111 Hobby 1

"Kya! Did you see who walked by?" I almost covered my ears from the loud scream.

"I did. I did," the people around me nodded their heads with admiration.

"Can you please move?" An upperclassman politely asked me while I was on my way to the usual café where I met Shelly and Ellen.

I noticed early on in elementary school that not many people treated me rudely since I was engaged to Luke. Except for my usual classmates I was familiar with, my other peers greeted me politely when I passed through the halls.

However, it wasn't like I met many people other than my classmates except for the weekends like today. Everyone was busy as usual during the weekdays as they struggled to survive under the harsh school system.

Before I could step back, strong slender arms hugged me from behind. I gasped from surprise as I became the centre of attention inside a large crowd that surrounded the person behind me.

"Rika!" A familiar deep voice greeted me as I turned my face to figure out who it was.

Ugh! Why was he here? It was hard enough to pretend I didn't know him while I received anonymous letters that popped up occasionally inside my desk asking to pass onto him.

Typical gleaming golden strands of hair drifted in front of my face. His long eyelashes and jawlines resembled Luke clearly showed they had some relationship with each other.

The extravagant high school uniform fit him so well that it was like it was made for him to wear. I had to admit that there weren't many people who were better looking than Luke in the first district that was known for its beautiful populace. However, he possessed an angelic face which surpassed Luke by a small margin with his symmetrical features that matched perfectly with each other.

But I knew now that looks didn't define everything. I wasn't deceived by any of Luke's friends who unknowingly gathered secretive fan clubs throughout the school that admired their prestige bloodline, power and wealth.

"What are you doing here Jules?" I asked Julian who was playfully teasing me in front of his fans.

"Do I need a reason to meet my cousin?" Julian pretended to pout as I felt subtle glares of jealousy.

"What do you mean by cousin?" I denied our relationship to each other.

There was no way I would admit that we were cousins. It was akin to acknowledging that I would really get married to Luke in the future.

Julian Pelargonium was Luke's cousin on his mother's side. Luke's family was so big that I was struggling to remember all the people who was connected to him. There was his immediate family and unfortunately all his cousins that also had partners from other prominent families.

All I needed was Shelly, who I didn't consider as my future cousin, but one of my closest childhood friends.

However, we started to drift apart when he graduated from elementary school one year after Luke and I were admitted.

"I'll miss you Jules," I tried to not cry.

"It's ok my comrade," Julian passed an envelope full of what he promised me yesterday.

I peeked through the envelope to find everything that I ordered was exactly there.

However, this was before I figured out he was Luke's cousin. I stopped replying to his messages as we both agreed to stop contracting each other when we ran into some trouble of others discovering our frequent exchanges. What did I expect from a school full of students from the most prestigious families?

Jules seemed so normal as we secretly contacted each other about our common hobby. I naturally forgot about our big age difference as we passionately talked of XXX.

I sadly got rid of all the evidence by burning them secretly outside the dorms once I was sure that Luke was asleep.

Even Shelly and Ellen didn't know about my secret hobby. I could still imagine the horror on their faces if they figured out even when they mostly accepted everything about me.

Julian subtly pushed a piece of paper into my hand while he let me go.

I quickly swam out of the crowd as I ran into my dorm room. Fortunately, Luke was at his usual sword practice with Alex at this time.

I opened the piece of paper that had the location and time written faintly with the warm feeling of Julian's mana.

[High school classroom 2-3 at 3AM.]

I frowned as going into the high school section of the campus would be difficult without gathering any attention.

I didn't want to run into any people I knew. Aka, Lucius and Ben plus their partners which knew my faces now after social week. However, I was too curious to reject the invitation.

Did that mean Julian finally figured out how to resume our secret meetings safely?

The high school section was always filled with students even in the middle of the night. This was where high school unfortunately differed from middle school.

I sighed as I couldn't imagine roaming around school other than sneaking around in the middle of the night.