“Are you sure you want to be with me for this mission? You know I don’t have the best luck in the world” I said while doing my laces.

“This is the last time. Yes, yes I do want to be with you” she replied while tying her brunette hair into a ponytail.

She put her left hand on my cheek and gave me a gentle smile to reassure me.

I could feel my heart rapidly punching my ribs.

“Going red I see?”

I quickly shook my head, “I’m probably coming with a cold.”

“Ahah, if you say so.”

She turned and walked to the door, “even if you have bad luck, you’ll protect me right?”

I raised my eyes from the ground and locked onto hers.

“Of course” I said with a thin smile.

----------------------------------------

TACK

I was suddenly punched out of my thoughts by a solid right-hand from Huoe.

I stood completely still, looking unhurt.

“Trying to play tough eh?” questioned Huoe.

He threw a left hook and connected it with my jaw making me stumble. From behind came a flying back kick from Qayson which made me fall to the ground. I looked up and met eyes with Ayumi. She looked petrified. Her eyes as wide as a moon, sweating a river with wind wrecked hair.

Qason, Huoe and Jase all began to kick me from all sides. My rib cage especially was being damaged. Jase pulled me up by grabbing my hair and then grabbed my neck. Increasing in pressure, he then began throwing straight punches at my stomach. My legs wobbling, I fell back down to the ground. Jase grabbed me up again.

“Go on boys, do your worst.”

Qason and Huoe gave each other a smirk and then started throwing jabs, a right hook, a left blow, upper cuts and low kicks. Jase eventually let go of me which led to me falling face first to the ground.

“Shoot, we may have gone too far. He’s bleeding an ocean” commented Qason.

“Nah, don’t worry” replied Huoe. Huoe lifted my head from the ground by grabbing my hair and slapped my face. “Don’t go around telling others what happened to you. If you do, you know the consequences.” Huoe then slammed my face back onto the ground again.

My face still on the ground, I heard footsteps which eventually became more distance and faint. The trio have left.

I slowly got up and leant against the brick wall. I noticed that Ayumi was staring at me while shaking. She was completely traumatised. I looked up to the sky and closed my eyes.

Bad luck, huh..?

Unexpectedly, I found a soft piece of material touching my lip. I open my eyes to see Ayumi putting a handkerchief on my lips to stop my bleeding. Why though? She is bleeding herself, but she is trying to help me instead.

This really made me uncomfortable. Human beings are always selfish, this will never change. No matter what someone says, they will always think about themselves. The phrase “I will take a bullet for you” is overused and is a straight lie. Everyone only does something if it benefits them.

“Sorry” apologised Ayumi while staring at the ground with guilt.

She actually apologised. I couldn’t help but feel something weird in my stomach. What is this feeling? It seems familiar, but I can’t understand what it is.

“Why?” I vaguely asked.

“Huh?”

“What are you doing?”

“You’re bleeding. I- I need to stop your bleeding.”

“What about yourself? You’ve been bleeding longer than me.”

“That doesn’t matter, it’s my fault that you’re like this state in the first place.”

Ayumi couldn’t look me in the eyes. She definitely wasn’t lying, she did feel guilty. She didn’t want attention, nor did she ask why I didn’t try to at least fight back. Odd.

I eventually moved Ayumi’s hand away. “The bleeding has stopped.”

I shoved my hand in my thin pocket and pulled out a tissue and handed it to Ayumi.

“Thank you..” A tear came rolling down her cheek. She’s strong.

I got up, wiped my bottom and walked away. I turned once to look at Ayumi once, she didn’t look at me, but continued to stare at the ground.

“Woah! Ari, what happened to your face? You look seriously messed up” pointed out Reo. Everyone else in the class overheard what he said and looked at me.

I briefly glanced at Huoe, he lowered his eyebrows into a V shape.

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“I fell down the stairs,” I replied.

“Sheesh dude, that looks worse than falling down the stairs though” replied Reo while raising an eyebrow and looking at my bruise from a closer angle.

“It’s fine.”

The bell rang and everyone went to their seats. Ayumi didn’t attend the rest of the classes. Were her injuries that bad or was it because she didn’t want to attract too much attention because of her injuries?

The lesson has ended and it was time to head back to our dorms or go out of the school grounds to hang out with friends for most people.

“Hey Ari” called Reo.

I turned to him and didn’t respond.

“Apparently Tatsuae is going to have a fight with someone from the Bravo class.”

A fight huh?

“Everyone from the Charlie class and the Bravo class are going to go and watch. You coming?”

Ah right. I forgot that our classes were named weirdly. There are four classes for each school year. Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta. The school didn’t mention the classes being in a ranked order from smartest to least capable. It didn’t really bother me though.

“Ari?”

Oh yeah, I forgot Reo was waiting for my answer.

I nodded. I don’t really know why I’m going. How did Tatsuae get involved with another class in the first place though? I know he’s not smart, but I wasn’t expecting him to get involved with other classes.

I followed Reo out of the school grounds. We walked through the city and I saw other students from Excel High walking in the same direction. The word spreads quickly. We all eventually made it to an open grass field. Nobody was here except the students. Shortly after, Tatsuae arrived.

“Where’s Oikwane?” asked a girl who I assumed is from the Bravo class.

‘Hah! Too scared to even come in the first place I see.” laughed Tatsuae.

More and more were getting chatty, but eventually Oikwane showed up.

Wow, how did Tatsuae get involved with this guy? He’s huge. He seems around 6ft 7. He has a buzz cut and has huge meat in his arms. Compared to Oikwane, Tatsuae is a mouse.

“Finally here I see. Get ready to have your legs broken” spoke out Tatsuae while cracking his neck.

Oikwane laughed and charged at Tatsuae. It looked like it would be a one sided assault from Oikwane, but Tatsuae was surprisingly good. He dodged the right swing from Oikwane. Oikwane turned and threw another right swing. Tatsuae kicked away his fist and then threw a left hook which connected with Oikwane’s jaw.

CRACK.

Something definitely broke.

“Come on Oikwane” shouted a few guys from the Bravo class.

Oikwane stumbled, but maintained his ground. This time, Tatsuae charged at Oikwane and speared Oikwane to the ground. Multiple punches were thrown while Oikwane was pinned to the ground. It was a brutal assault. Nobody dared to intervene though.

I’ll never understand why people enjoy this. What is so good about people hitting each other? It’s unbelievable how many people love watching sports such as boxing, wrestling and MMA. It’s disgusting.. Seeing two people get hurt and crowd cheers when someone is in pain. The fight in front of me right now has no justification of violence. Even if there was a disagreement, fighting is never the right answer. What disgusts me even more is the people around me watching the fight with such enthusiasm and concentration.

My hands felt numb. I could hear my heart racing. Pump, pump, pump…

By the time I snapped out of my thoughts, I saw Tatsuae finally get up. Oikwane’s face was a mess. I couldn’t even see his face as it’s covered with a shade of crimson red.

“How are you even in the UMUD hierarchy?” questioned Tatsuae as he spat on Oikwane. “What a waste of time” he said as he walked away with his friends.

The members from the Bravo class helped Oikwane up and walked away with shame. A few girls remained behind talking about what happened while posting the fight on social media.

What is UMUD?

“Hey, Reo. What is UMUD?” I asked.

Reo turned to me and blankly stared at me like he had seen a miracle.

“...Hello?”

Reo quickly shook his head, “sorry, it’s just that this is the first time you have ever spoken to me first. I always start the conversation, you know?”

“...”

“UMUD is a school gang. It stands for “You mess, You die” It’s a long hierarchy consisting of strong students. Oikwane is in the hierarchy, but he’s quite low down in it. The leader, Fenn won’t be pleased with Oikwane losing though. Apparently, he gives severe punishments to the people who fail to win fights.”

UMUD, but the first letter is a ‘U’ while the word ‘you’ starts with a ‘Y’. Seems like Fenn is a simple-minded, dense retard. I never heard of this gang until now though.

“What year is Fenn in?” I asked.

“He’s in his third year. Apparently he took over the gang during the second semester in his first year. If someone beats the leader in a fight, they automatically become the new leader. Fenn is on another level.”

Another level huh? I wonder how this gang is operating in Excel High. Teachers are apparently on top of every issue, but this gang has been here for years apparently. Pathetic.

I began walking away. Reo quickly followed behind. Still persistent.

----------------------------------------

It had been a couple of days since my last encounter with Ayumi. She hadn’t attended school and nobody had noticed.

I walked into my class, everyone was busy talking to their friends.

“Ay, Ari! Morning bud.” waved Reo cutting off the conversation with Aimi. Everyone stopped talking and gave me a glance, and went back to talking to their friends again. Even Aimi looked at me, but took longer than everyone else to look away. Gosh, he’s just too loud.

“Yeah…” I sat down at my seat.

I looked at Ayumi's seat. Empty. Where is she?

“You’ve been looking at Ayumi’s seat a lot lately, do you have any business with her?” asked Reo. He is so damn nosey. Can I not have a moment of silence?

Mr Hatsuo walked into the class and the lesson had begun.

The class was almost over, until...The door slid open.

“Sorry I’m late sir.”

It was no other than Ayumi.

Everyone only glanced at her and then averted their eyes elsewhere, except me. Her wounds seemed to have healed well. She sat at her seat and minded her own business until class ended a few minutes later. We were dismissed for lunch and everyone left with their friends to go and hang out. Reo, of course, invited me, but I swiftly declined.

I got up from my seat and walked to Ayumi. “You seem to be doing okay now.”

“Ah! Y-yes...Th-thank you.” replied Ayumi, clearly uncomfortable.

What am I even doing… She clearly doesn’t want to talk and here I am trying to get involved with her. I was trying to avoid people this whole time anyways…

I left the classroom without saying anything afterwards.

I barely know her and I was thinking about her while she was absent.

“Don’t make the same mistake again…” I muttered to myself.

While walking outside on the school fields. I observed people play basketball, football, table tennis and so on. The school has everything. Obviously, the Gold and the Bronze were divided. Nobody would talk amongst each other. Except for two people in front of me, Eri and Aimi.

Weirdly, a football came flying towards Aimi, who was slightly behind Eri and in front of me. She didn’t notice as it was too far away to be noticed. I stopped walking and waited for the ball to come. A few seconds later, Aimi noticed the ball. She closed her eyes tightly, covered her face and screamed.

Eri quickly turned and saw the ball coming. She reached out for the ball and grabbed it with one hand. Some pretty good reflexes.

Aimi slowly opened her eyes to see that Eri had caught the ball.

‘Thank you so much, Eri!” shouted Aimi while hugging Eri with relief.

“Of course, I need to protect this princess” chuckled Eri.

Some good friendship they have; I do admit that I envy them.

I turned and decided to walk away from them as people had heard Aimi scream. They were all headed towards us.

“Oi!” shouted Eri.

I continued walking.

“Oi!” shouted Eri once again,

I didn’t stop, but continued ahead.

I was pulled back by a force coming from my collar. I turned and it was Eri.

“I called you two times and you decided to ignore me. What is your problem?”

“...I didn’t know you were talking to me,” I replied.

“You could’ve at least confirmed that I wasn’t talking to you, instead of acting like you didn’t hear me at all!”

Everyone crowded around us. Augh, what a pointless scene.

“Why didn’t you stop the ball?”

“Sorry?”

“Don’t act stupid; I’ll seriously knock your teeth out.”

“What?”

“You saw the ball coming towards Aimi, why did you not stop it?”

That sent an electric current down my spine. She figured that out when trying to protect Aimi at the same time.

“Well?” Eri grabbed my tie and aggressively pulled me close to her to make eye contact. She stared through my soul.

“Hey...Eri, it’s fine. I’m not hurt so don’t bother him. He may not have seen the ball in the first place” reasoned Aimi while looking awkwardly at the crowd around us.

“No, this guy clearly knew. Moments before you even saw the ball coming.”

I looked at Aimi, she showed no sign of anger or hate.

“Hey, c'mon. It’s fine. You’re causing a scene, lets go” said Aimi while tugging on Eri’s sleeve.

“Ugh, your face annoys me. Wear a paper bag on your head to hide your ugliness” insulted Eri while pushing me away.

She walked away with Aimi.

The crowd amongst me slowly dispersed, but that definitely left a mark on my popularity…

Who is she calling ugly?