{9}

TW: self harm and an almost

su!cide

Tanaka POV

Middle school

I was never really bullied in middle school. My best friend was a different story though because he openly expressed his curious feelings of men early on in life. I didn't express my feelings as I was to nervous to get bullied. Nota never let the words people called him get to him. Or at least that's what I thought. One day as I was sitting in class when the vice principal came inside and went to the teacher and whispered something to her. My teachers eyes went blank and I could see the fear in them "Tanaka pack your bags now and go with the vice principal." "Ok but why if it's not stepping any boundaries to ask?" She looked at me with severe amounts of worry and concern in her eyes until I had packed away all my textbooks and was putting my notebook in my bag when she spoke up. "It's your friend noya. He was found unconscious in the bathroom on the floor." My eyes flickered and I started to panic. I stopped dead in my tracks and made direct eye contact with the vice principal. "Where is he?" I questioned with a stern voice making both adults and half the class flinch as they had always even my cheerful and happy side. "He's been taken to the nurses office. He was asking for you when he regained consciousness." I ran out of the classroom and to the nurses office and when I got there I busted through the door and ran to boy's side. "NOYA WHAT HAPPENED?" he looked over to me with tears starting to stream down his face once again as I could tell from the tear stains and red puffy eyes he had displayed on his face. "Ryu. I'm so sorry. I-i should've told you sooner. The words and names that people call me. They-" He choked out a sob he had been holding in then looked back at up at me. "They really do get to me and i- I started cutting because of it. You weren't with me during passing period so I went to the bathroom and decided to cut my skin again. I accidentally went to deep and passed out. I'm so sorry Ryu. I wasn't trying to make you worry." I hugged nishinoya tight as I took out my phone and called his mom.

On the phone:

"Hey auntie..."

"Hey Ryu what's up. Is evey thing ok?"

          *Worry clear in her voice*

"No auntie. Yuu is in the nurses office and he should probably go to the hospital to get checked out. Could you come get us."

"Oh my goodness. Of course I'm on my way. I'll pick your mom up on the way. So she can check you out."

"Ok aunty. Do you want to speak to yuu or no?"

"Yes please Ryu. Please put my son on the phone."

I handed the phone to nishinoya.

"Hey mom..."

"Omg yuu are you ok baby what happened?"

" Yes momma I'm ok. I'll tell you on the way to the hospital."

" Ok baby I love you sweetheart don't worry I'm almost at ryu's house to get his mom then I'll be there I love you hunny."

"Ok mom I love you too bye."

Off the phone:

When noya mom and my mom got there I picked noya up and took him out to the car. We all got in and I continued to hug noya on the way to the hospital. I explained everything so noya didn't have to as he was busy shaking and crying in my arms. I looked down to see crimson red flooding the bandages on his wrists and even noticed that his sleeves were turning red. "Aunty hurry he's starting to bleed again." She sped up and we soon reached the hospital. I got out of the car with noya we all ran I side and showed them not as arms and they immediately took him from me and took him to a room. We were told to wait in the hallway while they worked on him and we reluctantly agreed. Noya's mom dropped to the floor and started crying. She hugged me tightly and I hugged back. "Thank you Ryu thank you for being there for him. I don't know what would've happened if you weren't there for him." She balled into my shoulder as I just held her there on the floor and let her cry while my mom rubbed her back.

Time skip

The nurses came out of the room followed by the doctor. All of us ran up to the doctor and he gave us an update. "Some of the cuts were really deep and required multiple stitches. There was about 18 cuts all together that needed stitches and so we did that. All together there were 36 cuts on his arms. Most were small. Any idea why he was doing this?" I piped up and explained everything to the doctor. "Hey it's ok. Usually people who do self harm like this hide everything and say they're fine when asked about it. Don't blame yourself. You guys may go in and visit him." I ran past the doctor and jumped onto noya's bed and grabbed his hand as he looked up at me confused. "Hey Ryu what's up." He looked over to his mom and saw her tears she walked over to him and saw hugged her son. He hugged back and we all joined the hug in a group hug. A few hours later noya's aunt came into the room with his siblings. They all jumped on top of noya and gave him a ton of hugs.

Time skip.

A week later. Back in school

Noya walked into the halls and everybody immediately started whispering. Things like "it's him. The suicidal one" And more things u til a group of boys came up to nishinoya and said "Oh look it's the gay suicidal freak. I see you didn't succeed. Why don't you go and cut some more maybe then you'll actually succeed in doing the world a favor and DIE FAGGOT-" "HEY SHUT THE FUCK UP. WHAT DOES IT MATTER THAT HE'S BI. I'M BI TOO AND YOU GUYS DON'T SEEM TO HAVE A PROBLEM WITH ME. SO GET OUT OF OUR LIVES!!!" I got so sick of the bullying noya was going through that I just snapped and yelled at everyone. "IF ANYONE HAS A PROBLEM WITH US BEING INTERESTED IN MEN GET AWAY!"  I grabbed noya's arm and we went to the office to turn in our withdrawal forms and walked out of the school and to my house. "Hey boys are you excited to go to chidoriyama tomorrow?" "Yes" We both said in unison. We started laughing and couldn't wait to go to our new school because they actually had a volleyball team. We were so excited. "Did anything happen while you guys took your forms down to the school?" "Yea but it's ok because I dealt with it. I also came out to them to." "Wow I'm so proud of you. Now go get cleaned up and get ready to eat dinner." We nodded and ran upstairs and I helped noya clean his arms and then we changed out or clothes and ran downstairs and sat at the table. After dinner we ran outside to practice nishinoya's receives and my spikes. We had so much fun until noya had to go home. We said goodbye and then noya went to his moms car. "Ryu I saw a video of what you did for noya today at your old school. I'm very proud of you. Just don't cuss next time ok." Noya's mom said with a smile. "Sorry aunty." I said with a smile and hugged her. She said bye to my mom and I assume she showed her the video because after noya and his mom left mom came upstairs and said she was proud of me too. She kissed my forehead and I went to sleep.

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