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DRDT EP 13 theories/predictions
figured I should collect all my thoughts in one place b4 the new episode drops…
Levi’s Secret
I don’t think Levi is the killer, especially not after the last episode. Given how he apologized for being unhelpful + derailing the trial, he knows what he’s confessed will cause a big stir but he’s confessing it to be helpful in some way, possibly one or more of the following:
1. He knows talk will turn to motive secrets soon with alibis exhausted, and wants to stop people from thinking whoever’s secret Arei had was the one to kill her before that discussion takes up too much time.
2. He wants to change the topic to motive secrets because he thinks one of the other unrevealed secrets relates to Arei’s murder.
3. The murder he committed is similar in some way to Arei’s death and he needs to confess his secret in order to share what he knows.
4. Or, because of the murder(s?) he committed, he knows more about bodies than Arturo and wants to share what he noticed (Levi autopsy guy from now on??)
While Levi’s almost definitely off the hook for Arei’s murder, I’m still a little worried for him though…
Ace’s (Almost) Murder
I’m really hoping we address this sooner rather than later, especially because I think it has to be relevant to Arei’s murder, since the common consensus is that they were both hung? I’m also a firm believer of the theory that someone else (coughcoughHu) tried to kill Ace and Nico walked in on it and saved him…
The Murder Method
I’m not going to go into a deep analysis of the evidence here, especially since other (smarter) people have already analyzed the crime to hell and back - I just figured I’ll put this here too with the rest of my thoughts. I believe that Arei’s murder was almost definitely done through a complex sort of Rube Goldberg machine, utilizing tools like the playground spinner (hence the tape) and heavy jugs full of water (hence the fish)… I don’t know who this implicates, but hopefully we’ll get more clues soon!
The Possible Culprits
I’m not listing off who I think it is based on who could have committed it and how or anything, rather, this is who I think is narratively the most suspicious right now, in no particular order:
Rose
I really don’t want it to be Rose!! But she’s been acting super super suspicious in the current trial and it’s hard to ignore:
- continuously pushing for people to vote/‘just want this trial to be over already’ (paraphrased)
- hasn’t fallen asleep once, I don’t think?
- keeps repeating ‘I was definitely asleep at that time’ when asked for alibis, instead of just saying no
However, there’s like no reason or motive for her to have murdered Arei, so maybe there’s another explanation…? (Accomplice!Rose??)
Hu
I’m convinced she was the one who tried to murder Ace, with good intentions, so it’s possible she switched targets to another bully? She’s definitely latched onto Nico as someone she needs to protect, whether or not they want her protection…
I know she has an alibi, but she brought it up a little out of the blue, possibly also to protect Nico, and Nico barely agreed with her (it’s also been shown that Nico will fake an alibi so as not to be suspected, which is technically fine since they weren’t the murderer so it just means they aren’t falsely suspected? But it also means they might just agree to Hu’s false alibi to get Ace + the class off their back, which Hu could be using to her own benefit?)
Overall, I’m still not sure about the possibility of this once since if Hu really did murder just to remove someone she saw as a problem, considering what we think her secret is, it seems more likely that she’d give up immediately, “sacrificing” herself for the “greater good”…
Whit
Honestly, I don’t really think it was Whit, but by GOD is he suspicious right now. But then again, he’s always suspicious, and it doesn’t feel like in a murder way? I almost don’t want to suspect him of being the mastermind… it feels more like a red herring (ba-dum-tss)
Other Misc. Thoughts
Secrets
I agree with the common theories on whose secrets are whose, especially since one of those theories has already been proven correct. I do wonder whether any of the other unrevealed secrets will prove to be related to the murder in any way, or if they’re just still unrevealed for personal reasons. Also, as much as I want David to reveal that his secret is surely actually Teruko’s, I think narratively he’ll probably hold on to that for another chapter or two (it’s not like anyone can disprove him…)
Ace
Given that Ace has been oddly quiet the last episode, plus I’m sure his reaction to Levi’s secret is gonna be… something, I think it’s leading up to one of two things:
1. Ace passes out from blood loss and talking putting too much strain on his throat.
2. Ace has a full-blown anxiety attack as the stress of the whole situation finally gets to him.
Teruko
I’m excited for Teruko to school us all on… something! Likely the murder method or the secrets… however, since this episode is the 13th episode, releasing on Friday the 13th, it also seems likely that something really unlucky is about to happen :(
☆ ☆ ☆
Anyway, that’s all! Actually wait hold on I should make a bingo card or something…
aaand here are some cards! totally didn't take me like an hour to figure out how to make or anything lol...
ok I caved and made the rest of the class.
so um…
I made a Dr/Mha au. It’s features other fangans as well, not just drdt, but I wanted to draw this in order to celebrate chapter two part two’s release. Also sorry if the hero outfits are bad, I had zero ideas
And here’s J using her quirk. I didn’t have any reason to draw this I just felt like it :)
episode 16 was wild
Like, that was the best episode this far
but also WHAT THE FUCK!!!
ᶜˡᵉᵃʳ ᵈᵃᵗᵉ ; ˣᵃⁿʳᵉⁱ ⁽ᵈʳᵈᵗ⁾
Summary: Whit Young wants to set Xander Matthews up on a blind date with his friend. It sounds like fun, so Xander agrees…until he finds out on accident that Whit's friend and his blind date is Arei Nageishi. He cannot go on a date with her and now has to get his classmates to try to help him get out of this date! Word Count: 11,429 A/N: I saw a Tumblr post about reverse tropes, and one of them was about being set up for a blind date, but you know exactly who it is. I can’t find it anymore, but it inspired me to write a Xanrei one shot that was around 5,000 words. But then I got carried away and made it longer. Sorry, but the Xanrei demon is taking over. Run away, kitten, before the alpha in me comes out! The reason I got carried away was because I enjoyed writing Xander’s attempts to free himself from his blind date too much, and the more I wrote, the more I wanted to include all the DRDT characters, even though I only needed to write a little more than half of them. But they’re all just so fun to write, and their shenanigans are so entertaining… Don't blame me for this! Oh, and quick FYI: I’ve only been bowling, like, twice, and it wasn’t a “real” bowling match or anything. If I got anything about bowling wrong, please let me know!
i did what i had to do... but i guess i didn’t have to do it.
Xander Matthews wouldn’t say his life was boring. He was a student at Hope’s Peak Academy, and he went into it as the Ultimate Rebel, even though he didn’t like how his Ultimate title implied he was a bad person. His social life was great, and he had plenty of hobbies. In his opinion, his life was fine the way it was.
Whit Young, though, had his own opinions.
“You think I can get you a date?” he asked one day when they were hanging out at the coffee shop near Hope’s Peak Academy’s campus. They had just ordered inside and were now sitting at one of the table untouched on the round table, the umbrella covering them from the hot sun. The door to inside the coffee shop was open, letting the baristas shout orders to whoever was outside without leaving. The smell of coffee beans and soft classical music drifted out the doors with it.
Xander, who sitting across from him, frowned. “Why would I want a date?”
“Are you too busy for it?” he asked. “Are you not looking it right now? Do you not feel romantic attraction at all? Sorry, I keep forgetting to ask people if they want romance before I ask them something like that.”
“The answer is no for everything.”
“So, is the answer just a no? It’s fine if it is. I don’t judge.”
“Why do you want to find a date for me anything?”
“Okay, it’s not finding you a date. It’s more like... You’re the date I found.”
“What does that mean?”
“One of my friends wanted me to get them a blind date,” Whit explained. “Well, it was actually just a date, but I chose to go for a blind date. Considering who was asking me, I thought the thrill of not knowing who exactly you were going to go on a date with was needed. Anyway, since I came here as the Ultimate Matchmaker, I have to find the best person I can think of. I think you could fill that role. I know I’m technically breaking the rules since you already know each other and blind dates are setting up two people who don’t know each other, but I’m not gonna get arrested. If you could be arrested, I would’ve been locked up a long time ago.”
“I know them? Who’s your friend?” Xander asked.
He turned his palm to face him as he turned his head away. “I can’t tell you that. But if you were thinking about accepting, I’ll tell you that my friend’s a girl, in case you don’t like girls.”
“I like girls.” After thinking about it, he said, “What does this blind date have?”
“You’re actually thinking about it?” Whit grinned. “Great! So, if you agree, the date’s starting at a bowling area—she really wanted that—at around 6:00 P.M., and you’re going to stay for about one to two hours or however long you can go until you get sick of bowling with her. There’s an ice cream store nearby that doesn’t close until 10:30 P.M.—remember that, in case you somehow have enough patience to bowl with her for four and a half hours—and you can hang out until you decide to call it a night. Bowling should take up most of the evening, and the mini-ice-cream date closes it off. If you decide you want to do something after getting ice cream, go ahead, but that’s as far as I’m planning. This date is simple with everything you need to do spelled out for you, but I think that simple is best, especially for first dates, especially for first blind dates. You haven’t been on a blind date before, right?”
“I haven’t been on a date at all.”
“Neither has my friend, so maybe that can help you bond. But even if you did go on tons of blind dates, I still think blind dates should be simple and easy to do. Simplicity gives you your chance to get to know the other person and see if you’d like to spend more time with them. Complicated dates could make it frustrating to try to pay attention to the date and trying to get to know your blind date. It’s hard enough to have complicated first dates when you tend to already know the person you’re dating, but blind? I keep telling other matchmakers to go simple when they’re the ones planning the date, but some just don’t listen, and then I have to listen to stories of dates, blind or not, that went horribly wrong. Hey, am I rambling?”
“No, you’re fine.” Xander was a known rambler himself whenever he was talking about something he was passionate about. He tried not to get too into topics when that happened because he knew it annoyed some people, but he loved listening to others talk about what they liked.
Whit nodded. “Good to know. I’m done talking about the blind date anyway. What do you think?”
“It sounds like fun.”
“Do you want to do it?”
Xander’s life had never been filled with romance. He met people who were interested in romance, and he had small crushes throughout the years, but he wasn’t ever a part of a relationship. He had a lot of free time now that he was in Hope’s Peak Academy, and while he kept his focus on righting the wrongs in their world, he was fine with potentially finding a romantic partner. Besides, if the Ultimate Matchmaker was saying he thought there was someone he could possibly date, who was he to go against it?
“Sure,” he answered. “It sounds like something I’d be interested in.”
Whit smiled. “Thanks, Xander! I’ll let my friend know!”
He pulled out his phone and started to text his friend. While he did it, a barista from inside the coffee shop shouted their order. Before Xander could offer to get it, Whit left his seat to go get their order for him. He left his phone on the table, and Xander could see that it was clearly still on.
Blind dates were called “blind” because you weren’t supposed to know who you were going to meet. Xander knew that, but he also knew Whit had just been texting his friend that he agreed to the blind date. The knowledge of the latter made his body react before his brain could catch up.
Making sure Whit was still inside and not paying attention to him, Xander leaned forward to check who his friend was. Someone like Whit would make him think he saved people’s names in his contacts with jokes. For example, he would guess that he would save their classmate Hu Jing with some joke about her first name—“Hu is this?” would be his guess. It surprised him a little to see the contact name being a regular name in lower case, but he felt himself still as he read the name.
arei !! 🎳 was all it said, but it was enough.
There was no way Xander could go on a date with Arei Nageishi. Not with her, of all people. They could only get along when they were with other people. They didn’t act alike at all. They didn’t have anything alike other than being Hope’s Peak Academy students. Whit might be the Ultimate Matchmaker, but he made a mistake with this one. She was the one person he could never go on a date with.
Xander leaned himself back as Whit came back with their order. If he realized he left his phone, he didn’t seem bothered by it. He should be.
“Uhh, Whit?” He struggled to decide what he was going to say before settling on, “I actually don’t think I can do the blind date...”
Whit looked at him like he just told him he killed a puppy. “What? But you just agreed!”
“I know, but...” What could be a reasonable excuse other than I-saw-who-I-was-supposed-to-go-on-a-blind-date-with-on-your-phone-and-I-cannot-go-on-a-date-with-a-girl-who-angers-everyone-and-uses-her-looks-to-pretend-to-be-the-victim-before-immediately-going-back-to-insulting-people?
Whit used his silence to his advantage. “If you’re worried about being unsafe, don’t worry. You’re always in public areas surrounded by tons of people. She’s cool, and I know you can get along with her. You have a lot in common too. Trust me. Just relax and go with the flow. And I already told her I found her someone, so I can’t just immediately say that you cancelled.”
“It’s none of that. I just... I realized I don’t want to do a blind date.”
The blonde boy’s eyes roamed his face. He sighed and said, “I hate trying to force people to go on a date, but please, Xander, just one. It’ll last, like, four hours at most. It seems like a lot, but it isn’t. Once it’s done, it’s done. Just let me know it sucked, and we can move on.”
“You sound more desperate than before,” Xander said.
“I’ll admit, my friend can be a little scary when her emotions get the better of her. She’ll probably think I played some sort of prank on her, and then I’ll have to deal with that. And if you cancel, I’m probably going to need, like, solid proof that you genuinely had something important to do to convince her that it’s not something I made up—and to let me know that you’re not cancelling for no good reason, to be honest.” He held the coffee he ordered between his hands. “I feel like I’m asking for a favour now. That’s probably what I am doing. Please, Xander, I’ll owe you big time after this.”
Xander knew Arei. He knew how infuriating she was the moment he introduced himself to her and had to have their other classmate, Teruko Tawaki, drag him away before he could get carried away. He had no idea how she could do that, but he wanted to spend as little time as he could with Arei after that. Even though he succeeded so far, having less than 10 one-on-one conversations with her since they met, he didn’t want Whit to go through her rage. While he didn’t get along with Whit when they first met either, he knew Whit wasn’t as annoying of a person Arei was. He didn’t want to put him through discomfort.
But he still didn’t want to go on a date with Arei.
His brain quickly formulated a plan. “I’ll go on a date.”
Whit beamed. “Thank you so much, Xander! You’re a lifesaver!”
“It’s nothing. When is the date planned?”
“My friend’s free for the entirety of next week. You?”
“Same. Is Friday okay?”
“Friday works great!” Whit started texting Arei again.
Today was Sunday. Xander had until Friday to come up with some sort of reasonable, last-minute reason to cancel his date with Arei. Whit wouldn’t have to face Arei’s anger this way, and Arei wouldn’t have to be angry at all. He could do this.
. . .
On Sunday night, Xander called Teruko Tawaki in his dorm. When she answered, he immediately said, “Teruko, I need you to get hurt on Friday.”
“Huh?” was Teruko’s only reply. Her voice sounded tired. He felt bad if he woke her up, but this was important.
“I need you to get hurt on Friday,” he repeated. “Your bad luck makes you get hurt, right? Can you get hurt on Friday?”
“What?” Along with the tiredness, she sounded lost and really confused. “Why do I need to get hurt?”
“Whit set me up for a blind date,” he explained. “I accidentally found out who I’m going on a blind date with, and I need to get out of it. I need you to help me come up with a legitimate excuse, so I can cancel.”
“How does me getting hurt get you out of your date?”
“If you get hurt, you can ask me to help take care of you. Then, I can cancel because my friend is hurt.”
“Why can’t you just lie?”
“Whit will ask for proof that I’m genuinely busy. If you tell him I really am busy, it should be enough proof he needs.”
Teruko sighed. “Well, I’m not getting hurt. Sorry, Xander, but I can’t just control my bad luck like that, and I’m not risking anything because you don’t want to go on a date.”
Xander was about to reply before realizing he had been rude. He just asked his friend—his first friend since coming to Hope’s Peak Academy—to risk her life with her infamous bad luck. “Oh, God. I’m sorry, Teruko. I wasn’t trying to—”
“I know. I learned fast that you don’t think before you act.” Her tone wasn’t mean. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep how you know who your blind date is a secret.”
He smiled. “Thanks, Teruko.”
The call went silent for a moment. Then, Teruko said, “If it means anything, I think you should give Arei a chance. I know you don’t get along, but—”
Xander hung up.
. . .
On Monday, Min Jeung was with Ace Markey right outside Hope’s Peak Academy when Xander approached them. “Min, can you tutor me this Friday?”
Min had a small frown. “I thought you’re doing fine in school.”
“But I want to do better,” he said. “You know, getting higher grades does help get better jobs and get a better life after school.”
“Back off, she’s tutoring already me on Friday.” Ace put a hand on his chest and straightened himself.
Despite her bangs covering her eyes, Min clearly had a judgmental look on her face. “Keep acting like that, and I’ll change my mind.”
“No, you won’t,” said Ace. “You’re being forced to.”
“It’s not my fault your grades are bad.”
“What’d you say? You want to fight?”
“Ace.” Xander knew that all he had to do was send one threatening glare towards him, and he wouldn’t have to deal with him.
Just as he thought, Ace panicked and quickly sputtered out words about how he had to go meet up with some friend. When he ran off, Min asked him, “Why do you want to get better grades?”
“Just a thought,” he answered. “I need proof that I’m busy on Friday. That way, I can cancel on Whit last-minute.”
“What did he do?” When he finished telling her the same thing he told Teruko with the addition of how Whit wanted proof before she could ask, she said, “It sounds like it’s your fault for agreeing to the blind date in the first place.”
“How was I supposed to know I was going to be on a blind date with Arei?”
“Repeat what you just said.”
Okay, she had a point.
“I don’t want to tutor anyone,” Min continued. “Not you and definitely not Ace. I have better things to do.”
“More studying?” Xander guessed.
“I don’t want to have this conversation again. I’ll see you around, Xander.” Min left in the opposite direction Ace went.
Xander wasn’t sure what Min meant. He wasn’t going to start any conversation! Yeah, he did frequently talk to her about the importance of having a life outside of school, but that was, like, once or twice. Or 25 times. But he wasn’t going to do that now, not when he really needed someone to help him be busy on Friday.
As he walked away, Xander realized that he didn’t tell Min to keep how he knew his blind date was Arei a secret. Ace ran off before he could tell him, so he didn’t have to worry about him. He supposed he had to rely on Min not liking to talk.
. . .
On Tuesday, Xander found Nico Hakobyan and Eden Tobisa walking through the hallways of Hope’s Peak Academy together. Xander was specifically looking for Nico, and once finding them, he said, “Nico, do you need any help at the animal shelter on Friday?”
Nico came to Hope’s Peak Academy as the Ultimate Pet Therapist. Most of their free time was spent with animals, some of it being at a local animal shelter. No one who worked at the animal shelter complained about them coming because they received special help and publicity for an Ultimate student helping often. It helped how they sometimes brought some of their classmates with them.
“We’re pretty full on volunteers and staff, so I don’t think so,” Nico answered, confusion clear in their voice. “Why are you asking?”
Xander filled them in on what happened. Nico still looked a bit confused, but Eden said, “You shouldn’t run away from Arei. She’s a nice girl once you get to know her!”
“I have tried to get to know her,” he argued. “Every time I try, we end up almost in a fight.”
Nico tugged at their black scarf. “You’ve barely talked to her since school started. You couldn’t put in that much effort.”
“Excuse me?”
Nico’s red eyes widened, and they lifted their scarf over their face.
Eden filled in their silence. “I think they’re saying that you should try to put more effort than usually, you know? It is a date after all. You have to impress her!”
“But I don’t want to go on that date.”
“It’s only for a few hours. You’ll be okay!” She flashed him a reassuring smile.
Too bad he didn’t feel reassured. “Nico, are you sure you don’t need any help on Friday? For anything?”
Nico lowered their scarf just enough to look at him. “No...”
“Eden?”
Eden shook her head. “Maybe it’s a good thing that we’re both busy. Like, maybe you’re meant to go on that date with—”
“Thanks for trying to help,” Xander interrupted. “Can you keep this whole conversation a secret?”
“Of course!” Eden said at the same time Nico said, “I’ll probably forget about this in an hour or two anyway.”
Xander said his farewell before leaving. Friday was coming up way too fast.
. . .
On Wednesday, Rose Lacroix and David Chiem were about to leave Hope’s Peak Academy’s campus when Xander came up to them. “Rose, you’re an artist, right? Are you doing something on Friday? Can you give me a painting lesson or something like that?”
Rose looked around them. “Is this because of your date with Arei?”
He froze. “How do you know that?”
“Oh, are you dating Arei?” David had his perfect smile he often used during his inspirational speeches. “Congratulations, Xander! I hope you two have the best of luck in your relationship!”
Any slight annoyance he would’ve felt if anyone other than David told him that never came to be. “W-We’re not dating...”
He blinked. “You’re not? Then, Rose, what were you talking about?”
“I heard him talking about it with Nico and Eden,” she explained. “Yesterday, I was going to my next class when I heard overheard them. Whit set him up on a blind date with Arei, and now he’s trying to get out of it. He needs proof that he’s busy on Friday, and he thinks someone saying that they suddenly needed him for something would be enough proof. I didn’t mean to listen in on it,” she added for Xander.
He smiled, but it felt weaker than he’d like. “That’s okay. Just please don’t tell Arei or Whit. Both of you.”
“We won’t tell a soul. Won’t we, Rose?” David nudged her arm with his elbow.
Rose rubbed one of her eyes. “Xander, why are you here again?”
“Xander has a date with Arei he’s trying to cancel.”
“Oh, yeah. I’m free on Friday,” Rose started, “but isn’t it mean to ditch your date with Arei?”
“Arei would feel the same way,” Xander argued. “You know how we act together.”
“Still, this is a chance to fix that,” replied David, placing a hand on his chest. “I know how your relationship with her—”
“Rose, is that a yes or a no?” Xander always loved to listen to David’s speeches, especially since he was the Ultimate Inspirational Speaker, but he couldn’t right now. Time was against him, and if he listened to David, he would probably go with what he said.
“I don’t think so...” She yawned. “I think I might just take a nap on Friday.”
“The entire Friday evening?”
She nodded. “Then, I’ll go to sleep.”
“That sounds relaxing,” said David.
He would ask what the point of taking a nap before sleeping was, but from the corner of his eye, he saw Arei. Quickly, he said, “Thanks for answering, Rose. Bye, David, bye, Rose!”
Xander left David and Rose before they could respond. He hoped Arei didn’t notice their conversation.
. . .
On Thursday, Xander had to use his final card. It was the final day before his blind date with Arei, and time was quickly running out. He had to find her.
Before classes started for the day, Xander looked around Hope’s Peak Academy. After a few minutes, he found Veronika Grebenshchikova with Arturo Giles and Levi Fontana. He had pepared himself for this moment since his failed attempt with Rose, so he approached them with the most relaxed look he could manage. When he got their attention, he asked, “Veronika, there’s a new horror movie coming out on Friday, right? I heard you talking about it.”
True to her nature as the Ultimate Horror Fanatic, Veronika’s eyes sparkled. “There is! I would go”—her eyes darkened with disappointment—“but I already spent all my money on the book series it’s based on...”
“I told her not to do it,” sighed Levi.
“Why do you try?” asked Arturo. “We all know she won’t listen.”
“Veronika,” started Xander, trying to keep his smile relaxed, “how about we go to see the movie together? I’ll pay.”
While Levi and Arturo stared at him in shock and confusion—no one should want to see a horror movie with the Ultimate Horror Fanatic—Veronika’s entire face brightened. “You will? Actually? This is one of the best things I’ve ever heard! I can tell you everything about the movie! When it started production, why it started production, why the cast was chosen... I can go into the story too! I can tell you about it now! It starts when—”
“Oh, he’s doing this because of Arei,” interrupted Arturo while rolling his eyes.
“What do you mean?” asked Levi.
“Whit set him up on a blind date on Friday, and he accidentally found out his blind date is Arei. Now, he’s trying to get out of it.”
Veronika’s face fell. “So, you don’t actually want to watch the movie...”
Xander had to ignore Veronika to talk to Arturo. “Who told you that?”
“I overheard Rose mentioning it to Ace,” answered Arturo. “David was with her and reminded her about keeping it a secret. Rose said you only told her not to tell Arei or Whit, then realized you probably meant not telling anyone. David convinced Ace to keep it a secret, but I didn’t promise anything.”
Xander sighed. “You guys can’t tell anyone else.”
“I can do that,” said Levi.
Arturo scoffed. “I can’t.”
“You said you wanted to go to see the movie with me,” mumbled Veronika.
“Veronika, I can get you Ace and maybe Min to go watch the movie with you. I’ll pay for all your tickets—and more tickets, if you get other people to come with you.” He could probably scare Ace into doing it, and a little convincing could get Min. It would do her good to spend time with her classmates on a Friday evening instead of locked up in her dorm studying. “Arturo, I can, umm...”
He couldn’t think of anything to convince him, but Veronika was happy enough to say, “I can take Arturo with me as thanks for paying for the tickets! Horror movies are always so much more fun to watch with other people!”
Arturo’s eyes widened. Everyone in their class knew how he and Ace were Veronika’s two main victims. “I didn’t agree to this...!”
“Since that’s settled...” Levi turned to him. “Xander, you should—”
Xander sighed. “If you tell me that I should give Arei a chance, please don’t. That would be my third time hearing that...”
“Isn’t that a sign that you should give in, then? It might be fun.”
“No, it won’t. Maybe if it was someone other me going on the date with her. Or the other way around. Just not us together...”
“You sound so pessimistic...” Levi offered him a small smile.
Xander tried to return it, but he had no such luck. He was about to leave when an all-too familiar voice asked, “What are you guys talking about?”
Arei appeared beside Levi. She had that smile that made him think that she was planning something. Everything suddenly felt uncomfortable.
Veronika was the one to answer. “I was telling Arturo about the movie we’re going to see on Friday with Ace and maybe Min!”
It was clear that Arturo was scowling behind his mask. “I didn’t—”
“Wow, Min? Doesn’t she only study?” Arei’s eyes seemed to scan her to see if she was telling the truth. “Horror movie, right?”
“Yes! It’s about—”
“Cool, cool, yeah, whatever.”
Veronika had a small frown at being interrupted. Meanwhile, Levi asked, “Arei, are you doing anything on Friday? I have some clothes I bought that I was trying to figure out what to do with, but now that you’re here, I realized they could work well with you.”
Her cunning smile was replaced with a neutral expression, but Xander could see how her eyes were slightly bigger than before. “Really? I am going on a blind date tomorrow, so I guess new clothes will be good.”
Levi smiled as Veronika and Arturo shared a look between them before looking at Xander. As the Ultimate Personal Stylist, there was no doubt that Levi would have fun choosing a fitting outfit for Arei. “Great. Come by my dorm after school. I’ll show them to you, and we can figure out what to have you wear. You can keep it after the date too, by the way.”
“I’ll remember that!” Arei’s gaze fell on Xander. “You know, Xander, you’re really quiet right now. Aren’t you supposed to be yelling about something?”
“I was going to leave now.” Xander didn’t like how quiet his voice was.
“Uhh, okay?” Arei’s skeptical blue eyes were the last thing Xander saw before making his escape.
. . .
On Friday morning, Xander called J Rosales. She was with Hu Jing right now, so J put it on speaker for him to be able to talk to both of them.
“J, how do you successfully fake being sick?” Xander asked.
“Why are you asking me?” she asked.
“You seem like someone who could always fake being sick.”
“Huh?” Her voice raised as she demanded, “What kind of impression do you have about me?”
Hu’s quieter and calmer voice came in to say, “J, just yesterday, you faked being sick so you didn’t have to meet people to work on a project because, as you said, they were just going to mess around while you did all the work. You did it last week and two weeks before that, too.”
“That was three times!” argued J.
“It’s still enough to prove Xander’s point,” pointed out Hu.
“Can you just tell me?” Xander asked before the conversation could get out of hand.
“I’m not helping you get out of your date with Arei,” J told him.
“You should go through with it, Xander,” added Hu. “I think you two could have fun together.”
He sighed. “Who did you guys overhear it from?”
“No one,” answered Hu. “Everyone in our class knows how you were going around and trying to find a way to be busy this evening. Well, everyone except I think Whit and Arei. Before this call, the only people you haven’t asked for help from were Charles, J, and I. The three of us were talking about it yesterday, and after realizing Arei’s blind date, which she’s been talking about her these last few days, is at the same time you’ve been asking people to do something with you, it wasn’t hard to put it together.”
Xander didn’t reply. Was he really that obvious? Now that he thought about it, he did go to basically everyone in his class, but he thought he was a little sneaky about it.
“We’re not going to help you get out of the date,” continued Hu, “but if you want help, you can ask us.”
J’s voice grew quieter, probably caused by her moving away from her phone. “What are we helping him with?”
“You know, the usual things you help people do for first dates.” Hu’s voice was quieter, probably caused by the same reason as J’s, before it returned to its previous volume. “Do you need help with anything, Xander? Do you know what you’re wearing? I know we’re not Levi, but I think we could help you pick a decent outfit.”
“Since when did we become personal stylists?” J asked.
“Since now, if he agrees to our help.”
Xander realized he couldn’t get out of this. It was Friday morning, and his date was this evening. Even if Arei was the last person he would want to go on a date with, he had to go through with it. He could always cancel without anything else to do, but he couldn’t have Whit go through Arei’s anger. With a sigh, he reluctantly said, “A little help would be nice...”
“Great!” He could hear the smile in Hu’s voice. “J, I’m turning this into a video call so we can see his outfit.”
“Hey, it’s my phone!” After some rustling, the call ended. A few seconds later, J called him again but as a video call.
Xander answered it. It wasn’t like he could go against it anymore.
. . .
Before Xander left his dorm, Whit sent him a text telling him what his “blind” date was wearing. He also gave a tip about her hair colour to make it even easier to find her, so Xander was sure Whit didn’t know about his attempts. Or, maybe he did know but was pretending not to.
After some debate from Hu and J—the latter more interested than she let on—Xander had his outfit of a black sweater over a white shirt. They agreed on easily on that as it was getting colder in the evening, but they got into a debate on whether he should wear a cross body bag for no reason other than to look nice. J thought it was pointless to wear a bag if he wasn’t going to put anything in it, and she thought fanny bags were stupid enough around the waist and didn’t need to be put across your body, but Hu told her that sometimes, fashion didn’t make sense, and she thought cross body bags were nice. In the end, J agreed only if he carried some stuff, which included his phone, his keys, and some money. He had to say that he had fun watching them debate on what clothes would work the best, but now that he had to wear it, he would rather have this outfit just to save it for another day.
When 6:00 P.M. neared, Xander went to the bowling alley. He was supposed to meet up with Arei outside the building, and he found her too fast. She was standing near the front doors on her phone with her hair down in a black shirt over a white one. Like him, she had a bag, although hers was a dark blue canteen bag. She had two belts over her denim skirt, and while he questioned why Levi would let her wear a short skirt when it was getting cold, she did look like a model for the Ultimate Personal Stylist.
She didn’t notice him. He could probably make a run for it while he still could, but then she would think her blind date ditched her. Everyone already knew he was supposed to be her blind date, and that could cause a lot more trouble than needed.
Xander took in a deep breath, steeled his nerves—why was this harder than asking Veronika to watch a horror movie with him?—and went to her.
When Arei heard him calling her name, her head turned towards him. It took her a few seconds to realize why he was here. When she did, she asked, “Why did Whit set you up with me?”
“That’s exactly what I’ve been wondering.” For the last six days, he finished in his head.
They stared at each other for a second. Then, Arei shrugged and said, “We might as well do what Whit planned. He had to spend his own money on this because I got friend discount, you know.”
“Yeah, let’s go.” Xander tried to put on a smile.
The bowling alley Whit chose was bigger on the inside than the outside. There were lots of bowling lanes, and each one seemed to have purple lights shining down on them. Meanwhile, the sitting area was lit with a dark yellow light, and each lane had two tables of four to sit at. Bowling balls of all sorts of colours waited to be used as other players played each other.
Now that he was inside, Xander was hit was an obvious realization he should’ve made when he first found out who his blind date was: Of course Arei was going to want to go to a bowling alley when she came to Hope’s Peak Academy as the Ultimate Bowler.
Arei looked immediately at home as they changed into bowling shoes. She actually looked excited to be here. The way her eyes reflected the lights of the building was fascinating, he had to admit, but he wasn’t sure why she wanted to be here. She knew she would beat whoever was her blind date. It was a lost cause to even try to compete against her.
As they headed to their lane, Xander decided it was better to not make a fool of himself and said, “I’ve never gone bowling before. How does this work?”
“You never went bowling?” Arei studied his face before having a confident smile. “Luckily for you, you have the best of the best! I’ll teach you how to bowl!”
When they arrived, the first thing Arei asked was, “How much do you weigh?”
He frowned, blinking a few times. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Because before we can bowl, we need to find you a ball that’s the right weight and size. I know you’re crazy strong and can work with any ball, but we still need to deal with your fingers. Plus, a general rule is your ball weighs 10% as much as you. So, how much do you weigh?”
“Well... I weigh 170 pounds, last time I checked.”
“Then you need a ball that’s 17 pounds.” Arei picked up one of the bowling balls waiting for them with 17 written on it, and she was about to hand it to him before saying, “Oh, you’ve probably never held a bowling ball before.”
“I haven’t,” Xander confirmed, looking away from her face. Why did he feel self-conscious about this?
“I gotta help you with this one too.” She turned the ball, so the holes were facing his fingers. “Are you a lefty or a righty?”
“Righty.”
“Put your thumb in the bottom hole and your middle and ring finger in the other two.” When he followed her instructions, she inspected it. “The holes are too big for your fingers. You need a different one.”
“Is it a problem if it’s too big?”
Her eyes flashed. “What, are you going to ignore everything I say? I’m trying to help you, but you’re just gonna do your own thing?”
This was exactly what Xander was trying to avoid. Something like this happened a lot whenever they were left to themselves. However, after almost a week of begging his classmates to do something with him today, he didn’t have the energy to argue back. “No, I won’t. I’m sorry.”
A beat of silence passed. After it, Arei kept her eyes on the ball and said quieter, “Your fingers are meant to slide into the holes smoothly. If it’s too small, you can’t even put your fingers in, and if it’s too big, you’ll have a hard time controlling the ball. Control is important in bowling, just like in other sports. So...if you want to at least be decent, you should take the time to find a good ball.”
Xander had never heard her use a voice like that before, even after being classmates for months now. He had to remind himself that he had to answer. “Okay. I’ll look for one. But, umm... Can you help?”
Arei agreed, and they tried multiple different balls. When they finally found one he could hold comfortably, she said, “Hold the ball a little to your side and put your left hand on the bottom side. Keep your thumb at 10:00 position.”
“What...?”
She sighed, but she took hold of his hands and helped put them where they were supposed to be. Her hands were softer than he thought they would be. When she was done, she said, “Remember two things. First, this is how you’re going to hold the ball when it’s your turn to play. Second, this is your ball. You can use other balls like this, but this one’s perfect. Remember how it looks like, and when it comes back, use it as often as you can. This is your lucky ball for today.”
“Is that a thing for bowlers?” Xander asked.
“It is for me.” She went to look for a ball that fitted her.
He decided to listen to her and tried to remember how the bowling ball looked. It was blue. The same shade of blue as Arei’s eyes. He could remember this.
Arei found her ball much faster than he did. Hers was a yellow ball with the number 13 written on it. “I’ll go first so I can tell you how it works.”
Xander sat on the chair closest to their bowling lane. Arei pointed to a line on the ground and said, “That’s the foul line. You know how bowlers approach this line, right?”
“I’ve seen it online before.”
“Then you already saw the standard approach. It’s where you stand with your back straight, your shoulder centred at your target, and your knees bent a little. Whatever hand has the bowling ball should be at your side. Oh, and your back tilted forward, but not a lot. Your feet should be apart, and your slide foot—opposite of your bowling hand—should be in front of the other. Am I making sense?”
“A little...” There were a lot of words and a lot of people bowling around them. It was hard to pay attention to just her.
“Are you a visual learner?”
“I am.”
“I’ll show you instead of talking. It’s too much work talking anyway. Ugh, but I still have to explain to you the terms.” Despite her words, she didn’t sound annoyed. “You get to roll the ball two times a frame—two times a turn—so if you knock all the pins down on both rolls, that’s a spare. Like this.”
Arei threw the bowling ball down the bowling lane. It hit several of the bowling pins but left a couple. She picked a new bowling ball and threw it down the bowling lane again. It hit the rest.
Xander clapped as the final bowling pins went down. His clapping was stopped when he caught her look towards him. He couldn’t read her emotions, but he remembered that she was the Ultimate Bowler. She was used to doing amazing at bowling and didn’t need him to applaud.
Arei turned her head towards the TV screen above their bowling lane. It lane now had a score for Arei: 3/ over 13. “The upper left of each frame is to record the first ball,” she explained. “The box to the left is the second ball. I don’t wanna teach scoring, especially if this is automatic, so just know that spares are marked with that slash, and a strike is marked with an X.”
“Strikes are where you hit all the bowling pins at once, right?”
“I guess you’re not totally hopeless when it comes to bowling.”
“I’m not stupid...” Xander heard light laughter coming from her, so he decided today would be an okay day to be laughed at by her for just this once. Doing anything about it required determination he didn’t have.
“It’s your turn,” she said, taking a seat at the table he was at. She rummaged through her bag.
Xander held his bowling ball the way she taught him too. When the bowling ball went out of his hands, it rolled into the gutter. He decided not to look at Arei.
When he picked up his next bowling ball—admittedly taking a longer time than Arei—he was about to go again when Arei said, “Xander, you see the dots and the black arrows? Aim the ball in the centre of them.”
He decided to take her word for it and tried aiming as she said. When this ball rolled, it hit several of the pins and knocked them over.
While more pins were being added for the next frame, he turned to Arei with a smile. “I did it!”
“I know. I saw.” She smiled. “I’m a great coach.”
“Don’t get cocky.”
“I’m not cocky if it’s a fact!” She gave him a bottle that wasn’t on the table before—something he assumed to be from her bag. “Here.”
He took it, but he still asked, “What is this?”
“Rosin. It makes your fingers and thumb a little tacky and less slippery. You always have to wipe your hands after your turn’s over. If your hands are sweaty, the ball can slip out of your hands. A handkerchief or just wiping your hands on your clothes work, but I’m a professional, so we’re going to do this professionally.”
“Do hands get slippery when you play blowing?”
“If you have sweaty hands.” Arei found the yellow ball she was using in her last frame and turned towards him. “I told you to aim on your last frame. The marks help beginner bowlers a lot. I used them when I first started, but then I realized I was already way too good for them. They’re there to help you hit the pins, but your ball can slow down or roll towards the gutters. You just have to keep adjusting your aim.
“Also, you see the bowling pin closest to us?” She pointed at the bowling pin stationed at the front. “That’s called the ‘headpin.’ The marks are there to help you aim for that and a pin next to it. If you get that, then you can knock down most of the pins and raise your chance of getting a strike. But, if you only hit the headpin, you might get a split.”
“What’s a ‘split?’” Xander asked.
“When the first ball knocks the headpin and leaves two or more pins on opposite sides. They’re the worst, and it’s hard to hit a spare with splits. It’s worse if you have a 7-10 split. They’re the two pins way in the back. I’ll show you one.”
Arei rolled the ball down the bowling lane and knocked the headpin down. Other bowling pins went down with it, but two in the back on either side remained. A 7-10 split, if she did what she said earlier. When she went for her second ball, it rolled through and knocked both of them out. The sound of both pins knocking themselves over as the TV updated the score made the fact that the Ultimate Bowler was really bowling right now hit him.
“You’re really good at bowling,” Xander told her as she put rosin on her hands.
“Duh,” she responded. “I’m the Ultimate Bowler.”
“I know. But it’s still amazing to see how you can just”—his hands moved around as he paused, trying to look for the right word—“decide what you want the pins and the balls to do. It looks so easy and natural for you. I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s just so interesting to watch.”
Arei’s bottle of rosin remained opened because of her hands stopping before she could close it. Her attention was on him, and once again, he couldn’t read her face. Her eyes were looking at his, and he wasn’t sure if he should look away.
It was over in a moment when she turned her head away and closed the bottle of rosin. “Whatever. It’s your turn—and don’t you dare fail me as your teacher.”
The rest of their bowling game went smoothly. Arei helped him when he needed it, and Xander got to listen to see her look comfortable with what she was doing. She gave him tips throughout the game, such as focusing on the marks and not the bowling pins, and as it went on, she was more willing to explain why he should listen, other than how the Ultimate Bowler was telling him to do it. When the game ended, it was no surprise that Arei won, but what was surprising was that going bowling with Arei was actually kind of fun. They only got into a brief argument once when first trying to find a ball, but other than that, it was just Xander learning how to bowl with Arei being more helpful than he’d ever seen.
Was this really what he was trying so hard to avoid?
After the first match, they decided to play another one where Xander would try bowling without Arei’s help. Again, Arei won with 300 points—the highest score a bowler can get, apparently—and another game started, this time Arei switching between helping him and not. Before they knew it, two hours had passed. When they noticed it, they left the bowling alley and started heading to the ice cream parlour. The one Whit chose was close enough to the bowling alley to walk, but it was still quite far. He must’ve chosen that one on purpose to get them to talk to pass the time.
Because of that, Xander decided to say, “Arei, there’s been one question on my mind since this date started.”
“What’s up?” she asked.
“Why are you wearing a skirt in this weather?” As if to help prove his point, a chilly breeze went by.
Arei looked at him like the answer was obvious. She gestured to her outfit. “Because I look nice.”
“Weren’t there any other outfits Levi had?” he continued. There was no way the Ultimate Personal Stylist wouldn’t have better clothes that fit her and the weather.
“There were,” she admitted, “but this one’s my favourite. I got to keep the outfit he gave me, so I had to pick the one I liked the best. He tried to get me to wear pants, but this goes better with the skirt, right?”
Xander tried to imagine how she would look wearing pants instead of a skirt. “I think you would look fine either way.”
“That was supposed to be you agreeing with me,” Arei said.
“I don’t even know how the pants looked.”
“It’s like this skirt but as pants.”
“I still think you’d look fine.”
“You’re supposed to call me pretty too.”
“What? I feel like this is some sort of trick...”
“It is. I’d point out how you don’t know exactly how I’d look wearing jeans and make you feel bad.”
“It’s not going to work now that you said so.”
“I know. I’m trying to be nice. You don’t have to tell me that I’m already the nicest person ever.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
Their conversation didn’t have any hint of anger or annoyance. Maybe it was the bowling, or maybe it was how it was getting late, but talking to her like this felt comfortable. Easy. Like this was how it was always meant to be. Xander wasn’t sure what to think of it, but he could get used to it.
When they arrived at the ice cream parlour arena, they found that there were quite a few costumers despite it getting late and the semi-cold weather. The white walls looked pink due to the lighting, and the floor was checkered. Small tables lined against the windows where some people were talking amongst themselves.
Xander and Arei went to look at the ice cream offered. Xander felt a bit intimidated by the number of options they had, but Arei’s eyes were immediately drawn to one of them. The side of her body pressed slightly against his as she pointed to one of the flavours. “They have cherry chip!”
“They have what?” His eyes found what she was pointing to. It looked to be cherry-flavoured ice cream with chocolate bits inside. “Is that your favourite flavour?”
“Yep. Chocolate tastes kind of bad on its own, but it tastes so much better when it’s with ice cream!”
“Why cherry?”
“Cherry’s the best flavour, even if it doesn’t have the chocolate bits. Chocolate tastes worse with other flavours.”
“That’s a...unique flavour to like,” Xander said.
“Only because it’s found, like, nowhere. If it was more popular, more people would like it. Instead, they have to stick to mint.”
“What’s wrong with mint?”
“It’s the worst thing to ever exist. It’s bad enough that it exists as food or whatever, and it was worse when it became a flavour for gum and stuff, but now you made it into ice cream too? Everything is ruined with it! It should be illegal to have mint exist!”
“That’s just stupid. Mint’s just a flavour.”
“Oh, I bet you like mint. One of those mint lovers.”
Mint was always an okay flavour to him, but right now, he said, “I do like mint.”
“I should’ve known.” Her blue eyes that were narrowed relaxed for a bit when she said, “I thought your favourite flavour was vanilla, though. You look like someone who’d like vanilla.”
Vanilla was his favourite flavour, but for now, he said, “Well, it’s not.”
“So, what, are you going to order mint chip?”
Looking at the flavours the ice cream parlour offered, Xander noticed that there was an option to just have mint with no chocolate bits in it. “I’ll order just mint.”
“Just mint?” Arei found the flavour he saw and immediately cringed. “That’s even worse! At least mint chip has the chocolate to try to distract you from the mint! Why would anyone want just mint?”
Xander had a satisfied smile watching her disgust. He never thought she would be someone who hated mint so much, but the thought of a reaction like this was the reason he chose that flavour in the first place. Now that he was seeing it, it was kind of cute.
Once they ordered their ice cream, Arei wanted to sit outside on a bench. Xander thought that was a bad idea with how exposed her legs were, but she insisted. They found themselves sitting on a bench not too far from the ice cream parlour with the ice cream they ordered. Just as Xander thought, it was getting colder, and more wind was starting to pick up. He waited for her to say something.
He even counted. 75 seconds passed before Arei finally said, “I probably should’ve worn pants...”
“You should’ve worn pants,” Xander corrected. “Do you want to eat inside the parlour?”
“But we already left. It’ll be weird if we go back inside with our orders.”
“Why do you care about being weird?”
“Because some people have reputations they have to keep up. I get that you’re the Ultimate Rebel and don’t care how people see you—”
“I care about how people see me.”
“Not enough to not be seen as a weirdo. You have the title of Ultimate Rebel. That’s, like, the definition of ‘weird.’” After a second, she added, “But I guess it could be weirder.”
Xander continued eating his mint ice cream in silence. Going strictly off of Whit’s plan, the “blind” date was coming to an end. Now that he experienced it, he wasn’t sure what he was so scared of. Looking back it his attempts, he was a little embarrassed at how desperate he was to do something—anything—to avoid this. It was all calmer than he thought it would be. If he was being honest, he wouldn’t mind going through it again.
“Xander?” Arei’s voice cut through his thoughts. “Why’d you agree to go on a blind date?”
“Whit asked me if he could set me up,” Xander answered. “After saying it was a blind date with his friend, he told me his plan for the date. It sounded interesting, so I decided to give it a shot. You were the one who asked him for a date, though. Why?”
She seemed hesitant to answer. Eventually, she said without looking at him, “We’re in a world where marriage is, like, a must. If you get married, you get bonuses single people don’t have, and everyone around you is getting into serious relationships and talking about settling down one day and stuff. Plus, some people are starting to ask, ‘When are you going to get married?’ like I’m not still in college. I know we’re all still pretty young, but it still feels weird when I haven’t even been on a date before. So, I asked Whit if he could help set me up...”
“To fit in?” She didn’t answer, but Xander assumed he was correct anyway. “Well, did you have fun?”
“It wasn’t that bad.” He assumed that was Arei for “yes.” “I thought I’d be set up with someone who doesn’t go to Hope’s Peak, so I’d get to show off my amazing bowling skills, but instead, I got set up with someone who does go to Hope’s Peak and already knows how awesome I am. That ruined my plan.”
“You still showed your skills. And yes, I knew you were great, but I didn’t realize how great until tonight.” He didn’t let himself praise her any further. He remembered the look she gave him after clapping for her.
She turned the ice cream cone around in her hands. “Yeah, but I also got stuck teaching you how to bowl.”
“You didn’t have to,” he pointed out.
“But if I didn’t, I’d get a headache watching you and decide we can’t bowl anymore. I’ve been bowling with people who never went bowling before. I know how it goes.” She sneaked a glance at him. “But you weren’t that bad for a beginner. Better than other beginner bowlers I’ve seen, at least.”
A smile came to him before he could stop it. “Thanks, Arei.”
“Yeah, whatever, don’t think about it.” Arei went back to eating her ice cream.
Xander decided to let it go and finish his ice cream. When they were both done, they were technically as far as Whit planned. He knew that he didn’t want things to be awkward now like Whit’s loose planning was the only thing keeping the date floating, so when Arei finished her ice cream, he said, “I had fun.”
“Even though you kept losing at bowling?” Arei replied. Her voice wasn’t teasing nor did it sound annoyed.
“You’re the Ultimate Bowler,” Xander said with a light chuckle. “It’s hopeless to go against you.”
A smile formed on her face. “Yeah, it is.”
“Still, it was fun. Even if you hate mint for no good reason.”
“I hate mint for lots of good reasons!” Arei glared at him as he laughed. When he was done, he noticed that the expression on her face wasn’t as angry anymore. It looked to be more shy. She looked to be more shy with how she avoided looking at him and was fiddling with her bag. Even her voice seemed shy as she said, “It was fun, though...”
Xander didn’t reply. Since when was Arei Nageishi capable of acting like that, and why did he actually kind of like it?
“Do you... You know...” She gestured around them. She didn’t finish her sentence and looked at him like it was obvious what she was trying to say. It was, but the way she didn’t want to say it because of what he thought was embarrassment was endearing.
“We can go on another date,” Xander said. “But how about we plan it instead of Whit?”
His answer made her shoulders visibly relax. “We can do that. But give me your number. I don’t think I have it.”
After they exchanged numbers, Arei said, “Xander, umm... Thanks for just, you know...coming to the date.”
“You make it sound like it’s a big deal,” Xander responded. “Did you think I wouldn’t come?”
“Kind of. You arrived late, you know.”
“What? No, I arrived on time.”
The topic change made her words flow easier. “I was on my phone when you arrived. I was checking the time. You arrived at 6:01 P.M. That’s late.”
“By one minute!”
“Still late. Next time, you better arrive on time.”
Xander had a lot of things he had to change for next time. The memories of the last few days crashed down on him, and it suddenly felt weird to be standing in front of Arei when she didn’t know about them. He appreciated his classmates’ efforts to not tell her or Whit, but he didn’t know if he could trust them enough to keep the last few days a secret for long. Someone was going to tell her sooner or later, and it was probably best if that “someone” was him. “Arei, I have a confession to make.”
“What, did you murder someone?”
“No, but... You know how Whit set us up?”
“What about it?”
“Me and Whit were at a coffee shop when he brought it up. When I agreed, he sent you a text telling you that we were going to have our blind date. We didn’t have our order, and when it was called, Whit went to get it. He left his phone on the table, and the screen was still on. I... Curiosity got the best of me, and I saw you were my blind date.”
Arei stayed silent, her face unreadable. Xander felt a little scared for what would come out of her mouth. Would she be angry? Probably. Scream? Maybe not. But there definitely wasn’t going to be a next date anymore.
After long, agonizing seconds, she asked, “Why did you still come?”
“Because no one would help me be busy today. I went around asking everyone except Charles and Ace—I missed talking to Charles, and Ace ran away before I could ask him—to help me get proof for Whit that I have a good reason to cancel. Everyone was either busy or didn’t want to. So, I was forced to go.”
“You could’ve lied and said something came up when nothing did.”
“Everyone already knows what was happening today, though. Plus, I was worried that you would get upset and drag Whit into your emotions.”
Arei didn’t reply. He still couldn’t read her face. The seconds went by, and Xander felt more and more uncomfortable. He wanted her to say something , anything to let him know how she felt about this. The emotionless face she had made him feel too uneasy.
After what felt like an eternity, Arei said, “It was probably funny how you went around begging people to do something with you. You probably looked like a friendless loser.”
Xander would’ve tried to defend himself, but he asked, “You’re not upset?”
“I mean, I am, but now that I think about it, I probably would’ve done the same if I were you. You’re one of the last people I’d choose to go on a date with. Except I wouldn’t be a friendless loser and would actually get the job done.”
“Funny.” After a second, he asked, “So...we’re still good?”
“Obviously,” Arei answered. “I’ll text you in a few days if you want to go on another date.”
“Didn’t we just go on one?” Xander replied.
“Yeah, but I don’t know how many dates people are supposed to go on.”
“Neither do I, but isn’t this a little fast?”
“I don’t know, how fast are people usually when it comes to dating?”
Xander’s silence was his answer. Arei broke it by saying, “I’ll just ask Whit for help.”
“That’s probably a good idea,” Xander agreed.
. . .
On Saturday, Xander and Whit sat at the same coffee shop they were at almost a week ago when Whit first set up the blind date. This time, they had their orders, and Whit had brought Charles Cuevas with him.
“How did your date with Arei go?” Whit asked Xander.
“Didn’t she already tell you?” asked Xander.
“She did,” admitted Whit, “but I like hearing both sides of the date. So, how did it go?”
He smiled. “It went great! Me and Arei got along better than I thought, and it was genuinely a fun time. Did she tell you how we agreed to go on another date?”
“She did!” Whit exclaimed. “I’m glad you guys enjoyed it! I was kind of scared something would happen and questioned if you two were the right pair, but I trusted my gut, and it was right!”
“You’re the Ultimate Matchmaker,” reminded Charles.
“It still feels good to know that I helped another couple!” Whit’s smile softened. “Xander, I wish you and Arei the best of luck.”
Xander’s face felt a little warmer. “We’re not an official couple or anything...”
“I’m still wishing you good luck!”
Charles sighed, his eyes meeting Xander’s. “So, was almost the entirety of last week worth it?”
“No,” he admitted. “I wouldn’t have done all that if I knew it was actually going to be fun.”
“I was told Teruko, Eden, Hu, Rose, David, and Levi said you should go. Whit too, if you include him. That’s almost half of our classmates.”
“They just said I should go, not that it was going to be fun...”
“What happened last week?” Whit looked between the two of them, leaning forward in his chair a bit.
Charles continued to look at Xander. “Do you want to explain, or should I? You never even came up to me, but I already know the whole story because everyone talked about it yesterday while you were having your date.”
“You were?” Xander asked as Whit said, “Who’s ‘everyone?’”
“I guess I’ll explain.” He finally looked over to Whit. “Xander gave Veronika money to buy tickets to go see a new horror movie. Only Arturo and Ace were meant to come, but Levi wanted to come to help them. Levi knew Min might go, so he tried to get her. She didn’t want to, but Eden was with her and tried to convince her with Levi. Min only agreed to go if Eden went with her, and when the animal shelter Nico volunteered at was closed for the day because of a pipe breaking, she invited them so they would do something with humans instead of animals. Nico didn’t feel comfortable watching a horror movie with the people already there, so they brought Rose. Rose was planning to take a nap the entire afternoon, but David said that she needed to go to help Nico, so he came to help her stay awake. David mentioned it to Hu, and Hu thought it was a great idea that so many of us were going to see a movie together that she invited herself and J. J and Veronika realized it was basically everyone in our class going, so she had J call Teruko to invite her and ask her to invite me on Veronika’s behalf, since J doesn’t have my number. Teruko called me and told me how three people seeing a movie turned into 13.”
Xander should’ve realized that 13 tickets was a suspicious number of people. His date made him ignore how weird it was that Veronika managed to get 12 other people to watch a horror movie with her when she told him how much money she needed.
“Wait, how come I wasn’t invited?” asked Whit.
“I’m getting to that. We all went to the movie theatre and got our snacks if we wanted any. Veronika realized you weren’t here, Whit, and asked if no one invited you. I told her that you were always on standby in case something went wrong in a date you set up, and Rose asked if Xander’s date with Arei actually happened. Some people were surprised that more than a couple people if any knew about the date, and it turned out that no one except Hu, J, and I realized that Xander was going around and asking everyone to do something with him so he could avoid his blind date with Arei. Until the movie started, it was just us talking about what Xander wanted to do to have proof he had a legitimate reason to cancel his date. I have to admit, that was a nice conversation, mainly because we were all making fun of Xander.”
“I’m right here...”
“I know.”
Whit’s eyebrows furrowed together. “But, wait, Xander, how did you find out Arei was your blind date?”
He rubbed the back of his neck and chuckled nervously. “When you texted Arei about how I agreed, you left your phone on the table when our order was called. Your phone was still on, and I checked to see who my blind date was before I could stop myself. I found out it was Arei, and...everything that Charles said happened after that, basically.”
“So that’s why you suddenly didn’t want to go on the blind date anymore when I got back...” Whit sighed. “I don’t know what to be sad about, me accidentally leaving my phone here and ruining the thrill of blind dates or no one inviting me to watch a movie with basically our whole class.”
“You’re always on standby on the day your client has a date you set up,” reminded Charles. “You told me that.”
“That doesn’t mean I didn’t want an invitation!”
“I knew you were going to say no, so there was no point. Besides, you should be happy you didn’t see the movie. No one except Veronika wanted to talk after watching it...” Charles shuddered and muttered something about how a psychological horror with no gore or anything a typical horror movie had shouldn’t have been the scariest thing he had ever seen.
“Next time, I guess...” Whit had a small smile at Xander. “At least one of us had fun on Friday.”
Xander smiled back.
“And you”—Whit’s face became as serious as someone like him could make it—“after saying this, I’m not going to talk to you until you give me a sincere apology for not inviting me.”
Charles frowned. “Why?”
Whit turned his body away from him, crossing his arms.
“You didn’t give him an invitation, and he’s upset,” Xander answered for him.
“He was going to say no,” argued Charles. “What was the point of wasting my time asking him?”
“Even if he was going to say no, it’s the thought that matters. Plus, everyone was taking one extra person with them. You were supposed to at least ask Whit even if he wouldn’t come.”
“I didn’t know that! I’m not going to say sorry for something I didn’t know!”
“Then I guess Whit’s giving you the silent treatment.”
Xander took his coffee and sipped it slowly. If his classmates had gotten a memory they definitely wouldn’t get rid of because of his embarrassing actions, then he supposed they weren’t that bad. He managed to get himself another date with Arei, his classmates were all closer, and the only downside was Whit being angry at Charles. Whit wasn’t the type of person to hold grudges, so he would get over it soon enough. It was just a question of if Charles would reluctantly agree to apologize before then, and Xander was interested in seeing it.
A/N: Fun Fact: Xanrei’s blind date was supposed to include laser tag in between bowling and ice cream. They were supposed to be on different teams but teaming up to get rid of all their competitors, and when it’s down to the final three, Xander accidentally pushes Arei against a wall to get rid of the other person. Arei already realized what position they were in, and Xander realizes it a second after. They look into each other’s eyes (maybe I’m just aegoaroace, but it sounds so gross when I write it like this), but eventually, Xander feels like they should probably get out of that situation, so he shoots Arei with his laser gun. Arei gets (playfully) upsets and refuses to talk to Xander until he buys her ice cream, and then the ice cream scene comes. Whit didn’t plan that, though, so you’d get a bonus scene of Xander asking why Arei would want ice cream when it was getting cold, and Arei telling him that he just didn’t understand her. The reason why laser tag wasn't included is just because I didn’t want to write it. Traces of what was supposed to happen after remain in the final scene with Whit and Charles, though, if that counts for anything. Maybe I’ll write Xanrei playing laser tag another time.
DRDT Chapter 2: I have a theory
SPOILERS FOR DRDT CHAPTER 2
Okay so I've thought a lot about what I think happened to Arei, and I've come up with a theory. ( Some parts of this are already confirmed in the trial)
Basically I think the killer lured Arei to the playground with a note pretending to be Eden. ( After overhearing the whole Arturo-Arei-Eden mess in the infirmary.) The reason why Eden is so hesitant to show the group the note is because it makes her the prime suspect. I think the killer then knocked out Arei with Roses turpentine.
Next the killer rigged up a simple pulley system. I think the killer tied one end of the rope around the ball of clothes, then threw the ball over the bars in the ceiling.(This could have possibly been how the light broke.) I think they then discarded of the clothes and tied the rope to the spinny thing. ( The tape on the spinny thing is pull up tape from the gym, meaning it would have grip to stop the rope from sliding.)
Then the killer weighed down Arei to ensure that she was heavy enough to break her neck. I think they did this by taping the jugs of fish water around her wrists. (I don't think the killer bound her wrists as there were two pieces of tape in the bin during the investigation, and you would only need one piece to bind her wrists.) The killer them took off her bowling glove, as they would need it later. The killer then span the spinny thing, suspending Arei above the playground, before letting go. The killer then caught the spinny thing whilst she was halfway to the ground, (They wore Areis bowling glove to make sure it didn't slip.) Stopping her mid fall and breaking her neck.
Finally, the killer lowered her back down, using Areis bowling glove to ensure they do not get any rope/friction burns on their hands. The killer then took off the jugs of fish water and emptied them on the playground floor. ( I believe they did this because they could not access the relaxation room at the time for whatever reason. The killer also knew the playground floor was absorbant and the playground was equipped with plenty of fans.) The killer then got rid of the note, the jugs and the tape, then shoved the rope under the spinny thing. Lastly the killer used the wire to make it look like arei committed suicide by hanging her off of the swing set.
On further reflection, I think that the reason the killer emptied the jugs in the playground was because they broke whilst they were either breaking Areis neck or when they removed the tape. I think the killer intended to put the fish back originally but after the handles broke they had no choice but to just scatter them. (I think this will be the piece of evidence used to catch the killer in the trial.)
As for who actually killed her, I think it was either Levi or J. I'll talk about J first, because I think it is more likely to be Levi.
I think J could have done it because out of all the people who could have overheard the Arturo-Arei-Eden situation it was most likely to have been her, as she would have known arturo was going to meet someone. She could have known about the clothes in the dressing room as we saw her in there earlier in the chapter, and she may have known the trick to turn the clothes into a ball from growing up around a famous mother. ( Who must have had many people around specifically to make her clothes look good, maybe using similar techniques.) J could have probably overpowered Arei, with them being a similar height and build, all J would need is the element of surprise and maybe some of Roses missing turpentine.
Ok, now for Levi. For me, the main thing that points to him is the ball of clothes. Being the ultimate personal stylist, he probably knew about the clothes from spending time in the dressing room, and he would have known the trick to turn the clothes into a ball thanks to his talent. He could have easily overpowered Arei, as he is much taller and stronger than her, and moving the corpse after killing her would not be a challenge for him. As for the the infirmary incident I think he may have been eavesdropping to try to protect Eden. They have already been shown to be friendly with each other in the opening scene of chapter 2, and Levi is shown to be quite protective, so I think If he saw Eden meeting with someone like Arturo, who is twice Edens size and not very friendly, he would want to keep an eye on them.
That's pretty much everything I have to say about this, but I would love to hear everyone else's thoughts on this. (Also sorry if this is badly written, this is my first post.)
To the whole drdt fandom: I need you all to know that this is what weeby news had to say about ace and levi 😭
DRDT teirlist if you even care
LEVI NATION WE ARE LOSING 💯💯💯
The way I almost screamed when I thought Levi was going to die
What was it like? (mini comic feat. Levi and Arturo)
(HEAVY EP 16 SPOILERS)
also, bonus panel/panel I reformatted:
hahaah the fact Levi didn't see Ace's execution has been tormenting me since the ep dropped so... heres this! I dont like some parts but I spent like 7 straight hours on it so its definitely getting posted.
also I feel like Arturo and Levi (if Levi survives) will be kinda gang in chapter 3. that may be wishful thinking, but its a wish i'll hold onto!
edit ; ALSO WHO SPELT GROUND WRONG? NOT MEE!!; 😂🔫
Chapter 3 Levi (in my brain)
(spoilers obvi)
this is like... half a prediction, half headcannon, igs?
wheelchairs are so. so hard to draw.
Anyway yeah, i figure Levi isn't just gonna... spring up when he's stitched back together. idk if he'd actually lose motor functions in his legs, but i def don't think he'd be able to walk without assistance for a whillleee either way. so... wheelchair! + Arturo not leaving him the fuck alone so he can constantly monitor Levi's condition.
plus plus a lil comic on how I feel his attitude about mentions of Ace:
Even though he said he didn't care one way or the other if Ace died, he seems pretty peeved when other people feel the same way...! Otherwise, I feel like his attitude will be relatively the same, still trying to be a good person from a vast emotional distance! He's just more tired now, and always in mild pain, so... his temper might come out some more.
Once I get a new tablet. I'm drawing my charwhituko roommates AU.
I just have no idea who the other people in the apartment complex would room with. Already thought of Ace and Levi but only because I thought the idea of neither one of them wanting to back down from leaving the apartment to be funny. Like Ace claims that it's his house so Levi should be the one to leave and vice versa.
Why does this post make me laugh so much lol. Its really cute. Luv how you drew them.
you should draw levi and arturo from drdt cause they are plaguing my thoughts
I think I’m simply the Rarepare artist of this fandom cause this is a STRANGE one, but very fun to draw
Chapter 2 ep 11 spoilers
To celebrate the release of the Elliot MV (who I had shamefully mistaken for Charles and went wild) I made more DRDT memes
With this post, I have now made 103 DRDT memes, with like half of them being on the DRDT subreddit. Welp, time to aim for 200
may or may not have gotten a bit silly and tried this hunger games simulator with the drdt cast and...uh....
Here DRDT fandom I brought you food
DRDT Ch2 Ep11 spoilers
"I'm probably gonna go crazy about Bsd and Bsd only for the next 2 months" I said "Bsd and Bsd only" I said. The DRDT addiction got me
I don't actually ship Teruvid btw but I don't think it's a bad ship either, just wanted to clear that up