GGG

The bully took the first step, as well as the first strike. With a brisk jab, his assault barely scratched his enemy, and John utilized this opening fully. John retracted his fist, but before he could throw his attack the bully had already continued his offense with a slight smack, and John evaded the second time with a duck.

As if losing his confidence, the little brawler distanced himself from the pig face, but his opponent didn’t have the same idea in his mind. The bully took no time to enclose John, and he struck a round kick, hoping to finally hit his tiny enemy. John managed to quickly elude it by jumping back, though his back was now obstructed by the crowd.

Anyone with an average wit would have known this was an opportunity to strike, and so the bully tried to grabble his now entrapped opponent. Still finding an escape somehow, John rushed to his left to dodge his enemy’s attack. To which the bully could do nothing but snort in frustration.

The clamor has not subsided one bit, the students were still entangled by the rare source of entertainment before them. However, as much as I want to deny it, this is kind of a one-sided battle so far. Sure, John had not been hit once, but it was likewise for his opponent. And with a body as fragile as John’s, he needed to be hitting the bully multiple times throughout the fight in order to actually deal damage.

“Go, John! Beat that fucker up”

“Yeah, copy those moves from that shadow fight game.”

In the midst of my reflection, a group of four boys beside me cheered hard, and it looked like they weren’t random fellows who only came here to see the fight. Doubting so, I inquired about them.

“You guys know who he is?”

Two of them gave their attention to me, and they took no time to respond in an enthusiastic manner.

“Hell yeah, he’s our friend.”

“And if he beats the school’s main bully we might get some of his fame too. So go, John!”

I guess he does have friends then.

There were more questions on my mind, so I decided to bother John’s friend once more. However, another certain person caught my eye in the crowd, and I decided to shift my attention toward them.

“So, uh, you okay?”

I started our conversation with a question. To resolve confusion, the person was the girl, Abigail.

Shocked to see my presence, she raised her voice.

“Wait, you’re that guy who fought with the bullies. What are you doing here again?”

“Yeah, yeah, just forget about me. There’s a fight right before you that seemed way more important, I figured you’d want some questions answered?”

She disclosed her mouth as if she had more to say, however, the girl quickly halted and sighed.

“No need, John’s fighting him because he’s protecting me, isn’t he?”

“Uh, yeah, pretty much so.”, hesitantly, I answered.

“And is there a clearer reason why?”

“It’s probably what you’re thinking.”

Another sigh could be heard from all the uproar around us. The exhales she made were as if a spell that isolated all the disturbance surrounding us, and all the noise before sounded like backroom echoes now.

“Why do these things keep happening to me…”, tiringly, the girl spoke.

She girl didn’t elaborate on her subtle monologue, so I inquired.

“Do you… want to talk about it?”

She turned her face toward mine in an instant and glanced with a strange look.

“With a random stranger? Why?”

“I just wanted to be a good guy, no need to question me. Jeez.”

After I had finished my words, we shared a moment of silence. The clamor from the fight almost broke through the barrier and into my ears again, until the girl shot them down with continuity of her voice.

“And you give up on asking that easily? What kind of good guy are you?”

Feeling an ick from my brow, I made a quick comeback.

“And if you wanted to have someone hear you out why question the person who actually did so?”

Sliding her head to the side as if expressing her confusion, she pondered for some seconds.

“Maybe you’re right, but why are you helping me in the first place?”, still not fully convinced, she asked.

“Why not? Is it bad to help people?”

Still, with a strange look, she smiled in amusement at my words. Finally, with a content face, she disclosed herself before me, albeit with a shy tone.

“Well, if you want to lend an ear that much… Just to tell you beforehand, it’s nothing tragic or concerning really, more like a teenage identity crisis.” With a sigh, the girl briefly continued. “It’s just that do you ever feel like your life is not your own? Like all your choices and paths are made by anyone but yourself.”

“Like a rubble flowing on a stream?”

Despite my cringy-ass analogy, the girl nodded.

“The reason why I’m even in this school in the first place is that it’s ‘convenient and cheap’, as my parents told me. And I guess I can’t blame them, since I didn’t even retort or complain. But then again, I never put much care about anything involving myself.”

In contrast to her hesitant pace at the start, her voice was now sporadic, like a damp nearing its burst out.

“And because of that, I now have a freaking pig breathing down my neck whenever I’m at this godforsaken place. And well, I never retorted against him as well, so who’s to blame? And then again, the one who is now trying to get me out of my self-inflicted situation is in fact, not me.”

Finding it was now my turn to speak, I tried to console her somewhat.

“Well, at least you’ve got a boy who cares for you unconditionally, right?

Not too surprising, she exhaled another time.

“I like John’s bravery, and he’s also pretty funny but, it’s the situation we are in that bothers me.”

Shifting my gaze toward the panting boy before us, I asked.

“It’s related to that dependence complex of yours?”

With a nod, she agreed.

“If he’s going to win this fight, I don’t know what even will happen. Do I offer my gratitude, or is he expecting something more? I do think he deserves a reward but, that’s the problem itself. If things progress between us because of this whole predicament then it’ll just make me feel like I’m an object for him to win.”

Abruptly a surprised face from John entered my perception, and it didn’t take too long for it to morph into a troubled and angered expression.

Is he jealous?

I thought to myself while assuming that he had noticed my talking with Abigail.

Contrary to his evasive stance the whole fight, John has now stomped his bellows into the ground and bolded himself. And notwithstanding his larger enemy enclosing in, John lunged straight toward his opponent’s abdomen, forcing the both of them down. Something that make me involuntarily snort out of amusement.

“He sure is unpredictable, isn’t he?”, I remarked.

Glancing at Abigail for a response, a slight bitter curve of her lips was seen. John and Abigail’s situation had gone from horrible but simple to just downright weird and complex, and an urge gnawed at me to somewhat shift it toward a more positive side. At least according to my thoughts and opinion, that is.

“You’ve got any goals? Or at least hobbies or interests?”, I asked Abigail.

The girl disclosed her mouth right away, only to halt and ponder for a few seconds.

“I’m a pretty plain person, but I guess it’s not like I don’t have a goal in mind right now, not like I used to at least.”

“M-hm?”, I urged her to continue.

“You’re going to know every single thing about my life at this point, stranger. Well, whatever, it won’t matter to me. I owe you that much.”

She cleared her throat.

“I’m focusing on my studies so that I could go somewhere better than this place. Still, telling my parents about my resolve here seemed like an issue. They’re probably just going to ask why bother. Or think weirdly of me for my sudden mood for change. After all, me being okay with everything has been what I’ve been known for all my life. The girl who stays in her own pit and listen to others.”

The nonchalant parents huh?

I had always thought of those types to be cool, yet also understanding. And thus, their children would have no stress or anxiety to please them. Though it clearly caused underlying problems for Abigail here.

Knowing that, my mind thought up words of encouragement.

“It’s really nice that you’ve strayed from the normalcy of your whole life to achieve something you want, despite having no support aside from your own. I think that’s commendable.”

“Um, are you trying to flirt with me or something?”, recoiling a bit, the girl looked at me strangely.

Well, anyone would have thought that I guess.

“Think whatever you want, I’m just here to help. So, from what you’ve just said, you want to earn the courage to confront your parents about your goals, right?”, I told her, trying to distract the awkwardness that was floating around us.

“Uh, yeah. Are you implying that you can lend a hand with that?”

“No, only you can help yourself. Though-“, interjecting myself, I gave a quick head nod toward the fight in front of us, shifting our focus to it.

The one on the bottom was now John, trying to escape his bully’s grasp, meanwhile evading his punches.

“I’ll at least give you encouragement to practice facing them.”

“Are you saying I should stop them?”, still baffled, Abigail took a guess.

“It’s up to you. What you should focus on is letting out your thoughts about them. They’re one of the people that dictate how your life goes on at school but you never retorted, right? Then, wouldn’t it be a great exercise if you confront them first? To get, you know, experience.”

She gave a glance toward them, deciding whether or not my advice is actually useful. The boys were at it punching and wrestling each other, and it seemed to dishearten the girl.

“I don’t know.”, she said, with a wavering voice. One that made something in me move.

“Well… you’re going to have to confront your parents either way, why not take the easier target now?”

Despite my efforts, her legs remained immobile. And with a convoluted face, she sighed, while I was left there coming up with new ways to assure her. Many logical reasonings came to mind, but all of them just seemed soulless. And so, I just opted for the option to improvise my words.

“You know, if you’re too afraid to act, you can just shut off your brain.”

“Excuse me?”

“When the time comes for you to do something, you best actually act them out, it’s all for yourself. So, if concerns and anxiety keep preventing you, shut the source of them out, and do what you need to do.”

With a touch of a shoulder, I wanted to let her know that it was okay. And with that, I continued.

“Take a leap of faith.”

She looked at me with a little sense of hostility, though it was wavering, and I thought she would have cried there. Nevertheless, I never found out if that was the case, for her face was now distant from my perception.

“That’s enough!”

With a shout more powerful than any fist thrown before her, it took no time for the commotion to shut tight. Probably because of the total contrast of her body with the noise she had just made, an eerie shocking feeling could be felt from her war cry. And so, it was no question that she was now in the dominant position. Aware of that, she turned to the big peasant still sitting on the ground.

“You. I’m going to only say this once, I do NOT like you, not at all. So, stop freaking following me around everywhere. You want me to dye my hair, eat your lunch with you? Heck, I don’t even remember your name, how entitled of you to just coerce me into being with you? Or are you too stupid to even realize that I’ve always hated every single thing about you, freaking moron.”

The bully could not even muster up a word of response, and only looked up at the truth with a sense of sadness that almost made me pity him.

Having succeeded in putting one peasant into the hole of dejection, she turned to her next target.

“And you. Well, I appreciate that you’re being so selfless and is doing all this for me, and I will pay you back. But just know that that’s all, things won’t progress between us just because you saved me. I’m not your prized pool or a princess you’re trying to rescue, okay?”

Abigail’s second victim although didn’t receive as much damage, was as equally, or even more baffled.

Her sudden burst of emotions abruptly came to a halt, and she took a step back along with a sigh.

“I guess that was too harsh. Um, I’m sorry, and thank you, John. Even if our relationship doesn’t deepen here, it doesn’t mean there won’t still be a chance, so impress me more, John.”

The rejected bully suddenly rose from his shame and bawled.

“Hey! How comes he gets a second chance. I’m miserable too you know? You’re the only light in my life, and I’m sorry that I was a little too forceful in our relationship but I need you.”

Pitifully, he crawled toward Abigail. And he kept begging and writhing in his own tears, not minding how he might have looked like.

Taking a step forward, Abigail was fierce in letting out her thoughts, though this time it was more physical. With a round kick straight to the pig’s face, the leader was thrown back to its hole of shame.

“Fuck off, pathetic pig.”

Having been pleased that her thoughts had come through to her victims. Happily, and like a giant load had been taken off of her, she strolled away from the two peasants. The crowd knew to make way for the little queen, and so collectively they made an opening. It didn’t take long for Abigail to fade away from our mere perception, and still she was able to leave us with a huge burst of cheer.

Everyone exploded in what had just happened, even though most of them probably did not understand a single thing. But it did not matter, for the air of excitement and cheers had gotten to each one of them. And with that, I tried to offer a little praise of my own.

“Slay guuurl.”, I mumbled.