When Ira and Esecleus left the infirmary, one of the nursing students, the taller puffy cheek one, immediately made a phone call using her own phone. She punched in the number of the receiver and then dialed. A few seconds after beeping and waiting for the call to get an answer, the person on the other line picked up the call.
"Hello, Dr. Flores speaking."
"Ah, Doctor, the student I said to you earlier had just left."
"Okay, did he take the pill? How was he feeling?"
"He says he was perfectly fine. Also, compared to when he first came, the student did not seem sick anymore after taking the pill."
"Did he say anything about the chest pain?"
"He mentioned nothing, although his friend did say he was feeling a tightening on his chest."
"Hmm..."
There was a minute of silence on the other line but speaks immediately after.
"Thanks for the information. Just call me when someone with the same
pain comes again."
Doctor Flores ended the call, and the nursing student went back to what she was doing earlier, organizing records of students' records in the infirmary.
The doctor lazily shrank back to his swivel chair, pondering on his thoughts.
"I should call her."
***
Allen De Guzman, the leader of the group, pulled Ira's shirt to drag him back to his front. He is one of those athletic type men, full of himself just because he is good at something, and would think he is superior to people like us, normal and just minding their own business.
"I bet these two just made an excuse to cut classes!"
"Ah, uh, my shirt."
Three of his lackeys, Ivan, Robert, and Sean was laughing at Ira as Allen dragged him back. They surrounded him while I stood behind them near the door to our classroom.
"Where do you think you are going, fatso?" asked Robert, in his mouth was a toothpick, fiddling on it using his teeth and tongue.
Ivan leaned closer to Ira but immediately jerked his head away, face in disgust, as twisted as possible.
"I almost threw up! You fucking smell like spoiled vinegar!"
"Is there a spoiled vinegar?"
"Now that you have said it, Sean, Ira does smell bad!"
All three lackeys quickly moved to get away from Ira's smelly odor, but Allen remained standing right before him, looking down on the nose-picking Ira.
The latter does not even give a fuck about Allen and his group, which made me admire Ira.
"Don't we all smell? We just have different body odor."
Disgustingly, Ira rolled his booger using his thumb and index finger, then flicked it away. All five of us saw what Ira did, and I won't deny that I found it gross.
"Look at this fatso not even giving a damn care about us!"
Robert almost lost it. If it was not for Allen, Ira must have been punched by the annoyed stupid man by now. However, Ira would not let himself get smack in the face without hitting back.
"Your temper, Robert. Had you hit the fatso, I bet you would not be laughing after that."
Allen saw Ira's right fist clenched right after Robert took a few steps forward to him.
"Fatso, hey, look at me."
Forcefully, Allen grabbed Ira's head and made him look up to his eye to eye.
'He is strong!' Ira thought, slightly surprised at how powerful Allen's grip was.
"Look, we are not here to cause trouble, okay?"
Ira struggled against Allen's grip, but he could not shake him off.
"Then what the hell do you want?!"
Suddenly, Allen smites Ira's cheek. It was slightly strong enough for it to make a sound, which our classmates who were talking to each other
heard.
Some of them saw what happened but turned a blind eye, while those who did not see what Allen did and what caused the sound wondered what was going on.
Enraged, Ira cursed Allen and was about to hit him back when Robert and Sean held both of his arms.
"How dare you raise your hands against me!"
Loudly, the slap reverberated in the hallway, and now, everyone was a witness to the slapping.
Allen's anger did not stop there. He then punched Ira in the abdomen
after slapping him and kicking him in the face when he was down on his knees. I was about to help Ira, but Ivan got in my way.
"You don't wanna get hurt too, do you? If so, just stand here and watch, or we might break those twigs arms of yours."
I immediately knew I would not be spared if I ever tried to step in to help Ira. My feet froze on the floor, helpless and completely useless. I just stood there and watched Ira get hit a few more until Allen and his lackeys left to the cafeteria.
"Argh! M-My nose is bleeding!"
My pathetic help immediately helped Ira stand up. He was right. His nose was bleeding, and both of his cheeks were red from being smitten.
"I'm sorry, Ira," I mumbled to him, embarrassed of my own cowardly self.
"I'm sorry I could not help you."
Even though he was in pain, he still found the strength to smile at me, which almost broke my damn heart. Ira just made me realize even more how coward I was.
"I saw, Clause. You tried to help me, didn't you?"
"But I could not do anything."
"That much was enough Clause. If you had stepped in, you would have suffered the same thing I am feeling right now. You might get it even worse. This much is fine! I have experienced worse than this."
No, stop smiling, Ira! If you smile any longer... I don't know... I don't know what I might do!
I clenched my fist to suppress my anger and closed my eyes to ease up my mind and clear my head of such thoughts. When I opened my eyes, I forced an awry smile on my face and suggested he wash his nose.
"In the end, no one tried to stop them except for you, eh?"
I patted Ira on his back and said, "don't worry, fatso, we will definitely get back on them."
"Ah, Clause is being a bully right now, calling me fatso!"
"Ehhh? Did I?"
~