One step forward, two steps back

Part 3 The plan

It was the following day, and Nishikata was at school and had just finished changing his shoes. 'Maybe I should have just picked the date.' He thought to himself. 'It would have made it easier to give her the present.'

He closed the locker and jumped back as he noticed Takagi standing there. "Hi Nishikata." She greeted. "Good morning."

"Oh, good morning."  He turned away as a blush formed on his face. 'I totally kissed her yesterday.'

"Nishikata?" She asked as she moved around to get a better look at him. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, I'm fine, nothing's wrong."

"Hmm?" She gave a sly smile. "Are you sure? Because it looks like you're still embarrassed by one little ... you know what."

"Well of course I'm embarrassed, it's not exactly something friends do."

"Oh? If I didn't know any better, I'd say you had a crush on me."

Nishikata's face turned even redder. 'No, I need to be the one to tell her! I can't let her find out on her own ... but ... is she just teasing me or does she really think I have a crush on her?'

"Good thing you're easy to read." She added as she gave him a closed eyed smile.

Nishikata glanced back at her, as he began to feel at ease. 'That was too close ... but I'm going to have to tell her sooner or later.'

"Then again-" She glanced over with a smile. "From how you- no." She closed her eyes and shook her head. "I intended for that to remain a secret, I can't tease you because of it."

"Huh?" Nishikata said as he began to feel more at ease. "I mean, all you said was that you wouldn't tell anyone who didn't already know."

"Yeah, but the intent was only for a momentary source of extreme embarrassment, not something lasting." She paused for a moment. "And on that note, I need to ask a favor."

"Huh? You don't usually ask for favors from me."

"Yeah, well, this is actually for a friend of mine."

"Okay, let's hear it."

"Well, a friend of mine likes a boy in our class and wants to hang out with him, the problem is, she doesn't really have a chance to get to know him. Thing is, you're friends with him, so she asked me if I could set up a friendly double date."

"A double ... date?" Nishikata felt his face begin to warm up. "Wait, are you trying to say-"

"That I was going to trick you into doing just that this Saturday after beating you in a snowball fight? Yeah, that's more or less the case."

Nishikata let out an annoyed sigh. "You know you could have just said that I had to take you on a date instead of giving me a choice or, I don't know, just ASK!"

"Yes, but then I wouldn't have been able to tease you while doing it."

"Seriously?"

"Yup, like I said, I have a major weakness where I can't help but tease you Nishikata."

Nishikata sighed and looked away. "Well, I've already chosen and took my pri-" He nearly choked himself as he tried to stop himself from saying the wrong thing. "Penalty, so I don't have to help."

"I'll owe you a favor."

'A favor?' Nishikata thought about it for a moment before giving her a response. "Okay, I've got something, how about, the next time you need my help for a friend, you just ask, instead of trying to trick me?"