Chapter 3

This is electrifying.

A sense of adventure and excitement was hanging in the air. They were all hungry, and they wanted to eat hot food but had no money to buy from the 24/7 store nearby. A rag-tag group of children filled with a carnal desire to roam freely, a desire so difficult to achieve.

Their leader; brave and reckless Natsu, took the initiative to set up the plan to move. It was a ridiculous plan; made by snot-nosed seven-year-olds. Hunger drives a man to do stupid things. All four executed the plan brilliantly. They felt invincible and clever as they outwitted adults while they left the store hugging a few items they had managed to take.

"Let's take a pledge!"

All four of them – no home, and no family to go back to – are the only thing they had. They swore never to betray, and to stay loyal to one another until death.

That was what Izumi wanted.

All she wanted was to belong.

Natsu, Kelly, Liam, and herself. They were going to stay together forever, making mischief and being the support that they needed.

The children laughed, sang, and made funny dances as they ate. Nothing could go wrong, they reasoned, as they hid within the sanctuary that they had found in the mountain. Nothing could tear them apart, and nothing could stop their friendship.

Unfortunately, life was never fair.

One by one, destiny tore them apart.

Liam went away first, dragged forcibly away by his relatives who were granted custody thanks to his parents who went to jail for the umpteenth time. The family court felt he needed to be away, to go away as his parents were useless in taking care of him. He was gone just like that, flying to the States to live there forever, breaking Kelly apart.

In her grief, Kelly – dear sweet girl – took her life as if to follow Liam.

Only Natsu and Izumi were left.

Their bond, now in tethers; two links were gone and they stood staring at the sheared end with numb expressions. They were only nine then, but they felt so old. They wanted to die, to follow Kelly – but Natsu didn't want to. He didn't want to die so easily – so he remained steadfast and strong, keeping Izumi afloat next to him.

…

It was hard avoiding Kousuke-san as he's the only mathematics teacher in this school and I'm taking double mathematics, and both subjects are taught by him. It was aggravating as it was tough to keep a straight, passive face in his class whenever he tried to make me answer his questions.

He has something up his sleeve. I think he was trying to get me to react to how he was treating me in class, but too bad for him, I will never expose myself to everyone. He has started to bully me in class, making me answer questions and get up to the board to write down the equations he had written.

I knew he was baiting me, as I was the type to answer statements that annoyed the heck out of me. Despite that, I had not spoken to him for weeks, choosing to ignore rather than reply so he would stop trying to get a reaction from me. 

Regardless of that, he is still adamant about it.

His inconsiderate words irritated me to no end but I simply kept my head down, knowing that he was merely waiting for me to take the bait. He was akin to a fisherman with his fishing pole; by the river with bait on his hook. If I take the bait, the hook will pierce my cheek and it will hurt my ego.

I must not be careless.

Never allow such dirty hands to grab at me.

"Izumi, why don't you come up here and solve this equation?" he asked the one question I hated to hear. He even had a sly grin on his damn face when he asked it.

I wanted to answer back, to fight back, to release the tension I had been storing inside but I refrained myself from doing it, as I didn't want to cause unnecessary trouble. Muttering under my breath, I got up and made my way to the whiteboard. Sighing as I grabbed the marker, I wrote my answer on it.

"Write down your workings as well, Izumi."

A vein ticked at my temple and I rubbed my answer off. Trying my hardest not to show my displeasure, I wrote the workings as requested, underlined my answer, and headed back to my seat after returning the whiteboard marker. I sat down with a passive expression but I could tell the others knew I was disgruntled.

"Hey, why is Kousuke-sensei always picking on you?" a girl asked in a whisper. "Did anything happen between you two? I sense some tension. Were you two in a relationship?"

I raised my head to see a girl with bangs looking at me with curiosity. She was one of the popular girls, beautiful and sought after by all the boys in the school. I think she was dating one popular jock in a neighboring school, but I can't be sure. I wasn't up-to-date with the current gossip.

"That's illegal."

"I didn't think you cared about the law."

I stared at her. 

"Did you two fucked?" she asked in a stage whisper.

I leaned closer to her, opening my mouth to let her know that I was intending to answer her question and she shimmied closer so she could hear what I was about to tell her. I put my mouth close to her ear and covered my mouth with both hands.

"It's none of your fucking business," I whispered. "If you keep pressing me about this, I might be tempted to break your fake nose."

She sucked in a sharp breath, surprise was etched on her face as she stared at me. She was about to retaliate but she noticed how serious I looked so she retreated to her seat without another word; her shoulders a little hunched as she tried to hide herself.

Dumbass.