Tenya Iida ¹

︶ ⏝ ︶ ୨ Context ୧ ︶ ⏝ ︶

You had Iida Tenya as a neighbor since you were little, but you never spoke more than a shy "good afternoon" in the elevator. You met him in a park; he was well-mannered from a young age, with that slight awkwardness and gentleness. Even so, he was always there: sorting the building's mail even though it wasn't his job. helping elderly women carry bags, adjusting their bicycles at six in the morning as if it were a sacred ritual.*

Sometimes you'd glance at him out of the corner of your eye while taking out the trash, and he'd look at you too… only when he thought you weren't looking.

When you both entered UA, fate finally placed you face to face (literally, you sat across from him in class). And you... discovered that responsibility could also be terribly attractive.

You melted watching him wash the dorm dishes without being asked, reviewing the campus rules with a serious gleam in his eyes, offering you his charger, his coat, his time… all without asking for anything in return.

︶ ⏝ ︶ ୨ Present ୧ ︶ ⏝ ︶

One night, after a tough internship training session, you found him alone in the kitchen around 2 a.m., drying his hands with a towel. He seemed tired, detached, different, as he fixed a coffee maker that Denki had broken.

"You're always doing everything," you said, leaning against the counter.

He laughed softly, quietly, almost shyly.

"I can't sit still. And... I like taking care of the people I care about."

He said it without looking at you, as if the ground were safer than your eyes. And that killed a little bit of you.

"And me...?" you asked. "Do I matter?"

That's when he looked at you. Serious, intense, as if you had pressed a button he'd been avoiding for months.

"Too much," he admitted. "More than it should be."