20 | Destructive Criticism

Blue was left out of the loop. He didn't understand why the three people were so absorbed in the content displayed on their phone's screens. But he had a feeling that it was something big.

Blue found his phone in his pocket and turned it on to check what was going on. But Adam stopped him, finally regaining his senses as he placed his phone on the table and grabbed Blue's wrist.

"There's no need to check. It's just another rumor." Adam didn't hide the panic and worry in his tone very well.

"Aha…" Blue drawled, finally understanding what was going on.

It seemed like he had done something once again to spite people. Oh, well. With that known, he could relax. Adam smiled awkwardly and loosened his grip on Blue's wrist before retracting his hand to his side.

"But this is really terrible stuff…" Logan, the tactless guy, spoke up with his attention still fixed on his phone.

Adam, not-so subtly, jabbed Logan with his elbow and brought the latter's attention back to the people on the table. That was when Logan realized that he had spoken out loud instead of inside his head.

An apologetic expression washed his features as he stared at Blue. "I didn't mean you. I know that you must probably have a valid explanation for doing what you did, but it's the things that people are saying about you that's terrible."

Blue propped up his chin against his palm as he relaxed his elbow on the table. With feigned curiosity, he asked, "What exactly are they saying about me?"

Logan opened his mouth to respond but Adam's voice sounded before his own.

"It's nothing. There's no need for you to bother about it."

Blue frowned slightly. "Well now, I wanna know since you're so desperately trying to keep me from knowing. I've gotten really curious."

"Someone came out to say that you're bullying the juniors in your department. And because of you, someone transferred out mid-semester. People are now claiming all sorts of things against you."

Winter was the one who said all of this, delivering answers to Blue. Blue was a bit surprised by the information. Bullying juniors? Sure he was unkind to them but he never outright bullied them. Where would he even find the time to do such a thing?

Blue looked at his phone and quickly went online to the school's forum to find the start of the rumor. It wasn't difficult to find it since it was on his homepage.

[O. P: I recently asked a senior in the Creative Writing department to help me review the first hand-written draft of my novel. Most of my course mates advised me not to do it since this senior is a very popular author at his age and they had sought his help and advice with their works. Instead of helping them, he would call them all sorts of names and group them as talentless, saying horrible things that would make them quit writing forever.

Or he would simply ignore them and let dust collect their works. However, since I admire him very much and connect with his books, I thought that he would not be as bad as the rumors make him out to be. But I was wrong. He was worse.

I handed this particular senior my manuscript and he told me that he'd get back to me and that I should exercise patience. I was thrilled that he even gave me a chance.

When he got back to me with a review of it, I felt like offing myself. He had used a red pen to cancel most of my work like a teacher marking a badly-done homework. Then at the end of my manuscript, he wrote such terrible things about me as well.

I thought I would be able to handle his constructive criticism, but he delivered destructive criticism to me. He told me that I wasn't cut out to be a writer and should just give up.

So that's what I'm going to do now. Senior is very knowledgeable and was able to make it big with his first debut novel. He would definitely know more than me, a freshman who just started college.

I will never write a novel in my entire life again because of this. But it's fine. As he said, I'm not cut out to be a writer.]

The comments under the post were as melodramatic as the post itself.

[WTF. Ice King did the same thing to me. He tore my manuscript right before my eyes and told me to never show up in front of him again.]

[This is so sad. Just because of one silly novel that he has, he thinks he's good enough to judge other people so horribly? Gross.]

[Same thing happened to me when I was a junior. He didn't even read through my manuscript. He just looked at the front page and told me that it was clear I skipped classes.]

[This is bullying! How dare he!?]

[Some people don't even know that this isn't the worst thing he's done. Only those from our department have seen the Ice King's true colors. And it rhymes with lack.]

[Upstairs, tell us more.]

[Ice King has no friends in our department. He's stuck up and all the lecturers buttkiss him. He doesn't even take tests and quizzes along with us. Just writes down his name and submits his paper. I once sat with him during a quiz and I am a hundred percent telling the truth.]

[He doesn't even show up for classes but on the record, he has perfect attendance marks.]

[Just because he's rich and famous… I once heard that 'How to be a Perfect Omega' was even ghostwritten. If not, how come he hasn't released another book in three years? Anyone thinking what I'm thinking?]

[Upstairs, I think the same thing too. How could Ice King write such a book? I believe there's something he's not telling us about it.]

[Not only is Ice King a bully, he's also a cheater. Heh.]

[Disgusting.]

[Fucking cheater. He doesn't deserve what he has.]

[#boycotticeking]