Bet Trope - Blog Posts

⋆˚࿔ when courage calls

when a stupid bet leads to you try and befriend hitoshi shinsou

contains: the typical bet trope but spun around, pre-relationship, mutual pining, implied bi!reader, gn!reader, bi!denki mentioned (projecting sorry)

authors note: part one is the set up so u don’t have to read it.

(i got carried away writing out reader, denki, mina, and hanta's friendship dynamic not sorry)

part two is when reader interacts with shinsou.

part one word count: 1.2k

total word count: 3.7k

you lay lopsided on the class a common room couch. the sun had already set leaving you and your friends in a comfortably dim lit space. hanta slouched on the couch close beside you, toothpick twiddling along as lip as he scrolled on his phone. mina was sitting against the couch, hands drawn up to play with the ends of your hair. 

“whaattt do you mean?” the pink girl raised her head to focus on denki’s words, eyes slowly dragging away from your hair and to him. you had been trying to tune out their conversation and relax, but denki’s loudness and mina’s love for drama made it very difficult to be incurious about.

denki scrambled to sit up from his starfish-like position on the ground and leaned closer to the two of you, “i can always tell when someone has a crush!” he pointed his finger up confidently. “like mr. yamada! he totally likes sensei aizawa!” he exclaimed. you lifted your head, propping it on the palm of your hand. you were interested now.

mina doubled over in laughter, “you’re kidding right?” she giggled, “they’re literally married!” she giggled. denki’s face dropped and mina snorted. you couldn’t help but laugh with her.

“seriously?” denki muttered to himself, shaking his head. 

you nodded as hanta spoke up, “they told us when we were like first years man.” he confirmed, barely glancing up from his phone. 

“well still! i just had a feeling before you even told me so! my instincts are totally right!” he defended, crossing his arms in all seriousness.

“yeah?” mina grinned, leaning in his direction. “then can your instincts tell me who i had a crush on when we were first years?” she challenged. 

denki’s eyes immediately sparked, “that’s obvious. it was kiri right?” 

mina shook her head and tilted it back to look at you. she flashed you with a silly upside grin and it clicked. 

“me?” you thought out loud, your body unconsciously moving to sit up straighter.

“yeah!” mina said casually, leaving you assumed to was a tiny ‘friend’ crush– she has a lot of those. “and i wasn’t the only one.” she chirped. again, very casually.

“what the fuck, who?” denki squawked, his brisk ‘don’t care’ attitude fading away.

“god, you're nosy.” hanta laughed from behind his screen. “i’m pretty sure we all knew shoto liked y/n too.”

mina was quick to raise a brow, alongside you, “shoto..?” her nose scrunched up as she thought. “i mean, i’d believe it.” she shrugged.

“you don’t remember?” hantas question was targeted to mina. “that one time he asked us if we thought y/n would like to get a bouquet of flowers.” hanta nudged you with his foot and he wiggled his shoulders.

“it was right after we moved into the dorms, i thought it was a welcoming gift!” you blattered out. it was true. you vividly remember how he gave you the flowers and a very out-of-character hug. now that you were recalling the moment you could see the signs. his nervous sputtering, his tinted cheeks. were you really this oblivious?

“right. a welcome gift that he only gave you.” mina said in a serious tone. a flush of embarrassment crept up across your cheeks. “anyways, i was talking about jiro, not shoto.” mina said. “she had it bad. god don’t get me started with the love songs.” she dramatically groaned and the blood ran to your cheeks. you rested a cool hand on your face, attempting to ground yourself.

“wait so,” denki pointed to hanta, “shoto,” he then pointed to mina, “and jiro both liked y/n?” he affirmed.

“this is news for me too.” you muttered, the wave of hotness rush over your entire body now. “no way that’s real, right?” you forced yourself to laugh and dipped your head towards mina.

“oh those lyrics were definitely real,” mina shuttered as she rubbed your arm “but really, you’re a total catch babe! none of this is surprising.” she patted you.

“that is so not fairrr,” denki whined from across you. he leaned onto the couch behind him, throwing his head back and raising his hands. “how can y/n pull girls and guys and i can’t even rizz up shinsou.”

“because you're stupid?” hanta replied.

at the same time mina said, “because you— wait you’re trying to get with shinsou? like purple hair, mind quirk shinsou?”

for a moment you seriously considered going back to tuning out the conversation. 

together, the three of you glanced at denki. he just shrugged. “i mean i offered to do his physics homework.” 

mina hung onto his words, “and..?”

“and i might have forgotten to do it… but i still!” there was a stumble in his voice, “i tried!” 

“that is not how you flirt with someone denki,” you laughed, deciding you'd play into the light teasing. “you do know that right?”

denki let out a short huff, muttering, “like you could do better.”

hanta barked out a laugh, “they probably could.”

“oh yeahh they definitely could hanta.”  denki mocked, sticking out his tongue to the raven haired boy. 

“dumbass i’ll tape—!“ hanta tried to argue, body moving to lunge up from his spot on the couch but mina stopped him before he could. a shit-eating grin spread across denki's face. 

“guys, guys,” her voice hung in the air, catching both the boys' attention. “how about we make a bet out of this?” she peered at you, a curious look splattered across her face.

you mirrored her expression, “a bet? really? that’s kind of cliche don’t you think?” you looked to your other two friends, who had simmered down surprisingly quick. you studied the expressions on their faces, cursing yourself for becoming friends with the nosiest people at ua. (it takes one to know one)

“that wouldn’t be hero like…” you said, your tone leaning indecisive. “i mean, leading him on.. that’s wrong.”

mina was fast to shut down the paranoia slithering in your mind. “you don’t have to like woo him per se,” she playfully started. “just talk to him, be your normal self. and i bet he’ll fall for you!” you could almost see the cogwheels turning in her head as she spoke. mina’s imagination was prone to soar, especially when it came to anything relationship related.

“and i bet he won’t!” denki shot up. 

“i…” you bit your lip nervously. you had only spoken to shinsou a handful of times, never overstepping the boundary between classmates and friends. let alone anything romantic.

“hey, if he doesn’t end up liking you then it’s no harm to him,” hanta coaxed. “if this fails you could just consider it as making a new friend.” he shrugged.

“but i bet he won’t!” denki added in a hushed voice.

“shush!” mina said harshly to denki. she turned back to you, “only do it if you want to, okay?” she said.

technically it wouldn’t be wrong. you could just hang out with shinsou, see if he seems to show the tiniest bit of interest in you, and then act totally casual and cool about it if he does! nothing could go wrong there.

“as long as it doesn’t go too far.” you faltered.

“okay!” mina squealed. “one week from monday is the deadline.” the boys nodded in agreement and everyone melted back into the amiable atmosphere.

you removed your head from your hand and stretched back onto the couch below you, wondering what you just gotten yourself into.

part two here