"I'll see you after the clubs are over with Vallin!" Monique waved at Vallin with a closed eye smile as she walked away from him.

His new pink haired acquaintance was nice enough to walk Vallin to his club room despite running the risk of being late to her own club. 

"Mhm." Vallin responded back with a small smile.

"And make sure to think about what I told you!" Monique reminded him before rushing off down the hallway to her own club.

Vallin watched her disappear within the crowd of students rushing to their clubs. He let out a sigh, his smile dropping back into his usual frown at the reminder of their previous conversation.

"So, you're telling me that Rose, your roommate, went missing and you think Katrine is trying to hide the fact that your roommate is missing?" Vallin asked, massaging his forehead with his fingers  trying to process all the information Monique just dropped on him.

“Yes and no.” Monique responded while standing up and stretching.

“What do you mean by that?”

“My roommate, Rose, is missing but I don’t believe Katrine is the only one trying to hide information about Rose. I believe that the school is heavily involved in Rose’s disappearance and Katrine is simply following the orders of the school.” 

“This…sounds like a very shady situation but then again this school is…strange... but,” Vallin’s hands left his face and he stood up. He looked down at Monique with a raised eyebrow and pointed at her. “That is a very serious accusation you're accusing the school of without solid evidence of such a crime being committed.” 

The bell rang signaling the end of lunch after Vallin finished his sentence. The lunch doors opened with students leaving the dining hall and students began coming out of the dormitory on their way to their clubs. 

“You're right, I don’t have any solid evidence against the school.” Monique shrugged with a light smile on her face. She gathered all of their trash together and sent Vallin a smirk.

“I guess I should go find some evidence to prove my point then.”

“You're kidding right?” Vallin laughed but his smile dropped when his pink haired acquaintance shook her head.

“Nope and I believe you should aid me on my mission to expose the school.” Monique found a trash can nearby and threw their trash away. 

“Wait do what now?”

“Vallin, I want to investigate the school and I want you to join me in the investigation.” Monique said turning to face him with her hand on her hips, a giant smile and sparkling purple reddish eyes.

At the time Vallin didn’t have an answer for Monique and told her he would think about it. Monique didn’t pressure him into making a choice right then and agreed to giving him time to think about it before offering to walk him to his club.

 Vallin sighed and ran his hand through his locs. He had some decisions to make but his thought process was interrupted by a scream.

"Someone get the fire extinguisher! Quickly!" Someone yelled from inside the cooking club room. 

Vallin jumped at the sudden noise and without thinking quickly ran inside the cooking club room. He was instantly hit in the face with smoke. Vallin blinked in confusion as the gas coated his already limited vision and invaded his nose. 

The taste of the burnt odor stained his throat causing him to cough as he waved his hands around trying to clear the air around him. Did someone  burn some food or did something else in the room catch on fire? 

"Someone go open up the windows!" A student shouted from somewhere in the room and Vallin could hear the other club members move around the room coughing or trying to help clear up the smoke. 

“Don’t worry! I got it!” A familiar voice said and Vallin heard the sound of the windows sliding up.

The smoke filled room gradually began to clear up, the gas slipping out through the opened windows. Finally, Vallin was able to breathe in clean air without feeling the urge to cough or choke. After taking another breath of fresh air, he took a look around the cooking club room.

The room Vallin stood in was bigger than his classrooms and seemingly furnished specifically for the cooking club. On his side of the room there was a long wooden table filled with various different types of foods with a white cloth underneath and packed with comfy looking wooden chairs. 

In the back of the room was a kitchen setup with an island with a variety of pastries and desserts sitting on top of it and in front of the kitchen was a countertop connected to the wall. There was another countertop built in the wall on the side of the wall opposite of the kitchen, for what Vallin assumed was extra surface for the cooking members to cook on. 

There were students scattered around the room, with Vallin being the closest towards the door. Inside the kitchen there was one male student holding a fire extinguisher in front of the stove, whose insides were covered in white foam.

Another male student let out a sigh of relief and patted the male student holding the fire extinguisher on the back while a female student wearing oven mitts stared silently at the oven with a heartbroken expression on her face.

“Is everyone alright?” A familiar voice asked. 

Vallin turned his head in the direction of the voice and quickly recognized the owner of the voice. By the open windows was the clumsy brunette who had bumped into him on the first day of school and one of the members of the student council.

What was her name again? Vallin furrowed his eyebrows and frowned as he realized that he had never learned her name.

“Yeah, the only casualty was my apple pie...” The female student wearing oven mitts sighed.

“At least Daniel found the fire extinguisher before the fire could spread.” Another member joined in, approaching the kitchen and giving the three other students a thumbs up.

“You're right! Daniel saved us! He is a wonderful club leader!” Someone else agreed and soon there was a crowd of cooking club members cheering for Daniel.

All except for Vallin and the clumsy brunette. 

There were too many people that Vallin didn’t know that were too close to each other for comfort. Plus he didn’t know this Daniel guy all too well unlike the other members so he went over to the brunette, the only person he was familiar with in the room. 

“Excuse me,” Vallin approached the brunette who was watching the other club members with a faraway look in her eyes. 

“Huh? Oh! Hello there!" The brunette jumped upon hearing his voice and turned her gaze away from the group of club members to look at him.

“Hi, I hope you don’t mind me hanging out over here with you. I don’t know if it's just me but it looks a bit crowded over there.”

“N-not at all! I don’t mind the company.” The brunette’s light brown cheeks turned red and she gave Vallin a nervous smile before her smile fell when she got a better look of him.

“You…look very familiar. Have we met before?” The brunette asked with a frown, studying him from head to toe with a troubled gaze in her light pink eyes.

“Um…you kinda bumped into me on the first day of school.” Vallin mumbled while scratching the back of his neck, suppressing a shudder under the intense staring of the brunette. 

“That person I bumped into that day was you?”The brunette gasped, her light pink eyes softening and her face flushed again. “I’m sorry that was your first impression of me.”

Vallin nodded relieved that the brunette finally stopped examining him and apologizing to him. Now to learn her name, he was getting tired of referring to her as the brunette in his head.

“Don’t worry, I’m not one to talk about first impressions.” Vallin frowned, recalling his first encounter with Monique. “But, we can start over and have a proper introduction to each other if you want.”

“S-sure! Hello I’m Valentina,” Valentina fiddled with her hands and gave him a shy smile. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“I’m Vallin and it’s nice to meet you too, Valentina.” Vallin said with a small smile of his own.

“Also I should thank you for opening the windows for us Valentina. If you didn't, I would've suffocated to death from the smoke. You're a real lifesaver.” Vallin jokes but he notices Valentina flinching at his last words.

“Ha, t-thanks but I wouldn’t go as far as calling myself a lifesaver.” Valentina blushed, turning her head away from Vallin and looking back at the group of club members. “After all, someone like me doesn’t have the right to be called a lifesaver.”

Vallin opens his mouth to ask Valentina what she meant by that when the club leader clapped his hands to get everybody’s attention.

“I hereby announce that the food is done and is ready to be eaten! The cooking club has officially begun! Now let’s dig in!”

The other members of the cooking club began grabbing plates, utensils and food. Some of the members were pulling out paper cups from the cabinets and taking jugs of water, juice, and lemonade out of the fridge.

“Ah, it looks like it's time to eat, we should go join them and find a seat.” Valentina said,glancing over to Vallin with a small smile. “If you want, can we sit next to each other? Y-you don’t have to if you don’t want to!” 

“Sure, I don’t mind.” Vallin nodded in agreement, tucking Valentina’s previous comment about herself in the back of his head for later.

Now wasn’t the time to ask her about it, so he’ll do it later when there is nobody around to interrupt their conversation. They both joined the other members of the cooking club and found two seats right next to each other. Occasionally Valentina would make small talk with Vallin but she would quickly go back to eating.

There was nobody to distract him from his thoughts by trying to hold a conversation with him, not that Vallin minded. The other members of the cooking club were either focused in their own conversations, stuffing their mouths or putting more food on their plate. 

Vallin found himself being left to his own thoughts as he was eating his food. Questions about Monique and her investigation filled his head as he took a bite out of a brownie.

In a way wasn't he responsible for the idea of the investigation? 

If Vallin hadn’t mentioned anything about evidence, would Monique still have the idea to actually conduct an investigation of the school? 

Let alone invite him to join the investigation? 

Speaking of the matter of the invite, Vallin narrowed his eyes at his plate and took another bite out of his brownie. Should he accept or turn down Monique’s offer?

Vallin finished off his brownie, grabbed his plastic cup filled with lemonade and took a sip from his drink as he debated in his head about his options.

On one hand if Vallin agreed, in case Monique's accusations are true, then he would have the opportunity to expose the school of their crime and prevent another student from going missing within the school. 

In case her accusations are not true, then both Monique and him would go through a wild goose chase when the school has no involvement with Monique’s missing roommate. Though he would be able to keep an eye on Monique and make sure she doesn’t get herself in trouble during the investigation.

Agreeing would also strengthen his friendship with her, and he wouldn’t be bored since it will give him something to do around campus when he has nothing else to do. 

On the other hand if Vallin turned down Monique’s offer, he could save himself the embarrassment of investigating the school just to find out it was innocent or being proven wrong after Monique finds solid evidence of the school’s involvement with her missing roommate. 

If Vallin didn’t agree to help Monique, he wouldn’t be around to help her if she got in trouble. There is the chance that their relationship could become strained and lead to them drifting apart if he turned down Monique’s offer. 

He would also be bored, lonely and wouldn’t have anyone fun to pass the time with. Vallin continued to weigh his options back and forth in his head as he was eating his food until his head started to hurt. 

Finishing eating, Vallin grabbed his plastic cup and gulped the rest of his lemonade, enjoying the cool sour yet sweet liquid going down his throat that easing his headache. He clutched the empty plastic cup in one hand and rested his face in the other hand with a tired sigh. 

Vallin finally made up his mind but the process of thinking so hard left him yearning for his soft bed. He frowned,hoping that he made the right decision and he wouldn’t regret it later on.