Chapter 10: Distance, Reconciliation, and Difficult Decisions

The weeks following my meeting with Tory were marked by a strange distance. I barely saw her at school, and when I did, she would turn her face away, avoiding me. "What happened?" I asked myself, distressed. "I need to sort this out. I only have a month left before I have to leave. I don't want to leave like this. I need to make peace with her."

As the anguish gnawed at me, I dedicated myself to strengthening the bonds with my new friends. Many of them were not even mentioned in the series, but they became an important part of my new life. At first, I was hesitant to open myself up to new friends, but now I felt more receptive. After all, I had gotten used to my new body and my new reality. In just a few months, I had grown from 1.70m to 1.73m tall. My body was evolving, not only in size, but also in muscles. My muscles were already well defined, but it still wasn't enough. "If I want to survive in this world, or at least live, I'll need much more than this," I thought, determined. "A body similar to Garou's from One Punch Man is my goal... muscular, lean and flexible..."

Lost in thought, I was leaving school on my bike when I saw Tory walking in the distance, her face as grim as ever.

"HEY, TORY!" I yelled, approaching her.

She was near an alley, and there weren't many people on the street that day.

"Ham?" she turned, surprised. "What do you want, Clark?"

"I want to talk to you. I don't understand why you've been looking at me with that ugly face since that day, our meeting...", I said, directly.

"Why do you think I'm like this, you idiot?" she replied angrily. "Knowing how I feel, you just ignore me and don't even come talk to me, just say hi and goodbye. How do you expect me to feel about this?"

She clenched her fists tightly, almost as if she wanted to hit me.

"Tory, that was never my intention," I explained, trying to defend myself. "I thought after all this you were mad at me for something I did. I didn't mean to abandon you or anything…"

"But that's exactly what you did..." she replied, her voice breaking. "Then I don't want to talk to you. You're going to leave anyway, you're going to abandon me like everyone else..."

"Tory, I know how you feel about me..." I said, sincerely. "I feel that way about you too, I won't deny it. I walked away from you because I don't want you to feel that way about me right now. I don't want to break your heart..."

"Ham? Who's going to break my heart, you idiot?" she asked, angry and ashamed. "Was I the one who said I liked you?"

I walked over to her and placed my hand on her face. "There's no reason for you to lie to me, Tory," I said, looking into her eyes. "Listen, I need to take this trip, not just to find out about my parents, but about other things too that I can't explain to you right now…"

Tory kept looking at me, and I still had my hand on her face. She leaned in and kissed me.

I was a little stunned at the moment, but I accepted the kiss. What kind of man would I be if I refused? I put my hands on her waist and started kissing her intensely too.

After a few minutes of kisses and hugs...

"Clark, I don't want you to go. "Stay here with me...", Tory begged, hugging me tightly, not letting me go.

"Thoughts: Shit, man, how did I make this girl fall in love with me like this?" I thought, confused. "Man, I should be super happy right now, but I can't shake this bad feeling inside me... I need to go, I can't stop moving forward towards my goals because of her... SHIT..."

"Tory, you know I can't do this..." I said sadly.

"You asked me if I liked you... I can't describe what I feel for you. I've never felt anything like this before. Ever since you came to that terrace on your first day of school and talked to me, I can't stop thinking about you. I want to be with you all the time. I used to dislike going to school, but now I feel happy every time I go, because I feel like you'll be there..." She said to me as she looked into my eyes. 

"Thoughts: What did I do that was so special for this girl to like me like this? I thought I was just another one... But I was totally wrong. Tory must be going through a hard time and I came into her life and became her friend, her only listener. She must be confusing these feelings."

"Tory... Listen" I said 

"What?" she asked, confused.

"Give me 1 year. If you still feel the same way you do now, or still like me, I'll stay with you...", I promised. "I don't know how you felt those things about me like that, but I like you too. You're beautiful, you have a strong personality and you're loyal. You definitely deserve much more than me, but if you're sure about that and still feel that way about me in 1 year, when I come back... we'll see what we can do about it..."

"So, you're really going?" she asked sadly.

"Yes...I pre", I replied.

She didn't even let me finish and punched me in the face, pushing me to the ground.

"ARRG...", cries of pain.

"DON'T YOU EVER SHOW IN FRONT OF ME AGAIN, YOU BASTARD...", she shouted angrily.

"Tory..." I tried to say.

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" she kept screaming. "YOU COME, COME INTO MY LIFE, MAKE ME FALL IN LOVE WITH YOU AND NOW YOU LEAVE... WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?... DON'T EVER SHOW UP IN FRONT OF ME AGAIN... WHEN YOU COME BACK, I'LL HAVE ALREADY FOUND ANOTHER REAL MAN, YOU PIECE OF SHIT..."

She ran away, crying.

I sat there on the floor, distressed and depressed.

"I wanted to say goodbye to her on good terms..." I thought sadly. "But because of my goals, I hurt her. Man, I thought that coming to another world the feelings and things would be different, but this shit hurts. You have to move on just because of some kind of stupid power you need."

"If I were reborn into this world alone, without this nonsense about vampires, werewolves and witches, I would be fine with her, probably even dating her already. But to gain power, you need to distance yourself from some things... For now..."

I got up, got on my bike and went home.

The next few weeks were monotonous and "boring". I went to school, came home, trained and repeated all of that. People were focused on their lives, there was nothing interesting happening for now. That would only start to happen in two years, when the story takes place. For now, everyone was living on the edge and had no time for anything else.

A few hours later...

"Phew phew, okay, that was 300 push-ups," I said, panting. "Haha, this is definitely not normal."

I've been feeling a lot stronger than usual lately. I was already 1.75m tall.

At school, during recess...

"Man, I guess I'm going to have to take remedial math," Demitri complained.

"I think I'm going to fail geography," Eli said dejectedly.

"Guys, are you serious? You nerds are going to have to repeat the year, lol," I joked.

"I'm doing really well. I've passed all my classes so far," I said. "When I first arrived, I did a bunch of extra homework that my teachers gave me to do. It was a pain, but it was worth it. They gave me almost perfect grades on all the homework I did. Now I feel completely at peace with everything."

"Damn, man, why do you, who entered after the middle of the year, have more points than me?" Demitri asked indignantly. "That doesn't make sense. I mean, I did a lot of homework too and I'm still in the red."

"Yes, I agree. That's not fair. They should have given everyone this homework," Eli agreed.

"Hahaha, actually, maybe I'm a genius? I mean, on this test, I got more than 8 on each of the tests. It's all very easy, guys, just study," I said, with a smug smile. "I mean, you guys play all day and probably don't even take an hour to study, right?"

"Well, I mean, yeah, maybe I do spend a lot of time playing games and not studying at all," Demitri admitted. "But that's really boring, man. I just want to pass the year, I don't want to be a math genius."

"Well, I should also stop playing for a bit and study a bit. This is really getting to me," Eli agreed.

"Yeah, man, I know it sucks, but it's necessary. I don't know if you guys want to go to college, but later... if you do, your grades, especially senior year, impact whether you get accepted or not," I explained.

"What? Is this serious, man? I didn't know. I thought there was some kind of test..." Demitri said, surprised.

"Yes, I already knew that, but it's in the last year that they look at school grades...", Eli explained.

The bell rang, announcing the end of recess.

"Let's go," I called to my friends.