WEDNESDAY • NOVEMBER 31ST

•--+--+--•

1:48 PM

Senpai sprinted down the hallway. He ran as fast as he could, trying desperately to outrun these hormonal, crushing women.

Boy...
How he never missed this...

Ear-piercing squeals sounded behind him as girls followed after him.
This wasn't a first, but it certainly wasn't going to be a last.
He had just left the restroom. The bell had just rung signaling that it was either a class change or the end of the day for some students. They had just gotten out of culinary class. The class was rather boring. They had some 8th-grade level lesson about germs and how to wash hands. Most of the students in the class just ignored the video shown, and he was one of them.
He left to use the toilet and when he came out that's when he was swarmed by many of his admirers and he booked it.

He gazed around the hallway. It was surprisingly empty, but he still looked around trying to find someplace to hide, when suddenly he noticed someone a little further down the hall.
His idea would be stupid, but anything to get him away from these women.

"Whitty!" The strawberry blonde male called out.
Whitty instantly looked up when his name was called. He was on his phone leaning on some lockers by a classroom. The bomb-headed man was probably just waiting for his friends to get out of class
...were they in the testing hall?
"Oh- um, hey Sen—"
"Hide me!" With those quick words, Senpai grabbed Whitty by hoodie folds and pulled him on top of him. Flipping himself around in the process.
Whitty was crouched down a bit, thank god, and so grabbing him by his hood was simple.

Senpai's back hit the greyish blue lockers with a loud slam, and he quietly cursed at the pain as the round, metal lock stabbed into his back.
Whitty gasped and instinctively put both of his arms out to catch himself, pinning Senpai to the wall of lockers.

Senpai was peering over Whitty's arm, watching as the group of his fans raced past him, and then down the white-and-cream colored hall, calling out for him like he was a lost kid. They all sounded disappointed.
Senpai, on the other hand, was relieved to have finally gotten away.

They both of them stayed in that position for a good few seconds in silence.
Senpai took a few quiet breaths, finally having a moment to catch and compose himself.
The blonde boy finally turned to look over at Whitty who was looking back at him. It was a bit awkward as the two just stared. Sharing no words.

It was as if it were some cliche moment in a romance movie, their faces were a mere few inches away from each other, and Senpai could feel the heat radiating off of the bomb-headed male.
They held eye contact in those few seconds, though it honestly felt like minutes went by.

Whitty finally pulled away, standing up. He looked embarrassed as he flipped his hood up to cover his face.

Senpai straightened himself, brushing off his outfit as he cleared his throat. He could feel a slight flush on his cheeks as they burned.

'I could finally ask him..? But maybe I shouldn't. That'd be so weird— I just forced him to hide me from fangirls and then I ask him out?'
Then he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. He would have to do it today. Ayana had given him the tickets, leaving them in his locker in a simple white envelope with a yellow smiley face sticker on it, just as she said. It was on a small pile of confession letters. He was gonna have so much fun reading through them all...

"I don't typically tell people to hide me." He began nervously chuckling. "so... my apologies about that." 
He took a step away from the lockers so his back wasn't on them anymore.
"I'm really sorry for just grabbing you too— I kinda just panicked..."
Whitty was quiet until he mumbled out, "it's okay."

They stood awkwardly for a few minutes until Senpai finally spoke again.
"Um, so this might be a bit weird— but you know about the fair coming up? Right?"
He looked over at Whitty.
Whitty blinked surprised before he nodded, "yeah... Carol and Sunday were going. They offered to let me third wheel again but..." He shook his head 'no.' "I didn't want to be a bother or whatever- while they were off doing couple-ly things."
Tamaki nodded, "I see." They nodded. "Well- uh, here."
Senpai duh into his bag and handed him a pink envelope with only one of the fair tickets inside.
He had taken one of the tickets and put it in a separate envelope so he could give it to Whitty.

"I... uh, I wanna take you to the fair..." Tamaki paused for a second before he hurriedly added, "I-It doesn't have to be a date- y'know, just more of a hangout if you want but-" he cut himself off, noticing the look in Whitty's eyes. It was a mixture of emotions that he couldn't pinpoint.
He hesitated to speak but he soon did as Whitty didn't seem to have anything to say.

"but... just... do you want to accompany me to the fair? I think it might be good for us to chat, and maybe we could get to know each other more! And uh- if you do decide to come, it'd be a double date- um, hangout, with Monika and Sayori."
He rubbed the back of his neck as he watched Whitty gaze down at the pink envelope being handed out to him.

Senpai could see that he was very clearly hesitating to take the envelope. As if it was some 'too good to be true' type of situation.
The strawberry blonde felt his palms get a little sweaty and he gripped the pink envelope a little tighter to try and hide it. He was honestly nervous. Would Whitty really not accept the invitation? It was a one time offer and if he did reject then Senpai knew that he'd feel stupid.
Deep down, he really wanted to take Whitty out. As stupid as it sounded. It'd just be a friendly thing, nothing romantic about it, 'Whitty might think differently.' a voice in the back of his head said, 'he has a crush on you.'

But does he really?

Whitty was still hesitating, looking deep in thought. Senpai felt embarrassed just standing there so he grabbed on of Whitty's hands and put the envelope in it and then closed his fingers so he held the envelope tight.

"I wrote my number on the back, but, I think you already have it saved in your phone, so. Might've been a stupid thing to do on my part- anyways, um... feel free to give me your answer later today, I understand this is rather short notice. The fair is tonight so..."

Tamaki stood back before quickly walking away, he didn't look back, afraid that Whitty would be staring at him.
That entire interaction was awkward.
But Senpai powered through it and turned a corner, secretly hoping that the bomb-headed man would say yes.

•••

1220 words

Well fuck.

This took longer that it should've.

I deadass forgot about this book for a hot minute, (I've been rather busy) and I actually had like ¾'s of this chapter done.
Sorry about that.
Hopefully this isn't terrible—

Also, no, don't worry I still ship Ballistic Roses and I'll still update this book but, unfortunately, like all my other books this'll have slow updates. I'm sorry 😭

I'll update this book at lot more than my others bc I am determined to finish this book specifically and give my fellow ballistic roses shippers some food.

Anyways!
Until then my peeps 🐣, creeps 🐜, and sickly sweets 🍬 and hopefully we'll meet again in the next chapter!!

:]