"I don't like you!"
The entire coffee shop turned to stare at their table, and Ace noticed some people pulling out their phones. Being watched by two dozen people would be the worst part for most, but for him, it didn't matter. Their opinions meant nothing to him.
But the girl's words were different. They stirred something deep within him, causing his body to tremble subtly. No matter how he tried, he couldn't stop shaking.
Realizing she had become the center of attention, the girl's face turned as red as a chili pepper. Subconsciously, her body slumped in the chair, wishing nothing more than to disappear beneath the table. As she began to slide down, she saw Ace's impassive face, devoid of all emotion and her anger returned. Through clenched teeth, she hissed again no longer bothered that they weren't alone.
"Stop talking to me and leave!"
Despite the turmoil inside, Ace's face remained frozen in that same uncaring expression he had perfected over the years. His eyebrows never betrayed sorrow, and his lips never hinted at joy.
He only had two expressions, and Ace thought the girl would despise the other one even more. After all, he hated it himself.
"But you said in that message tha—"
"What message? We went out twice, dude, and you start tracking me? If someone doesn't answer your calls for a whole week, get a hint!"
The message he referred to was nothing but a cordiality to her, sent on a whim and without knowing what it would awaken in him. To Ace, however, it had become a pillar of his inner world. The first person in a decade to tell him that she cared. His young mind assigned meaning to it that it was never meant to bear.
Hearing that the message was a lie, Ace's lips began to crack into something other than indifference. He wished to tell her what it meant to him, but as soon as that desire rose inside him, a voice gripped his heart and whispered in his ear.
I like you better this way.
No one could tell, but a war began raging inside him. But one side had decades of ammunition, while the other was a newborn. It was like a calf fighting a tiger. His indifferent face swiftly prevailed, and he responded curtly. "I understand."
Without another word, he headed for the exit and left the coffee shop. Some people hushed as he passed by, but he didn't seem to care. It was as if they were from a different world, and their whispers in a foreign language.
Outside in the morning sun, Ace lifted the sleeve of his black hoodie and checked a glowing inscription on his right forearm, that drew the attention and the comments of many bystanders which happened to catch sight of it. A sequence of blue numbers; the last one changing every second. This wasn't some high-tech tattoo he had gotten but an uninvited accessory that had simply appeared one morning.
As he looked down, the countdown passed twenty-three hours and continued ticking. Unlike many others who were freaking out about it, he was only slightly apprehensive at the start. But by now, Ace had begun using it as a clock. It felt faster than pulling out his phone.
Realizing he needed to catch a bus to make it on time, he made for the bus station but stopped in his tracks. He had a big plan for tonight and he'd be five bucks short if he paid the fare, so he decided against taking the easy way. He needed to release the tension anyway, so he started jogging. By the time he passed the bus stop, his light jog had morphed into a run, his lungs straining to cope with the increased volume of air.
He didn't bother calculating whether he would make it to school on time, nor did he think about what would happen if he ran ten miles without any training. He felt something simmering inside him, and he wanted to let it out before he got to school, even if it meant punishing his body. Plus, even if he skipped class, there was no one the school could contact. It didn't matter what he did; no one would care.
Sure, a teacher would notice his absence and log it, but these were the same teachers who had allowed him to be bullied during his first year of high school.
Thinking of this, he finally realized that the girl didn't care for him either. He felt foolish for imagining she would. That's why he sought her out in the first place. He wanted someone to know he was in trouble. After all, a countdown had mystically appeared on his hand. That couldn't be good. But, of course, she was like everyone else. She didn't like him, so she didn't care about him. Just like all the rest.
Ace believed humans were incapable of caring for someone they didn't like. And Ace thought he wasn't liked by anyone. Deep down, he didn't even blame humanity. But he felt so much anger that things were the way they were.
Ace thought that nobody had chosen to dislike him; it was just their instincts telling them to do it. Just like that woman he loved to hate.
When he passed the regional hospital, he calculated he'd already been running for two miles. Despite never running more than a single mile in his entire life, he wasn't done. His legs were burning, but he didn't stop. He took off his hoodie to cool down, revealing an incredibly muscular upper body. Even through the black T-shirt that absorbed all the light, people could see how powerful his body was.
He scoffed when he noticed how people stopped giving him irritated looks when they were forced to move aside for him. Seeing them gripped by their instincts made him feel worse, as it reminded him of something. A whisper from the deep recesses of his mind told him they were scared of his power, and their instincts told them to stay away.
It was funny, he thought, how humans were slaves to their own instincts. He first became aware of this when he began to exercise. Being bullied had awakened a deep anger in him, but one that subsided when he worked out and depleted his energy. So, he began to work out every day.
He first did push-ups, then squats, then pull-ups under a tree near his motel. He had to buy new T-shirts within two months, and within half a year, he noticed the bullies didn't dare approach him anymore. He didn't even have to lift a finger; they just began avoiding him one day.
But it wasn't just the bullies who gave him a wide berth; everybody else did too. Even the teachers stopped calling on him in class. He left his original home with indifference and apathy, and anger he gained along the way. Apathy and anger were the only two emotions he knew, until he added loneliness.
But right now, anger was in charge of Ace, and he knew only one way to return to his beloved indifference. Exercise until the body begs to stop, and then exercise until it stops begging. That was the most effective method he'd discovered.
Eventually, he ran past a massive stone building with intricate wall carvings and dramatic curves. When Ace saw the white marble statue in the garden in front of the building, he knew he was halfway to school.
Noticing he still had energy to pay attention to his surroundings, Ace clicked his tongue in annoyance. He could feel his anger wouldn't abate at this rate, and if he made it to school with this much wrath inside him, he feared he would get expelled if someone so much as looked at him the wrong way.
Thinking of that countdown again, he wondered if it would even matter if that happened. He suddenly clenched his jaw and, despite five miles of running, entered a sprint. If he died tonight, then at least he wanted to be calm.
......................
......................
Sometime later, in front of a massive five-story building long enough to smother the horizon, one fat guard leaned back into his chair. While desperately trying to enter his first nap of the shift, the big man heard the gate rattle.
Clang!
Clang!
He frowned and gave a frustrated sigh, but deep down, he looked forward to seeing another brat soil their pants. Although the job didn't pay much, it did give him some amount of pleasure when he got the chance to scream at a whelp while they tried to come up with excuses for being late to school.
With a single slick movement of his wrist, with agility unbecoming of his stature, he straightening his uniform with tug.
The guard gave a loud harrumphed and shouted, "Humph! You have some guts to sneak past me in my meditation session!"
With great effort, the man managed to rise, sending his fat belly into a jiggle, and the steel chair beneath him creaked, relieved of its burden. He prepared himself to unleash a tirade on the unsuspecting student, relishing the thought of watching them squirm.
But just as he laid eyes on the intruder, the guard's mouth fell open, and his next words got stuck deep inside his throat.
A tall young man, steam billowing from his sweat-drenched body, stood beneath the cherry tree beside the school gate. He was wiping his bare upper body with a black rag, taking advantage of the shade to cool off. The guard didn't care about any of this, however.
He stared transfixed, as never in his life had he seen muscle that looked so much like strands of finely woven steel. The young man's presence was like a storm cloud, dark and foreboding, and the guard's instincts screamed at him to tread carefully. His bravado evaporated like morning dew.
"Y-You know, you are almost an hour late?" the guard stammered, his voice suddenly polite and hesitant.
Ace looked up, surprised, only now noticing the guard's presence. Seeing how polite and kind the man was speaking, he did his best to stanch the last sliver of anger inside him and put on his best expression. He took a minute to compose himself and thought of the best thing to say so that he didn't anger the guard.
He finally replied, "Yes."
The guard nodded, perspiration dripping down the side of his face. He pulled out a handkerchief and began to wipe his brows, trying to regain some semblance of authority. "Hot day, isn't it?"
Ace glanced up but felt a slight annoyance well up inside him. He didn't like small talk, and he was in a hurry to get to his locker. But seeing the man's kind smile, he figured he should still say something.
"Can't tell. I've been running."
The guard nodded again, more vigorously this time. "Um, I can tell. But try not to be late again."
Ace had finished wiping the sweat from his body and looked up at the guard one last time. His body had somewhat recovered its lost energy, and he contracted his muscles to test them out. The man felt his body freeze up as if he'd fallen into an icy pond. "I mean, it would be bad for your grades if you skipped class too often. Don't let it happen many times. Your future is at stake."
By the time the guard finished speaking, Ace was already entering the building, and the guard was left staring at his departing back. "Who the hell was that?"
Ace quickly went to his locker and dropped his sweat-soaked t-shirt inside while putting his black hoodie back on. Just as he grabbed his backpack, an alarm blared throughout the school. His classroom was on the other side of the school from the lockers, and it took half the break for him to get there.
When he moved the slide door aside and entered, all the noise and hubbub previously heard from outside suddenly stopped. Seeing the usual reaction to his presence, Ace scoffed and went to his seat without greeting anybody. It had been like this ever since his body developed. Three whole years and another half.
The children gave Ace furtive glances, but he was already in his world scrolling on his phone through MyTube, a very popular video sharing website. Eventually, the children became somewhat accustomed to the heavy pressure Ace brought with him, and they resumed their earlier interactions.
A conversation from a group of young men at the head of the class, made it to Ace's ear. They had surrounded another teenager who was extremely short in stature, who despite the clear intimidation written all over his face, obediently answered their every question. Ace remembered the five surrounding him to be some of the children that bullied him back in the day, though he thought they probably forgot about it by now. If Ace was honest, he didn't remember any of their names.
"I don't believe you. Show it to us!" one of the youths said. The other four surrounding him quickly chimed in, applying pressure on the short boy. They all had encouraging smiles on their faces, as if they were doing him a favor and allowing him to boast about something great.
The boy smiled, evidently embarrassed. "I-I don't know, man. My mom said not to show anyone."
This statement brought some light sniggers and sneers from everyone else, but one of them signaled towards the black-hooded individual at the back of the class, as if telling them to be careful with the noise.
Another continued prodding, "C'mon, dude, show us. Or are you lying?"
"I'm not lying. Look." The boy pulled up his right sleeve, and a countdown timer was revealed. Subdued gasps rang out from within the group, and they were all staring, mesmerized, trying to figure out how those numbers appeared there in the first place. One of them even tried to touch it, but the boy swiftly pulled his arm back as if trying to avoid a sore from scratching.
"What the hell, Foot Nothing. Did it just appear like that, what did you do?"
"Man, why do I feel jealous of Foot Nothing? What if there's a prize at the end of the countdown?"
"And what if you die at the end?" another one sneered.
This remark sent the short boy at the center of the discussion into a constant shiver. He smiled ruefully and tried making light of it. "C-C'mon guys, it's not like that."
"Cheh! How do you know that?" The biggest of the bunch sneered, a red-headed young man. He seemed particularly aggrieved by Foot Nothing, in fact he being the one who gave him the nickname. He looked down at him as if he was laying eyes on a filthy dog. "You were born unlucky, Foot Nothing! Born stupid, short, and with buck teeth. The countdown to ki—"
"Oi!"
A loud shout shook the classroom so hard that the loose dust accumulated on the ceiling began to snow on everyone inside. Everybody present shut their mouths simultaneously, and even the creaking chairs stopped making noise.
The redhead's face immediately blanched, and he turned swiftly towards Ace. "I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry Ace. I didn't mean to get loud..."
"Shut the fuck up," said Ace coldly, while ignoring him completely
He then pointed and beckoned towards the short boy, who immediately began to shiver. "Ah! What's your...Tsk! I forgot, in any case, come here."
As the boy approached him, Ace made a mental note to try to remember his classmates' names at least. As he thought of it now, he didn't know the name of any of them. On further thought, he didn't even know how many classmates he had.