Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

Leaving the dorm, Ashley quickly put on her cold-weather blouse, zipped it up to her neck, and after looking down, realized that it wouldn't do to hide all her skin if she was going to meet Klaus, so she lowered the zipper just enough. Then she untied her ponytail to look a little nicer and more natural, after all, her talk about going to Helen's was just an excuse to get out without arousing suspicion.

After walking a few yards, she saw someone standing under one of the lampposts in the distance. It was a tall boy with black hair, broad shoulders, strong arms, and a calm expression on his face. That was Klaus.

Ashley approached slowly, taking a closer look at him as he walked. He wore a black leather jacket, jeans and boots. She noticed that he looked at her intensely, and his eyes were a dark shade that seemed to reflect the starlight. When she finally got close enough, Klaus smiled at her.

"Hi, Ashley." He said, nodding to greet her. "You look beautiful."

Ashley felt her cheeks flush and tried to hide her shyness. She wasn't used to such direct compliments, especially from someone like Klaus. He seemed confident and self-assured, and she wondered how he could be so calm in a place with as much pressure as the Special Program.

"Thank you." Ashley replied with a shy smile. "You look nice too."

Klaus laughed, looking relaxed. "I always try to dress well." He said with a smile. "But what do you say we go for a little walk? If we stay here, an inspector might see us, and I want to show you a special place."

Ashley arched her eyebrows in surprise, but nodded and they began to walk side by side. She felt nervous and excited at the same time, wondering where Klaus would take her.

Is he taking me somewhere romantic? Or would it be something more casual?' she wondered, and after a few moments of thinking, with only their footsteps echoing around them, she realized that she was being too quiet.

But before she could say anything, it was suddenly Klaus who broke the silence. "It's a beautiful night, isn't it?" He finally said.

"Yes, it is." She replied, and this time, instead of looking down, she looked up and saw the starry sky as she had rarely seen it in her life in the big city.

Then Ashley's eyes unconsciously rested on her walking partner's face, and she realized that he wasn't just looking up at the sky, he was actually admiring it.

"Um. Klaus, I wanted to thank you for meeting me. I mean, it was a sudden invitation from me. I didn't think you would actually accept." Ashley said a little nervously.

"No need to thank me Ashley. I wanted to come and see you. After all, what kind of man would I be if I turned down an invitation from a girl as beautiful as you, right? HAHA! Besides, I really enjoyed the time I spent with you that night." Klaus replied with a smile, referring to the day they met at karaoke and then competed in the Dagger Dispute.

Ashley blushed a little as she remembered that night, which she now treasured with a fondness for how much fun it had been. She had been nervous that night too, but now she was even more nervous. Before she had been confused, only now she wanted Klaus to like her, but she didn't know how to do that, after all he was far more impressive than any other man she had ever met.

"I feel like there's a lot I don't know about you, Klaus." Ashley finally said as she looked at his calm expression.

In fact, Klaus had a mysterious aura that most people could sense. He was strong, athletic and fast, only he was still in the archery department. Not to mention, he had a natural talent for dagger combat that Ashley had never seen before. And no matter how amazing he was now, no one on campus knew about his past, he was an unknown.

"What do you want to know?" Klaus asked, looking at her.

"I don't know. How about telling me what you were like when you were younger? Were you always as confident as you seem to be, or were you more the shy type?" Ashley asked and just imagining what Klaus was like as a teenager made her heart flutter, imagining him as a star in sports tournaments.

Klaus smiled wryly, "Where do I start? I was born and raised in a small neighborhood in southern Long Island. I'll admit it's a pretty privileged area, but I grew up in a lower middle class family, so I never went to college. I worked a lot of different jobs growing up, and the last company I worked for before I came here was a downtown company.

Contrary to what Klaus expected from a girl of Ashley's level, she smiled and said affectionately:

"I've always admired people who work hard to get what they want. If you are that type, and you are here today to fight for your family, that is a quality I admire in you, Klaus."

This time it was Klaus who blushed a little, as this answer from her caught him off guard. "Well, thank you. So, I've told you a little about myself, now tell me about you."

Ashley Cox was highly respected throughout the campus for having an aura of nobility, an aura of who was superior, and indeed she was. As the only child of the owners of Cox Industries, a prestigious multinational corporation that manufactured hologram machines, she always had access to the best schools, the best clothes, the best toys, and everything else she wanted, but she never had access to the most important thing in a child's and teenager's life: the presence of her parents.

Because her parents were busy traveling across the country and several continents, opportunities to have dinner together were rare. There were countless birthdays when she received only gifts from them and generic cards. Still, she never stopped respecting them because she saw on television and in the newspapers that the good deeds of her family's company helped the world move forward.

Then, one day during her childhood, when she received her school report card by chance on the day her father returned from a trip, she showed it to him. This created a vivid memory of the look of pride in his eyes as he praised her highly for her good grades, and from that day on she dedicated herself more and more to making them proud, which left her little time to live through adolescence as a normal girl should.

Klaus and Ashley chatted for a while, talking about their lives and interests, until they finally arrived at the place Klaus had wanted to take her from the beginning.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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