When Alex heard the mission his father had given him, he started to shift gears into his mission mode.
"How long is the duration of the mission?"
"Until you graduate, or if there is an extension you will be informed promptly."
"What weapons can I use?"
"You are permitted to use your specialized handgun, but only use rubber bullets. If the situation truly needs it, inform me first and wait for approval to use deadly force."
Carlo knew that his son wouldn't really need to use deadly force since he could subdue most threats without killing anyone. The only reason he said those things is to make what he said seem like a real mission.
"Also is any girl suitable for this mission or do you have anyone in mind?"
"The choice is yours, any girl you deem suitable to be protected will do."
"Affirmative!" Alex saluted once more and headed towards his room, he needed to prepare for the upcoming mission.
...
The following day Alex was walking towards his new school and was thinking deeply.
'Who should I protect? Dad said it must be a girl I find suitable to protect... But who could that be? What kind of girl is suitable to protect?... I'm getting nowhere with this kind of thinking, better keep it simple. The first girl that I see who is a student from my school will be the girl I protect. No, no that's too simple I need to observe a few of them first before I make a decision.'
Once he was done with his own internal dilemma Alex headed to school with a new sense of vigor. Noticing that he was going to be late if he didn't hurry, Alex was about to sprint. Yet as if destiny was playing with him, someone bumped him at the back.
Before the other party was able to have a crash contact with him, Alex with his fighting reflexes grabbed hold of the person behind him and threw her.
When Alex finally notices that his body automatically reacted to the surprise hit, he tries to soften the other party's landing.
The other party that was thrown landed on their buttocks. It was a girl wearing a red blazer, a red ribbon tie, and a blue skirt barely reaching her knees. This was the uniform of Cromer Public High School that Alex was attending.
The girl stood up and glared at Alex. She was a beautiful girl with long black hair, that was tied in two messy low pigtails. She had a fringe just above her blue eyes, her body was fair and slim. She seems to be exuding an almost haughty aura.
"Hey you why the hell did you throw me?" The girl asked Alex in an irritated tone of voice.
Alex who stood in front of every kind of battlefield without worry on his face was now extremely worried. He didn't know what to say in a situation such as this, he didn't even know how to talk with people his age, much less a girl his age.
"Sorry Ma'am, for throwing you. It was an accident."
"Ma'am? Why are talking like that? Huh, shit! I'm going to be late!"
The girl wanted to say something more but suddenly remembered that she was going to be late for class.
"Fine, then I'll accept your apology you weirdo, since I have no time." The girl sprinted away without waiting for Alex's reply.
Alex stood there dumbfounded by the whole situation, then he remembered what he said before the girl bumped into him. The first girl from the same school he meets would be the target that would need to be protected.
'It's a good thing that I decided to observe first... For now, it's time for some recon.' Alex sprinted forward, immediately catching up with the girl. He jogged exactly one meter behind her, the girl who was in a hurry didn't notice that Alex already caught up.
When the two reached the school grounds the girl headed towards her classroom, Alex tried to follow her but when he saw that her classroom was 1-B he stopped and looked at his memo. It was written there that he was assigned to classroom 1-A. Alex then made a call to his father.
"Hey Alex, did you get to school properly?" Those were the first words Carlo asked his son when he picked up the phone.
"Affirmative, I reached the designated place on time."
"So what's the matter? Aren't you supposed to be in class right now?"
"Yes, but I ran into a little problem." When Carlo heard his son say a little problem his face turned serious.
"Did you kill somebody already?"
"Negative, I have not used lethal force as of now." When Carlo heard his son's answer he sighed in relief.
"So then what's the problem?"
"The potential target I have picked is situated in classroom 1-B, while I'm in classroom 1-A. Asking permission to threaten the Principal into placing me in classroom 1-B."
"What! No rejected!" Carlo almost dropped the phone shocked at what Alex just said.
"Then can I bribe the other party?"
"Rejected!"
"Then can I use force and enter classroom 1-B"
"No!"
"Can I use a drone to monitor classroom 1-B"
"No!' Carlo said exasperated at his son's ideas.
"Then what can I do Dad, how can I observe the potential target when she's in another room?"
Carlo sighed before answering. "Since you haven't decided that she's the one you want to protect then since she's not in your classroom how about you choose someone else, one who is in your classroom."
Alex stopped to think for a moment, what his father was saying was true, but for some reason, he felt like he needed to learn more about the other party.
"That's a negative, father. I don't know why but I feel some familiarity with that girl. Despite her only being a potential target of protection."
Carlo was shocked to hear Alex's answer. This mission was made so that Alex could go to school and also become aware of the opposite gender, now it seems that things were going extremely well, and the mission hasn't even started yet. Carlo can't let this change go by.
"I will handle that, just give me a minute."
Carlo then started making some phone calls, and after a few minutes, Carlo called Alex back.
"There it's done, you just need to wait and a teacher will be there to pick you up." Just right after Carlo said so, a teacher who was running frantically arrived in front of Alex.
"Alexander Samarita?"
"Yes, that is me."
"Please follow me, I'm your new homeroom teacher David Lorand."
The guy calling himself Alex's homeroom teacher was an average-looking person who was a head shorter than Alex, who stood 172 cm tall.
David looked at Alex warily, since the grumpy old Principal actually ran to the teacher's lounge looking for him, telling him an important student was waiting in the hallway.
David started wondering what kind of identity Alex had to make the prideful old grump act that way.
"So please wait here while I introduce you to the class."
David entered the classroom when the door was opened Alex heard the noisy insides of the classroom.
"Everyone sit down, I'll be introducing a new friend to you all."
When David said those lines the students started whispering.
"A transfer student?"
"I thought Class A would be getting a transfer student, were there two of them?"
"I wonder what kind of person the transfer student will be like."
"Ahem... Alexander please come in and introduce yourself."
Alex entered the room and once he did a female student shouted.
"It's the weirdo!"
...
Alex saw the potential target shouting at him, and calling him a weirdo. Everyone looked at the girl surprised, even the teacher looked at the girl stunned.
"Do you know each other Miss Rachel?" David asked a bit confused at the sudden outburst.
Rachel who finally noticed that everyone's attention was directed at her, blushed, and shook her head.
"Sorry, I guess I got the wrong person." Rachel glared at Alex, blaming him for the embarrassment she was facing.
"Ok, why don't you introduce yourself then." David gestured at Alex to make his introduction.
Alex stood in an upright position and was about to salute but stopped himself from doing so. This was a normal high school and he was a normal high schooler.
"I'm Alexander Samarita nice to meet you all."
Alex felt that his introduction was good, but when he looked at his classmates he felt something was off. Everyone in class thought that the transfer student was too formal or something similar, they couldn't describe what they felt with words.
Sensing the awkward atmosphere David asked Alex to take the extra seat at the back of the class. Once Alex sat down he kept on doing sideward glances at Rachel. Homeroom was now over and the math teacher entered. The teacher saw that Alex wasn't listening but kept on glancing at Rachel.
Infuriated the math teacher wrote a hard math problem she herself had difficulty solving back in her own university days. This problem was well beyond what a High School student should be capable of answering.
"Mr. Samarita will you please answer the question on the board."
The math teacher saw Alex look at the board once and went back to looking at Rachel who finally noticed that Alex was staring at her.
She glared at Alex who was staring at her, but Alex didn't bother with that and continued making glances at her as he went near the blackboard.
Everyone was confused as to what the transfer student was doing. Rachel was indeed one of the top beauties of the school, but did she do something to the transfer student to make him this interested in her?
Then the group remembered Rachel's reaction upon seeing the transfer student, she called him a weirdo. Perhaps the two already knew each other and the transfer student already confessed to Rachel.
Alex didn't even look at the blackboard while answering and kept on glancing back at Rachel. All of his focus was on Rachel at the moment, he needed to understand her basic quirks, and the only way to do that quickly was by watching her.
Alex put down the chalk and returned to his seat still looking at Rachel. The math teacher saw the answer Alex wrote and was completely shocked. The answer was correct, and the way he answered the question was in a much more efficient manner than what she knew of.
"Correct..."
The math teacher was in a daze with the whole subject since she wasn't able to understand how Alex was able to answer so flawlessly.
The next class came and this time Rachel couldn't handle Alex's staring anymore. She raised her hand and told the teacher about her problem with Alex's inappropriate staring.
The teacher decided to make Rachel and Alex switch seats. So that Alex could be situated in the front while Rachel was at the back. Rachel didn't really want to be placed at the back, but right now she just wants Alex to stop staring at her.
Yet when they switched seats, Alex simply turned his head and continued to look at her. Rachel was starting to be creeped out by Alex's actions. The teacher noticing Alex seemingly having no plans to listen to the lesson, asked Alex twenty questions of different importance, and Alex was able to answer him without facing him. Alex just kept on answering as well as explaining why the question the teacher posed was wrong, all while facing Rachel.
Alex started explaining all the mistakes the teacher made and gave a detailed report as to why he was wrong, he did all this while continuing to look at Rachel's every movement.
This kind of scene repeated until recess time, when Rachel pulled Alex out of the classroom and headed towards the roof. Their classmates who saw this were in shock. They stopped moving for a moment and then burst into an uproar. Some boys even started to cry, because they thought that they were losing their Goddess. Some of them tried to follow the two, to the roof. When they got there, the door to the roof was closed. They thought that Alex and Rachel just went to a different place, so they started searching for them in other places.
They didn't know that Rachel simply locked the rooftop door because she knew that some of her classmates would follow them. She then faced Alex with a serious expression.
...
In the Principal's office, three teachers stood before the Principal. These teachers were the teachers in Alex's morning classes, they came to the Principal's office to file complaints. They explained the situation they had this morning, they wanted the Principal to do something with the boy called Alex.
The Principal knitted his brows, stroked his tiny goatee, and asked.
"Did he make a mistake when answering your questions?"
"No, he answered all the questions perfectly." The three teachers answered almost simultaneously.
"Did he, somehow cause a disturbance that affected the whole class?"
"Aside from that one girl, no he didn't cause a disturbance."
"Then what are you complaining about?" The Principal asked almost frowning.
The three teachers found the behavior of the Principal weird. If it was before, the moment this old man of a Principal heard that there was a disturbance in class, he would immediately call the student that caused the problem and reprimand him/her.
Yet now he was actually defending the student who was actively causing problems.
The Principal looked at the three teachers' confused faces and could only sigh. 'As long as Alexander doesn't cause too much of a problem, and he keeps his grades high we cannot move against him. The boy's father donated a whole building and proposed to give all students laptops for classes. Alexander's background is obviously not simple, so I can't mess with him as long as he doesn't do anything majorly wrong, he's untouchable.
...
Rachel looked at the boy called Alex and observed him. This guy kept on observing her all day, without moving his sight away from her.
Alex was a bit taller than most boys his age, his face was also above average some might even say he was a pretty boy. His body type wasn't too skinny, nor was it too muscular or fat. He was also very smart based on his performance in the previous classes.
Rachel thought that this boy might actually be close to her ideal type if only he wasn't a weirdo who spoke so formally and acted so randomly.
Rachel looked at Alex who looked back at her. "Hey, why do you keep staring at me? You do know it's creeping me out."
Alex who heard Rachel's question started to think as fast as he could for an answer. He couldn't say anything about the mission or about how she was a potential target, so he needed to explain the situation as something else.
Alex's thoughts were turning, he was taught all forms of weaponry and even had some skills in interrogation but he was very unskilled in normal conversation. It was at that moment he remembered one of his teachers telling him something about girls and something about complimenting their looks.
"I'm sorry I couldn't help it... I couldn't stop staring because of your beauty."
Alex tried to say those lines, without showing anything on his face. Seeing Alex's earnest gaze as he said she was a beauty, Rachel couldn't help but blush.
"I already know I'm a beauty but still staring too much is no good."
Hearing Rachel's response Alex sighed inwardly for successfully fooling Rachel.
"In the first place, you shouldn't..." Rachel started explaining why Alex shouldn't act the way he does. Alex only pretended like he was listening to Rachel's speech but in truth, he was focused on the object flying around Rachel. He slowly approached Rachel his right arm stretching out.
When Rachel saw Alex's outstretched arm she backed away. 'What is this guy doing? Is he about to assault me? Did trapping myself on the roof alone with this guy backfired?!'
While Rachel was having this internal dilemma she realized that she was backed into a wall and couldn't escape.
Alex then slammed his hand onto the wall, 'it was just a fly.' The moment he slammed the wall he looked at the meek-looking Rachel who was blushing furiously, he was about to ask if she was alright when he heard the bell ring, break time was over.
"It seems like break time is over, we better get back to the classroom." Rachel stood there dumbfounded by Alex's reaction. 'Huh, what? He didn't do anything? What the hell was all that about anyway?!' Before Rachel could get her bearings back, Alex took hold of her hand and started walking back to the classroom.
'What! He just suddenly held my hand! This guy must be crazy!' Rachel was blushing, her face was red from ear to ear. "Hey! Who told said you could touch my hand!"
"You're right we will never make it on time if I just hold your hand." Alex then picked up Rachel into a princess carry. Rachel was bewildered as to what had happened. She started flailing her arms.
"Don't move like that, don't be worried I won't drop someone light like you." Alex held Rachel tighter and started running back to the classroom.
'Seriously what's with him, he wasn't satisfied with holding my hand and now he's carrying me, in a princess carry no less!' The students who saw Alex dashing back to the classroom holding Rachel in a princess carry started getting excited.
"Kyaa! Did you see that!? He was holding her in a princess carry!"
"So Rachel has a boyfriend already, and it's a good-looking one too."
"NOOOO! Our Goddess Rachel!"
"Someone needs to punish that BASTARD!"
Numerous screams of excitement, anger, and resentment were heard in the hallway. Rachel who was fully concentrated on her own thoughts couldn't bother with the people's reactions.
When the two entered their classroom, the whole class erupted into an uproar seeing Rachel being carried by Alex.
"So it went well, congratulations Alexander, congratulations Rachel."
"Damn it! I want a beautiful girlfriend as well to carry like that!"
"Heh, dream on how about you look in the mirror. How can your flimsy arms carry anything, much less a girl."
"A pretty girl, and a pretty boy they actually make a cute couple."
"Our Goddess Rachel, why have you forsaken us!"
The reaction inside the classroom varied, Rachel wanted to deny her relationship with Alex but was too flustered to do so. Rachel just absentmindedly returned to her seat not denying or agreeing to anything.
Alex also returned to his seat and continued to observe Rachel. The classmates especially the girls had changed their opinion of Alex, at first they labeled him as a weirdo but now he was labeled as someone passionate.
Rachel couldn't be bothered by Alex staring at her anymore, as she was preoccupied with her own thoughts regarding recent events. Class started again and the same as what happened in the first three classes; the teacher came in and noticed Alex's blatant disregard for the lesson, the teacher tried to embarrass him by asking a question above the standards of a High School student, Alex is able to answer the question flawlessly and sometimes corrects the teacher all while looking at Rachel. In the end, the teachers leave the classroom embarrassed.
School ended and before people could approach Rachel and Alex who left swiftly. Rachel was absentminded while she was walking home. Alex, on the other hand, was following her a meter behind.
When Rachel got her bearings back she turned around and looked at Alex. "Why are you following me?"
"I'm not following you... It just so happens that we're simply walking in the same direction." Rachel looked at Alex suspicious of his statement.
"Really?... Tell me where do you live?"
"Over there." Alex pointed in a direction behind him.
"So you're telling me that we passed your house and you're still following me." Rachel was getting a bit used to Alex's weird behavior and sighed.
"Like I said I'm not following you... It just so happens that I felt like walking in the same direction."
"Really?"
"Really."
Rachel didn't bother to talk with Alex anymore and turned into a corner street. Alex followed her exactly one meter behind.
"You see! I knew it, you're following me. If you don't stop stalking me, I'll be forced to call the police." Rachel dangled her smartphone in front of Alex and threatened him.
"Call them then, like I said I was just walking in the same direction."
Rachel shrugged her shoulders and called the police. A few minutes later the police came, and Rachel explained her situation to them.
"Is what she saying true?" One of the police officers asked Alex.
"Somewhat, but like I said I was just walking on the same path. I'm not stalking her, it just so happens she was walking the same way I was."
"No matter... How about you follow us to the station, and will sort this out."
"Ok, then officers please handle this situation." Rachel then started walking away, Alex tried to follow but was blocked by the two police officers. Seeing Alex's reaction when Rachel left the police officers felt like Rachel's story was even more believable now.
"Sorry, she can go but you need to follow us to the station."
"Fine then, but before I follow you can I make one phone call." The police officer nodded in consent.
Alex once again called his father.
"What is it this time?" When Alex heard his father pick up the phone, he briefly explained his situation.
"So can I subdue the threat?"
"No!"
"If you're worried about witnesses you know I can do it without anyone noticing that I attacked. So can I eliminate the obstruction?"
"NO!"
"Then what do you want me to do Dad?! The potential target is getting farther away from me. Any longer and she will be outside the range of what I can see."
"Calm down Alex! First, go to the police station and I will bail you out. We will talk about the mission once we return home."
Alex was reluctant to do as his dad says but he had no choice but to do so.
"Affirmative."