Chapter 3 - Aftermath

Aarick felt as if he was just lucky enough to have fallen into the smallest of holes life has to offer. No matter how strong he displayed himself to be in front of others, he was a very emotional and sensitive guy. He would easily get hurt by the smallest offenses and especially after he had just been disowned by his parents.

He still couldn't completely understand why someone would go ahead and do something like editing his final results, no matter how much hostility Aarick had accumulated with the other people at his college. He didn't do anything extreme.

They wouldn't do something so harsh just because he was a 'little' annoying. would they?

He quickly went to the closest restroom after leaving the principal's office and cried for about ten minutes.

He quickly cleaned up and slowly walked out of the college. He didn't know what to do as he started wandering around on the street outside his College.

In a very bad mental state he heard someone call out his last name from behind him. Aarick turned around to see who might be calling his last name seeing that he didn't have many friends. He saw Si Ren, his best friend, who had his origins in the land that was once called China.

Si Ren was the typical jock type fellow but still unique in his own way.

He was one of the more handsome boys in the college, he was quite tall too, and his blonde hair was very smooth, he was muscular too but unlike most jocks he wasn't on any college sport teams rather Si Ren preferred playing video games all day.

He says that he maintains his physique by playing video games although no one believes him. He has a bubbly and attractive personality which caused all the girls in and around the college to chase after him. which made all the other boys very envious of him, well, not Aarick because he also saw how good a person Si Ren was.

Aarick reluctantly smiled but not because he didn't like him, but rather because he wasn't in any mood to meet anyone at the moment and nodded towards Si Ren.

He asked why he called out to him to which Si Ren showed an annoyed confused look as if the answer was obvious and replied, "Isn't everyone here to get their final results, so isn't it obvious I'm here to ask about you and your results? Also, aren't we best friends? Am I not allowed to talk to you whenever I want to?"

Aarick chuckled halfheartedly and replied, "Yes, Si Ren, you can talk to me anytime you want, anyways how did your results go?" Si Ren smiled and replied, "Hehe, I got around 78 percent in total and I even got around 90 percent in Geography.

Just those damn English results caused my results to plummet in total. Ok that's enough about me, stop changing the subject and just tell me your result too man, come on don't you trust me? Don't we tell each other everything about each other?"

Aarick sighed and fully turned around, facing Si Ren and told him, "I passed too ok? I didn't check it in too much detail. I just looked at it and saw that I had passed so I accepted it and I just gave it to my parents to read."

Si Ren failed to notice the sharp but subtle look of pain in Aarick's eyes and accepted his reply and continued saying, "Oh good, that's amazing, we both passed and here I thought that I would have to comfort you because you failed, but then why did you seem like you are in such a hurry to get out of here if u haven't failed? Have somewhere important to go?"

Aarick fumbled a bit but managed to reply, "I-I was just bored out of my mind here so I just thought of going back home and catching up on some much needed sleep, I guess."

Si Ren looked back at Aarick with suspicion as if he knew exactly what was going on but he started smiling and said, "Haha, of course you are going to sleep you lazy butt, you are always doing everything except what's expected of you. Especially studies, haha." Aarick rolled his eyes and said, "Ok that's enough of teasing me, just get to the point."

Si Ren smiled and replied, "Ok, ok I just wanted to ask if you could come along with me since you are free as always and have nothing important to do? I won't be able to tell you where I'm going, because it's a secret, but it'll definitely be pretty fun. Oh and you don't get to say no, if you do, I won't be friends with you anymore."

Aarick looked at Si Ren with a murderous stare and was getting so annoyed that he just wanted to rip off Si Ren's hair one strand at a time,then rip that stupid grin off his face, but since he was his only best friend, he reluctantly let it be and agreed to going along with him.

They just casually chatted but luckily Si Ren was too busy chatting with his girlfriend, another student who had the same origins as Si Ren called Yi Si, to actually pay attention to Aarick because he was in no mood to talk to anybody, he was too busy just sorting things out in his head.

Everything was getting too much for him to handle.

This day had been the worst that he had faced in a long time.

Everything had started to look blurry to him, happiness started to seem like sadness. Envy and brightness seemed like darkness and all of his strength seemed to have been exhausted in his mental battle.

He felt like he could fall unconscious anytime. The only reason he believed that something hasn't already happened was because he didn't want Si Ren to see him as someone weak and unreliable because he was already one of his last friends.

He hated lying, no matter what happened or who it was he always preferred to speak his true feelings to the other person's face be it confessions or blame.

Lying to Si Ren was killing him from the inside. While talking to Yi Si, Si Ren noticed Aarick was acting abnormal as he side eyed him but he didn't say anything in particular because he believed that since Aarick was a believer of truth, he must have an important reason for acting in this manner.

Thirty minutes passed by in a blink of an eye and Aarick was getting impatient and extremely cranky due to his weak mental capacity at the moment, so he anxiously asked Si Ren, "Si Ren we've been walking for so long why don't you just tell me about where we are headed to. I'm too tired."

Si Ren stopped walking and slowly turned around and faced Aarick, tilted his head a little and then shook his head saying, "You are very impatient. Anyways, you can stop crying because we have already reached our destination"

Si Ren pointed his finger towards something across the street, Aarick grumbled, "I'm not crying! Also why the heck didn't we take a cab.." as he slowly turned around to see what Si Ren was pointing towards, fully expecting it to be some old acquaintance that held some meaning to the two of them or even some cool new food store that Si Ren wanted to visit together with him.

When he turned around all he saw was one big skyscraper and few other small buildings similar to those used by the homeless to live in and even fewer people could be seen, moreover they were all unfamiliar faces to him, besides no one seemed to be here to meet them and rather seemed to be minding their own business.

Aarick was confused and he turned towards Si Ren and asked, "What am I supposed to be looking at?" Si Ren sighed and said, "The skyscraper, what else? See their company name on it and tell me if you've ever heard of them."

Aarick turned back around and looked at the skyscraper and looked for the company's name. When he finally saw it, he was taken aback at the coincidence of the situation he had gotten himself into.