I was\ninhaling, fiercely. My irises were lit up with the flames of anger. My fists were firm\nand dripping sweat, ready to serve justice. The 3E\nclassroom filled with only silence\nand the sound of breathing. \nThe\nclassmates had got their popcorn ready, waiting for watching a human monster punching a\nlow-profile bully. Tremendous\nattention shot me from around. Mai was looking, Serena and Ken\nwere staring at the scene with unmoving eyes, and even\nBrian was peeping at us\nfrom a far corner. The teachers were the same, but there was nothing they could do to avoid a bleeding nose for the\nrest of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Is he\njust gonna stay like this or is he going to punch him in the face?\u2019 a whisper\nbounced into my ear from a few meters away, coming with a smirk of humiliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I could feel my fist filed with fury, ready\nto engulf\nand sweep over Kray\u2019s face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Stop!\u2019\nI heard a loud shout.\nIt clearly wasn\u2019t Mr. Ho, neither was it Mr. Shek. Who was such a daredevil?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Enjoy\nyour school day, Miles.\u2019 Dad went off after driving me downtown at Atermis High. As I\nwatched the 7-seater depart, disappearing\ngradually\nin the golden rays of a morning sun, I\nslapped down my black, bulky school bag, with my father\u2019s words bouncing in my\nears. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Nice\nday? I thought it will be just like any other dumb day at this stupid junior\nhigh.\u2019 That was all I had in\nmind.\nI never had a cool day here, especially with everyone staring at you as you\nwalked by. I threw the pills inside my mouth,\npouring down the warm water, letting them flow into my throat. Just like another day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile,\nKray entered the classroom. The tall, thin figure stepped into the polished\nfloor of the classroom. His intimidating hair, tiny eyes and his chin that was always sticking out all\nthe time, reminded me of the arrival of my arch enemy. He\njust recognized I was staring at him for the whole time while he was doing his\ncatwalk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018What\u2019s\nup? \u201cMilo Cereal\u201d? I trigger you again?\u2019 Looking\namused, he\nsaid with a deliberate high-pitched challenging voice that no one could miss. \u2018Dare to\nhave a fight?\u2019 His tilted eyes were like whispering this to my eyes. I suppressed my flames of anger inside when the whole classroom laughed. I\ndidn\u2019t care much about embarrassment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nhadn\u2019t noticed that Brian was entering the classroom. I went up to him and shot\nhim a few lines. He didn\u2019t respond, as always. He was always my best friend, I\nknew deep inside he cared, but depression got his sympathetic voice sealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Hey\nbud, you\u2019re just looking as charmingly dumb as you are!\u2019 Kray burst out yet another \u201camusing\u201d sentence. The\nclassroom suddenly turned silent, reminding him what could have, or would happen. No one managed to force a\nsingle snicker, they saw it coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\ncouldn\u2019t do that to my heart fighting for justice, like anyone. My psychiatrist\npersuaded me not to, my parents did that too, the social\nworkers did the same. But to be honest, they thought a kid who couldn\u2019t control\nhis anger would ever listen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nlifted my fist just as the two class teachers were about to step in for the assembly. They had no choice but stop, doing\nwhat the social worker had told everyone to. Every time I lift the\n\u201cfist of justice\u201d, I knew nobody, not a classmate, a class teacher could stop\nme. I had heard that they had briefings\nfor them to avoid me when I was\nabsent. Sometimes I\u2019d wonder if I had been sent\nto an asylum, everyone would have a better school life, but my mother\ninsisted on letting her kid live a normal life just as any other teen, while\nshe knew I was\ncompletely not normal. That\u2019s why rumors were\nalways bouncing around about these seminars, I never thought they were real\nuntil just that moment, when everyone froze. I never stopped getting flashbacks of the bloody,\ncrimson puddle of blood on my desk, when I was slamming someone\u2019s face on the\ntable for tasking my junior\u2019s workbook. I could tell\nnobody was impressed, not even the girl, who was horrified. But I felt like a\nhero, I felt like I served justice, I felt satisfied for teaching these pricks\na lesson, and did the right thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\nwas all I had in mind every time. Until a few minutes later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remember\nI wrote that someone was shouting to stop me? Clearly, he was a clueless kid,\nwho wouldn\u2019t even know how you spelt\nanxiety. I saw him watching the whole thing happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018It won\u2019t help! This jerk is still going to\ntease him!\u2019 He continued, catching all the eyes, even mine. His eyes were\nfirmly looking at me. I couldn\u2019t\neven see a tiny bit of hostile inside. Was he\nfaking?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He took\na step. The teachers tried to stop him by gesturing, but that didn\u2019t help. His\nshoes hit the floor clearly. A guy with a dark brown perm hair, and a face I\u2019d never seen. \u2018Who\u2019s that? And what\u2019s he trying to do?\nStop me? Isn\u2019t he afraid of being punched?\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\nlooked at Kray, who was cringing up massaging his bruise on the face. And then\nhe gave me a hand. My mind went instantly blank, clueless. \u2018Geez dude! You\ncan\u2019t stop anxiety!\u2019 That was all I thought that single second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Trust\nme. We can solve this together. Although we\njust met,\u2019 he was trying to ask. I clearly heard\nthose words, they still rebounded in my ears these days, but I thought my mind didn\u2019t. It never told me to listen to anyone who tried to stop me, because they weren\u2019t serving justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I held\nno reservation and gave him a straight one in the face. He couldn\u2019t stand the\nforce and fell a step. Everyone, from teachers to students, was gasping. Mr.\nShek looked like he was about\nto make a move, but Mr. Chui\nheld him back. They would not be able to interfere anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To my\nsurprise, he rubbed his face, with an awfully red bruise, and used his thin\narms to sustain himself. He rose, after my punch of \u201cjustice\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nlast time the social worker attempted that, I did the same. The last time Mr.\nMak attempted that, I did the same. A lot of innocent warriors attempted to\ndefeat this monster with the sword of sympathy, but none of them stood up\nagain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Except\nfor this classmate, who I just encountered in 2 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018You\ncan hit me. But you\u2019ve got to know, you\u2019re hitting nails in the fences. You can\npull them out any day, but the holes remain forever. I know your feelings, I\nwas also your demon\u2019s victims, and I\u2019ve made more mistakes.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nsocial workers spent countless hours counselling me, telling me that I wasn\u2019t alone, I never had those words\nget inside my ears. And this guy here spent 4 seconds and touched me, for the\nfirst time ever. It was the only once I truly felt the acceptance and support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nstared at the floor engulfed in embarrassment and guiltiness. I slowly put down\nmy fist, while he put his left palm on my shoulder, and walked me to the\nteachers, after I was taken to the social worker, by my two class teachers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said\nhe\u2019d head for the office to lessen his pain, with Kray also walking the same\ndirection. But before he went off, he left me a word in fluent English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018By the\nway Miles, I\u2019m Sakuta. See you around!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a\nfew words with the social worker, I found that Sakuta was involved in a\nhospitalization incident with 3 students. But he changed, after starting to be\nkinder to everyone, every day. He eventually improved his grades too, making\nhim the top student, and chosen to be a transfer student from Kyoto, to\nMatropolis. Again, the social worker told me I was not\nalone, and I could change. This was the only time the words really struck me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the\nentire time since I was 5, I never received toy guns, foam board pirate swords,\nor plastic light sabers for my birthday. Not even my parents knew how I got so\nviolent, as they confessed. I always thought I was alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You\nknow, Sakuta could have avoided the fist that he didn\u2019t deserve. He could have\nstood aside and grabbed\npopcorn like the others. But as we were both the\nvictims of anxiety, and his remarkable sympathy, he was angel to such a\npsychopath like me. It was the first time I felt what empathy and sympathy were like in my entire life since I was 5.\nSakuta reminded me one thing with his actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nwasn\u2019t serving hero justice, but a maniac serving his inner demons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And for\nSakuta, he was a stranger to me, and all the time we talked for was 3 minutes,\n180 seconds. And that was a thousand times less than any psychiatrist in nearby\nregions. Also, as I said, he didn\u2019t need to care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But\nthat moment he gave me a hand, and rose after my punch, it was a small action\nphysically, but it shoved away demons living in the deepest corners of my heart\nand kept me away from earning the final demerit that would get me expelled for\nlife, when I will be sent to an asylum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was\njust a stranger, who could choose to pass by. But he was kind enough to stop his steps, stretching out his\nhelping hand\nto grab my arm, saving me from\nfalling down a cliff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I wainhaling, fiercely. My irises were lit up with the flames of anger. My fists were firand dripping sweat, ready to serve justice. The 3classroom filled with only silencand the sound of breathing.Thclassmates had got their popcorn ready, waiting for watching a human monster punching low-profile bully. Tremendou.........<\/p>Read More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":8474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","language-en","classlevel-s3","schoolyear-79"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6484"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6486,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6484\/revisions\/6486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}