The Crush

It was lunchtime, and the school's cafeteria (or *the ball*, as everyone called it for some dumb reason) was as loud and chaotic as ever. Kikidori and Ere'ana sat at their usual table, bickering about something stupid—probably whether cereal counted as soup or not.

Kikidori was mid-sentence, about to completely destroy Ere'ana's argument, when a shadow loomed over their table.

Renji.

"*Oh, great*," Kikidori muttered under his breath.

Ere'ana, on the other hand, looked up with a raised brow. "Yo, what's up?"

Renji smirked and ran a hand through his annoyingly perfect hair. "*So,*" he started, leaning on the table way too casually, "*Valentine's Day is coming up… and I was wondering if you'd wanna go out with me.*"

Silence.

Kikidori blinked. Ere'ana blinked.

Kikidori turned to her, waiting. *There was no way she was gonna say yes, right?*

Then—

"Sure," Ere'ana said, shrugging.

Kikidori felt his soul *leave his body.*

Renji grinned, clearly pleased with himself, and slid a piece of paper across the table. "*Here's my number. Hit me up later.*"

Ere'ana took the paper with a nod. "Cool."

Renji shot her one last confident smirk before walking off, probably to go flex in the mirror or whatever the hell he did in his free time.

Silence lingered at the table for a solid five seconds before Kikidori finally spoke.

*"Congratulations,"* he said flatly, sarcastic as *hell.*

Ere'ana rolled her eyes, stuffing the paper in her pocket. "Oh, shut up."

Kikidori leaned back in his chair, arms crossed. "*Wow*, you actually said yes to *Renji.* What, you like guys who use three bottles of hair gel a day?"

Ere'ana smirked. "What can I say? I got *taste.*"

"*Yeah,*" Kikidori scoffed, "*bad taste.*"

Ere'ana kicked his leg under the table. "Hater."

Kikidori snorted. "Yeah, yeah. So what, you got a *boyfriend* now? Is that what this is?"

Ere'ana shrugged. "Guess so."

Kikidori raised an eyebrow. "*You*—the person who can barely commit to a **homework assignment**—now has a **boyfriend?**"

Ere'ana smirked. "I can be *responsible* when I wanna be."

Kikidori just laughed. "*Sure.* Let's see how long this lasts."

Ere'ana threw a fry at him. "Shut your ass up."

Kikidori caught the fry in his mouth, chewing with a smug grin. "Whatever you say, lovebird."