Never Before

‘The voting has been manipulated.’

‘There must be a mistake.’

‘Is there another girl with the name of Fantasia Swan?’

‘Ugly duckling.’

‘I didn’t know this contest was being held at local zoo this year.’

‘No way is this true.’

‘She’s a girl so let’s beat up her boyfriend instead, haha.’

‘If she managed to reach the finals, then I could have done so as well!’

‘This school is just pure chaos.’

‘I don’t trust anything or anyone anymore.’

The official rankings have stirred up turmoil among the students. Amidst all of this stood Fantasia.

As Ravel notices her pale expression and discomfort, he grabs Fantasia’s hand and quickly pulls her away before anything unpredictable happens. Their friends run after them. They finally catch up outside of school on the playground, where the two made a stop.

Fantasia jerks away from Ravel’s hand and stoops, panting heavily. Her hand is clutched to her chest which rises and falls rapidly. Drops of cold sweat trickle down her forehead, her legs are shaking.

Eleona tries to make a step forward to comfort Fantasia but Yutaka stops her, shaking his head.

“Are you okay, Fantasia?” Ravel gently places his hand on her back, lowering his head.

“I’m… huff… huf… I’m okay…” Fantasia tried to catch breath.

“If Fantasia beat you in that ranking, once again – Fantasia – then what does it make you?” Seko read the situation wrong and everybody glares at him, especially Eleona whom the question was aimed at.

“Zhang!” Ravel raises his voice, angered.

“What?” Zhang replies already anticipating Ravel’s next move.

“I thought we agreed you wouldn’t interfere!”

“I didn’t, which is probably why it ended up like that.”

“What do you mean?” Ravel’s face beams with lack of understanding.

“The members of the student council are usually professionals. But when they saw the applications from you two, they immediately wanted to make the show more entertaining… Silveria was the one who pulled the strings.” Zhang explained in almost apologetic way.

“Stupid trash,” Ravel didn’t hide his disappointment, “they did this just to make fun of us. Forget me, I’m the one making fun of myself, but Fantasia…”

“This could be very bad…” Yutaka muttered to himself with concern`.

“Eleona, could you please take Fantasia to the nurse office? I’ll go talk to the teachers that Fantasia is not feeling well.”

Ravel concluded that Fantasia needed some rest. But it wasn’t the only reason. He needs to hide her somewhere safe before the other students decide to verbally abuse her again.

Eleona wraps her arm around Fantasia’s shoulders and slowly starts taking her away.

“I hope the shock subsides,” Ravel whispers to himself. He had always seen Fantasia as strong and positive despite the hardships she faced. Witnessing her vulnerability tore at his heart.

“It’s gonna be okay, man…” Seko steps forward to comfort Ravel.

***

During the next class, Ravel couldn’t concentrate on anything the teacher was explaining. His thoughts are consumed by Fantasia, her fragile state haunting him like a heavy burden. The teacher noticed he was dozing off, and so he focused his attention toward Ravel.

“Tell me, Ravel, what year did Czechoslovakia split into two separate states?”

“I, uh… I…” Ravel knew the correct answer. But his voice couldn’t make a proper sound. Little tears started to form in his deep blue eyes. “E-excuse me, I gotta go to the toilet!”

He stands up and runs away from the classroom.

He finds himself at the toilets, splashing cold water on his face, gazing into the mirror. What’s wrong with me? Nothing that serious happened. But it hurts me inside. When I saw her in that state…

What is this feeling? Why is my chest burning?

He touches his chest with his hand, trying to understand his own feelings. His mobile phone notifies him about a new message. He takes it out of his pocket and there it is. A message from Fantasia.

Hewwooo! The nurse has sent me home for today, yay! Also, I’m alright, please don’t worry about me! See you tomorrow! <3

He felt so relieved that his heart rate dropped instantly.

He was so afraid of his own feelings. He didn’t understand them properly. Their relationship isn’t particularly defined. They just spend time together, they hold hands, they kiss and they act like boyfriend and girlfriend. But it’s not quite there yet.

Ravel forbade himself to enter any relationship in which love wasn’t present. And since he wasn’t sure he loved Fantasia, he never made their relationship official. He genuinely cared for her, he liked her but love was simply not there yet, he thought.

Until now.

When he saw her suffer back there, he suffered along with her. When you love somebody, you share all the happy moments but also all the sad ones.

“I… love her…” he murmurs to himself while staring at his reflection in the mirror.

“I love Fantasia.” A wide grin spreads across his face. “It makes me so happy when I say it out loud like that! I truly lover her!!”

“Yeah, yeah, good for you, boy. Now shut the hell up, some of us are trying to focus very hard here!”

Suddenly a male voice chimes in from the toilet cabin behind his back and a loud stinky fart follows suit.

“I-I apologize!!!” Ravel’s face turns red and he runs back to the classroom.

***

The next morning, Ravel impatiently waits for Fantasia in front of her classroom. As soon as she appears, he dashes toward her and hugs her tightly.

“I’m so glad to see you!” Ravel embraces her as if they were apart for eternity.

“W-woah!” Fantasia isn’t sure how to respond, she is taken aback.

If only she knew. But I can’t just blurt it out at her. Right now, the only person who knows about my true feelings is me. And that guy from the toilet.

“Did you sleep well?” he lets go of her and with a bright smile looks her in the eye.

“Y-yeah… and you?” Fantasia is still confused. But she should have known better. She did make quite a scene yesterday.

The bell rings, urging them to depart for the time being and go to their respective classes.

“Talk to you later!” Ravel kisses her on her forehead before running off.

This was the first time he had done something like that at school.

***

“And don’t forget about the homework!”

An older teacher finishes his lesson. The last period is over for class 2.A.

Ravel hums his favorite song and stands up as if almost dancing to the rhythm.

“Somebody seems to be in a good mood?” Yutaka has been observing his behavior whole day.

They had a lot of homework that they didn’t do at home so they spent all their breaks, including the lunch break, studying and doing it before each lesson.

“Hehe, did you notice~?”

“Yeah, spill the beans, what’s going on?” Yutaka inquires.

“Just yesterday you almost cried like a baby.” Seko adds a half-insulting comment to the conversation.

“I don’t have time for you, jerks, I’m meeting somebody!” Ravel walks away from the classroom with the backpack on his shoulders and a song on his lips.

“Ravel~!”

Fantasia was walking toward him from the other side of a hallway. Upon the sight of him, she increased the pace, almost running. However, it was difficult to run because crowd of the students was eager to go home.

When they were closer to each other, she suddenly tripped. Ravel sees her falling but isn’t sure what just happened.

He makes his way towards her and crouches down, offering her his hand.

“Are you okay, princess?”

Fantasia takes his hand and regains her footing. He finally sees her face and his eyes are suddenly struck with worry.

“W-what happened…?” He reached out at her face to wipe something off. When he looked at his fingers, he realized it was blood from her nose.

“I-I just fell, hehe.” Fantasia tries her best to downplay the situation and look unbothered.

“Yes but… how?”

“Somebody obviously made her trip right now.” Yutaka suddenly appears at the scene. “I saw it. A student deliberately placed their leg in Fantasia’s path, making her stumble and fall down.”

Ravel knew where this was going.

“Student council drew a huge target on Fantasia’s back. As if she didn’t have enough smaller ones on her whole body…” Yutaka was very serious. His friend’s girl was living harsh times, so why wouldn’t he. They turn around and their eyes wander on random students passing by.

Were the student council members really to blame for the target on her back? After all, they didn’t force Fantasia to apply for the Beauty Contest.

Fantasia puts on a brave smile, reassuring them that she's fine. That she's grown accustomed to bullying.

But what she wasn’t telling was that never… never before did the bullying actually turn into physical harm like today.

CHAPTER 12: END