He kept ignoring these incidents, hoping that the school would do something about it and that Kam would stop. However, he just wouldn’t. He took his lack of reaction, as a lack of power, and continued to get worse and worse.

  If he didn’t do something about this, it would only continue. What was the worst that could happen, anyway? Even if he went out and fought back, and then got his ass handed to him, that would be better than doing nothing at all.

  He had to fight back!

  His hands soon bunched up into fists, and as Kam walked past him at the end of the lesson, his mind was filled with conviction.

  This would end now.

  It was now a lunchtime break for them, and Kam was followed around by his usual clique. Those sucking up to him, trying their very hardest to get a sliver of his popularity and attention for themselves by being in his presence.

  Leo remained at the back of this clique, remaining a few steps behind for a short while. He wanted to step forward and end things, but his mind and heart weren’t working together. His legs began to shake, but the incidents continued to play in his mind.

  The embarrassment, the tear-filled nights he’d have after being brutally humiliated by Kam. He never once felt sorry, never once even saw him as a person. This would be his time!

  He rushed past those in the back of the group, surprising them with his movement. There was no going back now. Bundling his right hand into a fist, he rushed straight toward Kam and punched him in the face as hard as he could.

  Pulling back, one of his knuckles had now been cut and blood started to profusely drip down his hand. Darn it.

  Kam barely even moved from this strike, before grabbing Leo by the neck of his shirt.

  “You must be a complete idiot to have done that! I didn’t think you’d be that stupid, Leo.” Kam said, before pulling him in to headbutt him.

  Being twice his size, Leo was shot off his feet and the beatdown swiftly ensued. Leo could do nothing. Even if he was lighter, he was still slower and stiffer than him. All he could do was take punch after punch.

  Now back on his feet, his breath had intensified, along with Kam’s. However, he was covered in his own blood, with a busted lip, and readily swelling eye. Was this it?

  “DIE!” Kam roared, throwing a tight fist straight at his face in the form of a right hand haymaker.

  Leo looked at this strike coming and started to see it slow all of a sudden.

  He could dodge this.

  Slipping to the side, Kam’s fist whizzed straight past his head, throwing him straight off balance. In this moment, Leo through a punch onto the shoulder of his extended arm, putting all his 106lbs of weight behind it.

  Hitting the shoulder cleanly with his own fist, he could see a visible pop and hear a crack upon impact. The punch through Kam further off-balance, leading him to fall straight onto his back.

  Screaming with agony, those around no longer looked as amused by the fight at hand. Those initially thought that he’d be faking it, but the grunting and rolling on the ground continued.

  “Someone goes and get the nurse!” A student called out, leading Leo’s heart to sink.

  What had he done?

  This had gone way out of hand. All he could do was grab the bag that had been thrown off in the fight and run as fast as he could away from the scene. Even if he ran, those spectators were totally loyal to Kam, like he was a king.

  They’d immediately report him for what he’d done, and this truly made Leo scared.

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  Kam wasn’t just any ordinary popular kid. No. He was the son of the CEO of Sung-Jin Solicitors, one of the biggest law firms in the whole world. Not only that, but he was also a member of parliament of Astrad, the country in which they resided.

  Those at the top weren’t just powerful, but bitter and cruel. They’d abuse their power within a heartbeat to get a message across, that they were not to be messed with. This could easily happen here and Leo could mess with them. It would be a losing battle.

  But what even was that? He felt like time had slowed all of a sudden. Kam was moving like a snail, and he hit him just as hard as he had hit him before. How was he handling all of his punches before, if he just managed to break his shoulder.

  How did he even break his shoulder? Leo certainly wasn’t the athletic type. Sports were never his thing; he had never learned how to throw a punch. Was he already injured?

  His mind was racing, along with his heart. Ripping out and popping two more anxiety pills, he soon felt himself calm, but the fear of the impending situation did not fade. He was about to go head-to-head with the Sung-Jin family, and it would most certainly not end well for him.

  Maybe, they’d be more lenient. He did this to protect himself, he didn’t go out and attack Kam for no reason! However, he was sure that information would never come to light.

  Those lackeys wouldn’t say a word about how he was treated, only referring to the injury that Kam had incurred.

  The thoughts continued to race through his mind and the pills that he had taken were the only things keeping him sane in his moment. He managed to push his way through the last part of school, luckily without a single conversation with any teacher.

  Rushing his way out of school, he swiftly headed back to the apartment city of Blim Square to try and get some sleep. Somehow, these suffocating walls and warm streets gave him relaxation in this situation.

  It wasn’t the best environment, but it was home to him. All he wanted to do was come back home in this moment.

  He took his ordinary lift trip to his correct floor and then embarked on the usual arduous journey through this labyrinth and to his apartment room. Opening the door, he was met by radio silence. Taking a single step forward, he slipped on an eviction note, stumbling ahead.

  All he could do was breathe in slowly, and sigh of relief. There was a ripped sofa ahead of him, along with a grey boxed TV with antennae pointed off it. Besides that, on a stand were a few photos, showing different people including a young boy with his appearance, although much younger.

  “I’ll make it out of this, father. Mother. They won’t beat us. I tried to control myself but it’s just so painful.” He said, before tears started to well in his ears.

  His right hand, now in a fist, lightly fell on the stand as his head was drooped downwards. He struggled to hold back tears, beginning to feel overwhelmed by the emotions. Everything that was happening. Where he was.

  “It just hurts so much… I wish you were here.” He weakly says, before falling onto his bottom and staring up at the torn ceiling in his small living room. Well, this was practically his whole apartment.

  By his door was a makeshift kitchen, and his bed was in this same room, just behind his sofa. The only other room here was the bathroom, and that was it. Everything. His humble abode.

  The day after, nothing much had happened with Leo. Kam was now in a cast, and his other lackeys weren’t very confident in attacking him. It gave him peace for once, even if he didn’t even receive a glance from anyone.

  It felt weird. On the one hand, he received negative attention but at least it was attention of some form. Now, without a need for people to think of him, they didn’t. He’d receive short glances of disgust and fear, but besides that, nothing at all.

  Conversation was intense around him, but never was he involved. They felt so close to him, yet so far away.

  “Why would I want to even talk to people like them. Look at what they’ve put me through for years on end!” Leo thought to himself, tightening his hand into a fist.

  Suddenly, a student that had been talking, waving his hands around as he talked, started moving way slower. It was for a small moment, and as his anger faded it seemed like he just continued at ordinary speed.

  What?

  Those around him didn’t even laugh at what he had done here, his speech even slowed and sounded deeper. As a matter of fact, that was the same for everyone in the room.

  Upon making this realisation, Leo’s eyes widened, and he kept looking forwards, totally still. Did those pills make him like this? He hadn’t even taken them this morning; he didn’t feel like the world was moving slower now.

  He tried his best to try and make it happen again to no avail. His teacher arrived shortly after, and the day carried on as usual. Instead of paying attention to what the teacher was saying though, he constantly tried to slow him down.

  It was hard, but as he started to write mathematical expressions on the blackboard ahead, he could see his writing drastically slowed. Not only that, but the strokes sounded deeper and duller.

  Looking down, he could see other’s writing had also slowed. It felt like everyone around him was in some sort of trance. He didn’t feel any slower, though.

  Lifting his hand up to lay it beside his teacher, he swiftly moved around his fingers and saw that he hadn’t been slowed, just as he thought.

  Briefly after, though, there was this tense feeling on his head. It felt like a headband began to tighten just over his ears, and he was forced to break out of this and calm down.

  He wondered, feeling his throbbing head.