"Ouch! Hey!" She was resisting my pull, but the power difference made it impossible for her to free herself.
Her friends, presumably from another school, had no knowledge of what transpired between us. Perhaps, in their eyes, a boy being forceful towards a girl was something interesting, that they didn't bother to help Laras at all. Instead, they were whistling to tease her.
Her friends were reacting as such because they misunderstood the situation. It was quite poor of Laras to not get the expected response from her friends, but it was not a thing I should care about.
"Stop this!" Laras wailed as I dragged her.
I had no intention to comply with her demand, no matter how pitiful she sounded. I asked her to delete the damned video in the group chat, yet she didn't comply. Why would she expect me to be kind to her? How absurd.
With great effort, I took her to the place with the least human traffic, the teacher's room. To be exact, right outside of it. I looked around the vicinity, ensuring that no one would see us.
"You savage! Get your hand off my wrist!"
Laras retaliated to get away from me. But it was impossible. I grabbed her by her shoulder and turned in a way that wouldn't let her escape. In such a quick moment, I cornered her into the wall.
I slammed my other hand on the wall right beside her ear. The sudden loud noise of rage made Laras flinch. Without further ado, I make my case. "Why the heck are you bullying her!?"
Once again, Laras flinched at my voice that borders on shouting. She looked at me in irritation, but slowly her eyes showed signs of tears. "So what? It has nothing to do with you." She said, still not going to back down.
I slammed my hand on the wall for the second time to intimidate her. There was a need for her to know her place. "Nothing to do with me? I'm her friend!"
Just like that, Laras mouth was shut tight. Perhaps she finally understood that I was in a superior position to her, that she stopped struggling to get away from me.
"Bully her again, and I'll mess you up." I pressed on with the intimidation.
Most bullying was done because there was a perceived power difference. Shakira's submissive and peace-keeping tendency, presumably, was seen by Laras as a weakness. That perception led her to keep targeting Shakira. In an attempt to fix that power imbalance, I made it known to Laras that Shakira has friends willing to fight for her.
"O... o-okay." Laras said in a weak voice. Her clear eyes were on the verge of leaking, but she held it in.
I was unsure if the message I had intended to convey was transmitted correctly into her brain, but at least I tried. And I got to vent my anger to the appropriate person.
"Now, delete that video from your phone." I commanded.
Right away, Laras took out her phone and slid her thumb around the screen, with me peeking at it.
"D-done."
"Great," I said, glaring straight at the marbles in her head. "Remember that I won't tolerate further aggression." I told her once again to etch in her mind my actions in the future.
Thus, believing that she won't have the courage to continue her bullying, I decided to leave her there and continue with my activities.
But then, before I even had the chance to leave, a female voice came from the direction of the teacher's room. "Oh. My. God."
Upon hearing that voice, Laras and I turned our heads toward the source of the sound. Before even knowing who had interrupted my confrontation with Laras, my head was smacked with a binder.
"What the hell are you two doing here all alone!?" The female teacher, Ms. Atika, asked with judging eyes.
Perhaps she misunderstood what had transpired between me and Laras. And that misunderstanding was what earned me a smack in the head. While it wasn't painful, it was quite unjust. With an intent to defend myself, I said, "It's not like what you think, miss."
However, let alone being listened to, my head was smacked once again. "Don't talk back."
I shut my mouth. When authority descended, there was no way for justice to be held.
Ms. Atika shifted her gaze from me to Laras and proceeded to smack her in the head. "And you. What the heck are you thinking? Don't give yourself to that wolf's lust!"
Huh?
There can nothing be more stray than calling me a wolf in lust. I was only cornering Laras to the wall. Moreover, my eyes shot daggers at her, not flowers. How could it be called lust?
"Miss, that's not what happened." I said, trying to defend myself once again.
"Shut up," Ms. Atika quickly turned to look me in the eyes with a scary face. She shook her head in disbelief and spoke, "Kids these days... If I find you two all alone again, I'll make sure to punish both of you. Scram away!" Ms. Atika shouted while gesturing for us to leave.
Immediately after, Laras and I turned our bodies away from Ms. Atika and returned to the crowd. With disgust toward Laras still lingering inside me, I walked away from her without saying a thing.
Now that my intention has been realized... Then what? On second thought, what had transpired wasn't a clear solution to the problem. Shakira would still be scarred by the things Laras did to her. There was no clear vision of what would become of her in the future. Moreover, while Laras did delete the video, there were a high chance other people who had accessed the video kept it on their phones. A clear example was Jiwo before I asked him to remove it.
While unsure of what my action led to, I was confident that it surely made an impact. I had to be confident, or else anxiety would creep in due to other variables I hadn't considered.
'I should discuss with Indah what we have to do in the future.'
Or so I thought at first, before realizing that she wasn't here. To be precise, there was no contact between me and her at all. Whether in school or on the phone, we weren't in touch with each other.
And her absence changed my view of her a little. When Shakira was in dire need of support, there was no news from Indah.
Could she be ditching Shakira, now that the problem took a turn for the worse?
Similarly, negative thoughts budded within. The more I listened to these thoughts, the less respect I got for Indah.
I was busy having a debate with my mind on the bench until someone else called my name.
"Hey, bro."
As the familiar sound disrupted my deep thinking, I shifted my eyes from unconsciously staring at the ground to the person calling me. It was Kim.
As he took the vacant seat right beside me, I said to him, "Oh, hi. I met the person."
"Yeah, I knew," He said, with fingers on his beardless chin and closed eyes. "I saw you with her moments ago."
I wondered why he posed like that, but probably it was the time for his antique. Sometimes he is just being peculiar like an autistic person.
"Thanks for your help. And, sorry for troubling you." I said to him to conclude his task.
"No problem at all. But man," He said as he lightly shook his head to induce self-confusion. "I can't believe you've finally indulged yourself in romance."
"What the heck are you talking about? It's not what it seemed like."
"I'm unconvinced."
Kim was obviously teasing me. Alas, I wasn't in the mood for it. His response made me twitch a bit in anger, but I tried my best to repress it. "Whatever suits you, man."
Upon hearing my response, Kim went silent for a while, creating awkwardness in the air. It was quite bad of me to do that, but I'd rather keep the silence out of hardheadedness than apologize.
"You're especially grumpy today." Kim said, breaking the silence.
To confirm his statement, I decided not to flap my mouth anymore. Thus, another silence befell us. I said nothing else, and Kim didn't talk to me. Probably out of consideration for me to calm my mind.
Upon further inspection, a similar thing happened back then during middle school. In the past, Kim was subjected to bullying. The motive was jealousy, given how popular he was with the girls. The bullying was quite apparent since Kim was being physically harmed.
It was quite normal for boys to get physical, but when it became way beyond what's tolerable, I went to fight the bullies. The confrontation was quite chaotic, but the matter was resolved quickly since Kim got many people to support him. At the end of the fight, I went into a silent mode to calm myself, and Kim would just be there without saying a thing. Much like what happened at the moment.
But that was the case of bullying for boys, where the aggression was direct. In comparison, girls' bullying was mostly indirect and psychological. That one would hold true in the case of Laras and Shakira. That was why I was put in a pickle since I didn't really understand the viewpoint of a girl.
That was also why there was a need to rely on Indah. But reality is often disappointing. There was no news at all from her. Much less even if she got anything done today. As a result, I got to do what I thought was the right call. Whether it was effective or not, I had to let time show the result.
"So..." I spoke to Kim again after some minutes of silence, now that my anger has subsided. "How many places have you visited?"
Glad that my emotions had stabilized, Kim put on a faint smile and said, "Not much. Mind giving me a tour?"
I stood up from the bench to stretch my body a bit, readying myself for the task given by Kim. "Yeah, sure. Let's go."