Since the start of the fall season, I had been making time to watch the weather have its way with the leaves at the front of the school. As I was leaving the clubroom, it was usually an opportune moment to watch the cherry blossom petals flutter through the air. They had a rather calming contrast with the orange-red sky setting in the background. It was a peaceful moment for me.

Normally.

"Senpai, I have these two tickets and I was wondering if you wanted to… ask me out on a date?"

She, who probably doesn't even need to be named, had leaned in closer while talking to me. Too close. I could feel the heat through her body.

And see it through her eyes. Staring up at me with an oddly fitting determination, despite the clear blush-ridden face.

Whoa. I felt like I lost some imaginary battle before I had even realized I was fighting.

I'm reminded again of the fact that somehow I was surrounded by beautiful women almost completely by accident. What kind of meta-level loner have I become?

And now I was actually being asked out by… wait, huh?

"I… what?"

"Please, don't make me repeat it. It's embarrassing." She dug her head into my chest.

"No, no. Hold on." I placed my hands on her shoulders and separated us. "I need you to repeat that, and not because I didn't hear you. I truly don't understand."

"Geeze senpai… ok. I, well, will you go… and ask me out on a date?" She looked away from me.

?

Hmm.

"I just want to make sure you're saying what I think you're saying. Can you repeat that one more time?"

"Now I know you're just messing with me! I didn't think you would tease me this hard!" She stared me down.

"I'm not trying to tease you. I just—okay, seriously, stop pouting, I'm being serious. I legitimately want to make sure I'm hearing that correctly. I feel like that kind of confession of yours isn't right."

"Confession?" She tilted her head.

"Yeah, your confession."

"No way! That's just gross. What kind of guy asks a girl for a confession?"

"So you're not asking me out?"

"Denied!" She threw her arms up in an X-formation. "I've already said it like three times. I'm asking you to ask me out on a date."

"You're asking me to ask you out on a date?"

"Uh-huh." She nodded her head.

"With your tickets."

"Yup." More nodding.

"That you came up to me with."

"Yup."

"Which was your idea."

She sighed.

"Yes, senpai. See, you're kind of like… useless when it comes to these types of things. Soooo, I prepared everything for you. All you have to do is finish it. By confessing."

"You left out the most important part!"

"Uh, duh. You're the guy, so, you should know this. Don't tell me even this is too advanced for you."

"The question doesn't come from complexity!"

"Then why are you so confused?"

"Anybody would be confused here. What kind of novel roundabout way of confessing is this?"

"I already told you, I'm not confessing. You are."

"I really think you're the one confessing here…"

"Please. How many times have you been confessed too? And how many times have I been confessed too? I know what I'm doing here."

That experience of yours only made it worse!

"What kind of confessions have you received?"

"You're not supposed to ask a girl that, senpai. Use some tact."

"I think I need to use some common sense instead."

"So, like, are you going to finish asking me or…"

"I think I would need to start asking you first."

"Well then what are you waiting for?"

This was getting nowhere.

"Okay look, if I ask you out on a date, which you planned, will you be happy?"

"Hmmm."

She paused and adopted a thinking pose.

It was strangely fascinating.

"Nope."

"You won't be happy if I ask you out now?"

"Not anymore. You made it, like, too weird." She faked a look of disgust and turned her head away.

Ugh.

"So this whole issue was a waste of time..."

"Geeze, you failed the test again. You're supposed to pursue the issue!" She faced me again and stopped her feet on the ground.

"Wait, I was being tested? And what do you mean 'again'"?

"Girls are always testing their boyfriends."

"When did that relationship upgrade happen?!"

"Well, I'm just going off of what was supposed to happen a couple of minutes ago." She said matter-of-factly.

"So what I said earlier wasn't even going to be registered now."

"Well, you've kinda messed up everything so far, so it's probably better if I just assume everything else."

"Causality really doesn't work this way."

"Cozz-a-what? Just because you know complex words doesn't mean you should use them."

"I don't think that was all that complex."

"And now you're patronizing your girlfriend. You're like, zero of a million today senpai. Which is actually better than a lot of other days."

"There's so many things I want to correct there I don't even know where to start…"

"So the date is this Saturday—"

"Never agreed to that!"

"—And you need to wear something with a tie." She started scrutinizing my appearance with her sight. "Yeah, def' a tie."

"Hold on a second. First of all, I never confessed to you. Second of all, we are not a couple. Third of all, I didn't agree to a date. Finally, I'm not wearing a tie."

"You're going to wear a tie to the date as my boyfriend as part of your confession."

Whoa, she just responded to all four of the issues I had in a single sentence.

Her power level dwarfs even married women.

"So it's just a given, huh?"

"Lucky you! You messed up everything and still got the girl! You know, that sounds exactly like how a confession from senpai would go anyway."

Hmm. As much as I wanted to protest, I found myself agreeing with it.

"Besides, can you really say you don't want to be going out?" She smiled up at me.

"…No. I guess not." I turned away from her, trying to conceal the reddening of my cheeks.

But she stepped to the side, so her face was right next to me again.

"Neither can I."

Author's Note: Just a one-shot idea that I had today, might still have some typos. Didn't really think it fit with my other story.