A Strange Fondness

"Then does that mean yesterday's incident is canceled out?"

Looking at the somewhat awkward and bashful Kiana before him, Dong Moxuan's attention was focused elsewhere.

Kiana: "..."

Hearing Dong Moxuan's words, Kiana's expression stiffened.

The blush faded from her face, and she said gloomily to Dong Moxuan, "Canceled out. Yesterday's incident is canceled out. You can get lost now!"

Seeing Kiana suddenly change her attitude, Dong Moxuan had no idea how he had offended her.

He gave a wry smile, then reached out and took out a pair of white charms. "All right, all right, I shouldn't have put it that way. Here, take these, Miss Kiana. Calm down."

"Eh... eh?"

Seeing the things in Dong Moxuan's hand, Kiana froze.

"These are... for me?"

For some reason, Kiana felt her heartbeat speed up slightly, and her cheeks grew faintly warm.

"Yeah. Consider them a thank-you gift for treating me to lunch. Besides, you seemed to want them pretty badly."

Although he personally felt that the pair of charms was ridiculously overpriced, he couldn't resist Kiana's fondness for them.

After all, she had treated him to lunch for free. Returning the favor was only proper.

As for the money...

Didn't he have the pocket money Mei had given him?

Using Mei's money to flirt with Kiana—how thrilling!

Meanwhile, after hearing Dong Moxuan's words, a certain White-haired Ball couldn't help curling the corners of her lips upward.

She took one of the charms from Dong Moxuan and said in an extremely haughty tone, "Since you're so sincere about currying favor with me, I suppose I'll reluctantly accept it!"

"Um, Kiana, you don't want the other one?"

"You can keep the other one."

Hey, Paramecium, do you know what you're saying?

Hearing Kiana's reply, Dong Moxuan couldn't help twitching the corner of his mouth.

These were couple charms. It would have been fine if Kiana had taken both, but she had left one for him. Wouldn't that mean...

Dong Moxuan sighed inwardly, but he didn't say anything more to the White-haired Ball.

"It's getting late. I'll be leaving first."

With that, Dong Moxuan turned and left.

Once Dong Moxuan's back disappeared from her sight, Kiana hurriedly took out her phone and hung the ball-shaped charm on it.

The more she looked at the item in her hand, the more satisfied she became. The corners of her lips lifted into a faint, sweet smile.

Suddenly, she seemed to notice something, and the expression on her face froze slightly.

"What... was wrong with me just now?"

She finally put away that girlish demeanor, her eyes filled with gravity.

Why had she looked just like a girl in love?

Kiana was actually quite aware of the inexplicable sense of closeness she felt toward Dong Moxuan.

But she hadn't expected it to be this serious.

She had merely accepted a small gift from Dong Moxuan, yet she had acted as if she were about to be won over.

If Dong Moxuan really took the initiative to pursue her, wouldn't she...

She, Kiana, wasn't some darkened French saintess. She wasn't a woman who was that easy to win over.

That fellow called Dong Moxuan was far too sinister. She had to stay away from him in the future.

With that thought in mind, Kiana turned her gaze toward the ball-shaped charm on her phone.

A gift from the sinister Dong Moxuan was bound to be sinister too. Should she just throw it away?

After the thought arose, Kiana stood there for more than ten seconds, yet she still couldn't bring herself to throw away the item in her hand.

"Forget it..."

With a soft sigh, Kiana put her phone back into her pocket.

Once it was in her hands, it was hers. Throwing it away would only mean making things difficult for herself, wouldn't it?

As for whether she should distance herself from Dong Moxuan in the future...

That was what she thought, but she might not necessarily be able to do it.

After all, she hadn't originally planned to ask Dong Moxuan out today, yet the result was...

"Dong Moxuan... just who are you?"

Recalling everything that had happened that day, Kiana's heart was filled with indescribable complexity.

"Something seems a little off..."

On the other side, Dong Moxuan rubbed his chin as well, feeling that something was wrong.

He felt that his attitude toward that White-haired Ball had been a little too friendly.

Although he had been a captain in his previous life and would naturally have an innate fondness for his former Valkyries, Kiana was an exception.

After all, he and one of that Paramecium's elders had an extremely bitter blood feud.

If he got the chance, he would kill Kiana's elder without hesitation.

Dong Moxuan didn't consider himself particularly magnanimous. Before meeting Kiana, he had even entertained the sinister idea of capturing her and turning her into a tool for his plans.

Yet after meeting Kiana, he had developed an inexplicable sense of closeness toward her. He was even more intimate and gentle with her than he was with the Cook. That was clearly abnormal.

"Could it be... that I'm secretly a Paramecium fanatic, and I just never realized it?"

After thinking for a long time without reaching a conclusion, Dong Moxuan could only attribute the reason to his deep love for a certain black-suited bald man in his previous life. He shook his head lightly and stopped dwelling on it.

"Hmm, it's getting late. I might as well go pick up Mei..."

"Um, Mei, could you help me carry these documents to the teacher's office?"

"But weren't these assigned to you by the teacher?"

Sitting at her desk, Mei put down the pen she had been using to work on her problems and looked at the short-haired girl before her with a troubled expression.

"I made plans with Yumiko and the others this afternoon. Please help me, Mei?"

The short-haired girl clasped her hands together and pleaded with Mei.

Hearing the girl's words, Mei frowned slightly.

Even if she had made plans, did she really not have enough time to carry a few documents?

However, Mei got along fairly well with that gentle and earnest female teacher. If the documents weren't delivered, the one who would suffer trouble would certainly be that teacher.

Thinking of this, Mei sighed inwardly.

"All right!"

She nodded lightly.

"Thank you so much, Mei!"

The short-haired girl spoke to Mei in a grateful tone, but as soon as she turned around, her expression became gloomy.

"What's with the attitude? Does she really think she's still the young lady she used to be?"

"..."

Mei's expression froze, and she clenched the ballpoint pen in her hand.

The short-haired girl's voice had been very soft, but she never expected Mei's hearing to be far sharper than an ordinary person's.

"Mei!"

Just then, a voice came from outside the classroom.

The next second, a silver-haired, blue-eyed boy walked in.

"School's been out for ages. Why are you still in the classroom?"

"Mr. Dong... Dong Moxuan?"

Her eyes widening slightly, Mei felt that she had experienced more surprises over the past few days than she had in all her previous decades.