Johannes exhaled deeply and then pinched the bridge of his nose. He paced back and forth while Cameroon, Jonathan, and Richard watched him closely. Both of them were too scared to say a word to the stressed-out Johannes.

"Give me strength, God, before I go up to the heavens and rewrite my fate," Johannes murmured under his breath.

"...Are you alright, Johannes?" Richard finally spoke up, but immediately regretted it when Johannes shot a glare at him.

When Johannes turned to face the three people sitting on his bed, his left eye twitched. "First and foremost, do I look fine to you!?" he snapped at Richard.

Johannes turned behind him to find Jonathan's dog barking at his pet cats, which are currently hissing at it. "Sit down, Apollo!" Johannes ordered, which the dog obeyed and approached Jonathan to sit near him.

Johannes sighed and turned to face the three again. "Let me repeat once again, based on what Cameroon saw, Richard and Jonathan got blocked by gangsters at 9 p.m. in an attempt to rob the two, but instead of giving up your belongings, Jonathan snapped at the group and beat them up," Johannes said.

"Exactly!" Cameroon chimed in, smiling brightly.

"Stop being joyful for once, Cameroon!" Johannes yelled, making Cameroon huff like a toddler.

Richard tried to speak up, raising his hand to get Johannes' attention. "Actually... The gangsters were starting a fight, and Jonathan was just trying to protect me, so he fought off the gangsters."

"I don't need explanations, Richard. Paying for their medical expenses is not enough! For heaven's sake, keeping a clean reputation is not that easy!" Johannes shouted as he paced back and forth again.

"If the public finds out about this, it could ruin my mother's and father's reputations," Johannes explained. "Not only that... " Johannes turned to Jonathan.

"Do you remember what happened—five years ago?" Johannes hesitated to ask at first, but he was curious if Jonathan had unlocked the lost memory.

The thing is, Jonathan actually hadn't forgotten about it. He just pretended that he forgot about it and kept his mouth shut so he wouldn't be suspected of faking amnesia from the trauma. However, if he lies, Johannes will believe him, no matter what.

Jonathan was wrong.

"Whatever happened five years ago, Jonathan accidentally let his guard down just now. Yes, he remembers what happened, he just doesn't want to tell the truth," Cameroon revealed while chuckling.

How could he forget? Cameroon is good at reading people. That weird, curly-haired guy could read people like a book.

"You remember!?" Johannes shouted, getting more stressed than ever, pacing back and forth again while mumbling something the three couldn't hear.

Richard looked at Jonathan and then at Johannes. "What happened?" Richard asked Johannes, starting to get curious.

"...I didn't hold back my anger when I was a kid—I ended the lives of my classmates in the past, while the rest were rushed to the hospital."

Johannes hesitated to reveal it at first because of how controversial it was and the fact that Richard would hate him if he found out about it.

"Quit with the jokes, man!" Cameroon said laughing while patting Jonathan's shoulder. "Sheesh, I didn't know you'd have dark humour."

"He's not joking, Cameroon," Johannes said, his tone serious.

Cameroon and Richard were both flabbergasted at the news, not knowing how to respond.

"I didn't know how to tell the truth," Jonathan sighed, "because Johannes and our parents were afraid that the truth would destroy our reputation the moment it was revealed to the media."

~~~

"Look! It's the nerd and the weirdo!" a kid insulted, pointing at the two blond brothers peacefully trying to eat their lunch.

Jonathan glared at his classmates.

"Just ignore them," Jonathan reassured.

Johannes fought the urge to go punch the kid for talking about his family like that, just as Cameroon crept up behind them.

"BOO!"

Immediately, Johannes jumped up and swore audibly.

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"Cameroon!! What the hell?" Johannes shouted as a grinning Cameroon took the spot next to him, loudly plopping his salad bowl on the table.

"Calm down, Johannes! Don't be such a scaredy-cat," Cameroon said dryly before piercing the salad with his fork.

Johannes sighed. "Whatever. Do you—do you happen to know where Caleb is?" He asked it nervously, which made Cameroon tense up. He didn't enjoy the topic of Caleb—but who was he kidding? Caleb is an innocent little angel, and attacking him would only make Cameroon seem like a monster. It's just that Johannes is much closer to him—not only that, he envied Caleb for being almost as smart as Johannes, something that Cameroon wouldn't even reach.

Caleb was Johannes' best friend, the closest one to him. As for Cameroon, he was just a "second" to Johannes.

"I think he's still in line with Richard."

Moments later, as if they had heard it all, Richard and Caleb appeared, laughing and chatting.

Caleb was a tall, dark-skinned guy with fluffy dark brown hair; he also had charming brown eyes and a sweet smile. He and Johannes even wore matching tie pins of real gold in quill shape.

Richard held a tray that consisted of a fruit salad and orange juice. As for Caleb, he only had an iced coffee in a plastic bottle in his hand.

"I saw those annoying seniors of ours from class D1 walking away from this table; did they insult you again, Johannes?" Caleb asked in a concerned tone.

Johannes nodded. "They're getting on my nerves, honestly," he answered.

"I can't believe it's our seniors who insult us; such troublemakers, they really think they look cool—" Cameroon cut Caleb off mid-sentence.

Cameroon stood up from his chair with a proud smile. "Do you want me to dispose of them?" he asked scarily yet casually.

The group looked at Cameroon awkwardly and weirdly.

Cameroon raised an eyebrow. "I meant like—getting them expelled from this school, y'know?" he cleared up.

"Goddamn it, Cameroon," Richard responded.

Caleb chuckled. "Your English still needs some work, Cameroon. The right word is "remove" or "take them out," or you should've used expelled in the first place; dispose of is like throwing something out like some sort of trash, or in some cases, murdering someone," Caleb explained as he opened his iced coffee.

Before Caleb could take a sip from it, a baseball was thrown at him and knocked off his drink, making it spill on his new, expensive suit that his parents had just bought.

Visibly pissed, Caleb got up from his seat while holding the baseball, murmuring something in a different language. His pleasant aura had abruptly changed to something menacing as he approached the table where the baseball came from.

The friend group knew what was about to happen, but none of them wanted to get in the way of Caleb's anger issues. Except for Richard, who was the mother of the group, got up to stop Caleb from continuing any further.

"Oh? So, kid, did you like my gift?" the troublemaker jock laughed along with his group of friends who were at the same table.

Without wasting any time, Caleb pulled the man's black hair aggressively, making him open his mouth from the sudden force and giving Caleb an opportunity to shove the baseball into the troublemaker's mouth.

"Akala mo ikaw ang superiyor dito?"

"Isaksak mo 'yan sa baga mo gago ka. Isa ka lang peste dito sa paaralan na to, hindi estudyante."

The troublemaker and his group barely understood any of Caleb's words, but they could tell he was furious that he suddenly began speaking in his native language.

...

"Oh, good lord... Caleb was furious because his iced coffee spilled, and I thought Johannes' tantrums were the worst," Richard stated disappointedly as he and the friend group waited outside the principal's office since Caleb and the troublemaker were inside.

"Huh!? It's not even that bad!" Johannes

While the friend group was chatting and waiting for Caleb, Jonathan was quiet the whole time. He had enough of the bullying that his friend group was having trouble with.

Jonathan remembered what Cameroon had said—to dispose of them—and thought that was a nice idea. He had a magnificent plan to end the bullying.

Death.

...

"Where are you going, brother?" Johannes asked while looking at Jonathan taking out an umbrella and his shoes.

"I'll just have a walk and buy some groceries; you said you wanted some cookies, right?" Jonathan answered.

Johannes was sceptical at first, but Jonathan was already old enough to have freedom of his own; after all, their parents aren't home, so they won't get in trouble.

"Stay safe then," Johannes said, slightly wary, before Jonathan opened the door.

"I will," Jonathan replied with a smile as he stepped out of the house and shut the door behind him

Jonathan looked at the dark alleyway just across the road, slightly smiling as he started walking to the supposed meeting spot that he had planned. He already had money prepared in the pockets of his hoodie for the quick switch.

His plan will most likely ruin his family's reputation, but does he care? He didn't care about anyone else in the family except Johannes. He has a growing hatred towards his parents; not once have they cared about him and Johannes.

When he finally arrived in front of the dark alleyway, he noticed a sketchy guy holding a small plastic pack—it was the dealer that he ordered from.

Jonathan pretended to walk through the alleyway, but in reality, he and the dealer made the quick switch while remaining unnoticed the entire time. Good thing there were barely any people walking around that street at that time.

...

And there he had it: Jonathan had a homemade poison using the main ingredient that he had bought not too long ago.

Jonathan was in his room; fortunately, the poison was easy to make. However, it will take a few days for the victim to die, although they'll experience hell during that period before their death.

It doesn't matter if some guys from that troublemaker's group survive—they will go through a lot of suffering before they get cured by the doctors.

He planned to put the poison on their lunch; usually, they order Jonathan to buy it for them when Johannes and the others aren't around.

The poison was odourless and even colourless—how convenient!

The poison was odourless and even colourless—how convenient! [https://img.wattpad.com/032e06b0307432703b6d936f53b005e76db8e67d/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f6f58414e313667767155424377413d3d2d313237373936303833382e313732613230353264353336303161653531393537333636393635312e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]