“It’s a story about a boy in grade school,” Vi began his tale. “A quiet, nice boy who never hurt a fly. Unfortunately, being quiet meant he had trouble making any friends. Bullies often leeched off opportunities like that. And so, the boy found himself bullied.”

  At first, nobody in oticed that something was wrong, not even Vi. The bullies just casually started hanging around the shy boy, ag overly familiar with him.

  “Hey, I fot my lunch money. you lend me some?” It all started with i requests like this. The bullies must’ve beeing this boy, to see how gullible he was. They probably wao see how easy it was to exploit him a away scot-free.

  It was unclear what the boy himself thought of these suspicious approaches. Perhaps, he saw it as an opportunity to make friends. After all, these kids were reag out to him, asking for his “help”. Perhaps he thought that, by pying along, they could start something going.

  So, the boy happily lent his money, probably thinking it was an early iment for developing friendship. Unfortunately, it didn’t lead to the kind of retionship he was hoping for.

  On the surface, the gang of bullies acted as if they became the boy’s friends. However, it soon became apparent that their retionship was nothing like true friendship.

  The boy merely became the bullies’ pything. They asked him to lend them moo run errands for them, and even to pull pranks on other people in their stead and take the bme for it.

  Their demaed further and further. It’s like they got their hands on a braoy and wao stretch it to its limits. And so, they tinued making the boy it all sorts of evils. Before long, the boy became known as a “deli” in the css even though none of it was his own will.

  That’s when Vi started following the story more closely. His journalism seingled, he felt something was wrong.

  “I wasn’t particurly close to the boy,” Vi admitted. “But, as an avid pursuer of the world’s truths, I made it a point to learn as much as possible about my cssmates. You may call it Journalist’s Unstoppable Curiosity, a personal skill I ied from my dear father.”

  This guy is a natural-born stalker. Yuel made a face. But, he means no ill so it’s fine.

  “Anyway,” Vi tinued. “Even though I didn’t have a close retionship with the boy iion, I knew enough to tell that his behavior didn’t match his personality.”

  He khe boy was the quiet type who wouldn’t hurt a fly. Yet, after the boy started hanging out with his “friends”, things took a turn for the worse. These rascals clearly had a bad influen such a good kid.

  “I-I don’t want to do this...” Every now and then, the boy gathered the ce to resist the bullies’ demands. He clearly didn’t want to do bad things but his resistance was too weak.

  “What the heck, man? You not gonna do me this favor? I thought we were friends.” The bullies ganged up on the poor boy whenever he dared to utter a single word of obje. They overwhelmed him through peer pressure, f him to submit.

  Sometimes, they even got physical with him. They shoved him, threw his things around, verbally assaulted him, and so forth. They did many things to keep their little toy uheir thumbs.

  “Holy, it was siing,” Vi said. “I couldn’t believe that sujustice could be happening in our modern times, right in my own css.”

  Worst of all, everybody pretended like nothing was wrong. Everybody averted their eyes whehe bullying was taking pce. They protected themselves by avoiding eye tact.

  Nobody reached out to help the victim. And, Vi didher. He was a coward like the rest of them.

  The bullies had some reputation to them. Especially, the leader of the gang was one of the so-called “popur kids”. He had a lot of influend he seemed physically tough as well.

  Therefore, there was nothing Vi could possibly do about this. At least, it was impossible through frontal frontation. He wasn’t some cartoon hero who could simply put on a colorful cape and save the day.

  Fortunately, there were other ways to deal with this problem. Not everything had to be resolved face-to-face, that’s what Vi realized after discussing the matter with his parents.

  “It’s best to speak with the teachers,” his dad advised. “You o vihe victim to report the bullying.”

  It sounded easy enough. All Vi had to do was to vihe boy to report the bullying to their homeroom teacher. The staff will surely hahings from there.

  Perhaps there wasn’t any hero around to rely on, but the school system was there for the students. It’ll surely resolve this little issue in no time, right?

  As, reality proved to be far more plicated than Vi expected.

  “Bullying? What are you talking about? They’re my friends.” the boy insisted in front of Vi. Even though he looked pale, beaten up, and fragile enough to colpse at any moment, the boy insisted to hold onto such falsehood.

  There was fear in his eye, the fear of disobeying a predator. The boy felt caged. If he tried to stir any trouble with his so-called “friends”, they’ll stomp on him like on a useless toy.

  The boy must’ve felt he couldn't do anything about his own situation. Even though the solution was right in front of him, he was too afraid to reach out to it. No matter how hard Vi pleaded with the boy, it was to no avail.

  “Just leave me alone! Everything is okay! Everything is okay...” The boy rejected Vi’s hand until the very end. It was impossible to vihe boy to speak to the teachers. And, of course, nobody in css will do that for him.

  “So, I’ll do it.” Vi reached a clusion. If the victim wasn’t going to speak up, then it to Vio say something. Crimes like this couldn’t go unpunished! Rep was the right thing to do! It was justice!

  And so, he spoke of everything he knew. About the victim’s situation, about the bullying, and about the identities of the bullies. Vi presented all the facts he gathered from the situation. He eveiohat the victim was refusing to seek help and retending that everything was “fine”.

  “I delivered all the necessary information to the authorities,” Vi expined. “I felt it was my duty as the boy’s cssmate.”

  Thankfully, the homeroom teacher acted on the information at once. She made Vi retell the story a few more times in front of other teachers, including the principal himself. They must’ve been trying to ascertairuth of his words, as the matter was quite grave and plicated.

  Vi spoke nonstop. He id out all the details time and again, without missing a beat.

  The staff asked him numerous questions and he answered everything to the best of his ability. He has been following the situation closely, so he was fident in all the knowledge he accumuted. As the son of a journalist, it’d be embarrassing for him to be stumped by simple questions like that, so he aced all these verificatios.

  In the end, Vi’s passionate pleading vihe staff that something was afoot. And so, they began the iigation by talking to the victim in private.

  Unfortunately, that didn’t yield as. The victim insisted the bullies were his friends and that no bullying was taking pce. Such persistent foolishness.

  For the better or the worse, the teachers didn’t stop there. Vi already informed them about how the victim was refusing to seek help, so they dug deeper into the issue. They called over other cssmates and questiohem oopi roundabout ways.

  Vi had no idea how these versatio but, apparently, the teachers mao gather additional evidehere were probably many other cssmates who didn’t approve of this bullying but were too afraid to speak up. So, a few of them might have let something slip during a private versation.

  In the end, the teachers decided to address the issue directly. They anized a meeting with the bullies and the parents. The tents of the meeting remain a mystery, but they must have involved a lot of scolding and the like.

  “That was it,” Vi said. “Justice was served and everybody lived happily ever after. Or, so I thought...”

  Unfortunately, the bullies’ punishment was far too light. They were expelled from school for a week, theurned as if nothing happened. For brats like them, being excused from school robably more like a reward than a punishment. It was a dumb idea.

  “Who the heitched on us, huh!?” The bullies interrogated the entire css. Their suspis were primarily targeted at the victim of the story, but they also suspected other cssmates just in case.

  Somebody reported them, they khat for sure. It wasn’t hard to imagine what they’d do ohey get their hands on that rat.

  Thankfully, Vi remained an anonymous reporter. None of the teachers brought up his name during the iigation, so he could keep quiet and nobody would ever find out it was him.

  In fact, Vi had to stay quiet. If he were to fess, the bullies would defiurn him into their arget.

  So, he couldn’t possibly speak up and there was no reason to. Justice was served. The heroes won. There was no reason to expose himself to further danger anymore.

  Therefore, Vi remained quiet. And, naturally, nobody else spoke up either. Even if there were others who reported the bullying, they didn’t step forth to admit any of it. Everybody was scared of being the victim.

  “Alright then, looks like we only got one bastard we bme.” The bullies focused their attention on the usual target. “It was you, wasn’t it? You filled the teachers’ heads with all that nonsense about ‘bullying’ and whatnot, didn’t ya? And here I thought we were friends, Matt.”

  And so, the bullying resumed. Even though the bullies had just returned from their so-called “punishment”, they were ba a right away. However, this time, their bullying was twice as harsh.

  Their demands toward their “friend” grew more extreme than ever before, reag borderline criminal levels. Oime, they even made him burn school property.

  The physical and verbal assaults turned fiercer as well. In the end, instead of the situation being resolved, the victim found himself suffering twice as much as before. They victimized the poor boy to the point his eyes lost all their color. His head was stantly hung down as he wahrough the hallway. The will to live was no longer present on his withered face.

  While all of this was taking pce, Vi was just sitting on the sidelines. He silently observed this cruel situation from afar, outside the danger zone.

  “I... I made all of this happen. It’s all my fault.” Vi bmed himself. It was his meddling that triggered this situation. The bullying was already bad enough before, but now it turned into a literal hell. And, it was all because Vi reached out to the authorities.

  “What I do? Should I speak to the teachers again?” Vi was at a loss. He thought he wohe teachers agreed to hahe situatiohought justice was already served. Yet, his intervention only powered up the vilins. They made a eback from their defeat, returning twice as cruel.

  “I was hesitant about turning to the teachers again,” Vi expined. “I was afraid it might escate the situation even further.”

  A sed intervention from the teachers would only ahe bullies further. They’d undoubtedly bee crueler and punish their victim even more. And, it’d all be Vi’s fault.

  “I don’t know what I should do...” Vi was at a loss. The system he naively believed in turned out to be useless.

  As the son of a journalist, he believed that exposing the truth would bring justice to the world. Unfortateunly, reality was disappointing. Instead of making things better, the truth oed everything for the worse.

  Therefore, Vi tinued sitting there on the sidelines. He mulled over this problem from afar, uo take a siep forward.

  “What will happen if I fess?” Vi wondered. “I tell them I’m the one who reported them.”

  The thought crossed his mind multiple times but he didn’t care. In the end, he was just a coward like everybody else in the css. Like the rest of them, Vi was afraid of being the target of bullying.

  “I thought I was brave when I reported the bullying to the authorities,” Vi said. “But, in the end, I simply cked the ce to face the bullies myself.”

  Vi was just a little kid pretending to be a hero of justice. He couldn’t do anything to resolve the injustice happening right in front of him.

  heless, he wao do something, anything, to make the situatioer. But what? What could he possibly do!?

  While he was still mulling over his options, the bullyied. In the end, before Yuel reached any sort of clusion, the victim transferred from the school. The poor boy simply couldn’t take it anymore.

  That robably for the best. It was unfortuhat no punishment ever befell the bullies, but at least the situation calmed down. The boy escaped the harmful enviro and lived on. He should be able to start his life anew in a new school. At least, that’s what Vi desperately wao believe in order to keep his sense of guilt in check.

  That was the end of this unfortuale.

  “I have no idea what became of the boy after that,” Vi said. “I only pray he found happiness elsewhere.”

  “Damn, that’s...” Lars was at a loss for words. He gave Vi a pat on the shoulder and spoke softly. “You did what you could, dude. It’s not your fault.”

  “I agree,” Yuel said. “I’m sure I wouldn’t have aplished more than you did in that situatioher. I doubt I would have even taken the first step of involving the teachers.”

  “T-Thank you.” Viurned away. “How peculiar. Something appears to be stabbing my eye.”

  It was the sed time in his life that he shared the full story with somebody else. The first time was with Kai, when trying to vince her to not rely on teachers too much for Ben’s issue.

  It was an embarrassing story. Vi failed to salvage that situation. In fact, he only made it worse by meddling.

  Even though he discussed the situation with his parents at first when seeking advice, he couldn’t bring himself to report to them the entire result of his efforts. After all, how could he? They’d surely say it was all his fault, that he itted a disappointing mistake even though they fed him with so much advice.

  But surprisingly, even as Vi opehe lid on this sealed story, none of his friends bmed him. Not Kai, not Lars, and not even Yuel, who always had a fair share of criticism to spare. Nobody found any fault with Vi’s as. Everybody said he did the “best” he could giveuation.

  Perhaps it really wasn’t so bad after all. Vihought. I did it a mistake, but I’ve learned a valuable lesson from that i. I do better this time!

  Vi simply had to apply all these lessons to the current situation with Ben. He shall not it the same mistake again! There had to be a safer, more effit, method to save Ben from the bullying! And, Vi promised he shall find it, alongside the friends who were raring to resolve the situation as much as he did!

  DarkestCymore