Chapter 2: The Slighted Boy

6am on a September morning. In a small room, just big enough to fit a futon, lies a young boy with his eyes closed. On his one side is a sliding door, and on the other is a small window.

"Soju, It's time to wake up." said a gentle, woman's voice.

The boy slowly opened his eyes. The boy had pale skin and a minor bruise under his left eye. After his eyes fully opened, a dull expression sat on his face for a while. As if he was upset to have woken from his dream. In his dream, he is a strong man that everyone loves and respects. He is able to provide for his parents and for those in need. But all of that is shattered every morning when he wakes up and reality sets in.

He sits up on his futon and his long hair drapes over his eyes. He looks out the window and sees a medium sized oak tree, about 30 feet. It was almost like a ritual for the boy, waking up and briefly staring at the oak tree.

The boy got out of bed and opened his room door. His house was small. There were 2 rooms and 1 bathroom. The other room was slightly bigger than Soju's room. That was the room his parents used. The bathroom was small with a small toilet and bath. And in the middle of the house was The kitchen, the dining area, and the living room, all in one room. Soju got cleaned up and sat in front of a small floor table that was placed close to the cooking area in the middle room.

"Here's your breakfast, Soju." His mother presented in a gentle voice. His mother was a beautiful woman in her late 30's. Because of the difficulty of life, she had started developing some wrinkles on her face. She had fair skin and long black hair. She usually wore a long dress with a headscarf.

It was a modest breakfast of 2 eggs, some cheap fish, and a piece of toast. As Soju began to eat breakfast with a dull and depressed look on his face, his mother stared at him with sadness in her eyes.

"Hey, Soju," his mom said gently, "I know highschool has been hard for you, but today marks the first day of your final year. Just a little bit more and life will completely change, ok?" She added in a semi-hopeful tone to try and sound encouraging. Soju simply nodded his head without any change in expression or moving his gaze from the ground.

He ate a little bit of the egg, a bit of the fish, and took a bite of the toast. He then got up from the table and began getting ready to leave.

"Ok, I'll be heading out now, mom," Soju said in his usual monotone cadence, "I'll be taking the leftovers for lunch again."

"You've been eating so little since you started highschool," his mom spoke in a sorrowful voice, "your dad actually bought some chicken because he had made some extra money this month. I made you cutlets for lunch today." She added, trying to sound happy.

"Umm, maybe you can give them to dad." Soju replied.

"He's going to wake up at around 10," His mother responded, "I'll have to make him something fresh anyways."

To avoid further dispute, Soju agreed to take the cutlets. He hugged his mom and thanked her for putting in the extra work for him. He then made his exit from home. His mom stared at his back as he left, feeling downhearted because of all the hardships she knew her son would have to face.

Since Soju started highschool, because of his shy nature, he was persistently bullied. His parents complained to the school, but nothing changed. His father made a living by running his ramen shop. He gathered some clientele over the years, but due to the small size of his store, only having 2 tables, he barely made enough money to pay for living expenses. Because of this, moving to a completely new place with almost no money was too much of a financial risk.

Because of his life circumstance, Soju had to put up with all the hardships that had plagued him since he entered highschool. Soju stepped out of his house, which from the outside looked like a shack. He stepped into a congested street, faced right, and started walking straight.

On the street he was walking, there were houses similar to his. There were electric poles and dumpsters every few meters that would show up on both sides of the street. Because of the large buildings at the end of the street, barely any light entered.

After walking for a few minutes, Soju saw a bright light at the end of the street. It was the exit to his street and there lay a busy urban road. The sun shone on this street and countless cars went by in both directions. Along the busy road were local businesses and some residential buildings. Countless people were walking on the sidewalk to get to their destinations. Soju was just one of them.

Soju walked through the streets with his long, unkempt hair draping over his eyes and barely touching his shoulders. He had on a collared shirt with dark gray sweatpants and a blue scarf wrapped around his neck. Soju was about 5 feet 8 inches tall and was quite skinny This was mainly because his food intake had greatly diminished since he started highschool.

-

After walking for a few minutes, Soju arrived at his highschool. It was a large brick building with large glass windows in front. There was a walkway that led to the main entrance of the school.

Soju entered the school, kept his head down, and walked towards his class. He hid the bottom of his face inside the scarf he wore, he wore it for that precise purpose.

As he was walking through the hallway, there was a right turn to another hallway. This hallway was empty. Immediately upon entering this hallway, is another right turn into a small cubby. Soju stood outside the entrance to the hallway as if he was waiting for someone. He could hear noises that sounded like they were coming from the cubby.

"Is that seriously all you got?" An aggressive voice inquired, "You've been handing over less money lately."

"That's all I have." A frightened voice responded.

"It's alright, let the poor guy go." Said a female voice with a slight chuckle.

After this, Soju started hearing footsteps. The footsteps began getting closer and closer to him from the cubby. This was the signal that these people were about to exit, followed by the person he was waiting for. This was his daily routine since his second year in highschool.

5 people exited the hallway. 3 boys and 2 girls. The 3 boys were tall, about 5 feet 10 each and well built. The girls were slim and pretty. Their hair was done up and they had makeup on.

Soju kept his head down. Usually, they would just make sly remarks about him and keep moving, but today they stopped right infront of him.

"Do you still only get leftovers for lunch?" one of the boys with short brown hair said in a demeaning tone. The rest of the group chuckled when hearing this. "I guess your parents don't like you that much." Soju stayed silent and kept staring at the ground.

"It might be worth checking what he has today." Said another one of the boys with medium-length black hair as he snatched Soju's bag. He unzipped the bag and turned it upside down, causing all of the contents of the bag to fall out.

Among the things that fell out were a sketchbook, a ziplock bag with the leftover food, and an old, plastic lunchbox. The boy who snatched the bag picked up the ziplock bag and held it at eye level to inspect it.

"Seriously, dude, a piece of bread with a bite taken out of it?" Said the boy jokingly.

"Hey, he's actually got a lunchbox this time." One of the girls added with a chuckle

As this was transpiring, the boy who got his money taken in the cubby walked out and witnessed what was happening.

The third boy in the group, a boy with a buzzcut, grabbed the lunchbox.

"Let's see what's in this old ass lunchbox." He said. He opened the lid and saw the chicken cutlet.

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"This doesn't look half bad," The group of bullies said, "Let's give it a try."

As they reached for the cutlet, Soju imagined his mom waking up early in the morning and cooking the best food they had in the house, and instead of eating it herself, choosing to give it to him.

Soju sprang towards the lunchbox and yelled "You can't have that!". He grabbed the lunchbox and tried to push the boy with the buzzcut who was holding it so that he would let it go. This infuriated the boy. He snatched the lunchbox back causing the food to fly all over the place. He kicked Soju in the stomach causing him to fall back.

"You got some nerve!" yelled the boy furiously. He kicked the lunch box that had fallen on the floor and it hit Soju straight on the nose, causing it to bleed. He began to stomp on the cutlets and the leftovers. "Have fun eating that, you clown!".

"You didn't have to be that harsh!" One of the girls said to the boy with the buzzcut as the group was walking away.

"Well, he was asking for it," another one of the boys retorted. When the group of 5 were out of sight, the boy who had his money taken began to help Soju up. He was a short boy, about 5 foot 5 inches tall with wavy black hair and glasses. He had a brown complexion and  T-shirt with jeans and a red backpack on.

"I've told you before that you don't have to wait here for me, Soju," The boy remarked in an upset tone, "We can just meet up in class."

"It's okay, I enjoy walking with you, Nesh." Soju replied as he was getting up. Nesh looked at the food on the floor and was upset for Soju.

"Hey, at least they didn't mess up your sketchbook," Nesh added in an encouraging tone, "you have some gems in there."

"Thanks, Nesh." Soju replied.

"By the way, don't worry about the food," Nesh added in a joyful voice, "I hid some money in my socks. I noticed that if you give them some, they don't bother checking for more. I'll buy you something after school."

Soju thanked Nesh once more and the two walked into a bathroom to get Soju a tissue for his bloody nose. They went through their usual school schedule, but the whole morning, something was weighing on Soju's mind. During lunch, as Soju and Nesh were sitting at a table with nothing infront of them to eat, Soju looked at Nesh and said "I'm sorry, Nesh." in a sad voice.

"For what?" Nesh inquired.

"I haven't been able to ever protect you." Soju answered.

"You tried, remember? And you still have the bruise under your left eye to prove it." Said Nesh while pointing at Soju's left eye. "Listen, man," Nesh continued, "You don't need to protect me. You have it just as bad as I do. We have 1 year left of this bullshit, then we can move on, and hopefully, live better lives. Let's just make the most of what we have now."

Soju admired Nesh's resilience, but it didn't make him feel any better about himself. The thought of not being able to protect himself, let alone anyone else made him feel weak. He was consumed by self-hatred, and this feeling was heightened when he wasn't able to protect a lunch that his parents worked so hard for.

The two boys spent the rest of the school day going through the motions. When the final bell rang, they tried to sneak out so as to not get further abused by the morning group. Today, they succeeded. Nesh seemed quite happy about that fact, but Soju still wore that same dull expression on his face.

"You're still upset about that?" Nesh asked Soju, "They do that to all the kids that they can. They're gonna get the Karma for it one day. Don't think about it too much. Let's just go get some ice cream or something."

"You know what, Nesh," Soju replied, "I'm actually quite tired. I'm gonna head home for today. Enjoy the ice cream."

"You're leaving?" Nesh asked with a confused intonation. "Alright, I guess. Listen, If there's a problem, let me know." Nesh added in a concerned tone.

"Thanks, Nesh. See you tomorrow."

The boys parted ways. Soju arrived home and set his bag down. He pulled out his sketchbook from his bag and began drawing for a little bit. This was the only thing that would make him feel any semblance of happiness. About 10 minutes after him, his mother walked in from the front door. She would always take an hour off from helping her husband at the restaurant when it was time for Soju to come home.

"How was your day?" She asked in a joyful voice.

"It was good." Soju responded.

"How was the cutlet?" She asked. As soon as she asked this, Soju felt a pain in his chest. He didn't have the courage to tell his mother what happened.

"It was great." Said Soju as he handed the empty lunchbox to his mother, "I also ate the leftovers." As soon as she saw the empty lunchbox a look of concern came upon her face. She knew that Soju wouldn't eat such a large amount of food. Regardless, she put on a happy face and sounded relieved that he liked it.

"Do you want to eat something right now?" asked his mom.

"No, I'm actually just gonna go outside for some fresh air." He responded.

"Ok, have fun!" said his mom, sending him on his way. Soju took his scarf and headed out of the front door. His self-hatred at this point was at an all-time high.

When Soju closed the front door behind him, he went around to the back of the house, where there was the oak tree he used to stare at every morning.

He walked up to the oak tree and climbed up about 15 feet high. He sat on a branch for a few minutes, thinking about his life. When nothing but negative experiences filled his mind he grabbed his scarf. He tied one end around the branch and the other end around his neck and jumped down. He struggled for a few moments. These moments felt like an eternity, but after his struggle, his body eased up and he lost consciousness.

-

After Mayr's accident, he slowly regained consciousness in a hospital bed. As he slowly opened his eyes and saw the blurry view of the white walls of a hospital room, he heard some muffled voices.

"Luckily the scarf became undone and he fell on a bed of dirt and leaves," A doctor explained to a concerned-looking man and woman. "Luckily, no serious injuries were sustained."

As Mayr became more and more conscious, he remembered what had happened. He jumped up into a sitting position and yelled, "Bastion!".

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