Katsuki Bakugou didn’t notice it at first. He was busy. Paperwork, patrol, meetings with sidekicks, the exhausting grind of being one of Japan’s top Pro Heroes.

It was in the quiet moments it hit him.

Tuesday, 1:47 PM. He finished a debrief and pulled out his phone. No message. No “how was your day” text. Nothing.

He frowned.

It sat there. Delivered. Unanswered.

Straight to voicemail.

His brows furrowed. He tried again. Straight to voicemail.

Okay. Not a phone issue.

He checked Instagram. Her profile was gone.

Checked again. Gone.

Searched from his hero account. Gone.

Katsuki sat there holding his phone like somebody had just informed him he’d been laid off from a job he didn’t know was under review.

And Katsuki, being Katsuki, had responded exactly like a man who had never once been in love and therefore had no idea what a landmine he was standing on.

He kept reading.

You already got somethin’ similar. That’s basically wasted money.

Wait.

Wantin’ it just ‘cause it’s pretty doesn’t make sense to me.

Silence.

Absolute, devastating silence.

Katsuki Bakugou, one of the strongest heroes in Japan, a man who had fought villains, survived a war, and died once, stared at his phone and realized he had just committed the single most embarrassing administrative error of his entire life.