I, personally, find the term "school thug" incredibly rude.
And tasteless.
I have seen thugs, coming from an especially dodgy area of the city. They are loud, unreasonable and especially smelly. Even the cleanest of them always have the suffocating smell of cheap alcohol. They beat weak people up but the moment police or someone sturdy shows up, they scatter and hide like cockroaches.
But if there is a word I hate more than "school thug," it will be "tomboy."
No questions asked.
And that is why—
"Wu… Wu…"
"Did you just stop counting, you little shit?"
"Wu… Senior… P-Please let us go… We are s-sorry…"
"Oh really? You're sorry?"
"(hic)…Yess…"
"Do you think your sorry means shit to me?"
I took a long drag from the cigarette between my fingers, looking down at the two sniveling figures in distaste.
"Boss!"
I turned towards the voice and watch as a bottle bleached boy came running down the hallway. He stopped by my side with an ugly grin and offered up the cargo in his hands.
"I got your favorite chocolate milk. It was the last one but luckily, one of my little brothers managed to snag it." He boasted with a groveling smile.
I reluctantly plucked it out of his sweaty hands.
"Where is Jun and the others?" I asked, placing the small carton on the ledge.
"Ah, I saw them by the entrance just now. Maybe they already went to the class." He scratched his head clumsily.
"Hm." I turned back to the two crying boys.
"S-Senior… Wuuu…."
"Tsk. If I catch you call me a tomboy ever again…" I narrowed my eyes dangerously. "Scram!"
As though granted amnesty from hellfire, the two scrambled up and sprinted away in record speed. I scoffed.
"Boss, did they offend you?" Bottle blonde, nicknamed Hammer, asked with furrowed brows.
"Leave them." I turned around to walk down the hallway. "Not worth the detention."
"Oh, yes."
He picked the milk carton and hurried after me. After pausing to snuff out the cigarette and get rid of the evidence, both of us cruised towards our classroom leisurely. Just as we were entering the classroom, I heard my name being called.
"Xueyin!"
There was only one person in the entirety of the school who dared to call me by my given name. That was my childhood friend, Jun. As I expected, I caught Jun's tall frame walk towards me from the opposing hallway.
"Hey, where were you?" I crossed my arm and leaned on the doorway. "Didn't see you in the break."
"Yeah, about that." He stopped a little away and spoke softly. "Did you check the forums?"
"School forum?" I raised a brow. "Why should I?"
"The opposing basketball team captain put up a post saying that we are a bunch of pussies they can beat anytime and last time was a fluke. Some team members fought with a bunch of guys from their team last night."
"Ho?" I smiled in amusement.
I never bothered about what that braggart who relied on his daddy's money said. Sore losers were a dime a dozen, just that this one was particularly annoying.
"Did we win?" I asked.
Jun hesitated. "We did but a couple of their guys had their head split open and had to get stitches. I heard from a few of my contacts from the other school that they are planning to complain." He paused. "Formally."
"They're going to bitch and moan to the judges now?" I sneered. "Like that's going to get them the championship."
"Yeah but they can get us disqualified for disorderly conduct."
I contemplated silently, my eyes lidded. He was right. This case can escalate to us being disqualified for the finals. I can't afford to let my efforts go down the drain because of that shithead. The hell if my pride will allow it.
"Get Tian and the rest. Meet us at the west gate in 15 minutes." I said to Hammer. His eyes widened.
"What about the class?"
"This your first time skipping one?" I fired back. "If so, why don't you join the disciplinary committee?"
"N-No… I will get them right away!" He didn't hesitate to toss the milk in Jun's direction and flee.
"We have math, you know? Mr. Kai will notice your empty table." Jun remarked as he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and started to diligently clean the carton in his hands.
"That's why I have you, Student Council President." I grinned mischievously.
Jun chuckled in amusement and handed me the clean carton. I was not polite, I plucked it out of his hand and stabbed the straw to drink it.
"Let's go."
We made a beeline towards the west gate and was outside before the final bell to classes rang. Few of the most tallest and heaviest of our basketball team met us there.
From there, we left for the convenience store where the private school students hangs out.
"Oi, call that bastard Ye here." I announced to a few freshmen wearing their uniform. "Tell him that Empress is here."
The freshmen boys left in a hurry, so I was sure that we weren't the only ones looking for contact.
Truth is, my enmity with this guy didn't just start with the basketball team I assembled. It dated long back to middle school where me, Jun and him—Ye Fei—played RPG games together. We were relatively friendly with each other till we started playing War Of Victors together.
It is an immensely popular strategy game where you have to navigate an open game world and battle each other for resources. What made it so famous was that the game world had an impressively detailed storyline that runs throughout and complicated game events where you can win all or lose all.
Back then the game had just released and the hype wasn't as strong. Anybody could have formed a guild and made it to the guild charts. Hell, I knew a few of us who straight up formed kingdoms back then.
This was before the developers thought of a little something called "game balance." So, the three of us formed independent guilds and thought nothing of it.
And then it tuned competitive.
The kind where you can earn money.
And I was hooked.
Just the thought of being able to earn money to spend while playing video game was incredibly attractive to me.
And so our friendship was put to test against the massive temptation and fierce competition. Needless to say, it didn't last. While Jun and I decided to form alliance, Ye Fei turned against us. We fought at every turn till the bitter end in the game so much so that our guild members would start a fight as soon as they are in the same map.
That resentment eventually bled into reality when his family decided to send him to private high school and Jun and I went to public high school.
Now we are in our senior year and here we are—still playing the same game and fighting just like in the game in reality.
See, honestly, I hated him for not understanding my side of the story. His and Jun's parents were rich. They didn't need the money from WOV if they wanted to buy a nice shirt. But my parent were not. I had to wait till my next birthday to have something nice.
And so the money from WOV meant everything to a 14 year old me.
Everyone calls me a tomboy but I like dressing up like any other girl. And I never asked him to give up everything, I just wished he would not follow me to whichever event I decide to participate just to bother me.
Jun understood.
Why didn't he?
So, yeah. I might have an extra grudge against that bastard.
"Ho, look at the outlaws from Public School."
Speak of the devil and he shall arrive.
I rolled my eyes, crossing my hands underneath my boobs in boredom.
"And look at the sore losers from the Private school crawl out of their shell." I drawled.
"Bold of you to say that when your people beat up my players." Ye Fei, leading his pretentious bunch of lackeys, sneered. He wore the same white and green uniform as them, his hair gelled up and looking smug.
"Beat up?" I quipped. "The snack bar is our turf. And your mutts were the ones sniffing around in places they don't belong."
"I wasn't aware that the snack bar was your private property, Your Majesty the Empress." He mocked.
"It's not a private property but you will sure get your asses handed to you by my guys if they show up and start acting like they own it."
"Quit while you're ahead, Empress. We all know you came here today to beg us to let you guys participate in the finals." He leaned closer, looking down at me from his height.
I hated how short I was.
I gave a curt laugh full of mockery.
"Beg? To you?" I repeated with disdain coloring my eyes. "Who do you think you are?"
I watched him grit his teeth in anger with satisfaction.
"I'm here to warn you from being too much of a cry baby snitch. You lost a game fair and square? Got beat up? Man up and get over it."
I eyed one of the newer guy in their group sporting a small plaster on his head and scoffed.
"I'm a girl and I have more balls than you lot."
That seemed to trigger the plaster dude, his face twisting into an ugly expression.
Ye Fei was about to fire back, as he always did, but it was then that the situation spiraled out of the normal argue-till-no-one-wins-but-resolved-relatively-peacefully scenario.
This new guy rushed up to me out of nowhere, his fist up to punch me.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY YOU BITCH!"
No one could stop him because no one expected him to lash out like that. I immediately took a defensive stance against his fist. But he seemed to be a complete noob at punching someone because as soon as his weak punch connected on my forearm, he tripped on his own feet. I was thrown off my balance, unable to handle the weight of an almost fully grown man and toppled.
Everything suddenly felt like it was in slow motion.
Jun's widened, angry and disbelieving eyes. Everyone, both from our school and theirs running up to us to help me. Ye Fei's terrified expression.
"XUEYIN!"
"NO!"
There was a loud, sickening crack and everything blurred to me. Loud screams, sirens, commotions and voices calling my name.
…
"Xueyin! Please, wake up! No! Please!"
….
Hey… wasn't that Jun?
Why is he asking me to wake up?
…I am awake…
"Wake up! Xueyin, I'm so sorry! Please, please!"
….
There you are… Ye Fei, you bastard…
Why would you bring such a fool with anger issues to deal with school drama…?
…
"Xueyin, please come back, I love you…"
…
Heh… Sorry I like girls, bro…
…
And everything went black.