The next few weeks had been uneventful to say the least. After a week, it looks like all the girls grew tired of harassing me. My everyday became as ordinary as possible, which is fine with me, I had enough drama to last the whole year.
Angel and I are waiting for Shin in the garden of the school so we could have lunch together. Being in different departments made it hard for us to hang out in a daily basis. So, we could only have lunch together once a week, for two-hour break during lunch time so we always make sure that we would spend that time together.
"What's taking your boyfriend so long? I am dying of hunger here!" I complained to Angel.
"It's not like him to be this late without telling me." Angel replied with a little worry on her voice.
We waited for a few more minutes, but no Shin came. I, too, started to get worried. It's really out of character for him to not tell neither Angel or me that he isn't coming as planned. So, we went straight to the Architecture building to look for him.
When we got there, we actually didn't know where to start looking. Angel pulled out her phone and looked at Shin's schedule then we started looking for the room for his last class, but we got even more lost.
"Looking for me sweetheart?" I heard a voice behind me. The same deep, smooth and calming voice that I haven't heard since I declined his offer.
I spun around and was greeted by the smiling face of none other than Vin. I just stared at him, it's the first time I've seen him up close and the longer I stared at him, the more amazed I was of how perfect his features are. From his perfectly tousled messy hair, his thick arched eyebrows, to his dark brown eyes full of playfulness, to his perfectly sculpted nose, up until his reddish kissable lips smiling at me.
"Like what you're seeing sweetheart?" He asked me with a smirk that pulled me out from my dazed state.
I stepped back from him then stood at Angel's side. I composed myself the best I could then cleared my throat. He just stared at us still looking for answers with that same teasing look in his eyes. I cleared my throat again before speaking.
"Actually, no. We're looking for Shin. Shinichi Kudo Nakamora. Maybe you've heard of him. We've been waiting for him of almost half an hour now, but we haven't heard from him yet." I asked him trying my best not to make my voice tremble.
But before he could answer me, I already saw Shin walking towards us, but something is wrong. As he got closer, I realized what's wrong, and before I could even react, Angel was already rushing towards him.
He looks bad to put it nicely. He was holding an ice pack to his face, while limping forward. His collar looks like it was pulled with such force that it lost its flexibility. There were also visible red marks in his shirt that looks like blood, his hair was in a mess and he was dragging his bag as he walks. I saw him flinched as Angel held his shoulder.
"What happened?" Angel asked immediately when she got closer to Shin. She inspected him closely, her eyes darting back and forth to every bruise that was Visible in Shin's body. I rushed towards them and gave Shin a look of curiosity and worry. He looked right back at me and I already knew what that look means. I guess it something that we couldn't discuss with Angel.
"Let's have that cleaned up." I said diverting both their attention. I pulled both him and Angel towards the nearest bench and brought out a mini medical kit I always keep with me since we were eleven years old. He sat between me and Angel and we both started cleaning his wounds from both sides of him. Both me and Shin were quiet while cleaning up his wounds, but Angel was not. She was hysterically questioning Shin about every detail that happened to him, but he still refused to tell her the whole story.
"I just had a misunderstanding with a classmate." He just answered simply to her, without any explanation.
"And it ended with you limping and covered in bruises and wounds? Just what the hell were you fighting about?" She continued pursuing her curiosity that made Shin speechless. Looked at me pleading, he gave me his "HELP ME" look. I nodded to him then faced Angel.
"Come on Angel. I guess boy will be boys. You know how they are, they solve everything with their fists rather than their brains." I said to her trying my best to smile and laugh it off. Hoping that she wouldn't trace the awkwardness in my laughs. Fortunately, Angel did calm down a bit, so I took that opportunity to speak again.
"We still have time to eat. Let's go?" I asked cheerfully and smiled at them. They followed me without any questions and finally we had our lunch.
My last class was cancelled so I hitched a ride with Shin and Angel. We dropped her off at her house and as Angel got inside the house, I moved to the front seat and then we drove off home. Silence filled the car as we drove down the streets. I waited for him to say something and explain everything to me, but it looks like he doesn't have any intention to speak up, so I did.
"So, what really is the story?" I bluntly asked him.
"Later. Please?" he pleaded to me. It looks like she's still looking for the right words to tell me exactly what happened.
"Just assure me that you're not reverting to old habits, Shin. You're making me nervous right now." I said to him while still maintaining my gaze on the road in front of us. We were never the sort of friends who forces each other to share stories and opinions but somehow, we always do, when we're ready.
We tried our best to circle around that topic and talk about anything else. It's been a while since we spent time with just the two of us. We filled each other in about the crazy happenings we experienced during our first week of being college students. I really enjoyed this kind of moments that we share, it really solidifies that no matter how things go and how everything changes, we would always have one constant thing in our lives other than our family, each other.
"You know, Vin seems okay." He said all of a sudden after listening to my rants about the disaster-filled first week that I had.
"I don't know. He's difficult to read and very unpredictable. I admit that he could be sweet at times, but most of the time he makes me want to punch him in the mouth." I said, punching my palm to express my sentiment which just made him laugh.
"He actually seems to like you very much. He pays attention to you more than all the other girls that keeps following him. He might be good for you." He said to me while looking at me knowingly. I stayed quiet knowing that I he could rebut everything that I could say to him. Realizing this, he laughed earning a death glare from me.
"I actually had a chance to talk to him. He actually has some brain in that head of his. To be honest, he's easy to talk to." He added after he was able to control his laugh.
"Maybe to guys, but not to girls. Haven't you heard the rumors about him?" I began and when he stayed silence I continued.
"He can get any girl that he wants, without even lifting a finger. To top it off, he doesn't even think twice in dumping them. So, as much as I want to appreciate all the things, he did for me, I don't want to get caught up with someone that wouldn't take a relationship seriously." I added in a slightly disappointed tone.
"So, you admit. That you might have the slightest feelings for Vin?" he asked me or more likely stated that he already knows the answers to his questions and smiled at me annoyingly.
I maintained my silence, lacking all the right words to speak my mind. Am I really attracted to that player? Maybe I'm infatuated, lots of girls are attracted to the bad boy type, right? It's just a phase. It's just a phase. It's just a phase. I kept repeating in my head, trying to make myself believe those words. Is it really just a phase? asked a small voice in my mind. I shook my head to erase that thought. And kept thinking those word again and again, it's just a phase.
The car then stopped, I looked out the window and realized that Shin has already parked his car in their garage. I opened the car door and got out of the car while Shin was still arranging his things.
"Thanks Kudo!" I told him as I closed the car door behind me.
"I hate you!" He called out to me as he got out of the car and I was walking towards their gate.
"Love you too Kudo!" I called back to him while laughing and made a run towards my house before he could even raise a finger a throw anything his holding at me.
I just finished taking a shower when I received a message from Shin.
{Treehouse now.}
I grabbed my hair brush off my vanity and went out to the treehouse. As I got there, Shin was already waiting for me. I looked at him closely, eyeing him for some answers, but he refused to meet my eyes. I sat beside him, just waiting for him to speak up.
"I'm not reverting back to the old me Mitch. If that's what you're worried about." He said after a few minutes of silence. I looked back at him in the eyes and saw that he's still hesitating to tell me everything, so I pried.
"Then what happened earlier? It's been years since the last time you fought with anyone. Not since..." I couldn't finish what I was saying, knowing that talking about those memories were just going to hurt the both of us.
"I know, and I don't plan to go back to that." He said looking very conflicted.
"I overheard some guys talking about you. They were saying that you might be great in bed since you have Vin wrapped around your fingers. Then they started pulling me and Angel in their conversation, saying that I was a lucky son of a b*tch because they said that I could get the two of you anytime I wanted. It pissed me off then I blacked out. It was too late when I came out of the trance, I already punched one of those jerks. They ganged up on me, then ran away when we heard footsteps coming towards us."
Guilt suddenly consumed me, I can't believe that I even doubted him. I should have known better than think that he would ever do that again.
"Sorry." I murmured with my head down. "You should have told me earlier. I know Angel would understand." I told him trying to comfort him the best I could.
"I don't want her to get worried." He answered to me.
"You still have to tell her. You didn't do anything wrong. She'll understand." I reassured him and gave him my biggest encouraging smile.
"Fine. Fine, but let me tell her." He said getting up and headed down from the treehouse.
"And Mitch thanks. Good night!" He said with the big smile on his face. This best friend of mine, he's still handsome even with a bruise on his face and cut on his lips.
I just shook my head and smiled to myself while watching him go inside his house. Gosh, I'll do anything for that guy. I mean, not in a romantic love kind of way, it's a lot stronger than that, it's brotherly love and I know that he feels the same towards me. We had so much history between us. We've been through so much together from happy and beautiful memories to our darkest times and deepest secrets, memories and secrets the we both just want to bury so deep that no one could ever know about them.
After staying for a few more minutes to collect my thought, I went straight back to my room sat in front of my vanity and did my usual routine before turning off the lights then jumping to my bed and cuddled my favorite teddy bear. My eyes were closed and I was already drifting off to sleep when I heard my phone beep. I reached for my phone on top of my night stand then opened my eyes slowly. When my eyes fully adjust to the light emitted by my phone, I opened the message I just received. My immediately sat up when I read the message.
{I guess old habits are not easy to get rid of.}
I scrolled down through the message, I was speechless. My body went cold, stiff and numb. I couldn't breathe properly. My sight became cloudy as tears started to form in my eyes. I was shocked, scared, confused and is in total disarray because of what I saw. Along with that already confusing message was three photos. The first photo was off a bunch of students having a fist fight and Shin was one of those students, it seems new so I guess this was just taken this morning. The second photo was a bit older one, judging my its resolution, it might have been taken with an old camera photo. It too showed bunch of students fighting, but this time the students looks fairly young, I only recognized two people in that photo. One is Shin and the other guy was one of our closest friends before. The last one sent shiver down my spine, the tears that formed in my eyes begun to roll down my cheeks at a fast pace and I have no control on them what-so-ever. I was a picture of a cut out from a newspaper dated ten years ago. Even though the face was blurred and pixelated, I recognized the picture immediately. It was the same guy with Shin on the other picture and written on top of that picture, in big bold letters was the title of the front page article.
SEVERE SCHOOL BULLYING LEAD TO ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.