"To tell you the truth, my situation is far different than the others. I have a loving family. My parents love me a lot and they support me in whatever I am doing nor planning to do in the future. This is why I am not bothered by their words at all since I knew that they are not true..."
"From what I can see, these people are nothing but a bunch of demons who take joy in the misery of others. It doesn't matter if what they are saying is the truth or not, they will spin stories that would end up making you look bad, and when they see that look of defeat and misery on your face, they will think that they had won..."
"But with the teachers observing their every move, they don't dare to go too far. This is the reason why I wasn't fighting them at all. I knew that once they get bored of my lackluster reactions, they wouldn't bother about me anymore. Calvin, I advise you to not pick a fight with them at all... Those people... They knew other people outside the school..."
"They may bring their friends from outside the school and fight with you."
Calvin was speechless and felt depressed reading the content of the note.
He knew that Leonard had long lost the will to fight. They believed that for as long as they endured everything; all the suffering that they were undergoing at this moment would come to pass and they would soon reach their salvation. His decision to endure everything might've sounded logical and right for other people but for Calvin it was different.
The experience of being bullied and being treated worse than trash would be carved into their bones and transform into a devil that they could never vanquish.
In the future, once they grew older...
They may deny the experience in their hearts, but they would still remember each and every moment of that experience.
Calvin fell silent.
Leonard surreptitiously glanced at Calvin and after seeing his silence. He thought that Calvin was still unconvinced, so he passed over a second note: "Just endure everything... Don't pay any attention to them, don't give them the reaction that they are looking for, and treat them like air. It'll be over soon..."
"If you dare to resist them and change the status quo of this place, you may end up like Kevin."
"Who is that?"
"Kevin is the person who previously sat on your chair and previously used your desk."
"I replaced him? Where is he now?"
"He dropped out of school. But he's still in the infirmary, recuperating..." Leonard hurriedly passed another note to Calvin that said, "Let's just be glad that he already found his escape, we shouldn't disturb him."
Calvin didn't reply anymore.
He swept his gaze at his desk and chair.
After taking a good look, he realized that his desk and chair were in worse condition than the chairs and desks of the others.
It was even worse than Leonard who was currently being bullied by those students. Judging from the chipped areas of the desk and the chair as well as the heavy vandalized surface of the desk.
It was obvious that the target of these bullies was originally Kevin.
Compared to Leonard, Kevin's fate was even worse.
Of course, it was obviously because Leonard was just a replacement for Kevin.
Staring at the condition of the desk and chair that he was using, Calvin could somewhat imagine Kevin's tragedy.
"Are the bullies the reason why he's in the infirmary?" Calvin asked. He didn't know why but hearing Kevin's story made him incredibly angry. Glancing at Ziya who seemed to be in the same situation as Leonard and Kevin. Calvin had the urge to protect the gorgeous little girl.
"No... That's not it." Leonard rigorously shook his head. Tearing off a page of his notebook, he wrote his answer and hurled it at Calvin in the form of a crumpled paper.
Calvin opened the crumpled ball of paper.
"They weren't physically harming Kevin...
"However, they targeted every possession that he had. His textbooks were torn into pieces, his notebooks full of notes in the class were drenched in water..."
"They even smashed his desk to the point that it looked like it was about to collapse and they also doodled all over his chair, clothes, P.E uniform and shoes..."
"Why would they do something like that? Are the teachers in this school really that irresponsible?" Calvin asked. He didn't know why, but he felt that he must protect and help this Kevin along with Leonard and Ziya.
Despite the fact that his objective was to find a way out of this place, Calvin had no hesitation when it came to deciding if he should help the three or not.
The answer that he had in his mind was simple and straightforward.
It was the only answer that he could possibly have with his personality.
And that was to help them!
Now that the rice was starting to cook, then there was no stopping anymore.
Calvin planned on digging deep into everything so long as he could rescue the three.
At this moment, Leonard's answer reached Calvin's hands.
"Don't even mention the teachers here, they are absolutely useless. As for why they are bullying Kevin, to be honest. I have no idea. Kevin comes from an ordinary and average family just like you and me. The only difference that he had from the others was that he was quite prideful..."
"He disdained to be with those people who often laughed at the expense of others. Perhaps those sick bastards found it amusing to trample on his little pride. What they were doing must've satisfied some kind of a disgusting fantasy in their grotesque hearts."
"Kevin was an overachiever. But due to the constant bullying. His results became a downward spiral."
"His parents were anxious for results, the bullying was constant, and the teachers started ignoring him."
"Until one day..."
"Kevin resisted."
"When someone tried to grab his math textbook, he resisted against the pull of the attacker. Unfortunately, since he was only a single person and his enemies surrounded him. He was soon pummeled and pinned onto the ground. Because it happened in the classroom, the teacher saw what happened and quickly separated both parties."
"Kevin thought at that moment that it was probably the right time to speak up for himself."
"But he couldn't be more wrong."
"Kevin spoke up but the teacher refused to listen to him..."
"Instead, he asked everyone what had happened."
"However, the loner Kevin had no friends at all and so, none of the witnesses spoke up for him. Those who explained what happened were the bullies and they twisted the narrative to their advantage..."
"They told the teacher that what happened was just a small joke between friends and it was Kevin who suddenly went mad and started punching them. They said that Kevin was too prideful. He couldn't take a joke and that he was the one who started it all."
"In the end, the teacher punished everyone including Kevin."
"Kevin had to write several thousands of words worth of essay apologizing for what he did, and so did the bullies. But for the bullies, writing an essay like this was a daily occurrence. But for Kevin, it was something different. I reckon that it was the first time that Kevin probably felt so helpless..."
"Since he was seating beside Ziya who is behind me, I saw him pretend to be asleep while bawling his eyes out. When school started the next day, I found that his face was swollen and his eyes were blackened. I heard from the others that he was accosted by the gangsters outside the school when he was about to go home the other day..."
"This event further exacerbated his depression and his academic results became worse and worse. The teachers don't even speak his name anymore to take his attendance. It was as if he didn't matter. No one would miss him, and nothing would change even if he disappeared..."
"He had no friends, and due to his bad academic results. He was placed on the second to the last row of seats in the class, behind him sat his bullies and he was constantly bullied once again. No one stood up for him because all of them were afraid of being targeted and bullied like him."
"This continued on, until one morning..."
"Kevin came to school as usual."
"He was bullied once again, his notes that he painstakingly took for the math class the last day was drenched with water by the bullies. They sarcastically apologized to him, saying that they didn't mean it and that it was an accident. At that time, Kevin merely smiled and obediently nodded his head."
"But when the bullies turned around..."
"Kevin whipped out a knife."