The "Prank"

Friday – Midterm Exams Day 2: Engineering, Mathematics, and Physical Education.

To believe I did average on the first two subjects would be wishful thinking. I could've done better, but there was a lot on my mind that prevented me from fully focusing on my tasks. What I told Rossi-san yesterday made me ponder about how I viewed our relationship.

The label "acquaintances" isn't enough. How do you even ask someone to be your friend? How did Jino ask me?

I cleansed my thoughts with the P.E exam, which was just a timed mile run around the synthetic rubber running track. One attribute I had was speed, and I was amongst the first few to finish the mile. Once we were finished and checked in with the teacher, we were free to change clothes and leave the school.

I was so close to escaping, so close to avoiding it. The dismissal bell was mere minutes away from ringing. If I hadn't stayed to head towards the garden and instead gone to my apartment, I would've averted the encounter.

That day, that Friday, I found myself in the same predicament as my third-year of middle school. We were in the school's central courtyard, and once the bell rang, I would be humiliated like I was before. The "prank" had come back to bite me, playing out the same way as before.

➼ ➼ ➼

After I rejected Jino's feelings, the two boys of the group pulled a "prank" on me for the entire school to witness. The three of us had the same P.E class for the final exam before break, and we finished early. Because of that, they lured me to the center of our school and proceeded to batter my body to the ground.

They reeled their right arms back, and their fists swung like pendulums to hit me right in the center of my midriff, all in a second. I had the wind knocked out of me and fell to my knees, with my hands hitting the grass to avoid hitting it with my face. I opened my mouth wide only to gasp in little air.

They had been planning for some time, because more of their friends brought out four mop buckets filled with dirty water. Four hands grabbed my two shoulders and skyrocketed me up to my feet. The rush to my head blacked out my eyes for several seconds. But in those seconds, they dumped me with the dirty and cold water. The harsh sensation was what I imagined being dumped with a bucket of knives felt like.

They dropped me like dead fish. The smell breached my nostrils and the water seeped through my lips, my five senses were drowned by it. The taste was horrible, I gagged and vomited on the grass below my mud-soaked fingertips. I couldn't escape it, as it stuck to my clothes and hair.

The first time, they said, "That's what ya get for getting close to Ji and Tae, and ruining everything!"
The second time, they said, "Seems like you're getting close with Atsui, we don't want you ruining everything again!"

My fears came true. The school bell rang, and the students came out to see. The boys dispersed amongst the crowd. No one saw who had done it, but they all saw me, alone, on my knees with my own vomit and tears dripping from my face. No one helped me; they laughed.

The first time the "prank" had happened, the girls didn't know what had happened to me until later, when I took myself away to the restrooms before the teachers could find me. The girls found me, then the two boys joined. The girls immediately knew the boys were responsible, and hashed out at them with all their anger.

"I hate you!" bellowed Jino, with tears welling in her eyes.

"Me? Ji, you should be hating the runt that rejected you! It's his fault for ruining our dynamic!"

Stop...

The second boy joined, pointing a finger at the girl next to Jino.
"It's Tae's fault for inviting him to hang out with us! She shouldn't have done that!"

Stop... Please...

"Huh?! You're blaming me? If you boys didn't like it, why didn't you say something? I was just trying to help Ji and him get closer! It was obvious she liked him!"

"Well, look at what that led to! Next time, think about your stupidity...if you can even do that!"

St––

"Stop, you two!" Jino shouted. "It's neither your fault, nor Kiyoshi-kun's! It's the fault of this jealous brat for letting his bottled, unrequited feelings get in the way of a new friendship!"

The decibels of their cries felt like it could unclog my ears from the water, but they couldn't. While my drenched clothes continued to stick to my body, and the tips of my hair dripped with brown water, I realized something. It was my fault.

I... These burdens...are because of me. I brought them...by connectin' with these people. I... I...
And that was when I heard the voice of a different part of myself. The part that knew what to do while I was confused. The part that I decided to let guide me for the next year: Swani.

He told me to tell them it was my fault, and that I should leave and never interact with them again. I listened, and left my old friends behind without even going to the restroom to wash myself. I took off to the back of the school, where I placed my forehead against the concrete wall of a gym.

My hands couldn't hold still if my life depended on it, my fingers twitched rapidly with the frosty-like mud slowly drying on them. I stared at the concrete, and figured it would look nicer with a shade of red splattered onto it. Red. I formed a painful fist, and used the wall to express my emotions; the skin on my knuckles peeled with every thrust. Red.

For my lonesome summer, I repeated that expression in my bedroom.

➼ ➼ ➼

For the first time in a while, I heard Swani's voice again. It was after I was drenched with the dirty mop water in the center courtyard of my high school.

*I tried to warn you, Kiyoshi. This is what happens when you, you specifically, make connections to people. I told you, didn't I? To avoid her, to avoid your classmate, to not find the tomboyish friend. I warned against all that, and you went against me.*

Sw-Swani... I...
Around me were students from every class, every year, laughing at me with their phones out.
Y-You're right, Swani... I sh-should've listened to you. Just like back then, I'm goin' to be alone again... Without anyone by me, I'll repeat the same punishment.

I felt my blazer's right picket and felt a rectangular outline. I still had the calendar in my pocket. I never returned it to Rossi-san.
It's probably soaked, ruined. I messed up...and not just for myself. Her favorite book is now coated in mop water. She'll probably hate me. It's my fault.

I needed to repeat the same punishment. I needed to go behind the gym buildings, and take off my glove to put my knuckles through the same torture as before. I didn't want it, but I deserved it. Or so, I thought.

As I was closing my eyes reimagining the events from middle school, I heard a voice calling out my name. It wasn't my family name. It wasn't my given name. It was a name someone else came up for me.

"Poet-kun!" shouted the only voice to penetrate my clogged ears.

My shoulders were held to keep my posture straight. I was shaken back and forth with my head bobbing to wake me up. When I opened my eyes, I saw them for the first time.

Like they were freshly mined in a cave filled with gemstones, I saw two rubies before me. Glistening in the sunlight, like natural jewelry, I realized I was staring into a pair of eyes I've never seen before...and yet, knew who they belonged to.

Red. But not the bad kind of red that I hated. It was the red that matched the hair with the same shade.

I was blinded by the water clinging to my eyelashes, the sunlight's reflection in her eyes, and my overall injuries, but I could still make out the outline of her face. My eyes wanted to close in fear, but it was too late. I didn't even want to blink.

I knew it was her. Her hair, which I already recognized, matched that face, and that face simply suited that voice I was so accustomed to in a short amount of time. She went past my eyes to engrave herself into my mind as a mental photograph.