Outcast

A Chance of Happiness Chapter 9: Outcast

People judge eachother on a day to day basis. In public, at social gatherings, or behind closed doors, people partake to criticize those others for various different reasons. Hatred, jealousy, or simply the need to prove their superiority. Those who are judged and deemed as social outcasts are regarded as those who simply don’t have a place in society. It’s not as though they don’t want to have a place in society, but rather struggle to find their place for a variety of different reasons. As a result, people discriminate, harass, and bully those deemed as social outcasts without knowing these reasons.

“Hey, that's him right? He even looks like a creep.”

“It’s sad really. Why have so much disregard for your own future to do that?”

“He’s the one that beat up that group of second years? What kind of lowlife gives a beatdown to underclassmen?”

“Did you see what happened yesterday? His behavior has gotten so bad that even the teachers are starting to take action.”

“For real? Who goes up to a bunch of girls and harrasses them for no reason?! Someone ought to teach that brute a lesson!”

This treatment leads to the spread of rumors, falsified and unsubstantiated “facts” to make them appear a certain way to others. No matter how unrealistic these rumors may seem, the fact that they are made by someone more “credible” or those who have found their place in society, make them more believable. Eventually these baseless rumors become factual and common knowledge.

“Hey, you don’t have a place here. So why do you even bother to show up? Why do you even try? Why don’t you just–”

Jin was walking the halls of his junior high when he felt something hit his bag, followed by the sound of books falling to the floor.

“Ouch!” a voice came from behind him.

Quickly turning around he noticed an underclassman frantically picking up the books he had dropped.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I was just–”

The boy stopped as soon as he saw Jin’s face.

“It’s fine.” Jin replied, kneeling down and handing the boy one of the books. “Are you–”

“Hey! What are you doing?” Another boy around Jin’s age grabbed him by the shoulder, pulling him up and away from the underclassmen.

“I wasn’t–” Jin began, taking a look at the underclassmen on the ground, who was clearly afraid.

“You have the nerve to think you can get away with messing with an underclassmen?” The boy pushed Jin back further.

“What’s going on out here?!” A teacher came out of a classroom, hearing all the commotion in the hallway.

“He knocked his books onto the floor and pushed him down for no reason! I just tried to help!”

“What? I didn’t–” Jin looked around at the other students in the hallway, who were giving him looks of disgust.

“Ugh, weren’t there any other seats available? Why do we have to sit by this guy?”

Jin was on his phone, sitting behind two of his female classmates on the bus going to their day trip to the aquarium.

“Tch, as if, I’ll just get us moved.” The girl got up and turned towards Jin. “Did you just touch me?!”

The girls shouting instantly got the attention of the entire bus.

“What?” Jin looked up from his phone confused.

The girl who shouted backed away from her seat. “Ugh, you freak! You’re nothing but a pervert!”

“But I didn’t–”

“What’s going on?!” The teacher who was sitting up front made her way to the back of the bus.

“You can’t make us sit by this… this freak! He was totally trying to touch me!” The girl noticed Jin still had his phone in his hand as he stood up. “He’s been taking photos of us too!”

“I–” Jin didn’t even get a word out before the teacher walked up and grabbed his phone.

“You two, go up front. I’ll sit back here and keep an eye on him.” The teacher ordered as she let the girls pass her. “Take your seat.” she demanded, turning back to Jin.

The two girls turned and smirked at Jin, trying to contain their laughter.

“I don’t want to hear a word out of you. I’ll be contacting your parents later and–”

“But I didn’t do anything! You can check my phone! I didn’t–”

“I said not a word!”

Jin was walking to his usual secluded spot during recess when he spotted two upperclassmen talking to a girl who was clearly uncomfortable.

“You’re still wearing that crap? That anime stuff is supposed to be for kids right?” The first boy taunted, tugging at her sleeve.

“You’re kidding right? Look at her, she’s probably just a kid.” The other boy laughed, looking at how tall she was.

“Are you done?” Jin asked, glaring at the two boys.

“Huh? You’re kidding, right? What the hell do you want?”

“For you to take your hand off her. She’s clearly uncomfortable.”

“Ha, what a joke. The delinquent wants to play the white knight. Go play somewhere else.” The boy tugging the girl's sleeve grabbed her underarm and yanked her to her feet.

“Ah!” The girl cried, caught off guard by the sudden movement.

“We were just–”

The boy holding the girl didn’t even get to finish his sentence before Jin punched him straight in the nose, releasing the girl. The boy fell to the ground as the other boy went to his side to help him.

“The hell?! You’re crazy! Aren’t you a first year?!” The other boy screamed at Jin.

The boy Jin hit remained on the floor, holding his now bleeding nose in shock from what just happened. Jin looked down at his shaky hand, just as shocked by what he just did. The other boy helped his friend up off the floor and backed away from Jin.

“You think you can do this and get away with it?! You’re dead you punk! You don’t know who you’re messing with!” The boy yelled, blood still streaming down his face.

Jin watched as the two boys walked away back towards the main recess area. They passed by an upperclassmen girl with light brown hair and reddish pink eyes who glanced over at the two boys as they left.

“The hell?” The girl quickly looked around to see Jin with the other who was now standing close behind him. “Hey! The hell are you doing to my sister?!”

“What? No– I–” Jin stammered as the girl quickly ran over and pushed Jin aside, putting herself between her sister and Jin.

“You’re that delinquent, aren’t you?! What do you think you’re doing to my sister?!”

“I didn’t…” Jin paused, already knowing that she wouldn’t believe anything he said. “I didn’t do anything.”

Jin placed his hands in his pockets and walked away without another word. It wasn’t until Jin had already gone out of sight around the corner that the upperclassmen noticed her sister tugging on her shirt.

“What is it? Are you alright? What happened? Did he hurt you?”

“Hey! Delinquent!” Jin heard a voice call out to him as he was walking home from school.

As Jin turned to see where the voice came from, he was met with a sharp pain as a boy with messy red hair jabbed him in his abdomen, dropping Jin to his knees.

“We heard you were messing with some of our friends, so we came to pay you back.”

Jin looked up to see a few boys his age surrounding him.

“Hold him in place, would you, Isamu?”

“My pleasure.” One of the boys with blue hair walked behind Jin, holding him in place by his shoulders.

The boy with red hair knelt down to Jin’s eye level, looking at him with a confident expression and an egotistical smile.

“Now, let's see, where was it you hit him?” The red haired boy grabbed Jin by his chin.

“If I remember correctly, I think he actually broke his nose. Isn’t that right Natsu?” Isamu chimed in, putting more pressure on Jin’s shoulders.

“That’s right! Must’ve slipped my mind. But y’know what, it happens to everyone. Like this delinquent here.” Natsu wound up a punch hitting Jin clean across the face. “He didn’t know his place. Must’ve slipped his mind.”

The boys laughed and continued to beat Jin up as more of Jin’s blood stained the pavement. Ten minutes later, police and paramedics arrived at the scene. None of the boys who were beating him were there, and Jin was rushed to the hospital. His father arrived but neither him nor the police found out who assaulted him. With no witnesses, the outcome was clear, and Jin was already all too familiar with how the world worked. After all, who’d believe an outcast?

Jin gave the red haired boy who had their hand on his shoulder a cold stare.

“Aw, don’t be like that. It hurts my heart to see you giving me the cold shoulder.” The red haired boy joked.

A boy with blue hair walked up beside them. “Be careful now, Natsu, Maddy said he’s finally grown a backbone. He actually spoke to her.”

“The outcast speaks! Now that’s a first, isn’t it, Isamu?” Both the boys laughed as the red haired boy tightened his group on Jin’s shoulder.

The bell rang, distracting the two boys for a moment as Jin pushed Natsu’s hand off his shoulder and began to walk away.

“Don’t go too far now.” Natsu called out. “Class is just getting started.”