“Jackson! Wake up! Jackson! Who did this to you?”

Jackson woke up once again in cold sweat from the same words. Immediately, he sat up and looked blankly at the wall, still trying to comprehend what had happened last night. He wasn’t sure what he saw, what he felt, because he couldn’t remember anything like that happening to him before. The almighty Jackson of his past never got beat up, right?

It was all in my head. That can’t be real.

The scene replayed in his head and at the moment, it felt so real. He could feel the pain of each impact, but yet, there was no scarring on his face and the fact that he was in Mark’s arms right after was more than enough to convince him that it was just his brain making up things. It wasn’t true. He told himself that several times, but a part of him still continued to doubt.

Ding.

Jackson looked at his phone, only to see two missed calls from Mark and a recent text.

Cool Swim Captain, 7:01AM

I don’t know what happened last night at the pool, but if you can’t continue this swimming thing. I understand.

Jackson Wang, 7:02AM

I’ll let you know.

Jackson wanted to learn more, but at the same time he needed time to understand what happened. If this vision was a past reality, a future reality, or pure fiction. In his head, the abuser and his accomplices’ faces and voices were distorted. He couldn’t connect them to anyone he knew, which worried him. The more he thought about the incident, the more fuzzy their identities were. Considering their words, Jackson knew they were fencers, but with how much skill Jackson had as a player, he was a threat to anyone, which meant these people could be anyone.

But that would mean that this was reality, a flashback.

For the whole school day, Jackson was completely out of it. His mind kept going blank during his classes, causing all of his teachers to yell at him at some point to pay attention. He just couldn’t stop thinking. The same went for Mark. The swim captain obviously couldn’t sleep as well due to the previous night’s incident, which was why he was able to text the other an hour before the original time he would wake up.

There was something about Jackson last night that sent chills down Mark’s spine. He couldn’t describe it in words. He felt like he had some sort of connection with the other at that moment. Something about him seemed familiar but he couldn’t understand why. There was no connection between them last time Mark checked, and he checked thoroughly.

So why was this bugging him so much?

“Today is the day!”

Jaebum yelled loudly as he walked into the sweaty locker room. He patted his teammates’ shoulders, giving a special one to Jackson as he had a feeling today would be a good day to possibly expose whatever the other may be hiding.

Jackson had completely forgot that today was the start of practice and he felt even more burden on his heart because of it. He couldn’t let anyone know about his condition, but he ran out of time and this was it. People were going to know that Jackson Wang, the Hong Kong fencer, cannot pick up a sabre.

He could see it now. Everyone laughing at him in the whole school, posting it on social media and making him the biggest laughing stock of the fencing community. He would never be able to professionally fence and he wouldn’t be able to play the sport he loved the most.

    “Hurry up!”

Jinwook patted Jackson on the back, making the other realize that he was the last one in the locker room and wasn’t even fully dressed. Jackson quickly changed into his sports attire and ran to the fencing area.

The team stood in a straight line as usual, organized by what weapon they played with. Jackson stood at the edge, the last of the sabre group.

“Alright!” Jaebum yelled in a clear voice, “This is the day we’ve been waiting for. The day that starts the beginning of a new season because let's all be real. Conditioning for a month doesn’t count as much.”

Jackson shook in fear. This was the moment he was going to be exposed as the failure he is, not the superstar Hong Kong national fencer. That wasn’t him anymore and every day he was losing hope that he was going to be that person again.

Jaebum walked, in front of each member, staring straight into their soul but stopping at Jackson and grinning mischievously. He tapped the other’s shoulder innocently, but Jackson knew his intentions.

    “I’m especially excited for you,” he whispered before going off to get the practice weapons.

The Chinese male’s thoughts went wild as he thought of all the possible scenarios of the fencing team’s reactions once they found out about his trauma. He expected laughing, joking, bullying, it blowing up on social media, everything. He couldn’t handle the humiliation and suddenly his legs gave out and he was crouching on the floor, covering his ears because he could already hear everyone calling him a failure, especially the prominent voice of his father.

    “Jackson Wang, is there something wrong?”

No response.

    “Jackson Wang!” Jaebum yelled louder, getting his attention as he quickly stood up. “Is there something wrong that you’re not telling us?”

Jackson looked at the ground, not knowing what to say or how to explain himself. He couldn’t just simply say that he can’t fence and he’s a waste of space to the fencing team, no. There was still that pride in him that couldn’t allow that.

    “Look at your captain when he speaks to you,” Jaebum hissed with a firm tone, “Do you not respect me?”

Jaebum glared at the other, startling Jackson just a tad as he looked up. There was such a difference from how Jackson knew and wanted to act to how he was acting. He couldn’t help himself to be what he hated the most, weak.