Her mind was a bit hazy when she woke up from her surgery. Recovery Girl said that she wouldn't completely heal her until a few days, just because of how exhausted Hailey's body was and to make sure that her bone would properly reset and regrow. That meant that there were still cuts on the palms of her hands, just not as deep.

When Hailey's mind cleared, she was no longer alone in the room. Todoroki was unconscious in the bed next to her, having been knocked out by Bakugou during the final match. 

Recovery Girl only needed to fix up his left forearm, but that was all in terms of his injuries. 

The little old woman had left, due to a call about some injuries in the second year's sports festival. Hailey's mother also left, to quickly touch base with her coworkers that she assigned to watch the other sports festivals.

Hailey felt rather awkward in being in the same room alone with Todoroki, even if he was unconscious. 

All of the hateful words that he spat out at her earlier circled in her mind. To distract herself, she picked up her phone from the nightstand on her right.

To her surprise, there was a notification that Luka had texted her video message before she had her procedure.

She turned down the volume on her phone so she wouldn't disturb Todoroki and played the video. 

"Hey Hails, we watched you kick some butt today!" Luka's smiling face was on screen, and behind him were some familiar faces.

"We're so proud of you!"

"You did great!"

"Dude you totally kicked ass!"

"I recorded everything! I'll make sure to send you the highlights."

"Seriously, congrats on getting so far!"

A happily sentimental smile rose on Hailey's face as she heard the words of encouragement from the friends she had back at home. It made her heart swell with delight at the sight of everyone so excited for her.

"Aw, I miss you guys." Hailey murmured quietly, glancing down at him.

The sound of Todoroki groaning as he recovered consciousness in the bed beside Hailey, startled her a bit.  

"You're awake, that's good." She quietly greeted him.

Todoroki turned his head and stared at Hailey in surprise.

Hailey looked away from Todoroki and fiddled with the sling of her injured arm, her palms both still bandaged from the gashes caused by the broken ice.

"You'll be able to make it to the award ceremony, apparently Bakugou's giving the teachers a hard time, so it hasn't started yet." Hailey stated, chewing on her lip.

"Roselle-" Todoroki sat up and was able to fully see her bandaged injuries, the sling causing him to feel guilty.

"You won't have to worry about me trying to be your friend anymore, you've made yourself loud and clear. Sorry for the trouble." Hailey apologized, her tone filled with sadness. 

"No." Todoroki interjected, causing Hailey to look back to him in confusion. "You don't owe me an apology, it's me who should be saying sorry. I was angry at you for all of the wrong reasons, and I've said horrible things because of that."

Todoroki put his feet on the ground as he continued to apologize and explain his thoughts, "I started remembering things today, things from my past that I repressed because they only made me feel angry. When I remembered this girl who used to come to my house when we were little, when she came over, all of the bad things around me didn't seem to matter, because she promised that we would become heroes together... but then she didn't come back and suddenly things got worse. My mother.. she poured boiling water on my face after calling my left side unbearable and my father sent her away to a hospital."

Hailey felt herself choke up as Todoroki confessed what had actually happened to him, as she was finally getting the answers that she always pondered, but she continued to listen intently. 

"For a while, I blamed her for leaving me alone, as if her leaving was the cause of so many horrible things happening to me... but in reality, neither one of us had control over it. I didn't realize that you were her until I saw you encouraging Midoriya and our classmates." Todoroki then gave Hailey a new expression that she couldn't quite recognize, "During my fight with Midoriya, you yelled at me to be the hero I promised to be. That's when I knew it was you, but when I thought about when we were younger, I felt that anger again. I thought that you were apart of my father's plans for me to surpass All Might and himself, and I thought that he was trying to set us up in a quirk marriage. I believed you were a part of his plan, whether your mother informed you or not." 

"I'm sorry." Hailey sniffled.

"I just said that you don't have to apologize, I'm the one who needs to apologize for being so cruel to you." Todoroki lamented apologetically.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't come back, that I couldn't come visit." Hailey apologized, trying to blink away the burning sensation in her eyes. She thought that she's cried enough today. "I'm always gonna feel bad about that, even if we were kids who couldn't control it."

Todoroki was quiet for a moment before he blurted out words that he barely thought about, "About what I said about not wanting to be friends anymore-"

Hailey sighed, already disappointed, "I know, you've already said that you don't want anything to do with that. We're different people from back then. You've said it yourself that you hate me, the person I am now. So you don't have to worry, I won't bother you, and this can stay a secret between us."

"No, that's not-" Todoroki tried to interject, but instead, Recovery Girl returning interrupted.

"I meant to get back before you had woken up, but at one least of you is too injured to fight. Your match had some people worried." Recovery Girl commented, "But since you're awake and not too beaten up, they're doing the award ceremony in a few minutes, so you'll have to be there, Todoroki. You got second place, after all." 

Todoroki's expression showed that he was hesitant, but Recovery Girl urged him to go.

"Well, go on, don't hold up everyone."

Reluctantly, Todoroki complied with Recovery Girl's instruction and begrudgingly left the room.

"How are you feeling, sweetie?" Recovery Girl asked gently, noticing Hailey's sad expression.

"I'm okay, it's just been a long day."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I'm glad we have the day off tomorrow." Hailey sighed in relief as she walked out of the stadium with Midoriya and Uraraka. "I need a day to be lazy and recover."

"I know what you mean, I'm tired everywhere." Uraraka weakly chuckled.

"Yeah, it'll be nice to relax for a day." Midoriya added.

"You and I got the most injured I think, Midi." Hailey remarked, gesturing to the both of them with her right arm. "We should make shirts that say, 'I fought Todoroki and I got was surgery and this shirt'."

"That's a- that's a little morbid." Midoriya sputtered.

Hailey laughed, "C'mon Midi, you gotta be able to laugh at stuff like this, or else you'll look back at this and be super frustrated. Plus, I wanna remember the good things that happened today. Just think when we rewatch today on tv in a year or when we're all heroes. This is where we started."

Midoriya and Uraraka smiled at Hailey's optimism, amazed at her authentic positivity.

"Roselle." 

The three turned to see that Todoroki was the one who called to Hailey, he was rushing over towards them.

"Please wait a moment." He requested, much like how Hailey did in the days leading up to the sports festival. 

"I thought you already said your peace, Todoroki." Hailey quavered, a bit hesitant.

"I didn't, I have more I want to say to you." Todoroki confessed, "If you'll let me."

Hailey glanced to Midoriya, who offered her a half smile, she understood it as him telling her that she had the ability to accept or refuse Todoroki's offer to finish their conversation.

She wasn't sure if he was going to spout off some insults or further explaining why he didn't want a friendship with Hailey, but part of her thought of what did she have left to lose? She'd rather know rather than make assumptions about what Todoroki thought about her.

"You guys can go ahead, I'll see you back at school." Hailey told Midoriya and Uraraka, who bid the two farewell and left. Hailey looked back to Todoroki. "Alright, go ahead." She mentally prepared herself for what her classmate had yet to said.

"I want you back." Todoroki stated, "Before in Recovery Girl's office, I wanted to ask if you'll take back my friendship."

"What? Why did you suddenly change your mind?" Hailey inquired, bewilderment on her face. "You were pretty adamant about avoiding me entirely."

"My judgement was impaired by anger that shouldn't have been held against you, not when you didn't know my story and I didn't know yours. I want to learn about who you changed into." Todoroki admitted, bowing as an added apology.

A smile lifted on Hailey's lips, "If that's what you want, then okay."

Todoroki lifted his head hopefully, "Really?"

"But since we're friends who just got over a fight, you're going to have to prove to me that you're sorry." Todoroki had a confused expression as he had just previously bowed in apology. "Something you'll learn about me is that some apologies for me aren't easily forgiven with just words and a bow. We'll work on it though." Hailey smiled, then unlocked her phone and opening it to the contacts app, before handing it to Todoroki. "Here, let's start by exchanging numbers. That way, we can chat outside of school and maybe hang out when we get back on track."

Todoroki took her phone, in his phone number and full name onto the contact template before handing it back to Hailey. 

"Should I give you mine to put your number in?" Todoroki asked.

"Nah, I'll text you right now so you know it's me." Hailey answered.

Before Hailey could, her mother and Endeavour suddenly approached the two.

"So, did you two make nice, or is this still a problem?" Endeavour asked, gruffly.

"Working on it." Hailey confirmed, putting her phone in her pocket.

"Alright, you ready to go home? It's been a long day." Melodie inquired to her daughter.

"I guess." Hailey sighed, "See you later, Todo." She waved to Todoroki as she followed her mom to the parking lot. 

"I'm surprised that you still want to be friends with Shouto." Melodie remarked as she unlocked the car.

"Just giving him a chance, everyone can use a friend." Hailey answered, sitting herself in the passenger's seat of the car. "I'm surprised you wanna be friends with Endeavour." She retorted as her mother sat in the driver's seat.

Melodie glared at her daughter, "That's different."

"How so?" Hailey urged.

Melodie looked ahead, while she started the car. "You're too young to understand this kind of thing."

Hailey frowned, "You've been saying that since I was little, when do I get considered as 'old enough'?"

"Hailey, let it go." Her mother warned as she backed the car out of the parking lot. 

To her dismay, Hailey didn't press on the subject with her mother. She pulled out her phone, deciding to send that text message to Todoroki. 

'Yo, it's Hailey, feel free to name my contact as whatever you want : )'

Hailey then pondered what to change Todoroki's contact name to. She had already renamed Bakugou's to 'Blasty' with some explosion emojis. Putting the name 'Todo' between snowflake and fire emoji satisfied Hailey for the time being.

She hoped that remaining optimistic would benefit her in the long run with her relationship with Todoroki.