"Please, don't joke! I'm busy with other things, I don't have time to figure that out!" Without realizing it, I was already standing and glaring at him.

I felt embarrassed. Why did he suddenly pat my head like that?!?

I looked at his face. He didn't seem remorseful about what he had just done.

He opened his mouth.

"Well, if that's the case, let's not think about it. Just focus on your goals," he said casually.

Oh God, I think I've met a strange guy.

"Okay, how about we take a walk around the school now?" He got up from his seat and pointed at the classroom buildings with his thumb.

"Wait, why are you suddenly inviting me?" His invitation seemed unreasonable.

*Sigh*

He sighed.

I felt a little annoyed seeing that.

"If we want to deceive that jerk, we can't do it half-heartedly, right? He must have many eyes in this school," he replied nonchalantly.

Ah, he did say earlier that I had already made plans with him to walk around the school. And...

Those eyes mean his subordinates, right? That means he has a lot of people watching us. If we don't really walk around the school together, it's the same as lying to Quinn and he'll find out.

Wait, didn't Dillon and Quinn seem to be at odds from their interaction earlier? Is this the best choice for me?

I stared at Dillon. Unlike me, who was currently anxious, he seemed very relaxed. This felt somewhat unfair. He decided on this by himself without involving me.

"Alright, I guess I don't have any other choice..." I decided to just surrender to this.

Come to think of it, maybe I'm a bad detective. Can I really catch the culprit at this rate?

...

No! I can't give up. Even though I'm pathetic right now, I can still learn. Let's remember today's events well and take the lesson from them.

"Good choice... I promise you won't regret this decision," he said, smiling at me.

Well, we'll see about that.

We started walking towards the classroom buildings. After a while, we finally arrived. Most of the club rooms should be in these buildings. As I imagined, this place was bustling. There were many students coming and going, mostly with their friends.

Dillon and I stopped at the edge of the corridor and took out our phones to open the school website. There, the list of clubs and organizations available in the school was displayed.

"By the way, are you interested in joining any clubs or organizations, Rosemary?" Dillon asked me, looking curious.

I shook my head.

"No... I don't have time to join clubs or organizations," I replied to him. I didn't want to be distracted by other things right now.

"Hmm, I see. Me too..." he replied, still looking at his phone.

Not surprising. He must have his own busy schedule, especially as the heir to his family.

"Okay, how about we check out some clubs around here? We'll skip the clubs in the buildings further away," he pointed to the school map and circled the area around us.

"Okay..." I replied shortly.

We then headed towards the nearest club from where we were standing. It turned out to be the cooking club.

"Excuse me," we said simultaneously. We entered the school kitchen, which was larger than I had imagined. This kitchen was specifically for students.

The aroma of sweets filled the air as we entered. A few other new students were also here.

"Hello, welcome. Are you interested in joining?" a senior student approached us. She gave us a warm smile.

"Oh, we just want to look around for now, is that okay?" Dillon replied.

"Of course! Today we're making sweets, you can try making them yourselves. There will be a senior guiding you," she said kindly.

"What do you think? Do you want to try?" Dillon lowered his body and whispered in my ear. It tickled my ear, and I felt a little embarrassed.

"Up to you..." I replied quietly.

He returned to his original posture.

"We'd like to try, please!"

"Okay, then I'll call someone who will guide you. Please wait a moment," the senior then approached someone. Soon, the person approached us.

"Hello, you want to try making sweets, right? I'll be your guide," he smiled warmly at us.

"Alright," Dillon said.

"I'm in your care," I said.

We followed the senior to try making sweets with him.

***

After the cooking club, we visited several other clubs. Debate club, painting club, choir club, and others. Now we were outside, looking at some sports clubs.

I looked at Dillon. His eyes were on the people practicing on the field.

"Are you interested in sports?" I asked him.

"Umm, not really. I just remember my childhood when I used to play with other kids in the neighborhood. We used to play soccer near the park," he replied.

I was a little surprised. A young master from a famous family played with other kids in the neighborhood? I could never have imagined that.

"Quite unexpected..." I murmured softly.

He chuckled. It seemed like he was listening to my murmurs. I looked away from him. My face felt warm.

"Hey, Rosemary."

I turned to him.

"What if we try that?" He pointed to the people practicing baseball.

"Huh?"

"Come on, let's borrow the bat and ball," he took my hand and led me to the baseball field.

"W-Wait, you-" I tried to free my hand from his grip, but he was too strong.

"Wait here, I'll go ask one of the seniors," he let go of his grip and then approached one of the senior students standing on the edge of the field. The senior was wearing our school's baseball uniform. From afar, i saw him and the senior walked into a room. It seemed to be their changing room.

Soon, he returned with a bat and ball. He handed the ball to me.

"A paper ball?" I asked in surprise.

"Yeah, a paper ball. According to the senior, it's safer if we use a paper ball. Luckily, he brought it."

"Is it okay if we borrow this?" I asked uncertainly, looking at the ball.

"Yeah, the senior said we could borrow it for a while. Come on, I know a place where we can try this without bothering them," he took my hand again for the umpteenth time today.

He led me to a place behind the warehouse near the field.

"Here we are!" he said cheerfully.

"How did you know there was a place like this?"

"I've been here before..." he said. For some reason, his eyes looked a little melancholic.

"Oh, I see..."

He nodded slowly.

He walked away from me and lift up the bat.

"Come on, what are you waiting for? Throw the ball to me, I'll hit it," he looked at me with a confident smile.

"Such an annoying smile!" I threw the ball as hard as I could to him.

Unknowingly, I was caught up in his flow.

***

"That was quite fun, wasn't it?" he smiled at me.

I nodded slowly.

I was embarrassed to admit it, but it was quite fun earlier. We played for a while.

"I think we can go home now, our homeroom teacher said we can go home," he showed me his phone screen which displayed our class group chat.

"You're right..."

We walked towards our classroom to pick up our bags.

As we walked, I thought about today's events. Many unexpected things happened to me today. Among the many things, I found myself wondering about Dillon's attitude towards me.

What did he mean by I'm someone important to him? We just started interacting today.

"Hey Dillon..."

"Hmm?"

"Why... Why do you seem so interested in me?" Our steps halted.

"Didn't I already tell you earlier? You're important to me," he smiled faintly.

"Not that! I want to know the real reason! It's so strange for you to say that to a girl you just met today," I stared at him seriously.

He stopped smiling and fell silent. His face looked like he was thinking about something.

"Because I like you," he looked at me seriously. My heart skipped a beat.

???

"H-How can it be, this is our first meeting, right? You're not going to say you fell in love with me at first sight, are you?" I lowered my head.

I didn't believe in love at first sight. I didn't understand how someone could like a stranger.

"Sure, just think of it as that," he smiled faintly. I looked up and met his eyes.

Huh? He looks... disappointed?

"Dil-" Before I could finish my sentence, he interrupted me.

"Our class is nearby," he turned his face away and walked ahead of me.

For a while, I just walked behind him and stared at his back. After our conversation earlier, we stopped talking to each other for the rest of the day.

Author's note:

Thanks for reading! Like always, please correct me if you see any mistake. We will be back to Dillon's POV on the next chapter.