Alone

After his talk with Victoria at lunch, Jon was sitting in the classroom, thinking back on what she said to him.

'I don't know; maybe he was covering for you? Aren't you guys friends?'

He took a glance at Hao, staring at the teacher with a lethargic look as the teacher spoke at the front of the class.

Most people wouldn't think Hao was paying attention, but Jon couldn't tell that he was focused on what the teacher was saying.

'Friends, huh?'

Jon thought to himself as he turned his attention back to the teacher; however, unlike Hao, he wasn't all that focused.

'He told me to mind my business. Is it that he thinks that he could handle everything himself?'

He thought as he continued to dwell on the reasoning for Hao covering for him. Jon never had anyone he could call a friend.

Most people find him difficult to understand. He usually walks around with an apathetic expression, and he will only talk unless spoken to, so throughout his life he has been ostracized by his peers.

But that wasn't the only reason; Jon also found it hard to understand his peers. This goes far beyond the matter of shared interests or the lack of interaction with his peers. He couldn't understand the way they viewed the world.

He always thought he was different from others. From an early age, Jon had already understood the darkness that lies within the human heart.

He understood the innate nature of humans and decided that there was no need to form such an obscure connection as friendship.

Normally, that wouldn't be much of an issue since most children aren't capable of doing everything by themselves and would eventually need the help of others or their peers, which drove them to rely on each other.

But Jon was different. He was an abnormally fast learner. He had only needed to listen or see something once, and he would remember it. He had always been more athletic than his peers as well, so he was always at the top of everything he did, and with Jon's inherent personality, the more he excelled, the more he was ostracized by his peers. 

After awhile, he started to observe the looks he received from them. Looks of jealousy, looks of fear, and even looks of contempt. He noticed all of this and reaffirmed his decision to reject the idea of friendship.

This is why the idea of someone other than his only remaining family trying to protect him felt foreign to him.

'Should I just confront him about it?'

He thought to himself while holding his chin between his index finger and his thumb. He was so lost in thought that he didn't even notice that the bell rang, and the teacher dismissed the class.

As it was the final class of the day, the other students were packing their stuff to leave; however, Jon didn't notice this as he was lost in thought. He was too busy running different scenarios in his head about how to approach Hao, and at that point he had already gone over dozens of different scenarios, but with not much social experience and with him being self-conscious, he couldn't choose.

"Are you gonna just sit here? Class is already over, you know?"

The sound of a voice broke his train of thought, and he noticed Victoria standing in front of his desk, looking down at him.

"Huh?"

Jon looked at her with a puzzled look and noticed Emilia standing a few steps away, seemingly waiting on her.

He looked to his left and noticed that Hao had already left. He gave a deep sigh, then turned his gaze back to Victoria.

"What?"

Noticing his gaze, Victoria asked with a puzzled look.

"Do you mind if I ask you something?"

***

Hao was leaving the school, but where he was headed wasn't home. He was headed to the southern region of the city.

He was told to clean up all the Southland guys that hang out at a certain entertainment district that is located in that part of the city. A lot of students usually hang around that part of the city for obvious reasons.

They had a lot of bars in this area that the students loved to hang around, and the best part of it is that most of the adults didn't care. So they smoked, drank, and took part in a lot of activities that they shouldn't be doing.

It was a part of Southland High's territory, and most of them knew to avoid messing with them unless they wanted their businesses to be turned upside down or get their asses handed to them.

After a bus ride from North Square, Hao arrived in the southern part of the city within 45 minutes. He left the bus stop and started to walk toward the entertainment district.

He continued walking until he started to see students in Southland uniforms all over the street, although not all of the students there were wearing Southland's uniform; some were from other schools, and some weren't even in uniform.

There were groups of them chatting together; others were playing around, others were smoking and drinking as they laughed among themselves, and some were even playing music and dancing. 

They were all students in their middle to late teens, and they were of both genders. The way some of them were speaking and behaving, one wouldn't even think they were teenagers.

"Hey, kevin."

"Huh, what is it?"

A tall youth with a muscular body who wore a white T-shirt, dark blue ripped jeans, and white sneakers was talking with two girls by the side when he heard one of his friends call out to him.

Kevin had light brown skin and dark brown eyes. He had locs that stretched down to his shoulder, and he was about 18 years old.

"Isn't that a Bridgeview student walking toward us?"

Hearing what his friend said to him, Kevin couldn't help but turn and look at what his friend was talking about, and when he saw someone wearing a Bridgeview uniform walking down the street, he let out an amused laugh.

"Hey, you're right."

Kevin showed an amused smile as he said this, then proceeded to walk away from where he was standing with his friend walking behind him.

"Hey guys!!"

He shouted to get the attention of the others in the area, and when they all heard him, they all stopped what they were doing and looked at him. Seeing this, he smirked and pointed at Hao in the distance.

"It seems that we have a stray dog wondering around here!"

He said it with an arrogant grin on his face as the others turned to see what he was talking about. When they saw Hao in the distance, they had a variety of different reactions.

"No way! Is that actually a Bridgeview student on our turf?"

"Didn't we just declare war on them yesterday?"

"Hahaha, has Leonard lost his marbles?"

"Does he have a death wish? Or is he just an idiot?"

"It doesn't matter; there's no way he's walking away from here without a scratch. Kekeke"

"Hahaha, you're right."

Kevin took in the various reactions and laughter in the air, and the smile on his face became a twisted grin. He then started walking in the direction of Hao, and the others started to follow him.

Hao saw that they started to gather and walk toward him, but he didn't stop walking; he continued walking without a care in the world.

'Hmm? It seems that they have already noticed me.'

He thought to himself as he continued walking towards them. He continued walking until, eventually, he met up with Kevin and came to a stop.

"What are you doing here, you little shit? Don't you know who's territory this is?"

Kevin looked down at Hao and questioned him with a dark tone and an arrogant smirk on his face.

Hao, on the other hand, ignored him and looked at the group of students that were standing behind Kevin.

'About three dozen opponents. Can I handle them by myself?'

He thought to himself as he observed the students that were behind Kevin. Seeing that he was being ignored, Kevin started to get irritated.

"Did you not hear me?! Answer my question, you bastard!"

Hearing him shout, Hao turned his attention back to him, looked up at him, and then let out a sigh.

'Fuck it. Let's just get this over with.'

He thought to himself and slowly removed his bag from his back. A crazy smile appeared on his face as he started to speak to Kevin.

"You want to know what I came here for?"

"Huh?"

Bang!

Kevin was caught off guard, as he wasn't expecting to get hit with a school bag in the face from Hao as he was surrounded.

The impact of the bag didn't hurt him too much, but what he felt from behind the bag that hit his face sent him tumbling down to the ground unexpectedly. After throwing the bag, Hao immediately followed up with a powerful right straight, hitting Kevin in the face. 

Seeing that Kevin was suddenly attacked and was on the ground, his friends were in shock, as they didn't expect Hao to attack. 

Seeing Kevin holding his face on the ground and the surprise look on the faces of his friends, Hao jumped, aiming to stomp on Kevin while he was on the ground.

"I came here to beat the shit out of you!"

Hao shouted as he stomped at Kevin, but he had already regained his composure and rolled to the side. Seeing this, Hao didn't stop; he immediately dashed towards another youth in the crowd and unleashed a punch in his face that broke his nose and sent him flying back, leaving him unconscious on the ground.

Seeing what happened, all the others started to rush at Hao, but he was quick on his feet, dodging and attacking whenever he could.

But Hao knew he couldn't do this forever.

'Damn that bastard Reed! He sent me here, knowing that I would be heavily outnumbered. Does he think I'll go down this easy? How dare he threaten my family? I'll make him pay for this!'

Hao was enraged as he was fighting, but he wasn't angry at those he was fighting; his anger was directed at Leonard, who had him in this situation.

'Is he trying to sacrifice me to appease Southland or something? It doesn't matter; I'll kick their asses and leave.'

For Hao, defeating the group of gang members from Southland was something that was going to cause a lot of trouble, but he believed he could do it. 

'Most of these guys are untrained and don't even know how to properly fight. All I need to do is conserve my energy and fight the most effective way to knock them out one by one.'

Hao thought as he dodged a kick from someone who attempted to attack him from behind and then planted his elbow in his face.

Krunch

Hao could hear the sound of his nose breaking, and he saw how blood splattered over his attacker's face before he fainted.

'As I thought, these guys are not that strong individually.'

Whiss

Hao's thoughts were interrupted as a flash of silver flashed across his face, and he immediately jumped to the side to dodge.

"Hah"

"Hah"

"Hah"

Hao knelt on one knee, panting heavily. He looked up to see who attacked him, and he saw Kevin with a military knife in his hand and a twisted look on his face. The look in his eyes showed that he was pissed off as he looked at Hao hatefully.

Hao turned his attention back to the knife in his hand. It was about 8 inches long with a black handle, and the blade was mettalic silver in color.

He then touched his right cheek with two of his fingers and then looked at them, and what he saw was the tip of his fingers stained in a deep red liquid.

His cheek had a long diagonal cut that ended at his lower jaw. Hao turned his attention back to Kevin, and his eyes narrowed.

'Shit, this just got a lot harder.'

"You bastards! What are you waiting for? Get out here now!!"

Kevin shouted at the top of his voice, and multiple people started emerging from the buildings and from the alleys. They poured almost endlessly from the alleys and buildings that were on the street, and they were all Southland gang members.