The guy with the glasses continued to share his painful past with the two of them. And hearing his painful experience made them pity him.
However just as he mentioned about his selfishness, Rin couldn’t hold him back. His sympathy quickly turned into rage.
Thud!!!
Slamming his hands on the table infront, Rin rose from his seat and exasperated, “How could you do that to the person who helped you when you needed the help?”
Rin’s sudden melt down startled everyone in the classroom.
“Are they bullying Shotaro?”
Noticing Rin’s face full of anger, the other boys present in the classroom started to gossip about him and Hiro.
Although Hiro too was startled by Rin’s sudden melt down, Hiro quickly regained his composure.
Shotaro’s body shivering and his face pale, he struggled to form any words.
Upon noticing Shotaro’s face filled with horror, Hiro grabbed Rin’s arm and pulled him down. Whispering softly, Hiro asked him to take his seat, “Calm down Rin. Look you’ve scared him.”
And as Rin took his seat, Hiro then apologized to everyone for causing such a ruckus, “Sorry everyone! We’re just talking about something.”
However seeing Shotaro’s pale face, they simply couldn’t bring themselves to believe Hiro’s words. And hence they continued their gossips.
Hearing their gossips, Hiro could pretty much predict that those students in the classroom would later spread some bad rumours about him and Rin by the end of lunch break, if he didn’t clear their doubts and confusion at that moment.
“Quick!! Apologise to him.” Mumbled Hiro meekly while maintaining a smile on his face.
“Why should I?” Still angry about Shotaro’s selfishness, Rin hesitated to apologize to him.
“Look around you, you fool.” Mumbled Hiro.
Rin then took a peek around himself. And just by looking at everyone’s faces, Rin could tell that they were speaking ill of him and Hiro.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get angry at you.” Apologised Rin after noticing the gaze of other students present in the classroom. ．𝚌ｏｍ
“See we’re not bullying him. We were just talking about some stuffs.” Spoke Hiro awkwardly and tried to clear their misunderstandings.
To help clear their ill image, Hiro then politely questioned Shotaro, “Are we bullying you?”
Shotaro meekly shook his head.
“See we’re not bullying him.” Spoke Rin with an awkward smile on his face.
However some students still didn’t buy their words and kept on gossiping.
Just then Shotaro, the guy with the glasses, opened his mouth, “I was afraid that if I try to defend him, they’ll once again turn their attention towards me. And I was just too afraid of facing that same experience once again. And I was also just to powerless to stand up to them. I know it all sounds as excuses. But it’s the truth.”
Shotaro still couldn’t bring himself to look them in the eyes. And by that time his chin had almost shunken to his chest.
Remembering his painful past, Hiro then tried to cheer him up, “You haven’t done anything wrong. You’re just scared. And it’s completely natural to be scared when facing danger. So you don’t need to feel guilty.”
Even after hearing such words from Hiro, Rin was still not satisfied with such reasons. Unsatisfied with such vague reasons, he was about to utter something totally immature.
But before he could open his mouth, underneath the table, Hiro grabbed his hands and stopped him from speaking anything further.
“Thank you for saying such.” Spoke Shotaro meekly, feeling slightly better.
“It’s alright. But was that all what happened to Masao?” Continued Rin in a polite manner.
“I don’t know much. Since I got placed in another section after that semester. But I heard that he was involved in a serious accident.” Mumbled Shotaro.
“What kind of accident?” Asked Rin out of sheer curiosity.
“Keiya Shiihashi. The guy who transferred to our school in the 5th year. Just after joining our school, I heard that he and Masao became bestfriends.”
“I heard that he also defended Masao and protected him. And I could tell just by looking that after Keiya’s arrival, Masao was freed from bullying. Keiya being a really good footballer probably also encouraged Masao to play football. And that’s how Masao even started to play football during his 5th year of elementary school.”
“However, in that same year, something terrible happened to Keiya.”
While speaking such, Shotaro then stopped all of a sudden. With his face turning pale, he then struggled to speak anything.
Curious about Keiya, Rin questioned, “What happened to him?”
“He…. Was…. Murdered.” Shotaro shuddered.
As Shotaro mentioned about murder, the ambience around them got silent all of a sudden.
“Murdered??” Mumbled Rin with his eyes wide open and mouth agape.
Hiro who was sitting just beside Rin kept his poker face and didn’t show any changes in his facial expression.
“Yeah!! Although the teachers and other staff members tried to control the spread of the information as much as they could. The news regarding Keiya’s murder was still spread all over the school.”
“Although because of the teacher’s efforts the news didn’t become a big issue. And eventually a lot of students even forgot about that incident.”
“But I still don’t get it. How was Masao involved in that incident?” Interrupted Rin.
“Masao was with Keiya when Keiya was murdered. The incident happened in an abandoned alleyway. I heard that they had agreed to meet each other after school to play some football and because of that Keiya was waiting for Masao in the alleyway during the evening time.”
“Unfortunately a psychopath serial killer was also roaming around that area at that time. And I heard that Masao was there when the killer was stabbing Keiya.”
“Although I’m not sure if that’s what happened. But I heard that when the killer was just about to finish his killing by chopping Keiya’s fingers, Masao arrived at the scene. And as soon as he saw Keiya’s body covered with wounds and bloods, Masao started to scream. Hearing Masao’s painful scream, the people living down in the alleyway quickly hurried towards them.”
“And that alerted the killer. So he had to escape in a hurry. However because of that rush, he forgot to carry his weapon and bag. And thus he couldn’t completely erase the evidence.”
“Because of the killer’s carelessness, he got caught later. And only after he was caught, it was known that the killer was a 38 year old salaryman. Neatly dressed in office uniform, one could hardly tell that he was such a ruthless killer.”
“From his house the police confiscated 17 finger of kids of different age positioned in some kind of weirdly drawn magic circle. As if he was some kind of cultist, his house was filled with books related to magic and weirdly drawn circles with human fingers. That psychopath had killed 18 people including Keiya and he was obsessed with fingers.”
Mentioning everything which he knew about the incident, Shotaro then stopped talking to catch a moment of breather.
As Shotaro mentioned about the deeds of the psychopath a shiver ran down Hiro’s spine.
“Damn!! He had to go through such terrible experience as a kid.” Mumbled Hiro feeling concerned about Masao after hearing about the incident.
“Indeed!! He didn’t even attend school for almost about a month after that incident. And Masato and the other bullies made it even worse. They took their bullying even further by mentioning about the incident. They even started to joke about incident.”
While speaking such, Shotaro then clenched his fist. His face started to turn red as he arched his brows and gnashed his teeth. He then while gritting his teeths, squeezed some words out of his mouth, “I wish… Instead of…. Keiya…. It should…. Have…. Been.. them.”
Just by looking at Shotaro’s face and listening to Shotaro’s words, Hiro could tell just how much Shotaro loathed those bullies.
Rin who was sitting beside him had almost the same reaction as that of Shotaro. He too was angry about the behaviour of those bullies.
“It’s totally natural for you to feel such way towards those bullies. And I’m not saying that you shouldn’t feel that way either. But if you say such, then will there be any difference between you and them?” Questioned Hiro while trying to reassure Shotaro.
Since Hiro believed that hatred will only sprout further hatred, Hiro wanted to free Shotaro from the shackles of hatred and revenge.
“How could you be so calm even after hearing about such evil deeds Hiro?” Intoned Rin with somewhat irritated face.
“I’m angry and my blood’s boiling as well Rin. And I won’t deny that their deeds were wrong. But Rin remember, hatred will turn into revenge. And that revenge will further breed misfortunes.” Spoke Hiro.
“Then nobody should punish them for such deeds?” Exasperated Rin.
“They should be punished. No, they must be punished. Either by god or by someone else.” Mumbled Hiro while looking Rin in the eyes.
“But you should probably apologize to Masao and move on. You’ve got your future ahead. You need to think of your parents. They’ve sacrificed a lot for you. So don’t waste your time and disturb your mind with thoughts of those bullies.” Continued Hiro while turning his gaze towards Shotaro.