The second week of January. The break was extended to give us more time with our families, plus apparently, during this time of year the Pro-Heroes are much busier when it comes to local robberies." Honey hummed, tapping the side of their cup in thought, "That would make sense, since Christmas and now New Year's will be passed. Expensive gifts or New Year's Money floods in." Shoto nodded, sign in heavily.

"I wish would be able to go back to the dorms, but I am unable to. No staff will be present- Besides probably Principal Nezu." Shoto added in thought to his friend.

"Well, my door is always open. If you need a place to stay. I live with a roommate but she is off on holiday right now visiting family in Hokkaido. I know she wouldn't mind." Shoto shook his head, sending them a quick smile.

"You don't need to. I'm usually just home with my siblings, my father takes on a lot of patrols around the city to boost his ratings." Honey couldn't help but let a scoff escape them.

"How much more can he boost them?! He already got what he wanted, right?" Shoto shrugged, not wanting to add fuel to the fire that was Honey's anger.

"I'm about to finish with this, do you want to walk around and find some lunch?" Asked Honey after a few moments of letting them calm down, the young adult not wanting to blow off of their handles in public. They can do that when they are at home.

"Sure." They both stood, a gentle breeze passing by the two as they continued on with their day at the vendor's market.

Two hours later is when they parted, having just taken an hour to sit and talk over lunch (They had found an amazing mini-cafe). The other hour was more walking around, Honey hopping occasionally when they would stop to look at something, trying to keep the warm in and the cold out.

Shoto was unbothered by the cold, and could only smile in amusement whenever he would catch them doing it.

"I'm home." Called Shoto as he entered the Todoroki Home, slipping off his shoes and gradually taking off the two jackets he wore. He would have only worn one if it weren't for Fuyumi insisting on him bundling up.

"Welcome back!" Fuyumi welcomed him back as she passed through the hallway to get to the living room. He went to nod in acknowledgment, stopping himself when he saw at the corner of his eye his older sister had stalled.

"What is it?" Fuyumi sighed heavily, "Dad came by earlier, but he had to leave again for the agency. He wanted me to tell you since you weren't returning his calls, again." She responded, not meaning for her words or tone to come out as dry and defeated. The teenager nodded, walking over to her as he pulled out his phone from his back pocket, unlocking it to see that Enji did indeed call him several times. [17 Missed Calls]. Yikes.

"What was it?"

"He was invited to a New Year's Party. But he won't be able to attend. Natsuo and I already have plans of our own for New Year's that we can't get out of on such short notice. He knew that you didn't have any plans so..." Fuyumi trailed off in her explanation. Her words clicking in her brother's brain, knowing what Enji was asking of him to do- Well more or less saying that he has to.

"He wants me to go in his stead?"

"Yeah! But he didn't say that you had to stay there the whole time. Just show that you were there for appearances." 'I could stay for ten minutes and then just leave.' He thoughtfully mulled over it before nodding slowly, scratching the side of his face.

"I will go then. Who is holding it?"

"I'm not too sure. I'm guessing high profile people if Dad doesn't want to miss it. He goes every year after all." Shoto's eyebrows rose, remembering of the times in the past when it came to New Year's. He would be gone for a few hours but always would come back before the clock hit twelve and started the next year. He remembered always wishing that he would come late to witness the ball drop with his children. Just a bit out of spite.

Then again, it wasn't like he celebrated with them. He just left to his own devices instead of spending time with his family.

"High profile... I will inevitably have to ask him later about it."

"Sorry that I couldn't tell you for myself! How was the market anyway?" Shoto blinker, remembering he bought things for Fuyumi and Natsuo. He turned around and walked over to the bag he sat down, picking it up before handing it over to his sister.

"I got you and Natsuo things. It's mostly sweets though." Fuyumi's smiled widely, thanking him gratefully. Shoto left to his room, passing Natsuo's room, where he took a small peek in to see what the white-haired male was up to. Ah, napping.

Shoto closed the door behind him, ridding himself of the sweater he wore to throw on a plain T-shirt. He was quite warm from walking around for 3 hours with Honey.

His phone buzzed after a few minutes of laying on his bad and staring up at the ceiling. He opened the message, knowing it was from Honey, only to see it was a link to a Livestream.

Honey sent another message under the link.

-Daichi's live! He is going to play his guitar and sing for a bit, come join!-

The short explanation worked in Shoto's favor, as he was already searching through his backpack for the long-forgotten earbuds he barely ever used anymore.

He grasped ahold of the cords and after quickly untangling them (they were wrapped neatly, a trick he had learned from Natsuo who frequently listened to music). Plugging into his phone and then placed into his ears, checking his phone volume so he didn't get jumped from any loud sounds. He tapped the link, it takes him to Instagram of course.

He could feel his breach unintentionally hitch, seeing that Daichi was sitting on a couch, the phone propped up on something that surely wasn't a tripod by any means by how often he could see Daichi checking to make sure his phone wouldn't just crash to the ground.

He looked... Tired. Just like Honey said. But the same smile they all as fans grew to adore was still present on his face. His hair was getting quite long, it seemed he had barely cut it since he had seen him last.

"Okay, hopefully, my phone just doesn't nosedive off of the face of the cheap-ass wooden table from eBay." Shoto found himself chuckling. Well, Daichi's sense of humor was still present, along with his small use of vulgarity.

"All of you can see me right? Right. Just double-checking. Sorry to delay the stream like that." Shoto watched the comments constantly pour in, many were catching his eye before they disappeared. It looked to Shoto that Daichi was also trying to keep up with the chat.

"I thought you were going on break... I am!" Daichi read out a comment, "I just suck at breaks. Also, information on what is happening will be out in like two days, tops. Won't be coming from me because I can not be trusted I have been told." He laughed.

"Anddd~ I have been off of social media! I have been cutting down from it these past couples of days. I just decided to for today to sing and have fun with you guys for an hour or so. Or at least until people jump into the life and start to stir up trouble again." Shoto furrowed his brows, 'Trouble?'. He swiped his phone to the left, opening up Honey's DMs on Twitter with the Live playing on in the background.

-what is this trouble he is talking about?-

-A lot of things have changed when it comes to the fanbase, I told you that earlier Genna. The term, 'Anti-Chi' was created and stemmed from bitter and hateful fans of Daichi's. It's been going on for half a year now. That usually tries to report his Livestream or spam the chat and lag it. Or just plain try to get him to stop livestreaming.-

That wasn't comforting to know. Before the Idol would go on for hours and just do whatever. But now he was being cyberbullied? If that was even the correct term for it.

Shoto returned to the livestream, Daichi was taking requests for songs.

"Hmm.." Daichi had his thinking cap on, looking through the replies, deciding on his own on what he wanted to sing. He didn't exactly practice his vocals to stretch them out today.

"Oh! Oh! Oh! Was that 'I Miss' I saw right there?!" He questioned, the shortening of the name of the song wasn't one Shoto recognized.

"Yes! Right there, thank you dear citizen of the patriarchy! I feel like my throat will be able to deal with that, and it will be nice with the bass." Commented Daichi, pulling said instrument onto his lap from where it was leant up against the couch.

"Oh but before I do I better down this water one sec." And just like that, with the unscrewing of the tap, he chugged the H20 like he was severely dehydrated in the desert. Mentally Shoto thought of the many compilations he at one time binged of him just doing that before shows or just randomly.

It seemed the chat had the same idea, calling Daichi out on it but the Idol ignored them and began strumming to a song Shoto never knew. As it was released after he distanced himself from his music.

The few beginning chords were uplifting with power, but sparkiness as if he was on the verge of snapping his guitar pick.

"I'm sick of all this, 'How'd you get your band name?', 'Is that your real first name?', 'Can you text and can you follow back cause it's my birthday?'." Shoto could already feel himself sink into the mattress of his bed, the tension in his muscles disintegrating.

"No one cares what I want, just what I've got. And if we sit and count it up, it's really not a lot." Daichi shrugged, taking a small deep breath in to prepare himself for the fast sequence of phrases.

"So when are you gonna sing for me?"

"When are you gonna drink for me?"

"I don't know, I don't know." He echoed.

"So when are you gonna sing for me?"

"Ruining me completely."

"It's true, ooh, ooh." This was different than what Shoto was used to from him. Was... Was Daichi venting? In the form of a song? Was everyone oblivious to this? The chat was still stir crazy, but none of the comments were about the lyrics.

"I miss having sex but at least I don't wanna die. Any more and I think that's pretty cool." This... This was different. His usual lyrics and music weren't this style. Daichi was singing, and yet he was speaking such condescending phrases. The tiredness in his voice just amplified the emotion.

"I miss seeing the red on your face when I made you blush, hey." A sharp breath in before he continued.

"But I think it's fine, it's cool- But I think it's fine, it's cool..."

"My hobbies include, pushing away these girls that maybe really like me. Cutting people off because I don't trust exciting." Shoto frowned, watching the Idol's body language.

"But what the fuck have I done? I'm not even an icon, but I still get death threats often- So their meaning starts to soften." 'Death threats...'

"When are you gonna sing for me? When are you gonna drink for me?"

"I don't know, I don't know." He echoed once again, his shoulders softening from their tense posture.

"So when are you gonna sing for me?"

"Ruining me completely. It's true, ooh, ooh.."

"I miss having sex but at least I don't wanna die."

"Any more and I think that's pretty cool. I miss seeing the red on your face when I made you blush, hey."

"But I think it's fine, it's cool~"

"I miss having sex but at least I don't wanna die, any more and I think that's pretty cool."

"I miss seeing the red on your face when I made you blush. But I think it's fine, it's cool."

"But I think it's fine, it's cool, but I think it's fine, it's cool, but I think it's fine, it's cool, but I think it's fine, it's cool!" The sharpening of his voice became higher in octave with each verse. "But I think it's fine, it's cool, but I think it's fine, it's cool~! But I think it's fine, it's cool..." The adrenaline Shoto was feeling seemed to slowly disperse into thin air as if it was never present. Daichi leaned forward, calming down his breathing patterns as he began to read the chat. His eyes were drooping Shoto noticed. He couldn't tell earlier when he was singing since he sat in a pretty dim-lit room. He was more than tired, he looked exhausted. It was as if there was more than fatigue going on and a case of burnout.

No one in the chat commented on it- and well if there were, the fact was glossed over completely lost to the influx of messages coming from the masses.

"Any more song suggestions?" Questioned Daichi after a while of searching. His chest ceased from heaving, back to its regular pace of fluctuation.

Shoto had to remind himself to discuss about the song Daichi just sung with Honey, to figure out what was happening since he had left the peaceful fanbase, only to return to a tense battlefield.

To Be continued

The Song is, 'I Miss Having Sex But At Least I Don't Wanna Die' By, The Waterparks!

Apologies for not updating for months! I do have chapters done, just not edited, and work is a bitch sooo~ Have a hard time getting things out.

Thank you all for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! -Golden