Chapter 29: Fight! Reach her!

Two people. One bed. The doors locked.

The boy touched the girl's cheeks. They were wet. "You've run long enough. There's nowhere else to run." His words were playful but he had the girl pinned down on the bed.

There was darkness creeping about though it was the middle of the day.

The girl didn't say a word she just looked away. The boy sniffed her neck, her arms, and then her bosom.

Tears welled up in her eyes but she just held them in. some leaked but it was of no concern.

He grinned victoriously and ripped his shirt off. He was tall and had muscles that'd make anyone jealous. He held the girl's hands with one hand and undid her clothes with the other.

She bit her lips. 'Merin…'

As if to answer her prayers, the doors of the room just blasted open and a man stood by the door. "Hi." He had a smug face. He knew exactly what he was getting himself into.

"You bastard!" The man screamed and got off the bed. "I'll kill you!"

The girl quickly hid her chest with her hand.

"You'll have to catch me first." The intruder flashed another smirk like an idiot and disappeared.

"ARGFH!" the boy roared and ran after the intruder.

Meanwhile, the girl, lay in bed with one hand covering her chest, the other, her eyes. She smiled faintly, tears still streaming down her cheeks. "You better take responsibility," she whispered.

***

Merin Astoroio was always called weak by his friends. Not because he was weak physically but because he always stumbled in his tracks whenever he needed to make an important decision. He tried to hide all that with his natural talent for putting up a front and just pretending. Maybe he had a future in showbiz but life was tougher than it seemed.

He was born to a middle-class family and because of that, he knew firsthand what poverty was. He had three brothers and two sisters so he never really needed to make all that many decisions. And yet, when he did need to do something on his own, he always stumbled.

His friends called him indecisive and they were right.

So he pretended. He copied people around him and before he knew it, everyone treated him differently. And at one point, everyone just assumed that Merin Astoroio had grown up. In reality, he hadn't. He was still the same guy, the same indecisive guy who couldn't even go out for a walk on his own without the help of his siblings.

Of course, by the end of middle school he did grow up a little and when he entered high school, with the help of his childhood friend, life treated him well enough. The place was noisy and he was cut up from the world. And yet, he found it peaceful. Maybe being alone was what he needed to grow up? Or perhaps the thread- his best friend kept him going.

He had a good relationship with his roommate and this enabled him to be even more forward. He had new friends who treated him with respect. He could go out on his own now. He had a genuine personality of his own and he also did well in his studies. Life really was better. He even scored some brownie points with his best friend. He made a grand plan to propose to her at the end of the year too.

But things changed when a certain Russian transferred at the end of the semester. The Russian was a Battlesuin- the most influential family in all of Aisa. The Russian took away his best friend and his roommate graduated. It happened fast and there was nothing he could do. Nothing.

He was all alone. It was the first day of the second year and he was alone…. The whole place was noisy and yet, he was lonely- alone.

The newbie hadn't yet shown up and Merin thought he might never show up. He looked out the window, saw the crowd below, the chaos and beauty of school, and sighed.

'After all, who wants to be the roommate of a loser?'

As he gloomed around he heard a knock on the door and when he opened it, to his surprise, it was his best friend. What was she doing here after three whole weeks of no-show?

They talked and they kissed for the first time that day. They knew this wouldn't last and they knew things would be bad if the Russian found out, and yet, they didn't stop.

Knock! knock!

"Who is it?" Merin yelled. Though he didn't want to.

"I'm supposed to be your roommate. So do you mind opening the door?" The voice was loud and it didn't seem like he'd stop knocking anytime soon.

Maybe it was a stroke of bad luck, maybe it was a stroke of good luck but whatever it was, on that day Merin met his new roommate, the guy who nonchalantly ruined their alone time and maybe unintentionally saved him a lot of trouble.

***

But perhaps Merin really did want trouble as for the first time in his life he just made a rash decision; a very rash decision. And yet he smiled, he smiled like an idiot.

"You'll have to catch me first!" he screamed at the Russian and ran without looking back as if his life was depending on it. In reality, it really did.

He just did the unthinkable. In this school, in Demigrace Academy, there was a certain unspoken rule among the students. 'Never anger a Battlesuin,' and yet, it didn't stop him. He did for love- no he did it for himself.

***

Argh! A groan.

"Why?" The boy screamed as he punched the boy beneath him. With every punch, the ground shook.

The boy underneath him- Merin smiled faintly. His eyes were bulging out. Blood was everywhere. His face was puffier than that day when he got beaten up by a thug near the market. "Screw you." Argh!

Argh!

ARGH!

One punch! Two punch! Ten punch!

And yet, Merin didn't yield, he just grinned.

"I'll kill you!" The Russian screamed.

The very ground shook and Merin's body felt heavier than it should.

There were plenty of people watching the show from around them. The students enjoyed the show while the teachers just ignored things.

"Ca-can't you say something more creative? Is killing all you can do?" Merin chuckled, and threw up some blood.

"Then how about I take your head?" All this time, the boy- Blaze was beating Merin with his bare hands but this time, he just turned on his saber. "I bet you never felt a saber tearing through your meat." He grinned, his face turned black.

"This didn't turn out the way I wanted but-" Merin paused. "But killing me would get you expelled." He smirked victoriously in face of death. Maybe this was a bad idea, maybe this was a terrible idea and maybe this was the last decision of his life. And yet, he smiled.

"What a fool." Blaze clicked his tongue and held his saber with two hands. He was about to shove it straight through Merin's head. "Even if I get expelled I can always come back next year."

'But Nat would have graduated by then.' Merin's thoughts went unheard of but his smile never faltered.

"Stop it!" A girl cried out. Natasha had arrived just a second earlier before the imminent tragedy.

Blaze grinned again and didn't give a damn about the girl. "Heh, so this girl, eh?" He proceeded to shove down the sword anyway.

Merin looked at the girl one last time, smiled, and then closed his eyes. This was it.

But the sword never came and it felt like the world quieted down.

"Sorry I'm late." The voice came from behind him. "But can you move, this is hard."

Merin looked up and saw a face he knew. "Sorry, too busted."

"In that case-" The newcomer swirled his sword and Blaze took a step back. "I'll take it from here." He grinned.