[center][h1][color=black]T[/color]OTSUKA [color=black]R[/color]YUSEI
[color=black]戸[/color]塚 [color=black]竜[/color]星[/h1][/center]
[hr][right][color=gray]introduce a little pickle juice. upset the established order.
and everything becomes chaos.[/color][/right][hr]

[indent]It didn't take a rocket scientist to see what Shiori had pointed out; of [i]course[/i] Ariyoshi wanted them to ask her the final segment of the game. Her attempts at getting them to play her little matchmaking game hadn't been the least bit subtle, and while it had given him ample opportunity to tease the poor girl across from him, he wasn't looking forward to seeing the smug satisfaction on their classmate's face when she came meandering back with their food. The cards, however, turned out to be the least of his worries. He had become accustomed to the animosity and snark the redhead espoused whenever he provoked her with his words. So, when instead she devolved into surprisingly sincere murmuring, he didn't exactly know what to do. 

Had he gone too far with his teasing? True, he had been toeing the line ever since they had met up earlier. It was easy enough to take his little comments as flirting, even before he had gone and called her [i]pretty[/i] of all things. But, having gotten caught up in the moment and said that, it was no wonder she was flushing like a tomato and admitting she found him cute, and that he had put her on the back foot. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. It wasn't a [i]date[/i]. He couldn't allow himself to get that comfortable, to become that attached to a girl after only one week—pretty when flustered or not. Utsubyo wasn't his home, and desperate for any kind of reprieve from his doldrums as he was, he had forgotten that. He needed to pivot things in a different direction, or he'd have a girlfriend by the end of the afternoon. 

[color=c0c0c0]"React however you want,"[/color] He muttered, directing his eyes elsewhere, [color=c0c0c0]"It's not like we're a couple or anything."[/color]

As he had been doing habitually over the course of their not-a-date, Ryusei sipped at his tea once again. Unfortunately, his tendency to find solace in tea whenever things got uncomfortable had bit him in the ass, and he found himself practically out of the sugary drink. Shaking his empty cup in the air, he called out for their waitress. Better to get her intrusion over with now, and besides, maybe Ariyoshi's presence would serve as a useful distraction from the awkwardness that had filled their conversational void.

[color=c0c0c0]"Oi. Another tea."[/color][/indent]